Of the thousands of ChiFi DDCs sold this is the first post I’ve seen here about any units failing, which is a pretty strong indication there is no widespread issue with these products or we’d undoubtedly be hearing a lot more about it. I’ll also say Gustard in particular has had reliability issues in the past so may not the best indicator of overall ChiFi product reliability. So avoid these DDCs if you want, but it does not seem justified by the overwhelmingly positive experiences and comments made by people here.
reliable DDC
I'm in need of a good DDC for a DAC that only takes SPDIF input. So I need USB > SPDIF. I own a Gustard U18 and it's working, but I've read a lot of stuff about reliability problems with Gustard or Chi-fi in general. The only other audiophile level DDC I know of is the Denafrips, also Chinese. Are there any audiophile level DDCs made elsewhere in the world (say, USA?)