[MartinWT]

The U18 takes one 20mm 630mA slow blow fuse.

In the UK, we have to put one 1" fuse in the plug, too.

I listened last night, replacing an SR Red in the plug and a Gustard in the U18 with 2 x SR Purple.
There is an extra sparkle of vividness, yet a reduction in sibilance.

This is the same magic as when I used a Purple in the X26 Pro. Superb fuses.

 

[motberg]

The installation instructions require to disconnect and reconnect the USB cable after installation, but that did not work for me.
I needed to power off/on the U18 for the U18 to ultimately be recognized by the computer.

 

[T 1000]

OK, not for this thread, but I want to share it with you.
Iso CAT 6, after the first warm-cold impression, is a must have filter.
The first impression is a significant expansion of the scene with layers of new insight with firmer bass, but with an irritating reflection. "S" is very uncomfortable, and all tones have a strong reflection.
Fascinating about this small device is the speed of sound maturation. After only a few hours, the glare disappeared and gave way to a constant tide of listening pleasure
Even more intriguing is the thought that the new- Iso CAT 7- is a better filter according to the manufacturers!
ADDED
All this is via computer, sms 200 I have not connected yet
Audirvana Studio still has the best performance, but the difference through the Tidal app has now narrowed

 

[SKR987]

I am thinking of buying Denafrip Ares 2 or Pontus 2. I wanted to know if these two DACs are compatible in Gustard U18 via I2S connection. Anyone using Denafrip DACs may be of help to me.

 

[ihyan2]

Using the Gustard u18 together with the C18 to drive the digital front end of the system. Also clock sync to the Uptone Etherregen (driving various DACs : Denafrips Terminator, Rockna Wavedream, Metrum Pavane).
Really opens up the sound stage liking it a lot

 

[mantraone]

Using the Gustard u18 together with the C18 to drive the digital front end of the system. Also clock sync to the Uptone Etherregen (driving various DACs : Denafrips Terminator, Rockna Wavedream, Metrum Pavane).
Really opens up the sound stage liking it a lot

Just a question about Rockna Wavedream and U18, it's works without issue? do you roon rock?

for me sound strange if wavedream works fine and wavelight have the 3 sample rate issue (48/24 96/24 192/24) and I need to re-samples by roon at 384/24.

wich I2s PINOUT setting do you have on U18?

Thanks for feedback

 

[ihyan2]

Just a question about Rockna Wavedream and U18, it's works without issue? do you roon rock?

for me sound strange if wavedream works fine and wavelight have the 3 sample rate issue (48/24 96/24 192/24) and I need to re-samples by roon at 384/24.

wich I2s PINOUT setting do you have on U18?

Thanks for feedback

For me it works fine for any sample rate I play through it DSD64-128, any PCM sample rate (44/48/96/176) I use Lumin U1 mini streamer and user the lumin app. Tidal MQA at 192 always gets down sample to 96 though although I think that's the Lumin doing that.

I use Gustard pin out although on the Wavedream I have to invert the phase and the L/R as it gets inverted... But other than that it's fine.

The YouTube reviewer Goldensound explained that the phase/polarity is inverted when using the Wavedream which has the PS audio PIN out setting on the Gustard I2S pin out.

 

[Larent]

Hi everybody , i have got the purple Sr fuse, one question though, when i ve taken away the previous fuses, i found two fuses one " open " and another one in the " black hole " aside . As i do not have a clue how it works, what do we have to change, i think that they put two fuses the one open is the one which has to be used and the other one as reserve one ? Thanks for your help !

 

[Crypt Keeper]

Hi everybody , i have got the purple Sr fuse, one question though, when i ve taken away the previous fuses, i found two fuses one " open " and another one in the " black hole " aside . As i do not have a clue how it works, what do we have to change, i think that they put two fuses the one open is the one which has to be used and the other one as reserve one ? Thanks for your help !

Yes, 2 fuses inside. The extra fuse is just a spare ...

Q: Are fuses directional?

