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Gustard U12 USB Interface 8 Core XMOS chip
Jul 1, 2015 at 9:30 AM Post #1,982 of 3,700
mz2014 said:
https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-windows-feature-suggestions/suggestions/7019409-native-usb-class-2-audio-support
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if you wanna add your voice this may be a better link
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_devices/windows-support-for-usb-audio-20/0d633b9f-3193-4c63-8654-fb10b3614a04?auth=1

Official answer up to now "For the record, Windows 10 Technical Preview has the same support in this area as Windows 8.1" ... so don't get your hopes up.
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 10:32 AM Post #1,983 of 3,700
The U12 continues to amaze me on what you get for your money.  The U12 is well designed and parts quality is high. I changed the clock oscillators  to Crystek/  added sockets and swapped the large caps for Panasonic FR 3300uF low ESR.   Poking around the circuit the large oscillators are furnished power by a linear regulator U13 (red arrowed in the photo bottom).  Both oscillators share this power but are individually filtered with ferrite bead, tantalum  and ceramic caps.   I wasn't expecting this level of filtering so impressive. 
 
Here's a photo of the changes. 
 

 
Jul 1, 2015 at 12:17 PM Post #1,984 of 3,700
dacladder said:
  The U12 continues to amaze me on what you get for your money.  The U12 is well designed and parts quality is high. I changed the clock oscillators  to Crystek/  added sockets and swapped the large caps for Panasonic FR 3300uF low ESR.   Poking around the circuit the large oscillators are furnished power by a linear regulator U13 (red arrowed in the photo bottom).  Both oscillators share this power but are individually filtered with ferrite bead, tantalum  and ceramic caps.   I wasn't expecting this level of filtering so impressive. 
 
Here's a photo of the changes. 
 
Click to expand...

Nice work!  Where did you get the DIP socket /pads for the Crysteks?  I have a U12 that I plan on upgrading the clocks.
Did you use bypass caps on the clocks.
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 2:57 PM Post #1,985 of 3,700
rb2013 said:
  Nice work!  Where did you get the DIP socket /pads for the Crysteks?  I have a U12 that I plan on upgrading the clocks.
Did you use bypass caps on the clocks.
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Thank you!  I got the socket adapters from Accutek Micro.  Part number AK14D300-XTAL-04SOJ-BY.  I like Ian's better but are practically- non-available.  Price is $5.50 ea. with about $10 shipping so not cheap.  Yes the one's I purchased have a pad for an 0603 size bypass cap.  You can see them in the picture earlier to the left of the Crystek oscillator cans.  The Crystek's also have additional bypass caps inside the can. 
 
http://www.accutekmicro.com/products/products-detail.cfm?CID=55
 
Just Email sales at the bottom of the page...
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 8:16 PM Post #1,986 of 3,700
dacladder said:
  Thank you!  I got the socket adapters from Accutek Micro.  Part number AK14D300-XTAL-04SOJ-BY.  I like Ian's better but are practically- non-available.  Price is $5.50 ea. with about $10 shipping so not cheap.  Yes the one's I purchased have a pad for an 0603 size bypass cap.  You can see them in the picture earlier to the left of the Crystek oscillator cans.  The Crystek's also have additional bypass caps inside the can. 
 
http://www.accutekmicro.com/products/products-detail.cfm?CID=55
 
Just Email sales at the bottom of the page...
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Thanks~  The ones I have gotten are to narrow - and very hard to get good contact with the SMD pad to the DIP adapter.  Did you use .01uf bypasses?  I have some left over Vishay-Roderstein MKP1837 .01uf I thought i would use.   I need to order the higher clock Cyrsteks for the U12 - the U8 uses lower frequencies.
 
What's you take on the sound differences?
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 10:51 PM Post #1,987 of 3,700
rb2013 said:
  Thanks~  The ones I have gotten are to narrow - and very hard to get good contact with the SMD pad to the DIP adapter.  Did you use .01uf bypasses?  I have some left over Vishay-Roderstein MKP1837 .01uf I thought i would use.   I need to order the higher clock Cyrsteks for the U12 - the U8 uses lower frequencies.
 
