[stuartmc]

  Hey stuartmc. From what I’ve read, you’re a big fan of the U12 and many good usb interfaces.
 
Many people found the usb daughter card from Gustard is not up the the level, and I totally agree regarding the X12. But I’ve found big improvements with a dedicated 5V supply on the USB input of the X12. It’s like night and day.
 
At this point, I’ve no idea what an high end external USB interface like the U12 could add. 
If you have a way to compare (with regen, iUSB or just 5V battery) I would be really curious to know your results.

I think a dirty power supply is one of the major culprits.  There are lots of guys claiming similar improvements when using a dedicated 5V supply. I don't think it is the only culprit to diminished sound quality.  Higher grade clock crystals, buffering schemes and galvanic isolation, to name a few, can yield noticeable improvements.  I source my usb signal with a battery powered tablet, so I don't have the same dirty power problems that large computers have.  Nevertheless, I found the U12 to be an excellent pairing with the X12, and my Tanly USB-DDC is even better.  The Tanly is so good that I have retired my Rega Apollo R as a CD transport and now rip all of my CDs to FLAC files. 

 

[gregb]

  I think a dirty power supply is one of the major culprits.  There are lots of guys claiming similar improvements when using a dedicated 5V supply. I don't think it is the only culprit to diminished sound quality.  Higher grade clock crystals, buffering schemes and galvanic isolation, to name a few, can yield noticeable improvements.  I source my usb signal with a battery powered tablet, so I don't have the same dirty power problems that large computers have.  Nevertheless, I found the U12 to be an excellent pairing with the X12, and my Tanly USB-DDC is even better.  The Tanly is so good that I have retired my Rega Apollo R as a CD transport and now rip all of my CDs to FLAC files. 

 
I have made many tests with the usb input of the x12 and I don't think you should trust your tablet.
From what I see (and what I can hear) there is no regulation or filtering on the daughter card. It's like straight wire to the Xmos chip. And it's a very very sensitive component...

That said, I do think I2S with masterclock link from the U12 should be the best option. Because everything before the delta sigma conversion is clocked externally in a dedicated hardware with hi-end txco crystals.

But on the other end, any other input (spdif, aes, usb daughter card) end up being reclocked by the crystals inside the dac. In this situation, a properly regulated Xmos chip directly connected in I2S without masterclock link (in any way there is not even signal clocks on the daughter card) have to be the second best option.

Technically, everything else should be voodoo magic or some features to help when there's limitations from the computer.

 

[BassDigger]

  I think a dirty power supply is one of the major culprits.  There are lots of guys claiming similar improvements when using a dedicated 5V supply. I don't think it is the only culprit to diminished sound quality.  Higher grade clock crystals, buffering schemes and galvanic isolation, to name a few, can yield noticeable improvements.  I source my usb signal with a battery powered tablet, so I don't have the same dirty power problems that large computers have.  Nevertheless, I found the U12 to be an excellent pairing with the X12, and my Tanly USB-DDC is even better.  The Tanly is so good that I have retired my Rega Apollo R as a CD transport and now rip all of my CDs to FLAC files. 

 
It's interesting to read about comparisons between transports; it seems like most here use their computers and have never used anything else.
I went straight from CD players (in my speaker system) to a dedicated transport/dac (and headphones). I've never used a computer (except for the direct analogue output

).
 
Did you use your Rega as a transport, for your dac, or just use its on-board dac (plugging it straight into your amp)?

 

[Jhya]

  Hah! So I ain't the only one! The Gustard rep here should post a guide as to how to enable DSD playback on Foobar. Check out the other Gustard thread here (the H10 thread), I'd asked the same question there and someone posted a possible solution.

I posted same answer on the H10 thread. Don't know if this thread is more appropriate:
 
This is a step by step instruction for getting Foobar to work with DSD:
 
http://www.audiostream.com/content/how-play-dsd-file-using-foobar2000#E4619OiCRTDJAGqB.97
 
You need to install a couple additional files: foo_out_asio.fb2k-component, ASIOProxyInstall.exe & foo_input_sacd.dll
 
Also this website discusses the neutered XMOS driver that came with the mini-CD actually sounds worse and will not enable DSD. You need to install a FULL working version driver from Thesycon.
 
http://soundex.ru/?app=forums&module=forums&controller=topic&id=41399&page=1

 

[mikey1964]

  I posted same answer on the H10 thread. Don't know if this thread is more appropriate:
 
This is a step by step instruction for getting Foobar to work with DSD:
 
http://www.audiostream.com/content/how-play-dsd-file-using-foobar2000#E4619OiCRTDJAGqB.97
 
You need to install a couple additional files: foo_out_asio.fb2k-component, ASIOProxyInstall.exe & foo_input_sacd.dll
 
Also this website discusses the neutered XMOS driver that came with the mini-CD actually sounds worse and will not enable DSD. You need to install a FULL working version driver from Thesycon.
 
http://soundex.ru/?app=forums&module=forums&controller=topic&id=41399&page=1

Awesome! Another helpful post!

