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Review and Measurements of Budget ($20) DACs

SiW

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I got a D03K but get a lot of background hiss - could this be usb power supply related?

My CYP DAC is totally silent.

Simon
 

SiW

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Toslink (waiting for a coax cable to arrive from Amazon) and both off the same usb power plug which is rated at 4.8amp.

Will try different usb cable and power plug incase it’s a ground issue.

I’m using my iPhone with Hifime Sabre toslink out adaptor. Then DAC into a Fiio A3 amp.

Waiting for my Topping D10 to arrive :D

Simon
 

edechamps

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Thanks for the review, and sorry for resurrecting this thread, but I found this part very intriguing:

Next I tested 14 Khz tone using 48 Khz:

View attachment 5378

Good grief! Clearly neither SIGNSTEK or FiiO have proper 48 Khz clock. SIGNSTEK's distortion products are just 50 db below its signal peak!

I found this quite shocking, as I had no idea the performance of such devices could vary so much between 44.1 and 48 kHz. Out of curiosity, what makes you say that this is distortion is specifically caused by running these devices at 48 kHz? I mean, between the measurements at 11.050 kHz @44.1 kHz, and 14 kHz @48 kHz, two variables have changed: the frequency of the test signal, and the sample rate. What makes you say the horrible distortion is caused by the latter and not the former? I'm asking because I'd like to come up with a test methodology that covers such pathological behaviour.
 

Mark S.

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BTW, should have said - I went back to directsound with Kodi (even though it will resample to a specified sample-rate with Wasapi) so I could keep digital volume control , which you lose with digital-out via Wasapi (Foobar has its own software attenuation).

Got to say though - Sox is noticably smoother and less 'gritty' down-sampling hi-res files than Windoze. I was just listening to Fleetwood Mac Rumours 24/96 via Kodi, and when I got to "Songbird" I kind of winced a few times. Stopped and switched to Foobar (WASAPI 'event', Sox) and found it much more relaxing.
 
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Mark S.

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...

I found this quite shocking, as I had no idea the performance of such devices could vary so much between 44.1 and 48 kHz. Out of curiosity, what makes you say that this is distortion is specifically caused by running these devices at 48 kHz? I mean, between the measurements at 11.050 kHz @44.1 kHz, and 14 kHz @48 kHz, two variables have changed: the frequency of the test signal, and the sample rate. What makes you say the horrible distortion is caused by the latter and not the former? I'm asking because I'd like to come up with a test methodology that covers such pathological behaviour.

As I said earlier - "no such thing as a free lunch". This is a pared-to-the-bone box sold for absolute peanuts, and I think we should be grateful for something that will play our Red Book / 44.1 files so sweetly and so cheap.

Whatever the cause, the measurements don't lie - it makes a mess of 48 kHz and up, which I noticed pretty quickly when listening to 96/192 files, and is the reason I found this thread.
 

scaprile

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between the measurements at 11.050 kHz @44.1 kHz, and 14 kHz @48 kHz, two variables have changed: the frequency of the test signal, and the sample rate. What makes you say the horrible distortion is caused by the latter and not the former?

(hello everyone!)
I'd have to do my maths, and I'm getting older too, but those peaks look like digital artifacting caused by sample rate conversion or multiplier-accumulator saturation. If I had to bet, I would surely bet high on Mark's claims. Then, loosely bet on saturation somewhere, maybe unnoticed while generating the test but again it looks like the device is not able to handle this. I would not place my bet on 14 vs 11 because it is way below Nyquist, even when sampling at 44.1, and I would expect to see less peaks, both ar harmonic and aliased frequencies.
In my opinion, odds are this cheap device is designed to handle 44.1 and when driven at 48 it either does a lousy job by poor sample rate conversion or simply can't cope with it (but I guess this would probably generate more hearable effects)
It may not, it may just be 14 vs 11, but I won't bet on that.
 

RayDunzl

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Here's an unsmoothed sweep of the signstek digital output (USB -> Optical) sent to and decoded by a real DAC, at 44.1 and 48khz for your amusement.

1547189968291.png
 

scaprile

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What is that artifacting beyond 5K on the red channel ? I'm curious.
Can you get an impulse response or an idle channel noise measurement ?
 

RayDunzl

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What is that artifacting beyond 5K on the red channel ? I'm curious.
Can you get an impulse response or an idle channel noise measurement ?

