Hi Manoj, no I haven't pulled the trigger yet. I am concerned that you've had so much trouble using the Gustard direct to amp. I do have a preamp (Parasound 2100), but I consider it to be the weak link in my system, and have only been using it for sporadic vinyl listening. I don't know what would make a DAC perform poorly without a preamp (any thoughts from Agon'ers on why a DAC would have trouble driving an amp would be appreciated), but if that is true, it would make the Gustard about $4000 more expensive, and way out of my budget.
Pontus vs Gustard?
I'm looking to upgrade my Benchmark 1, and am very interested in the Gustard X26 Pro. My only concern is the dearth of reviews (one, excellent performance and value) and Agon posts (one member, yyzsantabarbara, has it in his excellent system and loves it). Before looking at the Gustard, I was interested in the Pontus, which is similar in price and has many high marks from users on this forum. Has anyone here had a chance to compare them, side by side after burn-in?
Showing 3 responses by cheeg
The challenge with these types of DACs is that the output stage may not be beefy enough or have the ability to push enough current to drive the input impedance of amplifiers. That is where a separate preamp can come it. @auxinput Thanks for your input -- I'm surprised the Gustard wouldn't have enough current in its output stage to drive an amp, since they seem to have paid a lot of attention to their electronics, but that could be the case. I noticed that you also weighed in on a much older post about LKS, Okto DAC8 Stereo and others (https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/has-anyone-auditioned-an-lks-mh-da004-dac?sort_order=asc ) ; do you have any thoughts on how the Gustard DAC might compare with them? |