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Companies who change the DAC chip type but retain the unit model number

TonyJZX

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So I bought this reasonably decent headphone amp dac portable thing and the selling point was that it uses the AKM4490 something. This was back early on when it was released. Its the Xduoo XD05 Basic btw. A fine unit all round.

The s/w recently said that the firmware could be old so maybe check? So I check and to my surprise the have discontinued the AKM version (due to the fire???) and now use ESS. So choose the firmware correctly.

So what is one to make of a situation when they do what is a fairly major change and yet dont make a Version 2.0 let alone make a new model (ie. XD06 basic?) - to me it feels like you buy a car and then half way thru they change the engine to something different... this has precedence... Mercedes changed from inline sixes to V6s but retained the name (eg. Mercedes E320)... so maybe then it seems the companies think the DAC really doesnt matter? its the implementation? Maybe they can *largely* retain the circuit diagram and just resocket the DAC like an Intel CPU? I doubt it though. Would require a completely different board.

I think this isnt common but it does happen a fair bit? Has one ever seen a comparison btw, the same product but with different chipsets?
 

NiagaraPete

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Sort of old news. Most current DAC's have transparent specs with any chip. There is no evidence that they sound any different. Though in your case firmware may be an issue if I read you correctly.
 

Blumlein 88

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I think their are measurements of one or two units that changed due to the shortage of AKM after the fire. I forget, maybe one of the RME units. As long as they meet claimed spec I would think it is okay.

Maybe you remember in the 1970's and 1980's at General Motors. They started using their engines across brands. When virtually everything was a V8. Pontiacs had Pontiac or Oldsmobile engines. For a time all Buicks had Pontiac motors. Some Oldsmobiles had Chevy motors. They were sued about it. Peculiarly the suit was by someone who purchased a Oldmobile to find it had a Chevy engine. The court ordered GM to pay $5500 to about 15,000 people who purchased such cars. It did not cover all the other cross branded engines as they weren't named in the suit. And it didn't cover those after the suit because it had become public knowledge this was now standard GM practice. My father had a Buick with a Pontiac engine. He drove it 319,000 miles and sold it still running great. He did have to rebuild the transmission once. I don't think it bothered him in the end since it performed so well for so long with no engine work needed.
 

antcollinet

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If the device still meets it's published specs, then they've done nothing wrong. All products are modified to some extent or other during their production life. Often due to component obsolescence. In these days of supply chain issues, it is common to change components to ones that are more readily available.

And in this specific case - as has been pointed out, which Dac chip is used is far less important to the performance of the product, as is how that chip is integrated into the design.
 
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