Dark Horse DAC

@audioman58 The Gustard R26 was designed and built in China.

This is the poor man’s Lampizator. 

@johnah5 The OP shared his experience with the Doge for the community's edification, not to receive a lecture on how he's a dupe. FYI there's many who don't care if a tube can only resolve 90 db of dynamic range if the sound is music to their ears. Actually it's ALL about the sound not the "dynamic range" to MOST folk here I'd say.

I have DACs like the Topping D90SE that sit on the shelf far more than my other DACs because its magnificent dynamic range fails when it comes to convincing  timbre and soundstage dimensions. Even my R26 is far better than the D90SE in those aspects.

Measurements like input and output impedence are useful when matching for example tube pres with SS amps - but other measurements like SINAD are much less useful other than for forum fodder for bored keyboard warriors looking to troll.

The Doge web site states they have only 16 units left to sell, because “management wishes to concentrate on OEM equipment “.  So if interested break out that credit card.

   Actually I want my DAC to resolve as much as possible.  I use a tubed preamp so I get my sound stage expansion there, but I want the source to be sending as much information as possible to the amplification 

Balooo2 . This dac was designed in part by matrix in China , as well as Chinese tubes and many other parts , so your point ofthe Gustard is made in China , I see no point , and I agree with ji1ny  Jay is a s hill, I have seen him one month say how great a product is 2 months later that product had several things he didnot prefer. 
the doge mk7 mk2 I heard months ago it was warm and pleasant , but not the last word in low level detail or even close and it’s bottom end was a bit loose in the bass , the Denafrips Pontus2 , and well as as the Gustard R2R26 are better dacs overall imo at under $2k. Jay the Reviewer is just a kid ,if you look back he has flip flopped more then a fish going back 2 years , especially with Loudspeakers ,

this dac will win some people over , and it is no Lampizator  iso no ample power supply and myself many know me in Loudspeaker Xover rebuilds or My Duelund Loudspeaker purifiers , the clarity capacitors used are next to the cheapest quality clarity makes , and you use tons of resolution through so many caps normally  2 quality caps are used forthe output stage I have used many good ones myself in Lampizator the purple clarity caps would be a big upgrade , Millflex from Poland Huge upgrade for less then $100 for all the big output caps ,I would guess these are 1 uf  caps . So before selling the house to buy this know just by looking at the picture without seeing it close up  ,the Gustard  R2R 26 has  excellent build quality using a bunch of high quality parts from Japan llikeNichicon Gold tune filtering caps , potted toroidal transformer to contain stray magnetic fields , and No output caps  it uses direct a quality R2R precision resistor ladder dac architecture , and like the pontus 2  have a good following , ifyou want reference quality look elsewhere .

top quality cost $$ plain and simple tops bargain is IMO the T+A 200 dac around $7k  the Denafrips Terminator dacs their + is their best,  the Holo spring May KTE is verygood in the $6 k range  , the T+A dac by far the best I have heard at this price point  and currently saving for. I have not found a dac at 2x it’s cost that truly betters it ,  around $5k and up to get true Audiophile refined quality dac standards , I am just being honest ,vs the $2k dacs these are on another level by 15% , yes you can do better still but then it may take you $20 k to get another 7% diminishing returns   Your budget will dictate a Lot of this .