Unknown to you perhaps but they have been around for 10 years and tend to get very good reviews.
Ok fair enough. But Dave doesnāt have a house sound. If you ever have a chance to listen to give it a try. Regards
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Yes, this whole thing is very different. I feel the same way when buying a $10 cable on AliExpress or a $1000+ item from Vinshine. I will say that Vinshine stands behind its stuff, at least they have a decent track record if you search around. Shenzen Audio (which is where youād likely get a Gustard from) doesnāt seem to leave people high and dry, but theyāre certainly a different size/scale/personal touch outfit from Vinshine. Not casting doubt - but I havenāt ordered anything more expensive than a pair of $200 IEMs from Shenzen. Those came exactly as expected. Iād presume the same ordering a Gustard from them - but if you donāt like it, youāre out on the secondary market. To be honest, I feel that way about lots of stuff these days though - even when I buy a piece of Schiit which is made in the US and the service is fabulous, if I decide after 15 days that I donāt like it, Iām out on the secondary market to sell it. Shenzen Audio maintains an Amazon storefront in the US, and if you order through them you have some of the leverage of Amazonās volume - if youāre a big Amazon customer and you run your complaint through Amazon you can get a good response sometimes when you otherwise might not. But I wouldnāt hesitate to make your first ChiFi purchase - itās a great channel, often great product - especially if reviewers who you truly trust are positive. Usually you can get taken care of if there are real issues, and if you just donāt like the product, youād be on your own anyways.
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I got my SMSL SU9 DAC from them came in 3 days which I was shocked at. I got stitched for import duty which was supposed to be included, I emailed them and the refunded me it in less than 24 hours. So not bad service, they have store in Amazon to which is where I ordered it via.
Mods, why have you merged a totally unrelated topic with mine? Iām now having to filter out lots of chat about streamers that Iām not even slightly Interested in. @Carl
Hi @David_Crosbie1,
The title of the topic you created is
āDACās, Streamers, Whatās good?ā
So Iām a bit confused that you are objecting to there being a discussion about streamers.
I can revert the merge but I think the this topicās title also needs changing to reflect your interest ā¦ what would you suggest?
Iām looking for a combined dac and streamer. Not just a streamer, which is what the other thread was about.
Given the whole topic so far has been primarily about dacs. I would have thought that my intentions were reasonably transparent
Thanks for the clarification, I performed the merge based on the topicās title.
Topic title now updated and 4 posts moved.
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Iāve lost the plot with this thread.
You seem to have dismissed every contribution so far. What exactly are you asking?
Far from it, Iāve been looking into the gustard r26
If anyone has any other good options Iām happy to listen to. Sadly a Ā£7500 dac isnāt an option to a Ā£3000 budget, and the Lumin is offering basically the same spec as my Ā£1100 dac but charging 3x as much for it.
So looking for suggestions for well made well engineered streamer / dacs with proper construction. Not switch mode power supplies and preferably not just another off the shelf ESS chip.
Sadly still missing the mark as Iām not only willing to look at combined, but also standalone dacs. Itās just a standalone streamer that is no good to me. But we can leave it as is and see what comes of it.
A bit of advice. I speak from experience. Buy this:
Then when you have Ā£5.5k spare, upgrade to the Organik board. Endgame. End of thread.
Otherwise flagellate between subjective expressions of other peopleās opinions. Until you stick with what you have already. Perhaps thatās the solution?
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I can considered looking into the LINN options, will add to my research pile
Updated, letās have it right to avoid further misunderstanding and to get you the best advice.
Good look with your quest.
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Probably a niche demand there. I imagine adding the network capability drives the manufacturing cost up enough that adding the volume control is a no-brainer in terms of how it expands the potential market.
My Topping D70 has a DAC-only mode which cuts out the minimal preamp in it, but does not have network connectivity. I use a RoPieee box and USB to stream to it.
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Iām not against the concept of going with a pi for sure. If the standalone DAC is worth it.
A few great ideas so far, Iāll see how many I can demo easily
Doesnāt have to be a Pi. I bought a Mele Quieter2D MiniPC for < $200, put Ubuntu and Roon Bridge on it, and that worked fine, too. Gives you an HDMI Roon endpoint, or you can still just use the USB outputs for a DAC.
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I also have some old HP thin clients around fanless silent boxes that run roon ROCK well enough. They can also be used as basic endpoints with usb / hdmi
Any wintel compatible processor is probably more efficient just running ROCK as endpoint only rather than a whole Linux OS with roon on top
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Iām sure youāre right, but I doubt the difference is significant. After all, ROCK is also a Linux OS with Roon on top.
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