What's you take on the sound differences?
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I used a 0.1uF cap on the adapter boards as that is all I had in a package that would fit.  A .01uF would work just as well.   
 
I had trouble soldering the Crystek's to the Accutek board.  The board pads needed to be slightly wider for better access.  But got it done.  If I do this more often I'll just have to find something else or design my own.
 
For sound differences I don't know at this point as the Crystek's were swapped only 24 hrs ago.   After a 2-3 week run-in the U12 was sounding really good with original oscillators - way above expectation.   Big sound stage, very liquid, and decent vocals.  After the mods yesterday sounds a little generic but everything is in place and very listenable.  Not as much bass perceived but something is going on down low - perhaps better precision.  But I can hear better into the mix and instrument separation is really good.  A little "green" sounding though but has potential and more listening is needed. 
 
With the oscillator sockets I can swap back to the originals or others in about 10 minutes.
 
Jul 2, 2015 at 9:42 AM Post #1,988 of 3,700
dacladder said:
  I used a 0.1uF cap on the adapter boards as that is all I had in a package that would fit.  A .01uF would work just ask well.   
 
I had trouble soldering the Crystek's to the Accutek board.  The board pads needed to be slightly wider for better access.  But got it done.  If I do this more often I'll just have to find something else or design my own.
 
For sound differences I don't know at this point as the Crystek's were swapped only 24 hrs ago.   After a 2-3 week run-in the U12 was sounding really good with original oscillators - way above expectation.   Big sound stage, very liquid, and decent vocals.  After the mods yesterday sounds a little generic but everything is in place and very listenable.  Not as much bass perceived but something is going on down low - perhaps better precision.  But I can hear better into the mix and instrument separation is really good.  A little "green" sounding though but has potential and more listening is needed. 
 
With the oscillator sockets I can swap back to the originals or others in about 10 minutes.
Click to expand...


Yes those clocks need a some break in time, the caps as well.  You were able to remove the originals intact - nice work.  On mine the caps came off.  Have though of trying the Murata's in place of the Pulses?
 
Jul 5, 2015 at 11:46 AM Post #1,989 of 3,700
Final verdict on heavily modded MX-U8
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/767935/melodious-mx-u8-usb-interface-8-core-xmos-chip/90#post_11740342
 
 
 
Regards,
 
Alex
 
Jul 5, 2015 at 2:12 PM Post #1,991 of 3,700
The Crystek oscillators and rectifier cap change I installed about four days ago have run in enough to delivery great sound.  Notice less grain in the vocals.  The U12 is sounding so good it rivals the Off Ramp 5 via HDMI I2S.   The Off Ramp 5 gives up slightly more bass but the U12 is handling the upper mids (vocals) very well in comparison.  Soundstage almost as wide as the OR5.  
 
My biggest disappointment in the U12 is the USB interface from my WIndows 8.1 machine to the unit.  Occasionally the USB port becomes unlocked during playback and outputs only a low level tone.  The only way to recover is to power down the PC and restart the U12.   It happens using Foobar2000. JRiver MC, or just playing a game.  If I select tracks for playback and constantly pick different sampling rates then I have no issue.   If I let it play with one sampling rate for a long period then the USB port eventually unlocks and does not recover.  I never have this issue with the Off Ramp 5 or other DACs with USB ports.  I have written Shenzhen Audio (U12 distributor) but received no reply. This morning the U12 has played OK for 5 hrs. straight without error but have selected tracks after playing up to 3 or 4 straight through.   If anyone hears of a newer windows USB driver other than 2.26 please let me know.     
 
Jul 5, 2015 at 7:55 PM Post #1,992 of 3,700
dacladder said:
 
Good job!   A lot of work and sounds like you hit pay dirt with your efforts.
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Hi DACLadder,
 
Thanks for the compliments, yes, I indeed hit pay dirt with the mods 
bigsmile_face.gif

 
 
Regards,
 
Alex
 
Jul 5, 2015 at 7:57 PM Post #1,993 of 3,700
dacladder said:
  The Crystek oscillators and rectifier cap change I installed about four days ago have run in enough to delivery great sound.  Notice less grain in the vocals.  The U12 is sounding so good it rivals the Off Ramp 5 via HDMI I2S.   The Off Ramp 5 gives up slightly more bass but the U12 is handling the upper mids (vocals) very well in comparison.  Soundstage almost as wide as the OR5.  
 
