Gustard A26: DAC and streamer on two AK4499EX chips

Gustard is a premium HiFi audio brand from China, specializing in desktop-grade products. They make some exceptionally good products, including desktop DACs, power and headphone amplifiers, and other desktop HiFi equipment. Gustard today released...

Gustard A26
Gustard A26

Gustard is a premium HiFi audio brand from China, specializing in desktop-grade products. They make some exceptionally good products, including desktop DACs, power and headphone amplifiers, and other desktop HiFi equipment. Gustard today released a new flagship desktop DAC+network streamer and renderer with the introduction of the all-new Gustard A26 .

Featuring high-quality components including flagship dual DACs, independent digital-to-analog architecture, high-performance LPFs and I/O circuits, the A26 promises flagship performance with rich tones, exceptional clarity and plenty of detail. It also has streamer and rendering functions with support for various applications and protocols. The A26 is designed for top-end audio circuits where you don’t need compromise – just better performance!

Gustard A26

High Quality AKM DAC Chip
Gustard A26 uses the flagship dual DAC chipset, consisting of two AK4499EX DAC chips. The chips are arranged in parallel, one for each channel. Together with the high-performance XMOS USB processor and other high-quality audio circuit components, the A26 provides rich and smooth high-resolution audio decoding.

Independent digital and analog circuits
To ensure high quality performance, the Gustard A26 is equipped with independent digital and analog circuits. This includes AK4499EX DAC chips, AK4191 modulators, independent power supplies based on toroidal transformers, etc.

High-Resolution Audio PCM, DSD, MQA
The Gustard A26 supports full decoding of high-resolution audio signals. This includes PCM signals up to 32-Bit/768kHz, native DSD512 signals, and full MQA rendering. It’s a single solution for decoding high-resolution audio with impressive resolution and clarity.

Gustard A26

Gustard’s K2 Ultra Low Noise Clock Synthesizer
The Gustard A26 features one exceptionally designed FPGA architecture. It includes signal routing, clock management, second order PLL and other functions. The A26 features an independent femtosecond crystal oscillator and Gustard’s ultra-low noise K2 clock synthesizer. It provides fine tuning of the clock frequency from internal oscillators, and also supports an external 10 MHz digital clock input.

The Gustard A26’s streamer and rendering feature
provides easy access to high-quality online music streaming with support for a variety of applications including Room, UPnP and HQPlayer NAA. Gustard is working to add new protocols and applications to the list of supported A26.

Gustard A26

Features of Gustard A26:

  • High quality chipset with two AK4499EX DAC chips.
  • Independent digital-analog architecture with AK4191+AK4499 chips.
  • Exceptionally designed low jitter FPGA technology.
  • Latest USB XMOS processor supporting Hi-Res 32Bit/768kHz PCM, Native DSD512 and full MQA rendering.
  • Streamer and rendering function.
  • 10MHz K2 Clock Interface.
  • Multiple DSD and PCM filters.
  • Independent power supply design.
  • Fully functional remote control.
  • Support for IIS logins.
  • Balanced/single-ended analog outputs (XLR/RCA).
  • OLED display with touch buttons.