I have old measures handy. Will update this post shortly.

No, not now. Maybe later...

 
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RayDunzl

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What is that artifacting beyond 5K on the red channel ? I'm curious.
Can you get an impulse response or an idle channel noise measurement ?

Signstek analog out -> PC soundcard

Detail of 19 to 20kHz sweep tone at 48khz. 44.1kHz sweep is "normal".

1547258320712.png


Impulse is normal, symmetrical.

Noise not measured, but I don't remember it being a concern.
 

RayDunzl

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What is that artifacting beyond 5K on the red channel ? I'm curious.
Can you get an impulse response or an idle channel noise measurement ?

Impulse on the Signstek looks normal, "at" the impulse with 48kHz:

1547278222509.png


Zoom out in time, there's something...

1547278633922.png


Zoom way in in amplitide and it's strange. Same on several different 48kHz impulses. Not present on 44.1khz impulses.

1547278465349.png


Clueless...
 

scaprile

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Interesting!
Trying to explain what can cause such a ringing on a frequency response measurement, not knowing how the "instrument" operates... I thought that one possibility is that there is something for real in the chain that is causing such big amplitude variations at adyacent frequencies. I don't think that is likely. Intermodulation perhaps ?
Other thing I thought of, was probably an extra sound/noise appearing when excited at those frequencies, not rejected by the measuring instrument filtering (if any), or always present at those freqs and just captured when sweeping there; or both...
Impulse measurements can't usually be done on a direct form. I don't know many methods and don't know what this program uses. The portion of waveform you mention looks like a chirp used for that purpose. It shouldn't be there anyway.
I guess either your device or your board are outputting this high-frequency interference and the software captures it and wrongly interprets it as what it shows. My 2 cents.
Since it is present at 48K and not 44.1... I would bet on the Signstek.
Since nothing strange shows up on noise measurents... perhaps that is because of sample rate conversion or so at 48K... just guessing out loud...
Thanks!
 
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RayDunzl

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The first two clean (44.1khz) and ugly (48khz) sweeps were performed within two minutes of each other, nothing changed except the REW settings.

The signstek is the only thing here that creates such interesting results on the analog output.

Its digital output doesn't create problems downstream, so, that being my intended use for it (USB->Optical Conversion), it didn't go into the trash.
 

bigx5murf

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I have a SMSL SD-192 pro gathering dust. It's very similar to the fiio's form factor, but with significantly better specs. I wonder how it compares.
 

ShannonPricePhoto

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I have some questions. I have this mini USB to go from USB to coax to feed my DSP.
Samsung tab S4 USB out to Mini USB-COAX out to arc audio DSP.

If I use app USB audio player pro I have to allow it to access the USB when it starts. If I dont it will say Android 44.1 / 192k.... If I do agree to it it will say usb DAC 48k /. 192k... Now I did see a pop up say something to the effect I need a better dac to get higher than 48k.

My DSP also says on display 48k no matter if anything is playing or not on coax input. (It's capable of way higher)

So here are my questions

1: mini USB, if I feed it 192k... what is coming out of it on coax? Sounds like this is only capable of 48k??
2: does it get a clean pass thru or is it open to what you show on these tests?
3: Android tidal or qobuz app... Anyone test what comes out of USB? I'm guessing I get the high res downloaded... But am I only getting 44.1 like if I don't agree to grant access to USB like UAPP app.
 

scaprile

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_In theory_, with a regular coax and regular distances, there should be no effect.
Cable length and impedance mismatch could lead to bit errors that could probably be heard as a degradation.
How that little beast will translate an USB packet to a lot of transitions in the coax, I don't know. Assuming there is a max frequency upto which it can perform its job, then there should be no DAC-like artifacts; it is a "parallel to serial" job, digital in (parallel), digital out (serial), and a line driver. Should work OK.
 

Purity86

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Hello,
I'm a newbie in the sound field, but I have a little question:
I just ordered the JDS Labs Atom Amplifier, and at the same time I ordered the Fiio D3, to connect the amp with my PC via RCA, and my motherboard has a nice audio spec. (ROG-STRIX-Z390-E) 32\192Khz, so ... MY QUESTION IS:
Can this DAC perform better than my motherboard sound card?
If not, Can you recommend any budget-friendly DAC?
Thanks in advance.

http://prntscr.com/nvte11 (mobo)
http://prntscr.com/nvten1
 
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