Gustard U16 - the first USB Interface featuring ESS USB chip

[Chopin75]

Just wondering, any hdmi cable suggestion for 100$? Dhlabs, wireworld, audioquest, ?.

I use DH lab toskink and Usb cables, both excelent, sure their HDMI won’t disappoint but I never tried it

 

[FredA]

Congrats Fred and give it a few days to settle in. More bass is the first item noticed followed by better vocals and less grain. This hopefully evolves with more balance. Width and depth took a few more days to develop.

I am just amazed how well 16-bit CD audio sounds using the U16 with R7. Really good!

I am getting a taste of what you describe already, and i am sure things will get better.

 

[FredA]

I use DH lab toskink and Usb cables, both excelent, sure their HDMI won’t disappoint but I never tried it

The dhlabs is interesting. I will resort to it if things don’t work out with any of the three very cheap cables i ordered. Thanks.

 

[FredA]

THe u16 is heavy and well finished. Very impressive at this price point. And with all high-quality connectors. Very well spent money it seems.

 

[FredA]

And it is quite amazing how diffirent from the f-1 it sounds. Like some mentioned, the r-7 sounds almost like a different dac with it. It’s so fluid.

 

[DACLadder]

DHLabs HDMI cables are currently on sale at 20% off. 0.5m cable is only $56.00 US. 1m length $8.00 additional. www.silversonic.com

 

[FredA]

DHLabs HDMI cables are currently on sale at 20% off. 0.5m cable is only $56.00 US. 1m length $8.00 additional. www.silversonic.com

Great bargain. Thanks for the tip. I am not sur i will need it, the sound is already quite amazing.

 

[PitBul34]

Flashing the fw from my windows 8 pc did not work

It works on 64-bit systems only.

 

[Chopin75]

It works on 64-bit systems only.

Hmm, dumb question, is the 64 bit determined by the computer OS only, not the computer itself ?

 

[PitBul34]

is the 64 bit determined by the computer OS

I think, yes

 

[Chopin75]

DHLabs HDMI cables are currently on sale at 20% off. 0.5m cable is only $56.00 US. 1m length $8.00 additional. www.silversonic.com

Nice! I also notice somewhere there is fiberoptical HDMI cable, wonder if that would good for audio.

 

[bwcgrx]

Hmm, dumb question, is the 64 bit determined by the computer OS only, not the computer itself ?

Windows 8 is available in both 32bit and 64bit variants.

Unless your CPU is quite old or a not so old low end CPU it should be 64bit capable. Having said that you can generally run 32bit Windows OSes on 64bit hardware and for a time it was not unusual to see 32-bit Windows loaded on to 64-bit hardware due to better software and driver compatibility for 32-bit back in the day.

Pull up the system icon in the control panel. You should see something similar to the screen below, my system is running Windows 10 but the basic info screen is pretty much the same back through windows XP. You should see if you are running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows.

 

[DACLadder]

Nice! I also notice somewhere there is fiberoptical HDMI cable, wonder if that would good for audio.

The fiber optic HDMI cables are intended for long cable runs up to 328ft. Expensive and requires +5V on both sides to power the optic chips. The AGD DACs do not supply HDMI-type power. Compared to a short, regular cable fiber seems to add an unnecessary signal conversion layer. But one benefit with fiber is galvanic isolation.

 

[batfier]

Hmm, dumb question, is the 64 bit determined by the computer OS only, not the computer itself ?

by both and also by the application.

each "foundation" must be at least the same Bit architecture or higher:
Hardware > OS > Application

Meaning, if you want to run a 64bit application, a 64bit OS is required, which requires a 64bit HW.

If you want to run a 32bit application, either 32bit or 64bit OS is fine and a 32bit OS either runs on 32 or 64 bit hardware.

 

[FredA]

The fiber optic HDMI cables are intended for long cable runs up to 328ft. Expensive and requires +5V on both sides to power the optic chips. The AGD DACs do not supply HDMI-type power. Compared to a short, regular cable fiber seems to add an unnecessary signal conversion layer. But one benefit with fiber is galvanic isolation.

The conversion to optical and back to voltage introduces jitter. I think it is a reallly bad idea.