[ACHiPo]

Well, thanks to Michael (mresseguie) I now have a new DAC on my radar--the Gustard X20.  There was a little good information (and a lot of BS forum noise) on another site, but the good information sounded pretty encouraging, as this ~$800 DAC replacing a Yggy and Vega.  Does anyone here have any further information or experience with it?

[Brad]

No direct experience, but that one popped up for me too, a couple of weeks ago, when looking for DACs under $1k.
If you get one, please report back on it.

Looks well made.

[mresseguie]

Hi, guys.

I actually tried to order one on Tuesday only to discover that the units already in the States had sold, and that every supplier/factory in China or Hong Kong had already closed up shop for Chinese New Year on Monday. This means nothing will ship from China for three weeks.

We have three weeks to discuss, dream, and fanasize to our hearts' content. Unless something new develops in that time, I will place an order for one X20. It will be delivered to Aldcoll to burn in and play with until I return to Oregon mid-March - poor guy. If you live nearby, you could visit him to hear for yourself (assuming he wants to share the sound).

Proper credit should go to Dave of ZenWave who first posted the link to Head-fi.org. Thanks, Dave! 

Michael

[ACHiPo]

Hi, guys.

I actually tried to order one on Tuesday only to discover that the units already in the States had sold, and that every supplier/factory in China or Hong Kong had already closed up shop for Chinese New Year on Monday. This means nothing will ship from China for three weeks.

We have three weeks to discuss, dream, and fanasize to our hearts' content. Unless something new develops in that time, I will place an order for one X20. It will be delivered to Aldcoll to burn in and play with until I return to Oregon mid-March - poor guy. If you live nearby, you could visit him to hear for yourself (assuming he wants to share the sound).

Proper credit should go to Dave of ZenWave who first posted the link to Head-fi.org. Thanks, Dave! 

Michael

I didn't make the correlation to Lunar New Year, but I did notice that the estimated delivery on EBay was mid-March, which seemed a bit long.

[mresseguie]

In addition to EBay and Amazon.com, there's a site called Kidult.com (sp?). Oh, there's a site where you can order from China, but English is not the primary language (for some odd reason) so expect occasional confusion. There is a brand spanking new seller on Amazom.com called 'Worthy Audio'. I emailed back and forth with one of the owners/reps named Danny Liu. Even he said he called China to try to get an X20 DAC for me, but said everything had shut down.

Maybe one of you could call Worthy Audio to get a feel for them since they're so new. I never got the impression that they were not what they claim to be, so I expect they are for real. They just don't have any sales reviews yet. They're price is a tad lower than the usual $869 price quoted on most sites. They do offer 20 or so other products from China.

[orientalexpress]

i order mine from china,it take about 2 week for mine to arrive.this back in  november 2015.it's does eveything that i want .the only thing i have on hand to compare to is modwright transporter,oppo 105 and the little brother X12.it's beat them all.It's kinda made me lazy,before i love vinyl and Now i kinda sit on my ass on the couch and use my ipad to select music and enjoy .

[jhm731]

Long thread about this DAC:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?19433-Chinese-DAC-shames-a-few-heavy-hitters

[ACHiPo]

it's does eveything that i want.  t's kinda made me lazy,before i love vinyl and Now i kinda sit on my ass on the couch and use my ipad to select music and enjoy .

That's a pretty good endorsement!

[ACHiPo]

Long thread about this DAC:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?19433-Chinese-DAC-shames-a-few-heavy-hitters

Very long.  Unfortunately the valuable posts are few and far between.

[steve in jersey]

Very long.  Unfortunately the valuable posts are few and far between.

Having browsed "What's Best Forum" (I believe I may have even registered for this forum; before browsing)
I got a hearty chuckle from your comment.

I think finding the proverbial "Needle in a Haystack" might be a more realistic activity to take on then finding posts with value on this forum. I believe I was actually "shockingly underwhelmed" at the proportion of information I came across that I found to be even useful.

