Okto dac8 stereo DAC Review

[digicidal]

Very dry sound, i'm tired from that dac, sold it.
How does it sounds is not interest to anyone in this forum. Only measurments!

You must have had your order in the day they announced it's release I assume? And then registered an account just to say that basically this forum has nothing to offer for someone "interested in sound not measurements"?

Distortion can certainly be quite pleasant to hear... and you can create however much you'd like digitally (in front of this DAC) or in the analog domain if you prefer (connect this DAC to a tube amp for example). I love distortion as an aficionado of both metal and 80's noise bands... I would just prefer to hear the distortion that the artists and studio engineers chose when recording and mastering the piece to be 100% transparently decoded for me.

Starting from a pure and accurate conversion is always better than the alternative - measurements or no. Unless you have a profit motivation, that is.

 

[ENG]

I posted this earlier in this thread:

"I'm tempted to buy this Okto dac8 stereo. Are there some members who owns this and know how it works with Dirac ? Perhaps MiniDSP SHD is better to room correction but is not at the same level for the rest compared to Okto dac8 stereo."

Please comment!

 

[amirm]

Dirac doesn't care about the dac.

 

[MC_RME]

Loopback maybe? What's the loopback performance of your apx555 given the same condition? I mean it's possible that ap has different output noises at different output levels independent to the input. So in that case it may make sense.

If I understood you correctly then yes, the APx has different noise levels on different output levels. There is hardware ranging on both input and output which can drive one crazy. For example the studio standard level of +24 dBu will get much worse measurement results as when just measuring +22 dBu. As wonderful and useful the APx is, it runs into limitations with modern high-performance ADC and DAC. The below measurement is noise limited (BW 22 kHz), not THD limited. As always one has to know what one does to make the most of the measurement results.

Addendum: 4 Volt equals +14.3 dBu. So one usually can't measure higher than 121.x dB (122 dB with AES17). DACs exceeding these values will all give the same result. To get better results one must use external attenuators to shift the levels to the peak performance (123.x dB), or use external amplifiers at the input (for specific low level noise measurements).

 

[maty]

***** OLD PICTURES. Production units are different. *****

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...nts-of-okto-dac8-8ch-dac-amp.7064/post-207533

Why not to delete the misleading post then?

Okto Dac8 Stereo, with Raspberry Pi running Volumio

[Deleted]


Okto Dac8 Pro

[Deleted]

 

[ENG]

Dirac doesn't care about the dac.

As I have read in the miniDSP SHD Dirac is an integrated part. In Okto Dac8 stereo it is part of Raspberry and how does that work ?

 

[John1959]

DAC8 PRO recent production unit (July 2020)

Here is another image of the DAC8 PRO (so not Stereo!). I think this is the more recent (production) unit. It was shipped the first week of July 2020 to me. A lot of differences in lay out, case and connections. See also the absence of any ventilation holes. There is a slab of CNC'd aluminium behind the DAC-print (not visible), bolted to the case, to remove the heat by conduction (which is not that much of course). Great engineering "detail" which I like. It comes at considerable extra production costs too I guess.

John

 

[Dave H]

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...nts-of-okto-dac8-8ch-dac-amp.7064/post-207533

Okto Dac8 Stereo, with Raspberry Pi running Volumio

Okto Dac8 Pro

Maty. Why post these pictures when Pavel has already told you None of those is our current or upcoming product.

 

[maty]

I did not remember it and I did not read the following comment. In any case, they give an idea. Nor would it cost so much to incorporate images on the page and thus all happier.

Added: [ OLD PICTURES. Production units are different. ]

 

[AudioSceptic]

Amir already measured it. His results were much worse because he used his noisy computer as a source. I used my $149 iPhone 7.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Refurbished-Apple-iPhone-7-32GB-Black-AT-T/924779379

Which brought the grand total of my computer/DAC combo setup to $169.

Is there a Lightning version of the Meizu, or have you found a Lightning-USB C adapter?

 

[ENG]

Is there a Lightning version of the Meizu, or have you found a Lightning-USB C adapter?

This thread is about Okto dac8 stereo, please comment about that here.

 

[AudioSceptic]

Yes the only thing that matters is the SINAD coming out of the binding posts of the final amp in the system. That result will be identical from the binding posts of the Purifi or Benchmark AHB2 regardless if the $20 Meizu or the Okto DAC was used as a source.

How should SINADs be combined? If Device A has SINAD 120 dB, and feeds Device B which has SINAD 100 dB, is the result simply the worse of the 2 (bottleneck), i.e., 100, or is this incorrect? I suspect the result would be 100 only if A has infinite SINAD, so any value less than that will pull down the combined result below the "bottleneck" figure. What is the correct mathematical formula?

 

[AudioSceptic]

This thread is about Okto dac8 stereo, please comment about that here.

Good point.

 

[laidick]

Any issue with volumio? I am just curious

Well designed, nice results but overpriced for this luxurious "PI metal" case + poor DAC (limited), I recommend the D90 STANDARD + Raspeberry PI 4 + any good and free linux distro (not volumio)...
TOPPING D90 DAC AK4499 DSD512 $700
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B – 4Gb $55
Cheers,
z

 

[Veri]

How should SINADs be combined? If Device A has SINAD 120 dB, and feeds Device B which has SINAD 100 dB, is the result simply the worse of the 2 (bottleneck), i.e., 100, or is this incorrect? I suspect the result would be 100 only if A has infinite SINAD, so any value less than that will pull down the combined result below the "bottleneck" figure. What is the correct mathematical formula?

Total will be < 100dB, basically impossible to get full 100dB due to compounding two noise/distortion sources. A good example is here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...g-a30-and-schiit-magni-3-headphone-amps.4024/
~107dB modi3 and ~98dB old magni3 result in ~89dB SINAD together. So it's not as simple as taking the worst of the 2.

 

[Veri]

An interesting comparison to make:

RME ADI-2 DAC with Auto Reference level:

Compared to Okto SINAD vs Measured Level:

At ~1.0V both are at 113-114dB SINAD, and from there the Okto starts to pull ahead of course, Okto hasn't got quite as much features as the RME.

 

[AudioSceptic]

For example don't you think this sub $100 headphone amp can drive any speaker amp to clipping?

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ents-of-new-jds-labs-atom-headphone-amp.5262/

Combine that with the $149 iPhone 7, and $20 Meizu, and you can drive the Benchmark amp to clipping, and achieve the same measured results Amir did in his review of the amp from the amp binding posts.

Better yet go overboard and spend $169.99 and you can drive any amp with up to 40vPP output balanced.

https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/...-amplifier-combined-with-topping-d50s-d50-p50

So these HP amps are better than any "preamp" for similar money? (Is there any important difference anyway, apart from output impedance?)

 

[miero]

At ~1.0V both are at 113-114dB SINAD, and from there the Okto starts to pull ahead of course, Okto hasn't got quite as much features as the RME.

I expect that RME has more headroom for intersample overs than Okto. So SINAD number is not a whole story...

EDIT: Hmm, I could be mistaken. It was Benchmark who claimed 3.5 dB of headroom above 0 dBFS for intersample overs for their DAC3.

 

[AudioSceptic]

Total will be < 100dB, basically impossible to get full 100dB due to compounding two noise/distortion sources. A good example is here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...g-a30-and-schiit-magni-3-headphone-amps.4024/
~107dB modi3 and ~98dB old magni3 result in ~89dB SINAD together. So it's not as simple as taking the worst of the 2.

Thanks. I suspected as much.

 

[onslash]

Hi amir , do you have phase response measurements for this dac? Someone claimed more expensive dac have better phase measurements (im skeptical)