Review and Measurements of Okto DAC8 8Ch DAC & Amp

[Kal Rubinson]

Especially considering the DAC8Pro has the use of Jriver in mind, I'm puzzled they that haven't included analogue inputs on the device. The lack of inputs, means it's not possible to measure the result in an easy way. It's the same with Exasound and it makes no sense.

Well, the target market for both of these is the music listener and not the test bench. It would be nonsensical to include a pricey feature which would be of no use to the typical buyer. Testers will have to find other means, I guess.

(And what does JRiver have to do with it?)

 

[Bjorn]

Well, the target market for both of these is the music listener and not the test bench. It would be nonsensical to include a pricey feature which would be of no use to the typical buyer. Testers will have to find other means, I guess.

(And what does JRiver have to do with it?)

I disagree. Being able to measure the result with something like REW is important for many audiophiles. And especially if you use EQ, signal aligment or crossover settings in JRiver. Who doesn't want to see how it measures when you integrate a subwoofer? JRiver can be utilized as the "surround receiver/processor" with a quality DAC like this and give a much better sonic result than these devices.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I disagree. Being able to measure the result with something like REW is important for many audiophiles. And especially if you use EQ, signal aligment or crossover settings in JRiver. Who doesn't want to see how it measures when you integrate a subwoofer? JRiver can be utilized as the "surround receiver/processor" with a quality DAC like this and give a much better sonic result than these devices.

I think your estimate of the concerns of the typical user are not the same as mine. Aside, perhaps, for convenience, if you route the test signals to the DAC8 via the JRiver host, the results are as valid as routing them through an ADC added into the DAC box.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I think your estimate of the concerns of the typical user are not the same as mine. Aside, perhaps, for convenience, if you route the test signals to the DAC8 via the JRiver host, the results are as valid as routing them through an ADC added into the DAC box.

Certainly DL3 routes through JRiver, and REW as well. No reason whatsoever to believe JRiver would alter any test signal.

 

[Vincentponcet]

I disagree. Being able to measure the result with something like REW is important for many audiophiles. And especially if you use EQ, signal aligment or crossover settings in JRiver. Who doesn't want to see how it measures when you integrate a subwoofer? JRiver can be utilized as the "surround receiver/processor" with a quality DAC like this and give a much better sonic result than these devices.

RME ADI-2 fs, the DAC, costs 1000 euros.
The equivalent with an ADC, the RME ADI-2 Pro fs R black, costs 1800 euros, nearly twice as much expensive. And this is just for line level input, it does not even have a mike preamp stage or a 48V phantom.
An ADC path is a completely different path than the DAC, it is another chip, analog stage for amplifier, to integrate with the USB controller, the drivers, etc...

 

[Bjorn]

RME ADI-2 fs, the DAC, costs 1000 euros.
The equivalent with an ADC, the RME ADI-2 Pro fs R black, costs 1800 euros, nearly twice as much expensive. And this is just for line level input, it does not even have a mike preamp stage or a 48V phantom.
An ADC path is a completely different path than the DAC, it is another chip, analog stage for amplifier, to integrate with the USB controller, the drivers, etc...

Yes. I know. I'm looking at either a used Lynx Aurora 8 or a new Motu 1248 instead. With Lynx I know what I'm getting in terms of sound quality but there are some drawbacks in features. I haven't seen measurements of Motu 1248, while it has some better features and more channels than Aurora 8.
https://motu.com/products/avb/1248

A screen to see the volume and a remote control like the DAC8Pro has would be nice though.

 

[josh358]

Yes. I know. I'm looking at either a used Lynx Aurora 8 or a new Motu 1248 instead. With Lynx I know what I'm getting in terms of sound quality but there are some drawbacks in features. I haven't seen measurements of Motu 1248, while it has some better features and more channels than Aurora 8.
https://motu.com/products/avb/1248

A screen to see the volume and a remote control like the DAC8Pro has would be nice though.

Check out driver stability before you choose. In my experience, the Lynx drivers are rock solid, although they do have a nasty habit of pushing the levels to 100 percent when you reboot, something that Lynx attributes to an issue in Windows (IIRC, there's a fix). Don't know about the Motu:

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1132135-motu-windows-10-stability.html

 

[phoenixdogfan]

As I am not an expert of C compiler on LINUX OS, I will not join the interesting and exciting development program you kindly offering.

I am very much looking forward to, however, the near-future "output" of your project (compiled exe DIY modules with nice GUI!) to be installed both in LINUX OS and Windows OS. Until then, I will continue to use the software crossover EKIO (192 kHz 24 bit) on 64 bit Windows 10 with my DAC8PRO (FW ver.1.32) through USB routing. If needed, I will be happy to be a beta tester for your possible new solutions on Windows in my multichannel multi-amplifier project. Good luck for your exciting developments...

