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Review and Measurements of E1DA 9038S BAL Portable DAC & Amp

busan

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I got in on an early bird deal and it sounds great. The noise level beats my desktop setup at work handily.
 

solderdude

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What's the difference between the C1DA and the measured E1DA and where is the D1DA ?
 

IVX

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Pretty sure this kicks the Audioquest Cobalt's butt big time after looking at Archimago's review : Cobalt Review
aah, that's closer yes, due to 100% horizontal noise floor A-weighting will improve the number to -3db, so -118.2-3 = -121dbA
Regarding the output Z, I measured that with Agilent U1733C impedance/LC/DF etc meter, at 1kHz and clearly saw 45mOhm at the 2.5mm TRRS installed to the socket. 300mOhm is 6x times more, no idea why but seems APx555 less precise impedance meter vs Agilent yet ;)
 
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amirm

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Joachim Herbert

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Just amazing.
 

maxxevv

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If only Atom had balanced input, too :)

Actually, this 2.5mm TRRS is a "virtual" balanced with no 3rd pin earth for each channel. So the output only has only 4 wires : L+, L-, R+,R-.

I actually have a harness that I bought to try my Sabaj Da3 with the Atom. 2.5mm TRRS to L-RCA and R-RCA.

Edit: Something very similar to this. Astell and Kern actually sells something like this too.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33011627751.html

HTB1uT37ThTpK1RjSZFKq6y2wXXac.jpg


So there is really no issue at all in connecting up to the Atom via the 2.5mm TRRS output of this device. ;)
 
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Veri

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@maxxevv will that pass the full 3.3V to atom or half of that... I'm guessing half?
 
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maxxevv

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@maxxevv will that pass the full 3.3V to atom or half of that :)? I'm guessing half?

@amirm 's dashboard posts 3.3V per channel. I don't see why it won't pass that to the Atom though ??

I'm just not sure how will the matched up DAC output circuit react though. The RCA input on the Atom has some very high impedance values.
The results from my Da3 weren't much to shout about when I tested it, I preferred the KTB combination with the Atom.
 
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IVX

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@amirm I think you have a typo.

"Seems like we have found our second designer (after Topping) which has figured out how to concur this aspect of ESS implementation. "

Surely you mean conquer?

Actually, I already reported about it in the thread about the hump, check this out.
 

daftcombo

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So, how would one connect this from a laptop to, say, a Massdrop THX789 ?

I think about a USB (or USB-C) male to USB-C female pigtail to protect the USB socket of the laptop. But I can't find one for the moment.

On the Amp side, something like this: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32822840419.html ?
 

solderdude

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Actually, this 2.5mm TRRS is a "virtual" balanced with no 3rd pin earth for each channel. So the output only has only 4 wires : L+, L-, R+,R-.

I actually have a harness that I bought to try my Sabaj Da3 with the Atom. 2.5mm TRRS to L-RCA and R-RCA.

Edit: Something very similar to this. Astell and Kern actually sells something like this too.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33011627751.html

So there is really no issue at all in connecting up to the Atom via the 2.5mm TRRS output of this device. ;)

I suspect that this cable will short the L- and R- outputs of the source through the (in the Atom connected) RCA shields.
I would not recommend using these adapters.
 
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Veri

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@amirm 's dashboard posts 3.3V per channel. I don't see why it won't pass that to the Atom though ??

I asked because when you use a converter cable from a balanced signal to unbalanced output like RCA you typically lose half the voltage.
Only when you go through a 1:1 transformer into single ended output you can pass on full balanced voltage as far as I know.
 

maxxevv

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I suspect that this cable will short the L- and R- outputs of the source through the (i the Atom connected) RCA shields.
I would not recommend using these adapters.

Why so ? The cable runs on 4 separate wires. The L- and R- are not shared like in a 3 pole TRS jack though.


I asked because when you use a converter cable from a balanced signal to unbalanced output like RCA you typically lose half the voltage.
Only when you go through a 1:1 transformer into single ended output you can pass on full balanced voltage as far as I know.

That's not something I'm familiar with, so I don't know either.
 

solderdude

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Why so ? The cable runs on 4 separate wires. The L- and R- are not shared like in a 3 pole TRS jack though.

I suspect the cable runs +L and +R directly to the centerpins of the RCA's which is O.K.
The -L and -R carry the opposite signal of the + and are both active outputs. I expect these signals to go to the shields of the RCA.

The problem is that the shields are carrying signals in the cable but as soon as you plug them in any RCA connectored amplifier the shields (-R and -L) are connected directly as the amp has the shields connected (ground/return/common).
So what one basically does is connect -L and -R together (short them)
 

MZKM

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Is this more Powerful & better than the iBasso DC01?

Thanks
Doing basic math with 50ohm as reference, this should be around 140mW into 32ohm. Now, that would be the ideal.

Even though that iBasso has THD+N >3x higher than this device, if it performs well for its ~$60 USD price, that’s pretty great as well.
 
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