[SodaBoy]

  (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 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. 

Yeah you are right lol, TBH I didn't even know the name of the new chip until you named it. I first came across it on the Light Harmonic forum, when someone asked for the DAC to be upgraded to the AQ2M. I always assumed the Geek Pulse was using the desktop chip (since it's a desktop DAC durr), so I assumed the AQ2M was an update to the 9018S. Only found out today that they were using K2M, good thing I wasn't a backer eh.
 
 

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.

It probably needs USB power for the handshake. I don't think even dirty USB power would be a problem for the U12 though.

 

[Zoom25]

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

 Sweet, let me know how it turns out. My DAC has AES input, so I can use either AES to AES from U12 to DAC, or coax to AES from U12 to DAC.

 

[prot]

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.

It probably needs USB power for the handshake. I don't think even dirty USB power would be a problem for the U12 though.

Oops, didnt expect that. Can someone confirm that the usb power is only used for handshake? Guess a dual Usb cable and a battery will work just fine in that case.
Dont think that will affect the sound much, just wanna get rid of the usb power. Lets just say I'm going green

 

[abartels]

   
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. 

 
Thanks, i will 

Have to buy some Mu-metal and will try.
Yesterday i put some 3MAB5100s on, it's a little bit better, but, i suppose since i treated all components with 3MAB5100s difference is small.
 

 

[abartels]

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.

 
Pinout is not correct since U12 has LM317D2T (surface mounted).
I read some reviews about Belleson on diy fora, Belleson seems NOT to regulate as it should, it does filter noise but not regulate, so i am going for the NewClassD.
 
If you replace Philips (BC) caps 2200uF-25V with Panasonic FC 4700uF-25V like i did, then there's room enough for the UWB 

You still have to bend the connections but it is possible.
 

As you can see, Input is the right pin and NOT the left one as showed on the UWB pic with normal LM317.
On the PCB you can see three holes at the LM317's left side, they ALL are connected with output, so you can use one of those to connect to UWB's output.
As ground you can best take -pole of one of the 2 Panasonic FC's
 
Btw, Voltage output of LM317D2T in my U12 is 5.1V
 
As you can see, i didn't fully cover the 330uF-16V caps with 3M stuff because we have to replace them with 10n (MKP)
when swapping the reg with NewClassD UWB, 

 

[abartels]

Oops, didnt expect that. Can someone confirm that the usb power is only used for handshake? Guess a dual Usb cable and a battery will work just fine in that case.
Dont think that will affect the sound much, just wanna get rid of the usb power. Lets just say I'm going green

 
USB power is used to switch U12 relay, so you REALLY need usb power.
About the influence of dirty usb power on our U12 i can only say:
 
Since dirty USB power has nasty high freqency signals in it, it SURELY will affect on USB-Signal wire, and, once received at U12's relay, there's also those high-frequencies INSIDE the U12 which we definitely DON'T want.
 
I didn't test with USB cable but i did buy some USB A-B connectors (Taiwanese, gold plated, http://www.ebay.com/usr/hifiacoustic1 )

 
I plan to make a good USB cable with external battery-power. I will post results when i'm ready 

 

 

[prot]

USB power is used to switch U12 relay, so you REALLY need usb power.
About the influence of dirty usb power on our U12 i can only say:

Since dirty USB power has nasty high freqency signals in it, it SURELY will affect on USB-Signal wire, and, once received at U12's relay, there's also those high-frequencies INSIDE the U12 which we definitely DON'T want.

I didn't test with USB cable but i did buy some USB A-B connectors (Taiwanese, gold plated, http://www.ebay.com/usr/hifiacoustic1 )



I plan to make a good USB cable with external battery-power. I will post results when i'm ready   

That is a nice & very reasonable ebay shop, good to know.

My plan was to use one of those GB mboards who can disable Usb power. A straighforward and (more or less) free solution. But looks like I also need a dualhead Usb cable and a battery. Which means extra cabling, extra effort and about $100 ... doesnt sound as good anymore.

In any case, very interested about the results of your Usb experiments. Maybe it's worth doing it afterall.

P.S.
btw, here's a dual head Usb cable I was looking at http://www.ebay.com/itm/181434240444. Expensive but quite reasonable considering that such pure silber cables sell for 500+. Doubt it will improve the sound in any way but it's surely shinny

 

[lmitche]

I was able to solve the "dirty power" problem using an Aqvox USB cable in combination with a Corning USB 3 10 meter fiber connection.  The Aqvox let's one substitute a clean power source for the 5 volt signal, and the Corning cable uses that power to do the optical to electrical conversion of the data signal in the connector immediately behind the Gustard.  The combo sounds great, recommended.