A: Yes, fuses are directional. Electricity should flow from the left to the right ( S ---> R) when you view the fuse. If you do not know the direction of flow you should listen to the fuse inserted in both directions. One direction will sound more detailed. This is the correct way.

Q: Do fuses have a burn in period?

A: Yes, most products have a settling in period. The first 200-300 hours of use are the most crucial.

 

[Larent]

Yes, 2 fuses inside. The extra fuse is just a spare ...

Q: Are fuses directional?

A: Yes, fuses are directional. Electricity should flow from the left to the right ( S ---> R) when you view the fuse. If you do not know the direction of flow you should listen to the fuse inserted in both directions. One direction will sound more detailed. This is the correct way.

Q: Do fuses have a burn in period?

A: Yes, most products have a settling in period. The first 200-300 hours of use are the most crucial.

Thanks a lot !

 

[SKR987]

Just got two fuses Purple and put them in U18 and X 18.. I could feel the difference immediately even without burn in. Looks like a leap forward in sonic improvements

 

[milkdudd]

Up until now I've been feeding flac files using UAPP and Amazon Ultra as they call it into my U18 via USB. From there I feed the i2s into my Gustard A22 dac. I've been happy overall but don't like the fact that Amazon upsamples everything to 192. Right or wrong, the way I see it is 44.1 doesn't divide into 192. With that said I saw the chance to try out the Tidal free trial. I like how it doesn't upsample automatically. I have downloaded the Android Tidal app so I can use that or UAPP. For the last couple of years I've been hearing people talk about MQA. How this unfolds that, and that unfolds this in a different way and didn't really care. However now I do. Based on the hardware I described above is there a preferred way to listen to Tidal when I'm streaming it via Wi-Fi to my Android? Thanks in advance

 

[801evan]

Up until now I've been feeding flac files using UAPP and Amazon Ultra as they call it into my U18 via USB. From there I feed the i2s into my Gustard A22 dac. I've been happy overall but don't like the fact that Amazon upsamples everything to 192. Right or wrong, the way I see it is 44.1 doesn't divide into 192. With that said I saw the chance to try out the Tidal free trial. I like how it doesn't upsample automatically. I have downloaded the Android Tidal app so I can use that or UAPP. For the last couple of years I've been hearing people talk about MQA. How this unfolds that, and that unfolds this in a different way and didn't really care. However now I do. Based on the hardware I described above is there a preferred way to listen to Tidal when I'm streaming it via Wi-Fi to my Android? Thanks in advance

Since gustard is a full decoder, best is mconnect as it grabs the master version of the album and doesn't decode. If you purchased the mqa plug in on UAPP like I did, it isn't reversible and will sound worse as any streamer doing first unfold always sounds worse than the dac doing the full decode. Mconnect is sonically cleaner anyways so it works out.

 

[milkdudd]

Since gustard is a full decoder, best is mconnect as it grabs the master version of the album and doesn't decode. If you purchased the mqa plug in on UAPP like I did, it isn't reversible and will sound worse as any streamer doing first unfold always sounds worse than the dac doing the full decode. Mconnect is sonically cleaner anyways so it works out.

Okay thanks so much I had never heard of Mconnect. I learn something everyday, or at least I try. Now I need to know which app to download to my Android phone. I see there is Mconnect and also an HD version. My only interest is music if that matters. Not concerned about videos although it looks like one app does both. And thanks for warning me about the UAPP plug in, if I'm describing it correctly. I almost downloaded that, figuring what's $3.99?

 

[801evan]

Okay thanks so much I had never heard of Mconnect. I learn something everyday, or at least I try. Now I need to know which app to download to my Android phone. I see there is Mconnect and also an HD version. My only interest is music if that matters. Not concerned about videos although it looks like one app does both. And thanks for warning me about the UAPP plug in, if I'm describing it correctly. I almost downloaded that, figuring what's $3.99?

Well UAPP is good still for mqa full decoders if u haven't bought the plug in. U have the opportunity to compare both. Which I can't. U have to go through the rounds of optimizing UAPP too which can be rewarding. Proper buffer/Cache size always important.

Also local file playback has been non-functional for me on mconnect. So I only use it for tidal.