This is the official thread for the Gustard A22
This thread is for discussion and reviews.
- 2x AK4499, optional USB, I2S/AES3/Optical/Coax in, XLR and RCA out
- Remote control:
- MQA version in the works
Hifiguides Amazon Linkdoes XLR out always mean balanced?
If it’s a 3 pin xlr out on an audio product, it’s a safe bet to assume it’s balanced but not always. Also if you see a single 3 pin xlr input on a dac it’s most likely aes/ebu. Also here is a helpful post from maze on connectors
Anyone have real world experience on this DAC? Looks good on paper, the reviews I’ve come across are very complimentary and a PURE dac with nothing else feature wise is something that seems to be getting rarer as most of the products in this price point are throwing in streaming or a HP amp.
Seems like is is $1000 worth of DAC and perhaps according to the reviews, worth it. I’m setting things up to finish my desktop by the end of the year and this looks to be on the short list.
Personally it’s not worthwhile, it’s pretty meh for the price imo when I had a short demo. It’s decent but I can’t say I prefer it to some of the other dacs in the range, honestly in this price range used I think you can get much better
Hadn’t considered the used market actually. What’s your take the musical rather than analytical realm for that price range? Has to have pre-out for use with powered monitors as part of the package.
EDIT: Have you played around with the SMSL M400 yet?
For something with a pre out the Holo cyan is pretty nice for something resolving and capable yet slightly warmer and smoother, just generally very nice for the price overall imo (the pcm version). For something neutral the benchmark dac3/dac2 are solid. You might be able to find a wyred4sound dac 2v2 in that range for something more energetic and punchy. Uhh there are a couple more I would mention but no pre out (although you could just get a monitor controller or something if you wanted to). The ifi pro idsd has a ton of features and actually can show up in the price range you are in, which might make it worthwhile if you want something more versatile and on the warmer smoother but dynamic side of things
No, but I know someone who has, and his impressions are not positive lol, he said it can sound like garbage with some of his amps, and then others it would sound very meh, I guess that’s what happens when you remove an output stage for better measurements lol
Glad I asked. The first thing I looked at the Holo Cyan is sexy AF and a ladder… hadn’t even heard of the brand. I’ll continue to do some digging.
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It’s a pretty sweet dac, and with the headphone amp in it, it’s actually a pretty respectable all in one for headphones. Just don’t get the DSD version if you decide on that one