Review and Measurements of E1DA 9038S BAL Portable DAC & Amp

[Veri]

I understand that the E1DA DACs are primarily for headphone use. Does E1DA produce a DAC that can be connected to a Surround Processor/Preamplifier?

So far, no. Perhaps in the future there will be such a thing from E1DA. For now maybe look into SONCOZ.

 

[avant-guvnor]

So far, no. Perhaps in the future there will be such a thing from E1DA. For now maybe look into SONCOZ.

Thanks, but I'm looking for something to replace my Audioquest Dragonfly Red, which is currently connected to my HTPC (running foobar2000) and my Surround Processor/Preamplifier. The E1DA DACs appear to be similar, but I'm unsure about the output levels and compatibility with preamps.

 

[NTK]

Thanks, but I'm looking for something to replace my Audioquest Dragonfly Red, which is currently connected to my HTPC (running foobar2000) and my Surround Processor/Preamplifier. The E1DA DACs appear to be similar, but I'm unsure about the output levels and compatibility with preamps.

E1DA powerDAC and 9038S have balanced outputs and can only work with devices with balanced inputs. If you connect the outputs of the E1DA devices to your preamp/processor RCA (single ended) inputs, you'll destroy the E1DA devices.

If your preamp/processor have balanced (XLR) inputs, they will work fine.

 

[avant-guvnor]

E1DA powerDAC and 9038S have balanced outputs and can only work with devices with balanced inputs. If you connect the outputs of the E1DA devices to your preamp/processor RCA (single ended) inputs, you'll destroy the E1DA devices.

Ouch!!

If your preamp/processor have balanced (XLR) inputs, they will work fine.

Thanks for the info. Sadly, my ROTEL surround processor/preamplifier audio inputs are RCA (unbalanced).

I've dug deeper into this thread and the E1DA website and see that the #9038D has a 3.5mm jack unbalanced output. Does this suggest then, that with my current cable (3.5mm to RCA), I can simply replace my Dragonfly Red with the E1DA #9038D?

 

[NTK]

I've dug deeper into this thread and the E1DA website and see that the #9038D has a 3.5mm jack unbalanced output. Does this suggest then, that with my current cable (3.5mm to RCA), I can simply replace my Dragonfly Red with the E1DA #9038D?

Yes. The E1DA 9038D will work just like your Dragonfly Red. However, the 9038D is not yet available. If you can't wait, the MEIZU Hifi Pro reviewed here should work too (although the measurements were not as good as the E1DA 9038S but should be audibly transparent).

 

[Veri]

Ouch!!


Thanks for the info. Sadly, my ROTEL surround processor/preamplifier audio inputs are RCA (unbalanced).

I've dug deeper into this thread and the E1DA website and see that the #9038D has a 3.5mm jack unbalanced output. Does this suggest then, that with my current cable (3.5mm to RCA), I can simply replace my Dragonfly Red with the E1DA #9038D?

Yep just gotta wait for 9038D release many of us are.

 

[mshenay]

Ehh loses volume control in Bit Perfect UAPP mode. Oh well :/ but honestly I only need a little adapter like this for movies so shouldnt have any issues

 

[paradoxical3]

If the 9038D doesn't require an external battery pack to work with a Pixel 4 XL, I am in.

 

[Deleted member 3566]

Do they not offer a variant with a 3.5mm output? Pretty sad to see such a terrific performance without that capability. Would have made for a lovely DAC/Amp setup for the desktop PC, but the need for balanced out kind of ruins it...

 

[mkawa]

If the 9038D doesn't require an external battery pack to work with a Pixel 4 XL, I am in.

The 9038s works when plugged in directly, so i expect the 9038d will be fine

 

[bluehorseshoe]

Anyone got this working on a Pi / Linux distro yet? Trying to cobble together a little box for some Meze cans...

closest I got was raspotify on raspian, but the system volume control didn’t work and was blasting away... Max2Play didn’t recognize it at all, so now I’m onto Ubuntu

 

[IVX]

bluehorseshoe
as I see, right now our discord guys discuss that topic https://discord.gg/vdXUZ4

 

[Nicosea]

Anyone got this working on a Pi / Linux district yet? Trying to cobble together a little box for some Meze cans...

closest I got was raspotify on raspian, but the system volume control didn’t work and was blasting away... Max2Play didn’t recognize it at all, so now I’m onto Ubuntu

Tested with Lubuntu and it works, so I guess it will work with any Ubuntu based distros.

Tested with Volumio on a Raspberry PI and it works very well: you need to select the DAC in the settings and also chose software volume control.
With Volumio you can listen to your own music from a usb pen or from a NAS. Volumio has also plugins for Spotify, Spotify connect, Tidal and Qobuz (for Tidal and Qobuz you need to pay a subscription to My Volumio Virtuoso to enable them:
https://volumio.org/my-volumio-overview/)
Volumio works also as Airplay receiver and UPnP player.
Last but not least Volumio has plugins to make it a Logitech Media Server (LMS) and also a Squeezelight player.
With LMS you get even more options and the possibility to use Tidal (with many efforts) and Qobuz without the need to pay My Volumio Virtuoso ( but of course you need the subscriptions to the streaming services).
On www.volumio.org there are plenty of info

 

[bluehorseshoe]

Tested with Lubuntu and it works, so I guess it will work with any Ubuntu based distros.

Tested with Volumio on a Raspberry PI and it works very well: you need to select the DAC in the settings and also chose software volume control.
With Volumio you can listen to your own music from a usb pen or from a NAS. Volumio has also plugins for Spotify, Spotify connect, Tidal and Qobuz (for Tidal and Qobuz you need to pay a subscription to My Volumio Virtuoso to enable them:
https://volumio.org/my-volumio-overview/)
Volumio works also as Airplay receiver and UPnP player.
Last but not least Volumio has plugins to make it a Logitech Media Server (LMS) and also a Squeezelight player.
With LMS you get even more options and the possibility to use Tidal (with many efforts) and Qobuz without the need to pay My Volumio Virtuoso ( but of course you need the subscriptions to the streaming services).
On www.volumio.org there are plenty of info

Dude - this was perfect. Thanks! Running Volumio and it's exactly what I needed.

 

[IVX]

Nicosea, could you please post the same in our discord? I gonna pin it up that. Discord channel and users help me a lot!

 

[Nicosea]

Nicosea, could you please post the same in our discord? I gonna pin it up that. Discord channel and users help me a lot!

Done

 

[Nango]

What's the diff again pls between 9038.S v1 and v2?

 

[YSC]

This is interesting stuff for really working trip entertainment with laptop!
Finger crossed the parts matching won’t be crapped on the actual product as most chinese stuffs do, actual product way worse than review or development samples

 

[maxxevv]

This is interesting stuff for really working trip entertainment with laptop!
Finger crossed the parts matching won’t be crapped on the actual product as most chinese stuffs do, actual product way worse than review or development samples

You should be fine ...
A few thousand have been sold since its introduction. Overwhelmingly positive from what I have seen to date. ( non- English channels may not be on my radar though).

 

[IVX]

Nango
G@ got the softstart and it can run with any android without USB Y-splitter(but anyway it can overload the USB 5V rail due to max power is huge), also I added there one more mode aka IEM, with -15db power limit.