[quadman]

Well my buddy who ordered and I modded and wrote about on these pages back in April and May of last year has moved on to a T+A Dac 8DSD and he asked me to sell his Level 1 Gustard X20u (not pro).  Unit is black in color.  Full level 1 mod without the clock located close to the dac chips, instead it uses a very high quality pure silver wire.  Other than the clock mod (which can be done for parts cost) this is a full level 1 with quantum chips and extra Damping that Ric had discovered made a sonic impact and I confirmed.

I'll list this in the for sale section so if you have any interest check it out and reach out to me.  Asking $699 in its current modded form.

[ACHiPo]

It's been a long time since I've checked this thread.  In this case, no news is definitely good news!  My listening time has decreased a bit due to other commitments, but in general I'm very pleased with my system and Audiophilia Nervosa is in remission.

I continue to have issues with the Gustard not working (not sure if it's a sync issue, or something else?)  A quick power cycle resolves it, but I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing the same phenomenon?

[pinon]

I have had two odd things happen with the X20pro DAC syncing. One sounds like what you are experiencing. On occasion, I will turn on the system (the DAC stays on all the time), wake up the Mac Mini, and find no DAC connection...the sound comes from the Mini. Unplug and re-plug in the DAC (I did the mod that directly connects the transformers to the IEC so no switch), and all is well. The Gustard shows up as connected from the Audio Midi panel of the computer, and works.

The other thing...also on occasion, I go to start up the system, and find the Mini has crashed. I am not sure what is up, but I think the Gustard "locks" in some more intense way than my Tranquility did, both using USB connections. Lately, rather than putting the computer to sleep with Audrivana in pause mode, I click the Audirvana stop button, releasing iTunes. Not positive, but this may solve whatever has caused the crashes. I wonder if manually unlocking the DAC using the DAC setting panel might solve this also, but have not tried.

I have done a lot of mods on the DAC, and they continue, output board diodes remaining. Also still playing some with damping and WA cap and semi-conductor sticker pieces now and then, but it all seems really good. I am mostly running 256 DSD from 44/16 files.

[quadman]

I continue to have issues with the Gustard not working (not sure if it's a sync issue, or something else?)  A quick power cycle resolves it, but I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing the same phenomenon?

Do you mean the Dac is not locking on to the signal and the LCD display says unlocked or something else?  I almost never experienced this issue except when my 3rd party USB card started acting up (I only used USB in) then I would get brief (less than 1 second) drop outs in music play, the LCD would quickly change to unlocked.  Eventually after a couple months trouble shooting everything else I pulled the third party USB card and the issue went away.  At no time was I forced to cycle power on and off to get things fixed.

That said a couple things you can try if you are comfortable opening the dac up.  Power down the dac wait a bit for caps to discharge.  Remove top cover (2mm allen)  then make sure the coax cable is securely screwed into the posts on each board and maybe unscrew and then rescrew back in, or if you have a modded unit then check the solder connections.  Now look at the white ribbon cables that go from digital to output board and digital to LCD board.  Make sure they are seated all the way into the sockets, if you have high quality contact cleaner like Deoxit, or pro gold then you can careful pull the cables out of the socket and clean the contact parts of the cable then very carefully put them back in making sure the silver contact on the ribbon goes fully into the socket.  Next you can check the 4 wire connectors that run from behind the volume knob to the LCD board make sure they are secure.  If you run USB in I would check to make sure the USB card is fully seated in the PCIe slot.  Those are the easy things to check.

The other thing are you using any thing between the signal source and the dac.  If so remove that and see if the issue goes away.  Good luck.

[ACHiPo]

Do you mean the Dac is not locking on to the signal and the LCD display says unlocked or something else?  I almost never experienced this issue except when my 3rd party USB card started acting up (I only used USB in) then I would get brief (less than 1 second) drop outs in music play, the LCD would quickly change to unlocked.  Eventually after a couple months trouble shooting everything else I pulled the third party USB card and the issue went away.  At no time was I forced to cycle power on and off to get things fixed.

That said a couple things you can try if you are comfortable opening the dac up.  Power down the dac wait a bit for caps to discharge.  Remove top cover (2mm allen)  then make sure the coax cable is securely screwed into the posts on each board and maybe unscrew and then rescrew back in, or if you have a modded unit then check the solder connections.  Now look at the white ribbon cables that go from digital to output board and digital to LCD board.  Make sure they are seated all the way into the sockets, if you have high quality contact cleaner like Deoxit, or pro gold then you can careful pull the cables out of the socket and clean the contact parts of the cable then very carefully put them back in making sure the silver contact on the ribbon goes fully into the socket.  Next you can check the 4 wire connectors that run from behind the volume knob to the LCD board make sure they are secure.  If you run USB in I would check to make sure the USB card is fully seated in the PCIe slot.  Those are the easy things to check.

