GUSTARD DAC-R26 High Performance Audio DAC User Manual
- June 15, 2024
- GUSTARD
Table of Contents
R26
High-performance Audio DAC
User Manual
DAC-R26 High Performance Audio DAC
About MQA (Master Quality Authenticated)
MQA is an award-winning British technology that delivers the sound of the
original master recording. The master MQA file is fully authenticated and is
small enough to stream or download.
When the screen shows ‘MQA’ or ‘MQA . ’it indicates that the product is
decoding and playing an MQA stream or file, and denotes provenance to ensure
that the sound is identical to that of the source material.
‘MQA.’ indicates that not only is it playing an MQA Studio file, but the file
has also either been approved in the studio by the artist/producer or has been
verified by the copyright owner.
‘OFS’ confirms that the product is receiving an MQA stream or file. This
delivers the final unfold of the MQA file and displays the original sample
rate.
MQA is a registered trade mark of MQA Limited © 2018
Front Panel
- Waiting/using switch (default waiting when power on)
- Screen: Input Chanel, format, rate and volume.
- Input/menu: short press to switch input channel, long press to enter/exit menu.
- Scroll wheel: Adjust volume in main screen, change item’s value in menu.
Back Panel
*two switches of AC standard must be set to the same to prevent the product
Screen and menu
-
R26 uses a high-resolution OLED screen to display the working situation and functions. The following figure is main page of the display.
-
Input select:
In main page, short-press the menu button can select the input port by the order of COAX——AES——IIS——USB——OPT——BT——LAN.
Bluetooth name：GUSTARD BT -
Volume:
In main page, the encoder can adjust the digital attenuator by rotating clockwise to increase the volume and counterclockwise to decrease the volume. There are 90 steps of digital volume from -90dB to 0dB.
Increase the volume when it is 0dB can bypass the attenuator -
Menu:
Long-press the menu button can switch between main page and menu page. On the menu page, short-press the menu button to choose the option and turn the encoder to change the value.
a. PCM FILTER：
R26 has 3 built-in PCM filters
short-press the menu button can select the input port by the order of FAST ——
MID —— SLOW
FAST: Detailed sound.
MID: Balanced sound, recommended.
SLOW: Soft sound.
b. PCM NOS：
Default is OFF. Turn on to bypassing the
internal interpolating FIR filter. The raw PCM stream is sent into the R-2R
ladder directly.
The volume adjustment is bypassed in this mode, so it is better to decrease the volume of amplifiers before entering this mode.
c. DSD DIRECT：
Default is OFF. Turn on to bypassing the
internal interpolating FIR filter. The raw DSD stream is sent into the R-2R
ladder directly.
the volume adjustment is bypassed in this mode, so it is better to decrease the volume of amplifiers before enter this mode.
With the improvement of devices’ performance and algorithm diversity of
playback software, audiophiles can use highperformance PC to carry out digital
oversampling filtering. Through the ports support high sampling rate(USB, IIS,
LAN), the processed signal is directly sent into R-2R decoding ladder.
Different from the built-in algorithm, software digital filters may provide
higher sound quality and different listening experience.
d. ATTENUATION
When there is no independent pre-
amp, the DAC is directly connected to highgain amplifier or high-gain active
speakers, so it is very likely that a large digital volume attenuation (for
example, -40dB) will be used to listen to music at a proper volume, which will
bring big impact to the sound quality.
This function is designed for this kind of application.
When this feature is on, a very good analog attenuator provides a gain of 30
dB.
For a global gain of -40 dB, only -10 dB digital attenuation is required when
using this function. That provides a much better DNR performance.
e. REF CLOCK：
R26’s built in clock is generated by Gustard-K2，a low noise clock synthesizer.
With ultra-low phase noise, the synthesized clock has ultra-low jitter in
femtosecond level, and can directly provided the near-end performance of the
reference clock. Thanks to the high-precision divider, the frequency accuracy
of its synthesized audio clock reaches ppb level.
INT.: Built-in clock with jitter in femtosecond level.
