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

[Hummer25]

Glad you got it working, but since you are looking to improve your digital set up, on this thread the obvious answer is still get a cheap isolator. IME the U2 Pro benefitted a lot from it.

Glad you got it working, but since you are looking to improve your digital set up, on this thread the obvious answer is still get a cheap isolator. IME the U2 Pro benefitted a lot from it.

How much is the Altor USB isolator and is it possible to power separately? What input/output connections does it have`?

 

[quicklytoo4]

How much is the Altor USB isolator and is it possible to power separately? What input/output connections does it have`?

$77 iirc, external DC or USB power, has a USB B input and USB A output

 

[BrintaVett]

I hoped the static plops where the result of the Amanero driver, so I wanted to try and see if XMOS would give better results. Problem was also there with optical yes.

At this stage I'm thinking about just upgrading the clocks on the Amanero to NDK and be done with it.

So I thought I would come back here and report my findings. As it turned out, something was wrong with my motherboard. At some point, even moving the volume slider in windows made my sound go all wonky. Replaced the mobo and everything works as it should, without the Douk I should add. I didn't have any static noise or plops anymore after replacing the motherboard so didn't feel the need to try and make it work anymore.

 

[Hummer25]

FWIW I recently had issues with the U2 Pro running between a MacBook Pro M4 and my SMSL Su1 DAC and had dropouts and clicks and pops but found changing the USB cable from the laptop to the U2 Pro sorted everything and since had no issues at all.

 

[sajunky]

FWIW I recently had issues with the U2 Pro running between a MacBook Pro M4 and my SMSL Su1 DAC and had dropouts and clicks and pops but found changing the USB cable from the laptop to the U2 Pro sorted everything and since had no issues at all.

Did you use a cable supplied with U2Pro?

 

[Hummer25]

Did you use a cable supplied with U2Pro?

There was no cable supplied with my U2Pro. I now use an Audioquest cinnamon USB cable.

 

[]eep]

I just bought a Fosi ZD3. I was too curious how it would how it would perform with upgraded opamp output. So I put a Sparkos opamp in. I can't tell if it makes a difference since it's the first thing I did. But I can say I can hear that the output stage resembles how the Sparkos opamp sounds. Which is pretty good. So that's the output stage.

Then I connected the coax to my Akliam DDC6. That's the input side. The i²s going to the laiv Harmony. I can now compare the two by switching channels with the remote of the HP2a. As I did so, I'm amazed how close they sound. The DDC6 does a lot more for the ZD3 than it does for the Laiv Harmony that already has the same clocks.

I payed €5 more for the DDC6 than the Fosi ZD3, plus €50 for the Sparkos opamp (oem from China), so the total price went from €170 to €400. That's not chump change anymore. Only thing left is adding a proper 12V PS instead of the wall wart. I'm not going to do that. But I'm surprised how close it gets to my high end dac.

Now don't fool yourself, it doesn't sound the same. I can still pick out the R2R. Blind AB testing doesn't work and is thoroughly overrated. You need to listen for a while to appreciate the difference. But ignorance is bliss. And it comes darn close.

 

[BrainFood]

Apologies if it's been posted before, but is there a windows (10) driver available for the U2 Pro? It's showing as XMOS DFU in device manager with an exclamation mark. Or as Hifi DSD- driver is unavailable in settings. Would also be nice to gain access to buffer size settings but maybe that's not possible?

Regardless, it's sounding pretty damn good as is (with an intona isolator beforehand), with loads of detail to the sound. And it's just the base U2 pro with regular clock, although powered by a LiFePO4 battery.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Apologies if it's been posted before, but is there a windows (10) driver available for the U2 Pro? It's showing as XMOS DFU in device manager with an exclamation mark. Or as Hifi DSD- driver is unavailable in settings. Would also be nice to gain access to buffer size settings but maybe that's not possible?

Regardless, it's sounding pretty damn good as is (with an intona isolator beforehand), with loads of detail to the sound. And it's the base U2 pro with regular clock .

On this page, down on left, is listed compatibility LINK for windows 10 drivers

https://doukaudio.com/products/douk...x-opt-hdmi-converter-digital-interface-dsd256

Cheers!!

 

[sajunky]

Apologies if it's been posted before, but is there a windows (10) driver available for the U2 Pro? It's showing as XMOS DFU in device manager with an exclamation mark. Or as Hifi DSD- driver is unavailable in settings. Would also be nice to gain access to buffer size settings but maybe that's not possible?

Regardless, it's sounding pretty damn good as is (with an intona isolator beforehand), with loads of detail to the sound. And it's just the base U2 pro with regular clock, although powered by a LiFePO4 battery.

DFU driver is only needed for updating firmware, don't worry.

As you found U2Pro works well with Windows built-in UAC-2.0 driver. If you want to play native DSD you need to install driver, it comes with ASIO interface driver. I do have a CD with outdated drivers, in Win11 it requires to disable driver signing during installation. The latest 4.13 driver is found on the Internet, when I tried I didn't found any sonic improvements, but here is a link.

 

[BrainFood]

thanks for the info guys.

 

[jazzzy]

Using the Altor with the Holo Red has had some pretty interesting gains, too, but they're oddly dependent on configuration and I almost want to get a second Altor isolator to test how the performance would be putting one before AND after the Holo Red.

Did you have a chance to compare Altor in TI chip vs Topping HS02 ?

 

[pokrog]

Did you have a chance to compare Altor in TI chip vs Topping HS02 ?

The Altor is noticeably better than the HS-02 and seems to work with everything while the HS-02 doesn't work with some DACs. It's like it's not sending enough current through the filtered connection to power up some DACs and the power injection doesn't fix it.

 

[Jake2]

@pokrog I got myself a second Altor BTW, what I’ll use it for I’m not 100% sure (maybe in my car), but it worked so well, such bang for buck I had to get another.

Incidentally in part based on your experience with the Red I recommended the Altor to another Red owner, for whom I think it worked fairly well - care to comment @BShaw ?

 

[jazzzy]

OK, thanks for clarification yet I still don't get why to bother and order from Israel when you have Neutron v1 usb isolator and JDS Labs Synapse available using same chip and with good parameters