Audiophonics EVO-SABRE Balanced RPI DAC Review

[amirm]

Would you suggest that the IMD ESS Hump fix could be done by someone with competent soldering skills and a labelled PCB diagram/image, or is it a fix that is going to have to come from the manufacturer in a revised version?

The fixes I have seen are minor and if someone is comfortable with surface mount part soldering/desoldering, it could be done. But you would need the specific recipe for this DAC which is not available.

 

[JeffGB]

The performance appears to be almost exactly the same as the MOTU M4. The display and extra inputs (optical and coaxial) would be nice, but for my use, I think the MOTU is a better deal and it also has a volume control (I haven't received my MOTU M4 yet so I don't know how well the volume control works). Thanks for the review, Amir!

 

[doug2761]

Oh my. To heck with these multi thousand dollar streaming dac amp setups. This and a top tier Ncore amp (also could be purchased at Audiophonics) could be purchased for less than a grand and have top tier performance!!

That's pretty much the road I'm on. I just finished my NC400 monoblocks and hooked them up to my Raspi 4 with display and HiFi Berry DAC 2 HD. I'm using Roon for playback and room correction with Ropieee XL on the raspi. The Ncore has enough gain that I don't need a preamp. These easily assembled kits are very good. I'm having a ball playing with this stuff and getting incredible sound from my system. Adding the raspi remote next.

 

[Mulder]

Maybe this from the same site if you like?

The advantage of Audiophonics kit over the SMSL streamer is that the former is based on Rpi, and thus provides several different software choices. With SMSL, you are tied to their dull mobile app or the device's own interface. It feels like a dated solution today with ROON, Volumio and more.

 

[AudioSceptic]

Maybe this from the same site if you like?

That looks really good. The only minus I can think of is that an RPi-based streamer gives you more flexibility in terms of software, and can also be used to stream video using Kodi or similar.

 

[bluefuzz]

Most of the common rpi images like moode and volumio support brutefir

Moode doesn't support brutefir by default AFAIK – only a 4 band parametric EQ + a 10 band graphic EQ – but it could probably be installed by the technically minded. And I wouldn't consider brutefir as 'room correction' in the sense of Dirac, Audessy etc.

 

[JohnYang1997]

The IMD hump fix shared by Ben is not be all end all. During the design of D10s, the IMD hump just didn't appear with whatever the value is used in the R + C in the feedback circuit. Same thing happens in Okto research's DAC8 (didn't follow Ben's suggestion at all, not having R at all in series with the C) and some new boards that we made using both 9038q and 9038pro. There must be some underlined reason that causes the hump not just the i/v stage itself. It can be oscillator related, AVDD supply related as well.

 

[Mulder]

The fixes I have seen are minor and if someone is comfortable with surface mount part soldering/desoldering, it could be done. But you would need the specific recipe for this DAC which is not available.

Can this Hump be heard at all? Or is this a fix of a audio quality problem that do no not exist?

 

[tw99]

Can this Hump be heard at all? Or is this a fix of a audio quality problem that do no not exist?

It's inaudible.

 

[Richdw]

It's inaudible.

Just out of curiosity, where or how was this determined? Any links would be appreciated. Many thanks, Richard

 

[m8o]

I like this a lot! Definitely rises to the level of "will buy". Tho, I have little use for the supplied display. Much thanx for the review.

 

[Richdw]

Would there be any reason not to use the Evo Sabre directly in to a power amp? If so, what are the specific attributes of the power amp that may make it a better or worse match for the Evo Sabre?

I'm considering purchasing the Evo Sabre, and either a Behringer A800 or NCore (Audiophonics) MPA-S125NC XLR Stereo, to feed my Jamo Classic 8 speakers.

 

[Mulder]

Is performance the same when connected to the SPDIF inputs?

 

[Naturlig]

Is this DAC/Raspberry Pi unit Roon Ready?

 

[SJ777]

Is this DAC/Raspberry Pi unit Roon Ready?

You'd have to format the micro sd with Ropieee which then acts as a Roon Bridge. I don't use Roon but there's plenty of info about Roipeee on this site.

The Audiophonics DAC/RPi is a lovely looking piece of kit, but bear in mind if you don't need balanced output then you can get the same performance from a simple RPi4 and a Topping E30.