My biggest disappointment in the U12 is the USB interface from my WIndows 8.1 machine to the unit.  Occasionally the USB port becomes unlocked during playback and outputs only a low level tone.  The only way to recover is to power down the PC and restart the U12.   It happens using Foobar2000. JRiver MC, or just playing a game.  If I select tracks for playback and constantly pick different sampling rates then I have no issue.   If I let it play with one sampling rate for a long period then the USB port eventually unlocks and does not recover.  I never have this issue with the Off Ramp 5 or other DACs with USB ports.  I have written Shenzhen Audio (U12 distributor) but received no reply. This morning the U12 has played OK for 5 hrs. straight without error but have selected tracks after playing up to 3 or 4 straight through.   If anyone hears of a newer windows USB driver other than 2.26 please let me know.     
Click to expand...

 
Hi DACLadder,
 
Maybe there's a newer driver available for your USB chip on your pc's motherboard. I never had troubles with U12, rocksolid. I used the Luckit driver on my server 2012 with JPlay,
 
 
Regards,
Alex
 
Jul 5, 2015 at 8:16 PM Post #1,994 of 3,700
dacladder said:
  Occasionally the USB port becomes unlocked during playback and outputs only a low level tone.  The only way to recover is to power down the PC and restart the U12.   It happens using Foobar2000. JRiver MC, or just playing a game.  If I select tracks for playback and constantly pick different sampling rates then I have no issue.   If I let it play with one sampling rate for a long period then the USB port eventually unlocks and does not recover.  I never have this issue with the Off Ramp 5 or other DACs with USB ports.  I have written Shenzhen Audio (U12 distributor) but received no reply. This morning the U12 has played OK for 5 hrs. straight without error but have selected tracks after playing up to 3 or 4 straight through.   If anyone hears of a newer windows USB driver other than 2.26 please let me know.
Click to expand...

 
Maybe your current drivers are misconfigured or aren't directing the appropriate information to Windows?  This mightn't fix the issue, but just in case I would go into Control Panel - Power Options - Change Plan Settings - Change Advanced Power Settings - USB Settings - Set USB Selective Suspend setting to Disabled.
 
Six months ago the front USB ports on my PC would only work intermittently with a couple of specific devices, but as soon as I disabled that setting they have worked 100%.  Apparently it will slightly increase my electricity bill with the USB ports always being on, but it's a small price to pay to have a working computer!
 
Good luck 
smile.gif
 
 
Jul 6, 2015 at 10:45 AM Post #1,995 of 3,700
cool barn said:
   
Maybe your current drivers are misconfigured or aren't directing the appropriate information to Windows?  This mightn't fix the issue, but just in case I would go into Control Panel - Power Options - Change Plan Settings - Change Advanced Power Settings - USB Settings - Set USB Selective Suspend setting to Disabled.
Click to expand...

 
abartels said:
  Maybe there's a newer driver available for your USB chip on your pc's motherboard. I never had troubles with U12, rocksolid. I used the Luckit driver on my server 2012 with JPlay,
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips.  I made a custom power plan under Windows Control Panel to turn off power savings and never sleep or hibernate.  This issue happens with both the PC motherboard USB ports and the preferred Jcat PCIe USB adapter.   USB power is supplied by a clean +5V supply
 
The U12 unlocked this morning after about 30 minutes of use.  Went to the Off Ramp 5 and no problem.  I need to find the Luckit 2.26 driver.  Their 2.23 version does not load on my PC as it is not signed correctly for Windows 8.1 even though it states that it is supported.
 
It may be the U12 has a fault.  I restarted the PC, USB power supply, U12, and DAC but no audio output after a restart.  I have USB sniffer SW and Windows thinks that it is still shifting bits to the U12 but the U12 LCD display does not show correct sampling rate.    If I leave everything turned off for a while it will eventually come back.  Weird and frustrating. 
 
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