Douk Audio U2 Pro DDC - Poorman DDC for an affordable & clean digital signal

[sajunky]

I suggest to present details of your configurationthat when reporting, so we will be able to find out what is not working. By example did you try I2S connection or S/PDIF?

Interesting development is seen in Amanero clones. These are few that offer better features than original.

1. Amanero 'Italian' converter, features:
- USB or external power supply socket 6-9V (switcheable),
- multistage power regulator,
- 384kHz PCM, DSD128 on S/PDIF, quality isolation transformer
- I2S HDMI
- four clock options: standard ($66), TCXO, Accusilicon AS318B ($109), Crystek
- 7LED's indicating transfer mode/rate

Designed by WJW "sky song". It looks like a good device for S/PDIF users, but I2S? One user says:

The sound is good through SPDIF, but the HDMI i2s output is useless, because SkySong developers made very foolish mistake in HDMI pinout! Signals of Data, Bclck, LRclck, Mclck are starting from the end 18 pin in this board! Whereas all other standards of HDMI I2S pinouts are starting from the first pin (PS Audio, LKS, Sonore, Gustard, Holo Audio, Audio-gd, Singxer, Denafrips). So I am disappointed a bit, but it's the developer engineers mistake, not the seller's fault. 08 Feb 2021 20:37

Well, user can be wrong, but point stands. The actual photo indicate that there is no conversion to the LVDS logic levels (as required by HDMI). There is a black object next to the S/PDIF transformer, looks like another transformer, but no conversion chip. The proper design is shown on the CAD drawing:

Here everything is right from the I2S HDMI point of view, but this design looks different.

2. Nvarcher USB digital Interface $59:
This one has no I2S, no S/PDIF, but it use a hardware USB PHY chip USB3300. It frees ARM microprocessor from decoding low level USB protocol, giving extraordinary high sample rates: PCM 1536kHz, DSD1024 native (DSD512 DoP).

It says it comes with NDK oscilator, users report they received Accusilicon AS318B. For $ 60 it is a steal. But... From the photo it is clear that AS318B oscilators will not fit this board! Seeing is believing.

3. Digital Interface with WM8805 $41
It has external power socket, S/PDIF Coax and I2S (no HDMI). A curiosity in this design is the use of 8-channel S/PDIF chip (something overkill), but it has a nice layout and upgrading clocks is easy.

 

[CT007]

Got a link for the driver? Can't find it on their site. Cheers.

Sorry, I totally forgot to reply to this...

32/64 bit Win 7, Win 8 and Win 10 systems need to install driver, please enter website: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZjWBDD5Te-a8O64fCstuOKIwGRo766wD?usp=sharing to download and install.

 

[MikeW]

Mine works fine with windows native drivers, detected as "HIFI DSD" bit perfect and waspi work great. I use it to feed ADI-2 DAC FS, to free up USB port for iphone. Works as expected, quality is excellent, about the same as USB input on this dac. ADI-2 has excellent inputs on all ports however. I will say I noticed a reduction in quality when this device was used with a W4S recovery reclocker. Was surprised but the difference was evident. Am using the reclocker now to feed power to the U2 Pro but not reclock. The W4S Recovery itself is powered by an Ifi Ipower 9v. I don't notice much if any difference in sound quality with direct USB or power feed from recovery.

 

[]eep]

Just got this; broke on first try.

Junk and best avoided.

Sowas kann man doch niemals behaupten?
You can't make such a claim. All manufacturing has a certain failure level and there are always factors that can impede full certainty of quality control. This is a service case.

Just because you received a broken, defective of damaged unit doesn't mean anything for the rest. All you can truthfully state is that yours was defective.

Again someone who states a personal opinion as fact. Opinions are like assholes; everybody has one (very rare exceptions excluded) . Now THAT is a fact covering a whole collection. Your is an opinion regarding all units made where you are the exception do far.

 

[Nostoi]

Sowas kann man doch niemals behaupten?
You can't make such a claim. All manufacturing has a certain failure level and there are always factors that can impede full certainty of quality control. This is a service case.

Just because you received a broken, defective of damaged unit doesn't mean anything for the rest. All you can truthfully state is that yours was defective.

Again someone who states a personal opinion as fact. Opinions are like assholes; everybody has one (very rare exceptions excluded) . Now THAT is a fact covering a whole collection. Your is an opinion regarding all units made where you are the exception do far.

Why is this lo-fi chi-fi thread counting to pester me? I'm sure I unsubscribed from it, but here I am commenting again on a 50$ bit of equipment.

