What is the best way to connect the U12 to the X20?
What is the best way to connect the U12 to the X20?
YashN,
Great find. I had not been to their site for awhile and had no idea they were making a board with the new chips and 512 output capability.......soldering iron getting hot! Put that board in a small box with super power supply/reg......large transformer external, and then hardwire a short I2S cable to it and plug right into the Gustard....and voila....a 512 super DAC......sounds like a plan!
What is the cheapest price/source for it? I see it for $895 on Amazon. And what would the be the resale value if I don't keep it?
Interesting thread. How does the unit perform for PCM? (Most of the detail seems to be on native DSD or PCM to DSD upsampling) Is there a path to getting i2S input from a (Windows) computer source? And is there an ASIO driver to allow use of HQPlayer / NAA?
I use HQPlayer, so I read some of Jussi's comments on setting up HQP I had copied from the forums. There he states if you have a native DSD ASIO driver (apparently the DIYinHK driver is) then under SDM pack settings you can select none (whereas previously with the 3.2 driver I selected SDM). I selected none and hit play and the Gustard display showed DSD256!! and task manager showed CPU usage at low 20's. Finally we have a driver that will let us play DSD256 with no beeps after 60 minutes. Not an earth shattering difference but a nice step forward. There seemed more transparency, more information, subtle details were presented more clearly, more relaxed analog sound. It just involved me more in the music.
In my system it is as good with PCM as it is with DSD. Remarkable DAC for the money.
You should also try PCM -> DSD256 in realtime with the latest Audirvana+ beta if you have a Mac (info over at CA)!
I am asking everywhere, has anyone gotten the X20u to play a DSD512 signal? I would assume owners of the Gustard u12 or similar tanly unit could, in theory, play DSD512 via a i2s connection to the X20u. I don't remember reading anywhere of someone doing this. I wonder if the X20u is even capable of DSD512?
IIS:
PCM: 16-32bit /44.1,48,88.2,96,176.4,192 , 352.8 , 384kHz
DSD: DSD64 , DSD128 , DSD256 , DSD512
DOP: DOP64 , DOP128 DOP25 6 , DOP512
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