Measurements of a $5 DAC

[Robciak]

Pictures of the interior?

 

[Haskil]

Oh ! An audiophile Dac !

 

[Robciak]

bout the 2 plots above:
It gives a false idea of distortion behaviour at high frequencies, since distortion is limited by the AP bandwidth you selected (unless you changed it for those measurements ?)

At 16kHz, for 22.4kHz BW, no harmonic can be measured, so that's just noise.
And above 7kHz, you don't see the 3rd harmonic either.

That's a good point. I created this test loop only for the 22k band, which corresponds to our hearing range, and of course this affects the results. Below is a comparison of this measurement using the 22k and 90k bandwidths. The curve representing 16k is in a completely different place.

Here is a 90k

Here is a 22k

@Rja4000 Thanks for highlighting the impact of settings on the measurement.

 

[Robciak]

@CedarX
Above, diagrams explaining the ‘drop’ in distortion above 6 kHz.

 

[Wesseling Audio Lab]

It's certainly a lot cheaper than your average tube amp

 

[Astoneroad]

I'm always amazed at how someone can make money on something like this, if you don't have huge sales volume of a large company. I realize there are a lot of variables, but any ideas of what might be the profit margin on a $5 DAC such as this?

 

[Sokel]

At about 80dB SINAD at -12dB level (where music bangs) this could be inaudible compared with a nice DAC IF its FR was at least decent.

Thanks for the review!

Edit:Was the FR drop up high considered in the measurements?Cause pushing it to 0dB at 16Khz for example could create havoc lower as they would be +7dB (!)

 

[Wesseling Audio Lab]

I was hoping for something special here. Seems my search for really cheap usb dacs that perform well turn out to be rather high in price to a point
where I will spend more on a topping E30-II lite - Much related to USD to CAD conversion

 

[MCH]

I wonder how the near identical ADC would do. Standalone analog to SPDIF ADC are not so common.

 

[CedarX]

If GC8418 is indeed the chip used in this DAC, here is the datasheet (in Chinese, but usable with machine translation).

EDIT: only uploaded the first page.
EDIT2: upload seems ok now.

 

[AndreaT]

Choose an esoteric name, paint it in gold, find a reviewer from an audio magazine, raise the price. An audiophile DAC. Among the worst measured frequency response, SINAD, etc…

 

[GWolfman]

Choose an esoteric name, paint it in gold, find a reviewer from an audio magazine, raise the price. An audiophile DAC. Among the worst measured frequency response, SINAD, etc…

So you’re saying we should send it to Darko? LOL

 

[Waxx]

Good dacs don't have to cost a lot, but not al cheap dac's are good. Good that this is proven here. It's a relative mature technology, but you still got to watch out for crap dacs. This one is so cheap you don't expect a lot of it, but some expensive ones are not better than this 5$ dac.

 

[Waxx]

I'm always amazed at how someone can make money on something like this, if you don't have huge sales volume of a large company. I realize there are a lot of variables, but any ideas of what might be the profit margin on a $5 DAC such as this?

This is probally a board from an other design, and the OEM company made a few more and put it in a cheap generic package to sell. This happens all the time, especially in the far east where rules of copyright and so are less respected. But even here it happens. It could also be a series that was not approved by the client, that they try to sell to recup the money of making it (what also happens a lot).

 

[Astoneroad]

This is probally a board from an other design, and the OEM company made a few more and put it in a cheap generic package to sell. This happens all the time, especially in the far east where rules of copyright and so are less respected. But even here it happens. It could also be a series that was not approved by the client, that they try to sell to recup the money of making it (what also happens a lot).

I ordered a pair of decorative painted shells on ebay for 99 cents. It came from China with free postage. I don't understand how this can be profitable, even if they didn't cost the seller anything, the labor to pack them, packaging material and shipping 7000 miles had to cost something out of that 99 cents. It seems less costly to throw them out. Just consider this a rant, more so than an inquiry looking for an answer. The same factors apply as Waxx's response to the $5 DAC.

 

[sssn]

It has built-in anti-treble EQ

You could market it to audiophiles by claiming it's "analog warmth"

 

[bachatero]

Choose an esoteric name, paint it in gold, find a reviewer from an audio magazine, raise the price. An audiophile DAC. Among the worst measured frequency response, SINAD, etc…

Call it a tube sim

 

[phoenixdogfan]

We need a "Where's the rest of me?" panther for this kind of product.

 

[AdamG]

Not an uncommon claim, I've even read it here @ ASR

You typically hear “a well engineered DAC” will basically sound the same. But, maybe some have said that trying to be brief.

 

[Scytales]

Oh ! An audiophile Dac !

Some audiophile DACs are nevertheless much worse than this one for the penny : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...1992-to-2024-ranked-by-thd.47789/post-1712044 !