What would be the advantage of one over the other. If you were using the PC exclusively for streamed material it seems to be Ekio would be the more capable tool.

 

[cyruz]

I saw many posts regarding balanced to unbalanced connections. I don't want to raise this again, just asking if anybody actually used one of the proposed solutions (cable with floating pin) with success.

 

[josh358]

I saw many posts regarding balanced to unbalanced connections. I don't want to raise this again, just asking if anybody actually used one of the proposed solutions (cable with floating pin) with success.

I'm not sure which solutions were proposed, but in my experience anyway the Okto does not play nicely with unbalanced gear.

 

[josh358]

Yes. I know. I'm looking at either a used Lynx Aurora 8 or a new Motu 1248 instead. With Lynx I know what I'm getting in terms of sound quality but there are some drawbacks in features. I haven't seen measurements of Motu 1248, while it has some better features and more channels than Aurora 8.
https://motu.com/products/avb/1248

A screen to see the volume and a remote control like the DAC8Pro has would be nice though.

Since I responded I tried a level matched A/B comparison between the Dac 8 Pro and a Lynx E22 and could hear no difference whatsoever (with the Dac8's reconstruction filter set to linear phase fast response -- I didn't try the other filters). (Also, the Lynx was running off the Dac8's AES/EBU output, so in theory, the Dac8 could be passing jitter to the E22 -- but I'm not holding my breath, lol.)

 

[cyruz]

I'm not sure which solutions were proposed, but in my experience anyway the Okto does not play nicely with unbalanced gear.

Can you be more specific? What did you try and what was the result?

 

[josh358]

I've tried it with a couple of unbalanced amplifiers, using two different balanced-unbalanced adapters, one from Benchmark -- it leaves one of the lines floating, which should work fine unless the circuit is transformer coupled. I wouldn't connect the disused side to ground without knowing what circuit Pavel has used. In any case, what I got was 60 Hz hum up the wazoo. What I didn't try was running a balanced line to the amps and unbalancing them there, but I don't see how that would make a difference, you aren't going to get any common mode rejection with one wire hanging. If I were serious about this, I'd put a Jensen transformer or a buffer amp at the amplifier, but that's a costly proposition.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

What I didn't try was running a balanced line to the amps and unbalancing them there, but I don't see how that would make a difference, you aren't going to get any common mode rejection with one wire hanging.

I've done that with my subwoofers and some adapters worked and some did not (lots of noise). I do not know the wiring of them since I just pulled them out of my parts boxes. Currently using a cheap Hosa(?) XLR-F to RCA-F adapter.

 

[josh358]

I've done that with my subwoofers and some adapters worked and some did not (lots of noise). I do not know the wiring of them since I just pulled them out of my parts boxes. Currently using a cheap Hosa(?) XLR-F to RCA-F adapter.

I think I have a couple of those too. I'm guessing they're all floating -- most gear doesn't use transformers these days, and a floating wire can't blow something up.

 

[wineds]

I saw many posts regarding balanced to unbalanced connections. I don't want to raise this again, just asking if anybody actually used one of the proposed solutions (cable with floating pin) with success.

Yes it works. Search some of my earlier posts. There might be some slight hum depending on your setup. Outputs 3 and 4 had the lowest hum I found.

 

[cyruz]

Thanks for the feedbacks. Sadly, because of this, it's a hard pass.

 

[wineds]

Thanks for the feedbacks. Sadly, because of this, it's a hard pass.

Btw the headphone out is single ended and you could also use that.

 

[dualazmak]

I saw many posts regarding balanced to unbalanced connections. I don't want to raise this again, just asking if anybody actually used one of the proposed solutions (cable with floating pin) with success.

Just for your reference,,, as @wineds kindly suggested in above post...

Please let me remind you that we can use nice haedphone out (CH1+CH2) of DAC8PRO for RCA unbalanced input into amplifiers, if you really would like to do so using stereo TSR to RCA adaptor like XCaliber's XGA-18.

In DAC8PRO's Owners Manual, we can read;
Analog connectivity
Main outputs (back side)
8 x Neutrik gold-plated XLR connector
Output level: 4.1 V RMS differential full-scale
output impedance: 200 Ohms
Headphone output (front side)
6.3 mm (1/4”) TRS connector
Output level: 4.1 V RMS full-scale
120 mA linear output current
fixed to output channels 1 and 2
output impedance <100 mOhm

One nice feature of this route is that the headphone out (CH1+CH2) is also under the volume control of DAC8PRO's preamp functions.

I use this RCA unbalanced headphone out (CH1+CH2) into my L and R active sub-woofers (capable of both RCA line level and speaker level inputs) as shown here.

 

[cyruz]

...

Hi dualazmak, thanks for taking your time for such an extensive reply. Honestly I don't consider that for a simply esthetic reason.