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Review and Measurements of Sabaj D5 DAC & Amp
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locoliberty
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So I am interested in buying this DAC, and was watching the Z reviews review on it for kicks. He mentions the line outs on the back are actually pre-outs with variable gain via the knob. I dont see that mentioned in the reivew, can anyone confirm? Thoughts on using this as a dedicated DAC only in a hifi system using its XLR as line outs?
solderdude
Grand Contributor
There is a digital volume control on the line-outs.
Set it to max and it is a normal line-out.
Set it to max and it is a normal line-out.
777
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es9038Pro from Sabaj D5 doesn't has heatsink on it like Matrix Element X for example. Or maybe it is under the chip, a large PCB track used like heatsink.
locoliberty
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just came back after searching to update to "what should I set the volume to be". Thanks!
Thoughts on if the unit should be turned off with the rest of the system or just left on forever?
debating this or the SMSL SU-8, but this is black and black is better.
solderdude
Grand Contributor
see: this post from Amir
I don't see a heatsink either on the product pictures but maybe for that occasion they were not fitted ?
solderdude
Grand Contributor
Personally I would switch it off. Even a >100 SINAD is top tier performance. It is impossible to hear differences between -100 and -120dB spurious.
It would be masked by the background noise of any recording anyway.
Disclaimer: I don't have a D5 and haven't measured one. But... other than some tube electronics, after having measured hundreds of amps, preamps, DACs, and the like, I have not seen much change in measurements for electronic components cold vs "warmed up" or out of the box vs "broken in."
locoliberty
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Im not even worried about that aspect, I leave my cambridge dacmagic on all the time cuz I cant turn it off with the remote. So I just leave.
Do you believe you hear this difference?
777
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I opened a Sabaj D5 by my hand just yesterday and it had no heatsink at all. Look at the picture, it is done by me yesterday.
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solderdude
Grand Contributor
Looks like a lot of pins (on the left side of the E) are connected to a rather large groundplane area.|
This will work as a heatspreader but would warm up a lot faster than 30 mins.
This will work as a heatspreader but would warm up a lot faster than 30 mins.
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solderdude
Grand Contributor
Maybe it makes contact with metal parts on the bottom ?
Maybe they were intended to fix a heatsink to the chip ?
Maybe the one sent to Amir and some prototypes has heatsinks and they later omitted it ?
Maybe they were intended to fix a heatsink to the chip ?
Maybe the one sent to Amir and some prototypes has heatsinks and they later omitted it ?
thank you for taking the pic. I been water cooling video cards and other components for many years, regarding the PCB pic you posted for the D5, those 2 holes to the sides of the DAC chip are there in case some someone wants to slap a heatsink on top of the DAC, but it only can be done if a different case/chassis is used, but not with this one, you can clearly see the bottom of the chassis right under the DAC.
A custom made chassis with at least half inch of room under the PCB would be needed to slap a heatsink on top of the DAC so the screws can go under it and secure the heatsink.
Anyway, I been using this DAC for over a week now and i really like it so far, better than countless pc sound cards and onboard dac's i have used in the past. Biggest difference is in the bass and midrange, very dynamic and punchy, this DAC also picks up little faint details in the background and it amplifies them where I can clearly hear things where before I didn't hear. Hard to believe what I have been missing out on, well i cant say that because this is a very new product with the latest ESS chip lol.
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Think about this. SINAD is just an average value. The reason for the 12 dB lower SINAD could be caused by some locally confined high spikes that can audibly affect the sound, but will not lower the average value that much. We never know unless we see the test result to show the true reason.
solderdude
Grand Contributor
Amir may have seen and or stored the files where it had poorer performance.
I have no idea why it wasn't posted though as normally warts and all are shown when something doesn't perform as expected.
was curious about this too but even when the distortion would be 12dB higher it still performs quite well.
I have no idea why it wasn't posted though as normally warts and all are shown when something doesn't perform as expected.
was curious about this too but even when the distortion would be 12dB higher it still performs quite well.
It is 12dB higher on average, which means the spike could be much larger than 12dB higher. It really depends on whether or not the lower value of SINAD is mainly due to noise or distortion.
A D5 without heatsink probably takes less time to warm up to the desired spec? FYI, that 30-min warm-up tip has been removed from Sabaj website; I asked their representative and she acknowledged this without giving any explanation.
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