Review and Measurements of AUDIOPHONICS DAC I-Sabre ES9038Q2M

[CRKebschull]

No, the output filter section is designed for single ended output.

By the way, the board has been designed with 1.6V RMS, 2V peak output.
It can be set to 2V RMS output by replacing R8-R9-R12-R13 to 1.5k value.

We will have an extended version of this DAC within few weeks with balanced outputs and more inputs.

Very exciting! Please do let us know when the new DAC is available!

 

[AudioSceptic]

No, the output filter section is designed for single ended output.

By the way, the board has been designed with 1.6V RMS, 2V peak output.
It can be set to 2V RMS output by replacing R8-R9-R12-R13 to 1.5k value.

We will have an extended version of this DAC within few weeks with balanced outputs and more inputs.

Interesting. The "standard" for unbalanced is 2.0 V so why use 1.6? Would 2.0 compromise some aspect of performance?

 

[Krunok]

The "standard" for unbalanced is 2.0 V so why use 1.6?

There is no such standard. 1.6V is sufficient for most amps.

 

[AudioSceptic]

There is no such standard. 1.6V is sufficient for most amps.

Yes, that is why I put "standard" in quotes. Amir and others do say they like to see 2.0 V, all the same, and I assume this is because it is the standard for CD players so any amp with an input optimised for CD will also work well with a DAC of that same output.

 

[Krunok]

Yes, that is why I put "standard" in quotes. Amir and others do say they like to see 2.0 V, all the same, and I assume this is because it is the standard for CD players so any amp with an input optimised for CD will also work well with a DAC of that same output.

CD players are rarely connected directly to amp as you wouldn't have volume control. Amp usualy has only one set of unbalanced input connectors.
These days it is not a rare situation to find different input sensitivities even among the amps of the same manufacturer. Take Rotel as an example:

RB-1552-mkii: 1.5V
RB-1582-mkii: 1.9V
RB-1590: 2.2V

 

[AudioSceptic]

CD players are rarely connected directly to amp as you wouldn't have volume control. Amp usualy has only one set of unbalanced input connectors.
These days it is not a rare situation to find different input sensitivities even among the amps of the same manufacturer. Take Rotel as an example:

RB-1552-mkii: 1.5V
RB-1582-mkii: 1.9V
RB-1590: 2.2V

You are talking about *power* amps. I'm talking about amps in general (pre + power or integrated) or receivers.

 

[Krunok]

You are talking about *power* amps. I'm talking about amps in general (pre + power or integrated) or receivers.

DAC output voltage may be an issue only in the scenario when you are connecting it directly to power amp. If you are connecting it to a preamp (either integrated or stanalone) then DAC output voltage is pretty much irrelevant as preamp will accept anything between (figures are for Rotel RC-1590 preamp) 150mV and 4V on its line inputs.

 

[CRKebschull]

DAC output voltage may be an issue only in the scenario when you are connecting it directly to power amp. If you are connecting it to a preamp (either integrated or stanalone) then DAC output voltage is pretty much irrelevant as preamp will accept anything between (figures are for Rotel RC-1590 preamp) 150mV and 4V on its line inputs.

The upcoming XLR / balanced version with 4V line out is especially interesting because I have my DACs connected directly to the Hypex amps. I must admit that I am not getting anywhere near running out of volume, so probably 2V would do just fine as well. Still, balanced outs just make life easier.

 

[sajunky]

Hi @Audiophonics,

What about reviewing your other products for Raspberry like this?
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-...-dac-raspberry-pi-3-a-b-pi-2-i2s-p-11585.html

Despite of @Amir doing great job, I am not sure this one will beat modern DACs (esp. Sabre) in tuning up their DSP engine to fit our dominant tone measurements methods, as there is no DSP processing of any kind <LOL>, so listening tests will be more relevant in such case, but trusted measurements are always good for a starter.

This board carries a hudge battery of capacitors around DAC chips (eight in total), so it should give clean power and uncorrelated noise outputs from DAC chips. The output buffer is passive (looks like LC type). Could you please confirm this? What is the output impedance on the RCA outputs?

BTW, USB interface boards recommended on the website seem to be outdated, as XMOS versions (which I would prefer) can be found now for around $50.

Considering of buying board like this, as I can add any USB_to_I2S interface board and feed it from PC as well.

 

[Patatorz]

Great review and happy to read the professional’s feedback

 

[pii75]

Hi @Audiophonics,

it would be interesting to have a review of this other DAC:

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-...berry-pi-i2s-32bit-384khz-dsd128-p-13907.html

That is one of the few dac for raspberry based on AKM chip. Thanks.

 

[Audiophonics]

About TDA, I don't think THD measure will be very good as it's rated by manufacturer at 78/88dB, it's an old chip.
THD is not the main interest of customers that buy this kind of DAC chips.
Yes, 8 capacitors are for DAC reference, and output filter is passive.

About the AKM, if Amir want to test it we can send it to him.

 

[Thermionics]

Crap. Now I might have to replace my HifiBerry DAC+ PRO.

 

[CRKebschull]

Crap. Now I might have to replace my HifiBerry DAC+ PRO.

Looks nice indeed. But without any measurements, the impression is meaningless.

 

[Thermionics]

Looks nice indeed. But without any measurements, the impression is meaningless.

Well, we have measurements of the HiFiBerry DAC+Pro on ASR in a separate review, and the first post in this thread contains measurements of the Audiophonics unit, so what's the boggle, citizen?

 

[CRKebschull]

Well, we have measurements of the HiFiBerry DAC+Pro on ASR in a separate review, and the first post in this thread contains measurements of the Audiophonics unit, so what's the boggle, citizen?

I meant the AKM DAC linked to above. (I have an DAC+Pro XLR myself.)

 

[Thermionics]

I meant the AKM DAC linked to above. (I have an DAC+Pro XLR myself.)

Ah. Point taken. I was referring to the original Audiophonics unit, not the AKM - I should have been more specific.

 

[Jungstar]

I think Amirm didn't loaded the dedicated driver, so the board was using the default filter, probably be "Brick Wall" ( but it could be the last selected when previously used the board)
The filters selection is made trought driver, into alsamixer or for Moode Audio, directly into the UI.

How do you load the driver? I have this with a RPi3 and volumio, but I never seen any driver....there is only the ES9028 driver in Volumio setup....

 

[Audiophonics]

Into volumio ES9028 driver do not load correctly, this overlay was made for their 9028, but driver files are not loaded into the image.

You can activate our driver into all distributions by manually add to config.txt :
dtoverlay=i-sabre-q2m

Or for Volumio, you can update DAC list : (Top of Readme)
https://github.com/audiophonics/Volumio2_I-sabre9028_plugin

 

[Surfparadise]

Hi,

I want build an amp feeded by the arylic board connected to an i2s dac. So the chain will be:

Arylic/linkplay board -> Kali recloker -> I2s Dac -> power amp

@Audiophonics
In this configuration (without preamp) could be better have 2vrsm as output of the Dac, if I change the resistors as suggested, I will have some performances decrease in terms of quality or this modification could be used as best practice to have 2vrms as output?
Why you have choose to not provide 2vrms out of the box?
Is it the schematic of this board available?

ps: you have several chinese dac boards listed on Audiophonics Website, could be really useful provide the test benchmark for these items as well. It’s really difficult find any impartial reviews for these board, and could help a lot for diyer that wants use it for build something good.

Thank you