EXT.: 10Mhz external clock (Gustard C16&C18)
When the external clock is working normally, the word “EXT” will be
displayed.
When the external clock is lost or it drifts over ±150ppm, the word “EXTERR”
will be displayed. 
f. PHASE INVERT： DISABLE: RCA non-inverted phase
XLR 1-Ground 2-Hot 3-Cold
ENABLE : RCA inverted phase
XLR 1-Ground 2-Cold 3-Hot
g. BRIGHTNESS： Eight levels for adjustment.
Remote 
*R26 use the new model of remote, enter DAC
mode by long-press the DAC key 3s.
- Standby：Switch between standby and working.
- Menu：Enter menu.
- Pad with 4 direction keys：On menu page, use up/down to choose the option, left/right to change the value, central key to save and exit.
- Back：Back to the main page.
- Vol-：On menu page, decrease the volume.
- Vol+：On menu page, increase the volume.
Note：
- Care about the distance and angle
- The remote may not work with obstacle in front
- Please take the battery out if you will not use the remote for over one month
- If the battery leaked, please fully clean the battery case and change new batteries
- The remote may not work correctly with other deviecs.
Specifications
Input
-
COAX/AES/OPT :PCM 16-24bit/44.1-192kHz；DSD DOP64
-
USB ：
PCM 16-32bit/44.1-768kHz；
DSD DOP64-DOP256；
NATIVE DSD：DSD64-DSD512
OS support: Windows 7~11 32/64bit；macOS；Linux -
IIS：PCM 16-32bit/44.1-768kHz；DSD DOP64-DOP256；NATIVE DSD：DSD64-DSD1024
-
LAN: ROON UPNP (more in the future)
-
Bluetooth: LDAC、AAC、SBC、APTX、APTX LL、APTX HD
-
10M Clock in： 50 Ohm BNC，0dBm-20dBm，square wave 0.2V-3.3V，sinewave 0.5-3.3V。
Output
Frequency Response: 20-20kHz /+-0.2dB (Oversampling)
Dynamic range： >115dB
Signal-to-noise ratio：>122dB
Crosstalk：-134dB @ 1kHz
THD+N：<=0.003% @1kHz
IMD： ≈0.008% @ 0dbfs
RCA：2.5Vrms (VOLUME FIXED) 100Ω
XLR： 5.0Vrms (VOLUME FIXED) 100Ω
XLR pinout: 1-Ground 2-Hot 3-Cold
Other
Power Supply: AC 115V/230V 50/60Hz
Power Consumption<30W
Size：330mm (Width) 260mm (Length) 65mm (Height) (protrusion not included)
Packing size: 420mm (Width) 360mm (Length) 175mm (Height)；
Weight：7Kg (with package)
Product Warranty:
You will enjoy the 2-year free warranty and lifetime maintenance after the date purchasing GUSTARD’s product.
- The manufacturer bears only the freights from Chinese mainland. Part of the freight and tax generated from overseas will be solved by the user with the dealer negotiation.
Free Warranty Service
GUSTARD product from the purchasing date in the free warranty period, the user
uses the product in normal, and the product fails due to component quality or
manufacturing problems.
Beyond the Warranty Service
Belonging to one of the following circumstances, products are no longer
provided warranty service.
a. Products from the date of purchase has exceeded a predetermined warranty
period.
b. Model, barcodes and purchase date do not match the actual product and
warranty card.
c. Without GUSTARD technician permission, unauthorized modifications to the
circuit， components or self-repaired product.
d. Damaging caused by irresistible natural forces.
e. Beyond the permitted use of environmental damage.
f. Damaging due to incorrect use or improper storage. Including but not
limited to: the voltage is too high to burn the circuits or components;
Bumping and resulting in damaging the shell or internal; damaging due to
water, oil, liquid and excessive dust; product oxidation or corrosion, etc.
g. Beyond the warranty period, such as an individual component damage,
appearance due to human damage, firmware modifications lead to unable to work
by unauthorized users. GUSTARD commits to take reasonable maintenance fees
(except large area components or circuit board burned beyond repair). Freight
and maintenance costs, material costs are required the user to bear.