[Brad]

Very long.  Unfortunately the valuable posts are few and far between.

This is an early leader for "Understatement of the Year 2016"     

I did like a couple of the op-amp replacement comments

[mresseguie]

i order mine from china,it take about 2 week for mine to arrive.this back in  november 2015.it's does eveything that i want .the only thing i have on hand to compare to is modwright transporter,oppo 105 and the little brother X12.it's beat them all.It's kinda made me lazy,before i love vinyl and Now i kinda sit on my ass on the couch and use my ipad to select music and enjoy .

Awesome! I hope my experience comes somewhere near yours. [I'm already lazy and use my iPad too much, so I must be almost there already!] 

Soon....Alan told me he's all set to warm it up for me. [Just in case anyone is curious why I don't have it shipped to me (in Taiwan) - there's this silly 21% import duty on ALL audio gear coming into Taiwan that I've already burned my fingers on once (cost me over $400 USD!) that I'd like to avoid like the plague. I trust Alan to take great care of my new DAC and I suspect he'll get pleasure from it as well.]

[mtruong34]

the only thing i have on hand to compare to is modwright transporter,oppo 105 and the little brother X12.it's beat them all.

I used to own and loved the Modwright Transporter. The tube stage added a very pleasing bloom and air to the stock sound.  Would you say the X20 had that same tube-like quality although it is SS or did you like it more for other reasons?

[orientalexpress]

I used to own and loved the Modwright Transporter. The tube stage added a very pleasing bloom and air to the stock sound.  Would you say the X20 had that same tube-like quality although it is SS or did you like it more for other reasons?

I like it more becuase of DSD capability,plus sound stage is deeper,i can actually pinpoint where the musician is at.the bass is better then MW  .I got a pretty good vinyl system .it's 90% there .but the convenient of DSD at my fingertip it 

[ACHiPo]

The X20 arrived.  It took me all of 5 minutes to get it in and running, and that included about 3 minutes of relocating my phono stage.

It does not suck! 

It's got a bit of glare, etc., but it sounds darned good right out of the box.

[mresseguie]

After all the reading I've done on this, I expected there to be some glare in the beginning. Much or all of it will (ought to) disappear after 150 to 200 hours of burn in. There are a couple different settings that the owner may opt for depending on how it sounds in his/her system.

I was chatting with the manager of a pretty decent audio shop in Taipei a couple days ago. When I told him I was planning to order the Gustard  X20, he already knew about the DAC and volunteered two points without my prompting: it needs about 200 hours of burn in before it reaches its 'sweet spot' and it performs far higher than its price point. His shop sells Chord DACs (amongst other brands) and he admitted that the X20 will sound better than the Mojo, but suggested it would not sound as nice as the Hugo.

Mojo ~$599
X20     $799 to $869
Hugo  ~$2200

I ordered my X20 two days ago, so I expect it will be delivered in a week to ten days. It ought to be all toasty and burned in by the time I actually get to touch it. 

[ACHiPo]

After about 8 hours it is sounding much better.  Great detail, musicality coming around, still a little edgy.  Art Pepper's sax is right there, as is Nilsson's "Doctor".  Tons of air.  Letting it run 24/7 with DSD, 16/24, 24/96, etc in a loop from my Aurender.  I am not disappointed and hopeful that I will be even more delighted.

[orientalexpress]

you can set your filter to >slow<,sound much better.less glare 

[ACHiPo]

you can set your filter to >slow<,sound much better.less glare 

Hmm from the remote I don't remember having "slow" as an option, just 50 kHz, 60 kHz, and 70 kHz.  Its default was 50 kHz I think and I changed it to 70 kHz, so maybe I can drop it to 50 and improve smoothness.

[ACHiPo]

Update:  Wow!  It is definitely better tonight.  Listening to Art Tatum "Piano Starts Here" DSD.  The piano sounds very good.  Not real, but darned good!  No mean feat!