[Arnotts]

  Hi,
 
I received the U12.
I'm a bit mixed about the sound.
It renders fluid and smooth however the bass is less tight and there is less air.
 
I install the driver include in the bundle. Should I wait for burnin ?

Give it time. If it's not the product burning in itself, it is your mind getting used to the new sound. Psychoacoustics is a strange thing!

 

[Hun7er]

I will do it. Voices are so beautiful, full, textured that gives chill !

 

[Hun7er]

Seems Gustard lowering the output voltage so it decrease the volume. Does anyone hear this ?

 

[prot]

Seems Gustard lowering the output voltage so it decrease the volume. Does anyone hear this ?

That may depend on the kind of output you are using. I can confirm that the gustard coax seems quieter than direct usb to dac.

 

[MINORISUKE]

Has anybody tried to connect U12 via I2S for DSD playback other than X12?

 

[rb2013]

  Seems Gustard lowering the output voltage so it decrease the volume. Does anyone hear this ?

Nice feedback!  Are you using the optical or coax spdif.  What kind of DAC?

 

[abartels]

Could you add some details about those UWBs ... like which brand do you have in mind? And what are the voltage/current specs on the current regs?
The bellesons look pretty good but they are quite tall, may not fit into that small case ... and pricey.

 
We need the 5Volt type DX7805 5.0V UWB regulator
 
http://www.newclassd.com/index.php?page=70&hv=1
 

 

[Zoom25]

What about for AES output? Any voltage drops with it as well?

 

[Benny-x]

  (i)   RMB4,000 is about US$650.
(ii)  huang_cs claims it is feasible to replace it by OCXO in U12.
(iii) He said Gustard would not provide any technical support for modification works.
(iv) At the end, I ask him do I need to adjust any voltage and/or parameters? In his reply, he said it depends on how specific our work.

(i) The price is in RMB without international shipping, I'd guess. And if i can get he little U12 for ~$130, while you guys pay ~$180, then I'd safely add on $100 for shipping/exporting. Safe.
 

  The X20 is pretty cheap lol, so ironically I could afford it, but I couldn't wait till July anyways. I'm glad that they didn't cop out and push out an integrated box like everyone else. I'm pretty stumped on how they will improve it though. They might use the new ES9018 chip, which has slightly lower distortion, different pins, and a larger integrated feature set. Maybe improve the onboard clocks and USB implementation. I think the biggest area of improvement will probably be in the power supply and regulation. Maybe move to a single transformer with more taps as well.
 
As for the OCXO, it looks pretty cramped in the U12, both chassis and the board. Depending on size and power reqs, you might need a daughter board. I'm not really brave enough to try. Probably better off upgrading to something like the Crysteks, or those fancy smancy new femto clocks.
 

The new ESS chip wasn't their top of the line model found is almost all desktop DACs, like the X12, it was ESS's smaller, mobile/DAP chips. The ESS9018K2M got replaced by the new, larger ESS9018A2QM, and some lower spec'ed ones got upgrades too. The focus was mostly on the K2M->A2QM upgrade though as this is what the big name DAPs used (Astell & Kern for example).
 
 
 
And abartels, nice work, man! Keep it up. Give some Mu-metal a try on that toroidal. By the way, toroidals are supposed to be great for their low EMI contamination. The field shoots straight up and down form the centre tube, not outward like a doughnut. I'm sure some still does, however, and moving it outside like was said would be best. 

 

[hgpsemaj]

  (i) The price is in RMB without international shipping, I'd guess. 

 
Freight cost is various with difference regions. Thus, please confirm your exact freight cost with your own supplier.

 

[prot]

What about for AES output? Any voltage drops with it as well?

Will test an AES cable next week. Normally there should not be any drops cause AES can deliver a lot more power than coax

 

[rb2013]

  (i) The price is in RMB without international shipping, I'd guess. And if i can get he little U12 for ~$130, while you guys pay ~$180, then I'd safely add on $100 for shipping/exporting. Safe.
 

Here is the U12 readily available for $149 free shipping to the US
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GUSTARD-U12-32Bit-384KHz-DSD-XMOS-USB-Digital-Audio-Interface-/251688780563?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item3a99d20313

 

[prot]

We need the 5Volt type [COLOR=000000]DX7805 5.0V UWB regulator[/COLOR]

http://www.newclassd.com/index.php?page=70&hv=1

Nice pinout diagram thx. The newclassd are also quite tall, do they really fit into the case?

The belleson looks like a good option too, see http://www.belleson.com/order.php. Same as expensive but a bit smaller and you can order them with lm317 pinout.

 

[prot]

Can anyone confirm that the Gustard works fine without usb power ?
Thinkin about using a data-only cable. Or even upgrading to a MB that can disable the usb power.

 

[lmitche]

Without modification the Gustard U12 does need USB power.  There is an AC relay that switches it on when USB 5v power is detected.  I tried bypassing the relay, but no joy.