• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Which DAC measurements do you like to see next?

OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,671
Likes
241,053
Location
Seattle Area

SoniMax

Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2018
Messages
11
Likes
3
Eager to see the Audio G-D review. Amir promised both DAC and AMP measurement so I am twice as eager :D
 

Bamboszek

Active Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2018
Messages
181
Likes
306
First of all, I would say hello. I'm really happy that I found this forum. Lots of valuable information and experienced users.
Going back to the thread - what about Audient iD4 interface? Specifications provided by manufacturer looks excellent. I had a look inside and IMHO circuit seems solid. Here's bad photo (warning, huge) of one of two PCBs inside. The whole unit is powered from the USB port. There is ADP5071 DC-DC converter providing dual +/- 15V power supply for analog. Main DAC/ADC chip is AKM AK4621 codec. USB is controlled by XMOS chip. OPA1662 and MC33178 opamps are used. There are even some mini-melf transistors instead of simple 0805. The headphone amp is based on discrete transistors. It is not especially powerful and output impedance is rather high but sounds good with my Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro. Instrument input uses single jfet, plays with my bass guitar nicely. Haven't used line/mic in so far. Volume control is completely digital. Overall I'm happy with it (especially that I bought it cheap) but seeing some serious measurements would be nice. I would be happy to provide my unit unfortunately, I'm located in Poland which is rather far away :D
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,671
Likes
241,053
Location
Seattle Area
Eager to see the Audio G-D review. Amir promised both DAC and AMP measurement so I am twice as eager :D
Coming up next. And boy is it coming.... ;) :)

ETA by this weekend.
 

Timbo2

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2018
Messages
497
Likes
396
Location
USA
Since it is currently my main DAC , I'm voting for the Sabaj Da3.

Aside from self interest I'm wondering how it tests given the quality of its construction. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised. On the plus side the street price is only about $90 and it has about every format you could want.

In a different thread folks were rightly criticizing the product photos and the poor soldering.

http://www.sabaj.com.cn/en/productshow.asp?id=74

An actual photo I found on diyAudio suggests that the product photos are representative of the actual construction unfortunately.
 
D

Deleted member 1514

Guest
Since it is currently my main DAC , I'm voting for the Sabaj Da3.

I came close to buying one of those. It looks pretty good for the money. I went with the iBasso D14 instead though, since it has a much beefier amp, supports coax, optical, and is more versatile. It's big though.
 

Timbo2

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2018
Messages
497
Likes
396
Location
USA
I came close to buying one of those. It looks pretty good for the money. I went with the iBasso D14 instead though, since it has a much beefier amp, supports coax, optical, and is more versatile. It's big though.

From a use perspective it's a nice DAC. I use it coupled with an O2 Amp. I have it strapped to the top which makes the screen really useful compared to other compact DACs.

I have two complaints with it - 1. Since it uses two decoder chips it's not especially power effecient for mobile use. And decoding to DSD uses even more power. As a result I don't recommend it for use with a phone. 2. I'm not a fan of the case. It's assemetric and has sharp edges and corners. Not what I would want next to my delicate phone's screen or aluminium case.

If it measures poorly I'm going to be torn because it works perfectly for my needs. Subjectively I don't notice any issues with the sound.
 

sonci

Active Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2018
Messages
233
Likes
112
After AudioGd disaster I'm really wondering about those nice tube dacs!
Let's measure that Lampizator Dac that everybody's raving some time ago.
 

Leon

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2018
Messages
18
Likes
3
Hello Everybody

I saw that you have started measurements on OPPO105D with some bad results on linearity.
I think a lot of people will be very interested to see the next chapters of tests especially on USB/SPDIF and HDMI input with an other oppo 105D
An other point will be to test the ESS 32 Bits volume to check the impact on SnR/dynamic

Thank you

Note: very great forum !
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,671
Likes
241,053
Location
Seattle Area
After AudioGd disaster I'm really wondering about those nice tube dacs!
Let's measure that Lampizator Dac that everybody's raving some time ago.
Love to measure it but it is one expensive DAC so no chance of buying one anytime soon.
 

scibry

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Messages
36
Likes
41
I'd love to see the new Jotunheim, especially one with the new USB stage (USB Gen 5) which they claim measures drastically better than their other options in jitter, etc. They have a multibit solution for it now, but I'd rather the 'balanced differential' sigma-delta.

It's a piece I'd love to own, especially because the headphone amp stage looks like it'd be something that, if it measures well, I would never need to replace. 7.5 watts into 16 ohms? Puhleeze! Output impedance <.1 Ohms....

I'm worried it'd measure like the rest of the S(c)hit(t) out there and be really disappointing, but if it happens to measure well, I'd love to own it.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,671
Likes
241,053
Location
Seattle Area
I hear a lot about Jotunheim so like to measure it at some point. On the DAC portion, it seems to be the same as Modi 2, no? I have all three versions of Modi 2 (regular, uber and multibit) and plan to measure them soon.
 
Top Bottom