[System54]

 

[funkur]

New U18 owner here. After burning it in for 3 weeks while on vacation, this thing is legit! My I2S DDC experiences thus far have been with the Matrix XSPDIF2 and the Douk U2 pro TCXO version (both were powered by LPS).

I've been using the U18 with my Auralic ARIES G1 streamer but will be testing it with the old Aries Femto next to see if I can free up the $ I have in the G1.

 

[T 1000]

New U18 owner here. After burning it in for 3 weeks while on vacation, this thing is legit! My I2S DDC experiences thus far have been with the Matrix XSPDIF2 and the Douk U2 pro TCXO version (both were powered by LPS).

I've been using the U18 with my Auralic ARIES G1 streamer but will be testing it with the old Aries Femto next to see if I can free up the $ I have in the G1.

Welcome. Insert purple in U18

 

[jimmychan]

New U18 owner here. After burning it in for 3 weeks while on vacation, this thing is legit! My I2S DDC experiences thus far have been with the Matrix XSPDIF2 and the Douk U2 pro TCXO version (both were powered by LPS).

I've been using the U18 with my Auralic ARIES G1 streamer but will be testing it with the old Aries Femto next to see if I can free up the $ I have in the G1.

You could get a Raspberry pi to replace the Auralic and free up the money.

 

[MartinWT]

You could get a Raspberry pi to replace the Auralic and free up the money.

Don't. I've tried two Raspberry Pis and an Asus Tinker Board. The Asus was best but they are all too noisy on the USB output, losing detail and soundstage.

You'd be far better off with a Sonore microRendu or ultraRendu (which is what I use).

 

[kumar402]

Don't. I've tried two Raspberry Pis and an Asus Tinker Board. The Asus was best but they are all too noisy on the USB output, losing detail and soundstage.

You'd be far better off with a Sonore microRendu or ultraRendu (which is what I use).

Isn’t U18 USB input galvanically isolated to be used with sub optimal USB source?

 

[mantraone]

I have a HiFi Tuning Supreme 3 in Pegasus, and it has improved the sound, but it will be replaced by purple, because the change that purple brings, simply shocks you.
Warm extended sound stage, massive sound, that's what strikes you first
The secondary effect is that you can't stop listening to your music

What's about harmonics richness of sound with Synergistic Research Purple Fuse on U18? With the HFT Supreme 3 sound very precizie, wide and deep sound stage but less armonics then the standard Gustard fuse.

 

[jimmychan]

Don't. I've tried two Raspberry Pis and an Asus Tinker Board. The Asus was best but they are all too noisy on the USB output, losing detail and soundstage.

You'd be far better off with a Sonore microRendu or ultraRendu (which is what I use).

You need LPS for the Rpi. The purpose of U18 is to take away the noise, USB isolation and reclock the signal.

 

[MartinWT]

Isn’t U18 USB input galvanically isolated to be used with sub optimal USB source?

It is, and so is the Mutec. Even so, I could hear when I swapped different sources, ending up with the ultraRendu.

Every step of the digital chain should be given attention for the lowest noise possible. That's how you achieve incredible sound quality.

 

[kumar402]

It is, and so is the Mutec. Even so, I could hear when I swapped different sources, ending up with the ultraRendu.

Every step of the digital chain should be given attention for the lowest noise possible. That's how you achieve incredible sound quality.

But the whole purpose of having a DDC is to remove those noise via galvanic isolation and then reclock it with better clock and pass it again as better digital out, isn’t it ? If we use the best possible USB input then I would rather use it directly with DAC that has decent USB implementation

 

[MartinWT]

But the whole purpose of having a DDC is to remove those noise via galvanic isolation and then reclock it with better clock and pass it again as better digital out, isn’t it ? If we use the best possible USB input then I would rather use it directly with DAC that has decent USB implementation

EVERY stage in the digital playback chain matters and every stage of noise removal makes a difference. The objective is to get the data as noise-free as possible when it finally reaches the conversion stage in the DAC.

I have two stages of galvanic isolation in my system: an EtherREGEN and a Mutec. Even as far upstream as the EtherREGEN, I can hear very clearly the effect of adding an external clock to it. Why should that be? Because even removing noise at that stage counts. I use three clocks, into the ER, the Mutec and the DAC itself. All make a difference. When I tried the U18 in the same position as the Mutec (but with I2S output rather than AES), it outperformed it, which is why I have a U18 on order.

Some people have series EtherREGENs or series Mutecs, all to reduce noise further.

 

[T 1000]

What's about harmonics richness of sound with Synergistic Research Purple Fuse on U18? With the HFT Supreme 3 sound very precizie, wide and deep sound stage but less armonics then the standard Gustard fuse.

I can only compare purple to ordinary fuse. The tone is fuller and clearer, the sound has a density as if made of lead, the sound scene is homogeneous, with details that are clearer and more prominent than with ordinary fuse, low frequencies are fuller and better defined , the highs are smooth and clear. The musical composition is richer in its performance.
I couldn't even guess that a fuse could do with sound what a good power cord does.
I don't know if you can extract what interests you from my review.
The moment I replaced the HIFI-Tuning Supreme 3 in Pegasus with purple, the brightness I had by inserting the AES cable became full again
In the meantime, everything was in the process of burning, everything went well, and in the end I bathed all the contacts with Deoxit gold.
The result is Arya who was completely inferior and neglected by my reference Senn. became so interesting and powerful, that it is a pleasure to listen to her
These are impressions on my system and may be different from yours. I'm not very good at realistic descriptions, so that's it

Every step of the digital chain should be given attention for the lowest noise possible. That's how you achieve incredible sound quality.

I agree with you, I got big changes by inserting better power cables ,and with U 18.
I don't know if iDefender with LPS would contribute to my further improvement

 

[MartinWT]

I just want to expand on the digital noise issue as it's so important. My digital chain looks like this:

TP-Link MR-6400 router > Uptone EtherREGEN reclocker > Sonore ultraRendu streamer > Mutec MC-3+ USB reclocker* > Gustard X26 Pro DAC

In the above stages...

• Every stage has a linear power supply, getting progressively better with ultracap and then supercap PSUs
• Every stage has its own grounding box
• Every stage, PSU and grounding box has footers and a weight on top
• ER, Mutec and Gustard have their own external clocks
• TP-Link, ER and Mutec have galvanic isolation (the one few people consider: the router is a 4G router so even that is galvanically isolated)
• Every stage adds a little noise but removes more

In fact, a friend of mine in the trade was so impressed with the 4G router that he bought one and uses it for his demonstrations.

* to be replaced as soon as the U18 arrives

 

[MartinWT]

My U18 is shipping now. Looking forward to getting the burn-in period done.

 

[Hoshi]

I've had my U18 playing for 24 hours and it sounds very good so far. My DAC is the Denafrips Pontus II and I have a MicroRendu as a network bridge. I do have an annoying issue with a very faint single tick only noticeable on quiet tracks or passages. The ticks occur randomly since inserting the U18. I've tried just about every possible configuration setting on both DAC and DDC. I can play an entire track and not hear this tick but then on the next passage, I can notice the tick two to three times on the track. This tick is so faint that on louder tracks it is not even audible.

I've tried plugging the SU18 directly into my dedicated audio circuit as well as into a power conditioner. My next step would be to try removing the mR but that requires me to tear apart my rack again which I really don't want to do. Has anyone else experienced this anomaly? Maybe more run in will eliminate the issue but I'm not confident that it will. I do have a new HDMI cable on the way.

Any feedback would be appreciated.