 I'll try what you'd suggested, btw, any diff now that I've just upgraded to Win10?

 

[Jhya]

Yea, with Windows 10, you can't just disable driver signing in advanced boot up as Win 10 will not let you install kernel level drivers that's unsigned. You will need to enable test mode boot up, then install the modified driver version 2.24

Read this: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/loading-unsigned-drivers-in-windows-7-and-vista-64-bit-x64/2/

 

[mikey1964]

Yea, with Windows 10, you can't just disable driver signing in advanced boot up as Win 10 will not let you install kernel level drivers that's unsigned. You will need to enable test mode boot up, then install the modified driver version 2.24

Read this: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/loading-unsigned-drivers-in-windows-7-and-vista-64-bit-x64/2/

Thanks for taking the time to help, what is the modified driver (version 2.24) you're referring to? Where can it be found? is the Thesycon driver really necessary?

 

[Jhya]

You can download Luckit 2.24 driver. It is the full feature modified driver that will enable DSD. Don't use the neutered driver that came with the mini-CD.

Google "Gustard Luckit 2.24" you will find the download link.

 

[Benny-x]

  I posted same answer on the H10 thread. Don't know if this thread is more appropriate:
 
This is a step by step instruction for getting Foobar to work with DSD:
 
http://www.audiostream.com/content/how-play-dsd-file-using-foobar2000#E4619OiCRTDJAGqB.97
 
You need to install a couple additional files: foo_out_asio.fb2k-component, ASIOProxyInstall.exe & foo_input_sacd.dll
 
Also this website discusses the neutered XMOS driver that came with the mini-CD actually sounds worse and will not enable DSD. You need to install a FULL working version driver from Thesycon.
 
http://soundex.ru/?app=forums&module=forums&controller=topic&id=41399&page=1

This is the exact walkthrough that I followed, and I'm usually alright with computer stuff. I guess I'll have to take some time some night and dedicate some effort vs. trying to do it while I was at work. I mentioned that I got mine from Audiostream because I was wondering if there was another good walkthrough anywhere? Not that the one there is bad, but having another point of reference or another person explaining it might help me grasp whatever it was that I missed.
 
And interesting info from the Cap'n about the Tanly taking the Rega CDT out of rotation. The more I read about the Tanly the more I'd like to get my hands on one. If only in a few months from now I had free cash and could snag one off Taobao. I've still got the U12 though, so I'd like to give that mod list from like a hundred pages ago in the thread a go. 
 
Looking forward to your X20 comments too. Hanging tight.

 

[ansi]

Hey guys what is this Tanly everyone is talking about? I can't find one for sale anywhere. Is it Chinese? If anyone can point me to a Chinese link to buy one I'll be super grateful.

 

[bahamot]

The only link I can get: http://tanly-audio.blogspot.com/ 

 

[BassDigger]

  Hey guys what is this Tanly everyone is talking about? I can't find one for sale anywhere. Is it Chinese? If anyone can point me to a Chinese link to buy one I'll be super grateful.

 
+1 Yeah, I'm not finding anything either.

 

[stuartmc]

http://m.intl.taobao.com/detail/detail.html?id=40193288881

This is the taobao link for Tanly. I left a message on the site and the owner got right back to me.

I still feel like I got the budget version of the Berkeley Audio unit. There are many design similarities.

 

[stuartmc]

It's interesting to read about comparisons between transports; it seems like most here use their computers and have never used anything else.
I went straight from CD players (in my speaker system) to a dedicated transport/dac (and headphones). I've never used a computer (except for the direct analogue output ).

Did you use your Rega as a transport, for your dac, or just use its on-board dac (plugging it straight into your amp)?

I tried the Rega both ways. At first I used it with its onboard Wolfson Dac so I could compare the sound to the Gustard Sabre chip. Most people claim the Wolfson is very smooth and musical and the Sabre has a bit of glare and hyper detail in comparison. This comparison enabled me to state categorically that in my system, the Gustard had no such glare. I later used the Apollo as just a transport, so that I could compare CD playback with ripped flac files played through my tablet and the Gustard U12, or the Tanly DDC. I also compared CD playback to my Tidal streaming service.

 

[ansi]

http://m.intl.taobao.com/detail/detail.html?id=40193288881

This is the taobao link for Tanly. I left a message on the site and the owner got right back to me.

I still feel like I got the budget version of the Berkeley Audio unit. There are many design similarities.

 
Thanks! Wow that was hard to find. Here is the non-international Taobao link: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.1.bZ8GJX&id=40193288881&ns=1&abbucket=16#detail
 
2900 rmb is not cheap though. Not sure if I should get one just out of curiosity. @stuartmc you reckon a guy who can't hear a difference between any cables can hear the difference between this and U12?