The other thing are you using any thing between the signal source and the dac.  If so remove that and see if the issue goes away.  Good luck.

There is no indication on the front panel that anything is wrong.  Just no sound playing.  Turning the Gustard off then on again solves the issue.  I don't ever remember it happening when I was actually listening--it's always just when I fire up the system (DAC always on), sometimes there's no music so I power cycle the DAC and everything is fine again.

[brother love]

Does anyone have a copy of the DIYinhk USB audio driver v3.34 that you could be so kind to send my way? (DIYinhk now only offers a v3.38 version that is only good for their XMOS PCB: http://www.diyinhk.com/shop/driverdatasheetmanual/109-diyinhk-usb-audio-driver-full-version-and-signed-.html ).

I currently have a dual boot Win 8.1/ Linux Ubuntu 16.04 PC server & use Ubuntu ALSA to get DSD256 HQPlayer upsampling on my Gustard X20u.

I added a Network Audio Adapter (NAA) mini PC dual boot Win 10/ Ubuntu 16.04 & currently get DSD256 again thru Ubuntu.

I wanted to try DSD256 thru Win10 w/ the updated driver if possible (I tried a JL Sounds XMOS-Stereo-USB-Audio-Class2-Driver-2023 v3.34.0, & it is recognized as the driver for the Gustard X20 xCore: "XMOS XS1-U8 MFA", but I can only get DSD128 & that is strangely DoP. HQ Player- Miska says that ethernet cable fed DSD256 data shouldn't care what OS is on NAA side).

I'll forward an email address thru PM for anyone that can help.

[*Scotty*]

If you upgrade to windows 10 creator version you will not need a driver unless you are playing back higher than 24/192 files.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028685/windows-get-the-windows-10-creators-update
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Scotty

[brother love]

Many thanks to quadman for DIYinHK v3.34 driver! Listening to DSD256 thru the Win10 mini PC NAA & Gustard X20u as I type. 

[*Scotty*]

I am using a HAL MS-2 PC Music Server running WIN 10 Creator using jRiver to kernel stream all sample rates up to 24/192 as well as DSD 128 and 256 feeding an Auralic Vega.
 No special driver required and kernel streaming sounds substantially better than the latest USB driver from Auralic. If using jRiver 24bit integer is what works in my system.
Kernel streaming seems to have far less veiling obscuring the inner details of the music and the reproduced acoustic space is clearer and larger in scope.
 The manufacturer supplied driver has the most veiling with a progressively less fogginess as you move from direct sound to WASAPI with kernel streaming being the clearest window on the music.
Scotty

[brother love]

I strictly use HQPlayer for upsampling everything to DSD256 w/ no J River, Audirvana, etc.. No problems w/ Ubunutu ALSA, but just now trying Win 10. There have been problems with Windows 10 Creator in conjunction with HQ Player (as documented on Computer Audiophile HQPlayer thread).

[liton2k]

Many thanks to quadman for DIYinHK v3.34 driver! Listening to DSD256 thru the Win10 mini PC NAA & Gustard X20u as I type. 

Hi, Can you please share the driver with me?

[brother love]

liton2k, send me a PM to discuss.

[liton2k]

liton2k, send me a PM to discuss.

I'm not allowed to send PM Can you send me PM?

Edit : Now I can send you PM. Please check.

[martinr]

I am using a HAL MS-2 PC Music Server running WIN 10 Creator using jRiver to kernel stream all sample rates up to 24/192 as well as DSD 128 and 256 feeding an Auralic Vega.
 No special driver required and kernel streaming sounds substantially better than the latest USB driver from Auralic. If using jRiver 24bit integer is what works in my system.
Kernel streaming seems to have far less veiling obscuring the inner details of the music and the reproduced acoustic space is clearer and larger in scope.
 The manufacturer supplied driver has the most veiling with a progressively less fogginess as you move from direct sound to WASAPI with kernel streaming being the clearest window on the music.
Scotty

Scotty, I read this post in September and decided to finally try Kernel Streaming on the Gustard tonight....agree with you completely, much better, open sound than with the Gustard driver.....thanks for your post.
- Martin