 

[prot]

I was able to solve the "dirty power" problem using an Aqvox USB cable in combination with a Corning USB 3 10 meter fiber connection.  The Aqvox let's one substitute a clean power source for the 5 volt signal, and the Corning cable uses that power to do the optical to electrical conversion of the data signal in the connector immediately behind the Gustard.  The combo sounds great, recommended.

Technically looks like you solved the problem. But do we really have a problem here?
All I seen up to now were teoretical considerations about the *potentially* dirty Usb power .. and that's hardly enough. Especially since you just did a $200+ optimization to a $130 device. And the dualhead Usb cable route is not much cheaper either.
It's surely worth a try if you already have the necessary pieces but I dont wanna pay $200 and end up with the same sound.

 

[lmitche]

Well, that is one way to look at it.  From my perscpetive, I started with a $3500 Dac and added $350 worth of USB/SPDIF conversion and clean cable to it.  The SQ increase is much greater than the 10% increase in cost, so it is a good value.

 

[prot]

Well, that is one way to look at it.  From my perscpetive, I started with a $3500 Dac and added $350 worth of USB/SPDIF conversion and clean cable to it.  The SQ increase is much greater than the 10% increase in cost, so it is a good value.

That is of course another 100% valid way to put it

My dac (mmax plus) is only $1000 though. But the main reason I'm so reluctant is that I already spent a lot of time and money on so called "audiophile" cables which did precisely nothing. Everything between printer Usb cable and pure silver cable did sound exactly the same on my system. I would prefer not to repeat that experience.

 

[hgpsemaj]

From my previous experience, both analogue and speaker cables provide very little return, unless you opt for '0.8 on Board Tara Lab's RCA or XLR analogue cables. However, power cords and digital cables enjoy much more value of money.
 
And, when it comes to silver, you might need a Kondo's silver cable to enhance the treble.

 

[rb2013]

  Well, that is one way to look at it.  From my perspective, I started with a $3500 Dac and added $350 worth of USB/SPDIF conversion and clean cable to it.  The SQ increase is much greater than the 10% increase in cost, so it is a good value.

I have been rolling USB cables for 5 yrs and each sounds different - some better some worse (I've rolled 6 or 7 at this point).  This in on two separate systems one with a $8K APL DAC and another with a heavily modded true R2R DAC.   The best so far is the Synergistic Research Tesla Tricon USB, the worst the Cardas Clear USB.  Second best I have heard is the Silnote Poseidon USB.
 
It's worth investing a good cable - vs mods first.  I try and buy my cables used on Audiogon and sell for approximately what I paid it they don;t improve the sound.  With a cable change it's easy to go back to what was before - not so easy on a mod.
 
In my 25 yrs of active audio system building - I noticed sound improvements to be best judged as an additive and subtractive process.  First - additive - does the change improve the sound?  For the subtractive part of the process - when you reverse it does the sound diminish backward?  If so you've made real progress.

 

[prot]

I have been rolling USB cables for 5 yrs and each sounds different - some better some worse (I've rolled 6 or 7 at this point).  This in on two separate systems one with a $8K APL DAC and another with a heavily modded true R2R DAC.   The best so far is the Synergistic Research Tesla Tricon USB, the worst the Cardas Clear USB.  Second best I have heard is the Silnote Poseidon USB.

It's worth investing a good cable - vs mods first.  I try and buy my cables used on Audiogon and sell for approximately what I paid it they don;t improve the sound.  With a cable change it's easy to go back to what was before - not so easy on a mod.

In my 25 yrs of active audio system building - I noticed sound improvements to be best judged as an additive and subtractive process.  First - additive - does the change improve the sound?  For the subtractive part of the process - when you reverse it does the sound diminish backward?  If so you've made real progress.

My experience couldnt be more different. Rolled about 20 cables: usb, interconnects, speakers. From the "supermarket" $2 cables to $500 ones. Never ever heard a single trace of SQ change. And wont invest any more time and money in cables and such.
Oh well. We better get back to our Gustards. Cable arguments are the best way to derail a thread.

 

[rb2013]

My experience couldnt be more different. Rolled about 20 cables: usb, interconnects, speakers. From the "supermarket" $2 cables to $500 ones. Never ever heard a single trace of SQ change. And wont invest any more time and money in cables and such.
Oh well. We better get back to our Gustards. Cable arguments are the best way to derail a thread.

Well I have rolled over 50 different speaker cables, interconnects, digitial spdif cables and USB cables over the last 25 years and at least to my ears...they can make as big a difference as an amp or a PC/USB  interface.  And cost is not the final arbiter - I have $700 cables that sound way better then $2500 ones.  Some $140 interconnects that I currently use that are nearly the best I've heard.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aural-Thrills-Self-Powered-Active-Shield-Cable-1m-Silver-Teflon-Connectors-/251867824620?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa47e01ec
 
I guess the saying goes YMMV.