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Funny, I just gave my 12 volt J1900 ITX rig to a friend. He loves it. Yes, I up-sample everything to DSD512 with Hqplayer. Marvelous.I'll never do REDnet, so I guess it's time to leave. See you! Larry

Iving, I couldn't agree with you more. My PC is simple, 6700k, 8gb ddr-2400, Optane boot drive, and a single LPS-1 powered, 4 port USB 3 card for NIC, HDD and LPS-1 powered ISO/REGEN/Lush/DAC connection. Power is split between CPU ATX SMPS and 24 pin Hdplex/ Sigma 11 LPS. Dual serial lt3045s...

Actually I'm just using Optane as a boot SSD and it works great on my z170 motherboard. A z270 or z370 mb with Optane support for caching is not required.

Links to any negative (or postive) reviews would be helpful thanks.

Irving, True yes, but like your system, my signal path DOES NOT go through the PCH as the only user of the Optane drive is Windows. Roon and Hqplayer pull music in from the USB NIC(Tidal) or USB HDD and push music out to the USB dac. All this happens from the same lt3045 powered cpu direct USB...

You can use a Jensen transformer to match the impedance of the balanced outputs to the single ended inputs on the amp.  I have one that I used for my Naim pre-amp and amp with my Auralic Vega DAC.  Works great.

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.

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...

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.

Hi, I have a Gustard U12, and this past weekend tried bypassing the relay with a wire soldered between the legs.  It worked in that the Gustard powered up without 5 volt power with the bypass installed.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't play without 5 volt power.   My solution was to install an...

Please let us know how the Gustard sounds with W4S HDMI connection compared to SPDIF out.  I am contemplating the same configuration.

Thanks for the advice.  I was able to stream a 384 khz 32 bit file just fine from the SOTM SMS-100 through the Gustard.  However, quite frankly, I will stop spending a premium on high resolution files.  The Gustard make redbook files sounds so fine, I just don't see the need for high resolution...

phile1 - There is no need for a linux driver with the Gustard U12.  I use a SOTM-SMS-100, a Linux renderer, in front of the Gustard U12 and it works perfectly with all sample rates and formats from redbook though high res files recorded at both 2x DSD and 32/352.8kHz.  It may work with even...