I hereby retract my statement: this is an OUTSTANDING bit of kit. True, I received a dud, but that's a one-off and this thread alone is testament to the many happy customers making use of their Douk Audio U2 Pro DDC. Long may you continue to enjoy you Douk Audio U2 Pro DDC.

*Proceeds to unsubscribe again*

 

[sajunky]

Why is this lo-fi chi-fi thread counting to pester me? I'm sure I unsubscribed from it, but here I am commenting again on a 50$ bit of equipment.

My guess you don't know how to unsubsribe. At least you know how to open a package. I am not exactly sure whether it was not working as claimed, but it is a different story. Usually people ask a question when something is not working as expected, but you are different.

 

[Nostoi]

My guess you don't know how to unsubsribe. At least you know how to open a package. I am not exactly sure whether it was not working as claimed, but it is a different story. Usually people ask a question when something is not working, but you are different.

I did unsubscribe (hence the picture below for your reference), but every time one of you Douk Audio U2 Pro DDC enthusiasts responds to me, I receive an alert, which I can't help but respond to because I'm an extremely courteous person (frankly, too courteous, especially for this subterranean corner of Head-Fi).

I don't have the time or incentive to ask questions about a cheap product. Amazon's return policy is everyone's friend, let's be grateful for it and move on.

 

[sajunky]

I did unsubscribe (hence the picture below for your reference), but every time one of you Douk Audio U2 Pro DDC enthusiasts responds to me, I receive an alert, which I can't help but respond to because I'm an extremely courteous person (frankly,...

Now we know for sure that you don't know how unsubscribe works, as every time you post in this thread you are being subscribed again. Therefore my advice is to unsubscribe and don't post again, this is the way.

 

[sajunky]

I will say I noticed a reduction in quality when this device was used with a W4S recovery reclocker. Was surprised but the difference was evident. Am using the reclocker now to feed power to the U2 Pro but not reclock. The W4S Recovery itself is powered by an Ifi Ipower 9v.

It is how reclockers work, they redirect ground loops from the noisy source. In other words, they do not work as advertised. Reclockers can break asynchronous USB communication between DAC and a source. In this case sound will suffer, as asynchronous USB transfers feature jitter free data delivery, transfer is synchronised with internal clock on the DAC.

 

[Lolito]

Any hifi piece of gear can come with a defect, even 900€ headphones, trust me. But can be solved easily too as you said. Maybe you were just bad luck? amazon can send you another one at no cost, give it a try mate, after all, it is a cheap piece of gear, it was not a 5000€ chord dac DOA. it was 50$ chinese part, doa, good, get another one, test it and then comment. if you got one broken and one working, it was half decent. If both are death, this is a big piece of crap and we want to know it.

 

[sajunky]

Maybe you were just bad luck?

Or not reading user comments. It is said specifically to not use a driver from XMOS website, because it doesn't work, but a native UAC 2.0 driver (MAC OS, Linux, Android, the latest Win10) or a driver that comes with CD.

 

[CT007]

It is said specifically to not use a driver from XMOS website, because it doesn't work, but a native UAC 2.0 driver

Huh..? Where is this said? Mine doesn't work natively. It needs a driver. I don't know if the driver linked from the item page is from the XMOS site or not, but that's the one I used, not whatever is on the CD. I don't even think it lets you download one from the XMOS site, not sure.

 

[sajunky]

Huh..? Where is this said? Mine doesn't work natively. It needs a driver. I don't know if the driver linked from the item page is from the XMOS site or not, but that's the one I used, not whatever is on the CD. I don't even think it lets you download one from the XMOS site, not sure.

On the Amazon page the first comment, user had problem with installing drivers, similar was on Aliexpress.

Driver from XMOS website should work if product is properly licenced. However some versions are released prematurely. There are also other problems with Windows 10. If your version is Creators or later, better get update to the latest version, as it was the first version with a native support for UAC 2.0. It was giving problems for the next two years, now fixed. These changes affected driver stability. Not only XMOS, Amanero found a temporary solution by switching to bulk transfers. Secondly, there are problems installing third-party drivers when Windos native drivers are in memory (with DAC plugged in), it needs special procedure users are not aware of: disconnect device, check in Device Manager for an inactive device (marked with yellow or red flag) and remove, reboot if needed, then install drivers and plug-in device only when asked or setup is terminated.

 

[Lolito]

how does it works on mac? I´m not touching anything microsoft not even for a million dollars, baby.

 

[CT007]

how does it works on mac?

It runs on Applesauce , of course. You need to make sure to have a fresh can installed before plugging The Dook in.