can i get a significant dac upgrade over my Lumin d2 for 2k?

We’ll be eagerly awaiting your impressions from our home and native land. 

Yeah, the Gustard R26 seems like a damn good bet although I prefer using a separate active preamp. 

For those of you saying you need to spend more to get a meaningful improvement I’d encourage you to read the review of the Gustard R26 on soundnews.net. The thing is built to a very high standard from the power supplies to the resistor ladder, and the results according to the review are not far off the Terminator +. Sometimes the audio Gods give us poor folk a true gift, and this sure looks like one of them to me.

I’m also a little over a week into testing a Denafrips Iris DDC feeding the Pontus, and yes does it make a very noticeable difference

@vthokie83 Glad to hear your Iris is working out although I’ll say I’m not really surprised given the reviews and other users’ experience. My Iris arrives tomorrow from The Music Room and can’t wait to get it hooked up. BTW, what HDMI cable are you using and what length?

@sgreg1 Congrats on that excellent new DAC — I’m sure you’re gonna love it. Down the road do consider getting a DDC so you can take advantage of the Gustard’s i2S input as it can up your performance even more. Please let us know what you think if you could once the DAC is broken in.  What digital cable will you be using?  Try to go with at least 1.5m length if you can for better sound. 

@vthokie83 Makes total sense to keep Vodka as a constant, and I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts. I’ll be getting my Iris on Sunday now (shipping delay), and since it’s used it won’t take too long to settle in and get a take on what it’s doing. I’m starting with a cheap 1-foot Monoprice HDMI cable — I read some stuff that said HDMI doesn’t travel well so try to use 1 foot or less and the Monoprice was one of the only ones I found at such a short length. Plus, from people who installed DDCs they seemed to indicate there was not a huge difference relatively speaking between HDMI cables so figured the Monoprice was a good place to start. Once I get a feel for the sound I’m gonna try a DH Labs HDMI 2.1 that’s $95 for 0.5m (yeah I know, but it’s the shortest length they offer) and see if there’s a meaningful improvement. Anyway, that’s my plan for now and subject to change when someone inevitably shares some info that points me in a completely different direction. It never ends…

https://silversonic.com/products/video-cables/hdmi-2-1/

@sgreg1 Who did you order the DAC through?  If it’s one of the bigger guys I wouldn’t worry, plus you also have protection thru your credit card and likely PayPal too.  Did you get confirmation on screen they got the order when you paid?  The only thing I’d worry about is if the order never processed due to an internet glitch.  Did it show up as a charge through PayPal and/or your credit card?  If it did there’s a good chance it’s in process.  They may just be inundated with orders after the soundnews.net review, so maybe contact them just to make sure, and you can check on delivery time too while you’re at it but sounds like it’s at about a month right now.  I wouldn’t be concerned yet if they got your order. 

@sgreg1 Ugh.  Sorry man, but I have a feeling it’s gonna be well worth the wait.  BTW, and not to point this thread in a different direction, but does anyone else think China is dealing with the virus foolishly by continually locking things down?  If they have such control over their people why not just mandate everyone gets vaccinated and be done with it rather than negatively impacting themselves and whole world with these stupid lockdowns?  Just sayin’.  Sorry — now back to our regularly-scheduled program.