Alvin @ Vinshine has kindly loaned me the Denafrips Gaia for home demo.
There was some initial concern due to i2s port pinout configuration, but can confirm, the Gaia is able to work with the Rockna Wavelight Dac using the i2s connection.
Pics playing both pcm and DSD via i2s.
I will be comparing with my own su-6 + farad lps. Size difference of the su-6 vs gaia is considerable. Gaia is indeed a hefty and solid piece of work. The su-6 is the small black box behind the Gaia.
Had some trouble achieving a signal lock but I have come up with a cable sequence that has given me consistent results.
When switching DDCs:
Stop music
Insert USB into gaia
Insert i2s into gaia
Play music
If I put the i2s in first, I often do not get a signal lock. Also, I can almost never get a lock with my dac if a coaxial spdif cable is plugged into the gaia the same time as the i2s. (perhaps this maybe a dac issue).
O̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶p̶e̶c̶u̶l̶i̶a̶r̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶i̶s̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶p̶c̶m̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶i̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶a̶i̶a̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶r̶e̶c̶t̶ ̶s̶a̶m̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶r̶a̶t̶e̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶D̶S̶D̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶i̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶G̶a̶i̶a̶ ̶D̶S̶D̶ ̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶r̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶a̶m̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶e̶g̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶s̶d̶2̶5̶6̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶1̶7̶2̶.̶6̶k̶h̶z̶.̶
So far I must say the differences between gaia and su-6 are quite small. I will report back in again after more listening.
*edit
I misread the led lights.
172.6khz on the gaia corresponds to dsd256. So the lights are correct.
