innuos pulse compared to denafrips gaia 12th

@kmcong, have you talked to the Denafrips distributor Tek Audio Specialties?

audioman58 is the Denafrips guy to talk to. Downloading Windows drivers is a rather simple process, foolproof, very little chance of bricking your computer. I've downloaded plenty of drivers over the years on Windows computers, no big deal even for a complete novice.

Yes, I have talked extensively to Audioman58 (who sold me the unit) TEK Audio Specialties (who cannot do anything without an RMA from Denafrips) and Denafrips technical support. The problem with the driver to install the firmware downgrade is that it is an "unsigned driver", which means that you have to run your computer in "test mode" to get the driver to run. I am not concerned with bricking my computer, I'm more concerned with bricking the unit, making it worthless. Denafrips absolutely refuses to give me an RMA, and keeps telling me to downgrade the firmware from v1.9 to v1.8. I'm located in the U.S., btw.

I'd bet on this being a tariff issue, if unit needs to be shipped back to Asia they gonna be responsible for paying that. Can't you ship to Audioman58, I'm sure he's familiar with process.

This issue started in January, prior to the tariff issues. Audioman58 says "I'm not a tech guy." Unit would not have to be shipped back to Asia; if they would give me an RMA, I could ship it to TEK Audio Specialties in Texas. Tech support person at Denafrips factory, Vera, is just completely intractable.