Review and Measurements of Sabaj D5 DAC & Amp

[solderdude]

Disabling the pre-amp section will 'save' you a few mA ?
Where is the 'gain' in that ?
There is no technical reason to cut the power supply to the pre-amp/headamp section either as the idle current is very low as well.

 

[BDWoody]

If we can ignore the preamp (which seems not a wonder) we will have a less source of noise and interference.

In any case, the interesting thing was to reduce energy consumption by disabling the two sections, especially the amplifier, and thus having the excuse of disabling the standby imposed by the regulation in the EU. Understandable with speaker amplifiers and, perhaps, with headphones amps, but not so much with DACs.

They say it sounds better when the wonderful ESS chip has been running for 30 minutes, when it reaches the optimum operating temperature. If after a while without a signal the standby is activated, it will cool down and will not sound as good for a while, which would force it to send some inaudible signal, just enough so that the standby is not activated.

Do you actually believe these things?

Who is the 'they' in 'They say it sounds better'?

Why do you discount the importance of valid listening tests?

You seem to have a smattering of things that are valid, combined with stuff that's just outrageous...

Why do you refuse to do anything that would back up your claims? Ever? You just make more of them...

I wouldn't really care, but there are people who come and go who may be misled by thinking you are talking from a place of actual knowledge, vs simply pulling and endless stream of crap out of your ass.

 

[marco07]

You are very welcome!

I just listened to some Brahms string quartets and switching among various filters. Here is what I can tell you:
1) fast vs slow: fast is much brighter, very obvious and most people should be able to tell them apart by blind listening
2) linear vs minimum: very hard to discern much difference. Minimum seems to be slightly warmer but less transparent in the slow settings, but I could barely tell any difference between the two fast settings.

My favorite is slow linear for this music. The two fast settings are too bright to my taste. Slow minimum is a bit on the sloppy side which I think is too much. Slow linear is the Goldilocks.

Speaking of filters, I found this thread post (#664) that goes on about the different types of filters. Seems that they match the filters of the D5...
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/149-...wner-s-thread-23.html#/topics/2821841?page=67

And here's a FR chart for the filters as well.

 

[maty]

Disabling the pre-amp section will 'save' you a few mA ?
Where is the 'gain' in that ?
There is no technical reason to cut the power supply to the pre-amp/headamp section either as the idle current is very low as well.

Inside there are not tubes and the DAC, headphone amp and preamp should consume very little at rest, why the standby? What minimum consumption does EU regulation require so that it is necessary to include it in this device? I fear the worst, that is always mandatory. But the only SS DAC I think does not have standby.

 

[solderdude]

Standby mode is only needed when something is switched on using a remote control or software controlled on/off when one wants to use touch buttons or featherlight power switches.
As this DAC has a remote with on off switch it automatically has a stand-by mode.

In this case the actual powerswitch is a heavy duty rocker on the rear side.

 

[maty]

Standby set obligatorily after a period of inactivity can be quite tiring in the new studio monitors but there it is understandable by the higher consumption. But more and more I like my little passive speakers so that standby in this and future DACs that use the new ESS ES9038PRO, which sound better once a certain temperature has been reached, can be quite uncomfortable.

The logical thing, to me, would be that automatic shutdown could be disabled on very low-power devices. To save on those who have a screen, it turns off after a few seconds, but only the screen.

BTW, in EU the standby must be < 0.5 watts.

 

[maty]

I have researched and in modern AVR the standby can be disabled and vary the time: 20 min, 2h ... 8h. Something like that needs, in my modest understanding, the D5, to prevent the chip from cooling.

 

[777]

And the preamp section? In principle it would be the most interesting thing to disable.

There is not preamp section in Sabaj D5.

 

[SIY]

There is not preamp section in Sabaj D5.

See? It worked!

 

[777]

The most probably there is only output stage with I/V converter and then LPF. The volume control is digital inside of a ES9038pro. So, there is not any dedicated preamp section. There is a dedicated headphones smplifier instead.

 

[maty]

ESS ES9038Q-2M

I also thought first about the digital volume but having only 40 steps implemented is very strange, being the PRO, I say.

 

[777]

You can look at the PCB. It is very simple, nothing about analogue volum control. There is digital volume for sure. Doesn't matter where is situated, inside of a es9038pro or outside in another digital circuit. What is really matter is there isn"t analogue preamp section at all. There is only the output stage of a DAC.

 

[maty]

Nobody talked about analogue. A preamp can be active, passive, analogue or digital.

Having only 40 steps indicates that the volume, digital of course, is implemented outside the chip, in its own section. Even so, being digital, it is strange that it is so inferior to the CM800i.

Finally, the inconvenience is the automated standby, something I had in mind from the beginning. Include the option to disable it (at least) should be obvious in a new firmware.

 

[solderdude]

It is only an inconvenience for those believing it sounds 'better' when on for a while, otherwise it is not an inconvenience when it wakes up quickly.
You don't want to be held responsible for heating up the planet by some folks after all

I don't think you understand the word 'pre-amp' fully.
You seem to mix up volume control with pre-amp.

 

[777]

Having only 40 steps indicates that the volume, digital of course, is implemented outside the chip, in its own section. Even so, being digital, it is strange that it is so inferior to the CM800i.

Are you sure for that ? Have you measure that ? Why don't you put to 0dB the Sabaj D5 volume if you want to suspend it ?

Sabaj D5 has 107dB SINAD when is cold, one dB better than Topping DX3Pro. Isn't enough ?

 

[Veri]

Indeed, about the warm up time. Why not just "deal with it". 107 is still not bad...

 

[DeepSpace57]

Indeed, about the warm up time. Why not just "deal with it". 107 is still not bad...

Hi Veri, do you think it is still 107db when waking up from standby ?

 

[Veri]

Hi Veri, do you think it is still 107db when waking up from standby ?

Looking at standby wattage it might need another 10-20minutes to warm again, but who knows.. hard to say for sure.

 

[maty]

It is only an inconvenience for those believing it sounds 'better' when on for a while, otherwise it is not an inconvenience when it wakes up quickly.
You don't want to be held responsible for heating up the planet by some folks after all

I don't think you understand the word 'pre-amp' fully.
You seem to mix up volume control with pre-amp.

In these forums some presume too much about my knowledge or their absence about audio electronics.

The owner of the two devices is the one who insures it and I believe it, when the usual thing in these cheap devices that combine the three functions is that only the DAC performs at a good level.

Whether an hard measures well or very well does not necessarily imply that its sound is exceptional. In the end it is the ear who decides, based on the fact that things have been done well and everything measures as it should be. There are many things -today- that are not measurable in audio or are not usually.

 

[Veri]

Oh no you didn't so basically we're back to "my system is hyper resolving" and your "golden ear" can discern things the analyser cannot??