[citiot]

Long time lurker, first time poster.....
75% speaker listener 25% cans.
 
Question about Gustard u12.  I looked through the now locked Gustard u12 thread.....
 
I have no way to determine if my DAC is acting up, Gustard acting up, or if it's an environmental or computer issue (ground loop/noise messing with digital signal, etc).
 
Computer is decent z97 MSI, 8 gig ram.  SSD, etc.  Nothing special.  Windows 10.  
 
DAC is Parasound ZDAC (the older model).  USB has 96/24 max and Coax and Optical have 192/24 max
 
Using 2.24 Luckit drivers.. (the included 2.26 does the same, but I like the tools in the Luckit version).   Oh, I set it to Extra Safe and 8192 buffer.
 
Playing 192/24 via coax from Gustard u12 has intermittent distortion and stuttering.  If I power cycle the ZDAC, if fixes it.  Optical plays fine in 192/24 100%.
Cables I tried were a AudioQuest Forest, Quad shielded F-connector (cable box) jumper with RCA adapters and an old Monster Cable patch cable (non-75 ohm)
 
Strangely enough, the Monster Cable does the best.  This makes absolute no sense to me.
 
Yes, the obvious answer is to use optical.  But, it just bugs me that I cannot use coax.  (arguable, I understand that coax is better than optical).
 
Question 1) "is anyone out there using a Parasound ZDAC from coaxial feel from u12 at 192/24?
Question 2) "anyone have a similar problem with their non Parasound DAC?"
Question 3) "I've been in contact with a fairly prominent HiFi reviewer in the Netherlands.  Would anyone over there be willing to lend him your Gustard u12 so he can review it?"
 
Citiot 
USA

 

[citiot]

Small update.  I've improved things a bit on my own.  Who knows, someone might come across this thread with myself and it may help.
1)  Wire dress, low voltage bundled and routed away from high voltage.
2)  Floated both the Paradigm ZDAC and Gustard u12 with cheaters.
3)  I have a Tripp Lite suppressor in the rack.  Separated the digital devices from the higher current drawing things.  There are two bank, one has higher EMI filtering and such from the other.
4)  Updated drivers (again)
5)  Use Fidelizer to shut off and optimize computer services, etc.
6)  Didn't change the power saving settings in BIOS or Windows since these were already set for high performance.  
7)  Put Gustard u12 on a USB2 port on the back and the wireless keyboard/mouse transmitter on a 3.0 port.  My thoughts is that the Custard should be on a seperate USB circuit.
8)  Yup, bought into the AudioQuest Jitterbug snake-oil and use it with the Gustard.  (the Jitterbug actually help my kids' Schiit Stack)
 
So right now, I switch to a 192/24 stream and it does the constant jittering, I just go into TUSBAudio Control panel and change the streaming mode either up or down.  The systems will resync and all is well.  I don't have to get up out of chair to power cycle  he ZDAC now.
 
So, in my mind, this is likely a combinations of problems.  I think if there were any ground loops with noise running around, lifting both the Gustard and ZDAC fixed that.   Wire dress would also help along these lines.  
 
Going to dig around and see if I can find an old USB2.0 card and use that instead of the MoBo built in USB.
 
Long story short, I'm having a blast, learned lots about ASIO, buffers, latency, etc.  Like many people out there, I have the ndis.sys latency issue which there seems to be no fix.

 

[citiot]

Pretty much have given up.  Just going to use optical.

 

[citiot]

I figured I'd try to see if SHENZHENAUDIO can help.  I've sent them an email.  Will let you know how this turns out.

 

[citiot]

SHENZENAUDIO (on Amazon) was very responsive.  I received a replacement quickly,  but the problem persists.
 
I have let them know.
 
One thing I noticed is that the Gustard u12 puts out 300mV p-p into a 75 ohm resistor.  SPDIF spec is 500mV p-p, right?
 
Can anyone provide any input.  I seem to be talking to myself here.
 
Oh, I put the system on a totally different computer isolating if from other components.  The issue still remains when playing ZDAC via headphones.
 
Citiot. 

 

[citiot]

Shenzen Audio has forwarded my voltage findings to Gustard engineers.  We shall see the response.
 
Since there are no thread responses or questions, I will cease posting my progress.

 

[Sam21]

do you know which DAC chip the U12 has in it ?

 

[citiot]

Gustard u12 is not a DAC.  It is a usb to spdif/IIS converter.  It uses XMOS u8.
 
http://www.shenzhenaudio.com/gustard-u12-32bit-384khz-xmos-usb-digital-audio-interface.html
 
Parasound ZDAC uses the Premium Analog Devices AD1853.
 
http://www.parasound.com/vintage/zdac.php
 
Computer----USB---->Gustard u12------->Parasound ZDAC------->stereo
 
 
Edit:  Sorry, I reread your post.  You likely understand that Gustard u12 is not a DAC, but technically I guess it does contain a DAC chip, the XMOS u8. 

 

[askri]

Hi
 i have a problem with U12. It turning off itself. Display show "- - - -" and the is no sound. First month this situation was 2 or 3 times. Last 2 weeks it happens every 30 minutes. Only i can do is turn it off and turn on again. I installed drivers wich comes with.
Does anyone knows this problem?

 

[mrjimmybob]

Where would a Gustard U12 fit in my setup? if I already have the following:
 
    Computer -> SMSL Sanskrit 6 gen DAC -> Little Dot I+ -> Headphones.
 
I wanted the Gustard U12 to replace the Sanskrit DAC, but I have discovered that the Gustard U12 is not a DAC (yes, I did find out AFTER buying it, doh!).
 
So I guess the setup would be:
 
    Computer -> Gustard U12 -> SMSL Sanskrit 6 gen DAC -> Little Dot I+ -> Headphones.
 
I have no plan on recording or anything, just music listening.
 
Would I benefit from this setup? or have I wasted my money ?
 
Thanks in advance.

 

[Rozenberg]

  Where would a Gustard U12 fit in my setup? if I already have the following:
 
    Computer -> SMSL Sanskrit 6 gen DAC -> Little Dot I+ -> Headphones.
 
I wanted the Gustard U12 to replace the Sanskrit DAC, but I have discovered that the Gustard U12 is not a DAC (yes, I did find out AFTER buying it, doh!).
 
So I guess the setup would be:
 
    Computer -> Gustard U12 -> SMSL Sanskrit 6 gen DAC -> Little Dot I+ -> Headphones.
 
I have no plan on recording or anything, just music listening.
 
Would I benefit from this setup? or have I wasted my money ?
 
Thanks in advance.

Well, U12 is a DDC so yeah you don't really need it.
It's used if one wants to convert USB input into something else (coax/AES/optical/i2s) so if you still want to use it, you can use the coax out or optical out into your SMSL's input.
 
Benefit or not depends on you, if you can hear improvement or if you might need to use the features, then keep it.
Else, you can always sell it.