Review and Measurements of Sabaj D5 DAC & Amp

[dwkdnvr]

order placed. hope that I can tell some difference between it and my current topping D70. Don't want to burn any more money...

Uh, do you really expect to hear a difference between 2 DACs that both measure in the top tier with distortion products at -110dB or better? There is negligible difference between them in my view - I'd be stunned if anyone could hear a difference. I got one as an 'upgrade' from my Tone Board/JDS Atom strictly since my Neurochrome amp has balanced inputs, and this gives me a nice 2-box balanced solution - I don't really expect the audible performance to be any better. (not really an 'upgrade' - the TB/Atom will go to work to give me a headphone system, so I needed a replacement for my home desktop)

 

[zym1010]

Uh, do you really expect to hear a difference between 2 DACs that both measure in the top tier with distortion products at -110dB or better? There is negligible difference between them in my view - I'd be stunned if anyone could hear a difference. I got one as an 'upgrade' from my Tone Board/JDS Atom strictly since my Neurochrome amp has balanced inputs, and this gives me a nice 2-box balanced solution - I don't really expect the audible performance to be any better. (not really an 'upgrade' - the TB/Atom will go to work to give me a headphone system, so I needed a replacement for my home desktop)

Oh, I hope there is some difference in terms of their “sonic signatures” as some people say that AKM chips have more musicality and ESS ones perform better in benchmarks.

 

[Majestyk]

Uh, do you really expect to hear a difference between 2 DACs that both measure in the top tier with distortion products at -110dB or better? There is negligible difference between them in my view - I'd be stunned if anyone could hear a difference. I got one as an 'upgrade' from my Tone Board/JDS Atom strictly since my Neurochrome amp has balanced inputs, and this gives me a nice 2-box balanced solution - I don't really expect the audible performance to be any better. (not really an 'upgrade' - the TB/Atom will go to work to give me a headphone system, so I needed a replacement for my home desktop)

If top tier DACs sound the same then that would mean the filters (Sharp, Slow, etc) all sound the same too.

 

[Majestyk]

order placed. hope that I can tell some difference between it and my current topping D70. Don't want to burn any more money...

IMO, I don't think it's going to be a DAC killer with the ESS IMD Hump.

 

[zym1010]

IMO, I don't think it's going to be a DAC killer with the ESS IMD Hump.

I hear you (but the hump here seems not that big). I guess my main motivation is to have a (budget) state-of-the-art ESS-based DAC to compare with a AKM-based one.

 

[gvl]

@amirm, is there a setting to defeat ASRC?

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

Would this be good for IEMs?

 

[DeepSpace57]

@amirm if you have still the unit and time, can you have a check the jitter performance of I2S input over USB input? I am instinctively of the opinion that I2S is the best option.

 

[Silou]

I was looking at this product for a while. Maybe on 11.11.
How can the warm up be explained?

 

[amirm]

@amirm, is there a setting to defeat ASRC?

Not that I saw in my quick scan of the menus.

 

[amirm]

How can the warm up be explained?

They say this:

Maybe it quickly gets to temp normally without a heatsink.

 

[Veri]

Sure is good performance! Good job Sabaj

 

[gvl]

I am instinctively of the opinion that I2S is the best option.

Been spending time on head-fi lately?

 

[Silou]

@amirm Do you think the provided unit was cherry picked by the company?

 

[VintageFlanker]

I could not get close to the SINAD rating they had. I then read on their website something to the effect of heatsinks are used and hence the unit needs 30 minutes to warm up to required temps. I usually don't put much weight on such comments but here, it was a real deal. After around 30 minutes while I was doing other things, performance jumped way up:

I'm shocked. Never believed in warm up before...
That's really the point of ASR: objectively prove (or disprove) something even if it's hard to believe from an objectivist point of view.

@amirm Do you think the provided unit was cherry picked by the company?

Some might wonder... But honestly, even if it was cherry picked: This shows Sabaj is perfectly able to design a highly performing DAC.


PS: It seems like the very top of the SINAD chart is dominated by ES9038 Pro units.

 

[maxxevv]

I'm shocked. Never believed in warm up before...
That's really the point of ASR: objectively prove (or disprove) something even if it's hard to believe from an objectivist point of view.



Some might wonder... But honestly, even if it was cherry picked: This shows Sabaj is perfectly able to design a highly performing DAC.


PS: It seems like the very top of the SINAD chart is dominated by ES9038 Pro units.

Its not the first time I have heard of such things. But in this case, 30 mins seems a reasonable amount of time for electronics to reach a stable temperature. At least its not some ludicrous " hours " ....

 

[amirm]

@amirm Do you think the provided unit was cherry picked by the company?

No I don't. They sent me the dashboard of another unit which was within 1 dB. So there are at least two with such performance.

Sabaj seems like a proper company to me. This is cheap enough device that I could test another in the future and find any schemes like that. They would have to be quite unwise to send me a hand optimized one.

If one of you wants to drop ship me one, I can test and confirm and then forward it on to you.

 

[amirm]

Just adding on, they had a 2-series Audio Precision analyzer and just bought the APx555 that I have. So the design was verified using proper measurements. Such companies usually produce high performance products as they know and catch problems before I see them.

 

[Silou]

SMSL, Sabaj and Loxjie is basically the same company. Do they release their measurements anywhere?

 

[VintageFlanker]

SMSL, Sabaj and Loxjie is basically the same company. Do they release their measurements anywhere?

Yep, here.