Gustard X12 DAC & U12 USB digital interface. Anbody here using this pair?

[JL Sargent]

I had a lightning strike here several months ago and it knocked out a whole bunch of electronics. I've had a heck of a time getting stuff working properly again. My music server laptop lost all its USB connectivity for one. I got another laptop to use and could not get the driver to install for my X12 Dac. That made me suspect the "daughter" USB board in the X12 had taken a hit from the lightning. There is an upgrade to this board and it's called the  U12 USB interface. I knew it was a gamble of sorts because I didn't know exactly what was wrong with my X12 and contact attempts with the manufacturer resulted in nothing. Just the same, I ordered the Gustard U12 straight from China on Ebay. I received it today and got it installed. Much to my disdain, the setup still didn't work. The driver did install correctly and PC said device was ready to use? Finally, I remembered you have to change the default audio device in Windows! Once I performed this little step the U12 and X12 seem to be working great together. 

 

There are almost zero instructions for these units but they sound great to me. The DAC utilizes the Sabre ES9018 chip.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GUSTARD-U12-XMOS-USB-to-Spdif-Converter-DAC-0-1PPM-Support-384KHZ-DSD64-DSD128-/252660406337?hash=item3ad3bbd841:g:i7IAAOSwnDZUIDfD

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GUSTARD-DAC-X12-ES9018-USB-XMOS-CPLD-DSD-DAC-Coaxial-Optical-AES-/222328751930?hash=item33c3d3873a:g:XjgAAOSwIgNXjmix