Gustard X30 disappointment

Curious about something -- after the first time it dropped the right channel, how did you get it back? Did it come back on its own? Did you get a replacement unit? Cycle on/off? Adjusted or used different cables?  Something else? The circumstances would influence your decision. 

It had been idle about 4 hours, tried playing with roon, then with coax same no right channel, rebooted same, turned off for a few hours and worked again.

today off all day till afternoon, and no right channel again

Did you check the line-out connection on the right channel and also try a different cable from the DAC to preamp/amp?  If that doesn't fix it, sounds like it may be a loose internal connection. Might be worth opening the case and checking to see if the internal cables are all fully seated. Also, poor solder joints can also work intermittently, though these are rarer these days than in the past when circuits were point-to-point soldered. 

If checking the cables and checking the internal plugs doesn't do it, I'd suggest you just ask for a replacement. That assumes you like the sound when its working.  NO manufacturer has 100% perfection from their production line and you also have the possibility that something could have been rattled in transit.  

I wouldn’t mess with this — Gustard has had a history of having some reliability problems, so I’d just return it and if the second unit has issues I’d punt and buy something else.  You could get the Denafrips Pontus and Hermes DDC for just a little more than the X30 just for one example.  Best of luck. 

I haven't heard of Gustard having bad reliability.  I had an R-26 and now an X-30.  No issues with either of them.

As mlsstl mentioned, every manufacturer will have some issues in some units.  The problems could be a result of rough handling in shipment.  I sent a conrad-johnson preamp back to a dealer and all of the large capacitors came loose.  The shipper probably dropped it. I'm not saying that's what's happened here, but I've seen UPS, etc almost drop kick gear out of their truck. 

I also have a R26 and am quite fond of it, that's one of the reasons I went for the 30, 

I swapped the cables and the problem transferred to the left, it is the unit. currently waiting to hear back from the seller.

I'm not following.  If you swapped cables and the problem moved, wouldn't that be the cable?  

Swapped only the ends on the dac, that proves the cable is good as well as the rest of the chain.

While it was working, did you like the sound?

I did, it was very nice, detailed without being bright, and not even close to being broken in.

@miles765 "Now I'm not sure if I want a replacement or just a refund"

I have couple of Gustard DAC products, despite 24/7 usage never experienced any problems.. Build quality and used components are top grade..

Did you try to contact Gustard service / support to report the problem and to get help? 

I did not contact gustard, I contacted the reseller, the unit is on it's way back, will see what happens.

I've tried Gustard a few times over the years. I think I've experienced more problems with them than any other brand I can remember. The sound seems interesting but I never really got to evaluate very long due to problems showing up pretty quickly. Maybe just bad luck on my part?

I've owned the X26 and the R26 twice and I've never had any problems with Gustard.  Great sounding DACs for the price.  They are fairly high volume products sold world wide so it wouldn't be surprising if even 1 in 500 failed and those unlucky owners posted negatively about them that it would seem like there were a lot of bad units when as a percentage of all units sold it was quite small.

@v-fi "The sound seems interesting but I never really got to evaluate very long due to problems showing up pretty quickly"

what problem? LOL