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

[beanxinh]

Powerdac and E1DA can both drive full size headphones perfectly fine though, no amp required. Just need a balanced headphone!

The Magni can't interface with powerdac/9038s since they are balanced and Heresy has no balanced inputs..

OK I will order the 9038s then. I like the ability to native playback DSD (not like I can discern the sound quality anyway).

 

[ZolaIII]

Powerdac and E1DA can both drive full size headphones perfectly fine though, no amp required. Just need a balanced headphone!

The Magni can't interface with powerdac/9038s since they are balanced and Heresy has no balanced inputs..

Which this ain't!

 

[ZolaIII]

I want something portable that I can bring with me. I already have the Aune X7S as my desk amp.

Now I don't understand you. You won't desktop or portable dac & with an amp that can drive those or not? As much as I know DT880 are unbalanced cabled and won't work with 3038s which clearly says balanced only & no adapter's. Lastly how much money you are willing to spend?

 

[beanxinh]

Now I don't understand you. You won't desktop or portable dac & with an amp that can drive those or not? As much as I know DT880 are unbalanced cabled and won't work with 3038s which clearly says balanced only & no adapter's. Lastly how much money you are willing to spend?

I have to travel frequently and looking for something that can plug to my laptop, DAC/Amp is preferably, and play my DT880. I used to have Sony PHA2 but it just died on me so I looking for some replacement. If I buy this I can ask my friend to recable the DT880 to Balanced cable so that is not a issue. My budget is around 200$.

 

[Veri]

@beanxinh with recable it will work perfectly with lots of power to spare

 

[ZolaIII]

I have to travel frequently and looking for something that can plug to my laptop, DAC/Amp is preferably, and play my DT880. I used to have Sony PHA2 but it just died on me so I looking for some replacement. If I buy this I can ask my friend to recable the DT880 to Balanced cable so that is not a issue. My budget is around 200$.

Then try with Creative Sound blasterX G6 which should give you around 42 mV at 600 Ohm's and supports DSD128 (DoP) in Direct mode. Costs 146$ on Amazon but it will be a hot potato pushing that much power.
Edit: suprise, suprise... DAC used is actually CS43131.

 

[Remin]

Hello! Please help me. I want to buy hd6xx and sometime later argons mk3. I was looking for dac/amp combo that can fit them both and settled on dx3pro but later I found PowerDAC v2 and I can't understand which one should I buy for my needs. Could someone explain me is there an actual difference between them if I just want to use this headphones.

 

[Veri]

Hello! Please help me. I want to buy hd6xx and sometime later argons mk3. I was looking for dac/amp combo that can fit them both and settled on dx3pro but later I found PowerDAC v2 and I can't understand which one should I buy for my needs. Could someone explain me is there an actual difference between them if I just want to use this headphones.

PowerDAC is balanced 2.5mm only, but has EQ capability via its app, which is quite handy.
DX3 is USB dac/amp without EQ but also has bluetooth and other inputs.

 

[Remin]

PowerDAC is balanced 2.5mm only, but has EQ capability via its app, which is quite handy.
DX3 is USB dac/amp without EQ but als has bluetooth and other inputs.

But will I hear any difference in sound between this two or it's mostly unnoticeable? And can PowerDAC power an Argon Mk3?

 

[Jimbob54]

But will I hear any difference in sound between this two or it's mostly unnoticeable? And can PowerDAC power an Argon Mk3?

For the price of the PowerDac why not buy it and see how you get on. Look to spend more if you think you need it. The PD powers my Fostex T60 which I believe are the same drivers as the Argon, although I dont need to reduce the volume of the PD much if at all whereas I definitely do with other 'phones.

But you'll need to buy balanced cables for any 'phones if you get the PD- the DX3 obviously being single ended.

 

[ZolaIII]

@Remin get a proper amplifier for both of them and DAC separately. You can get both for some 200~250$.
AMP recommended goes for Schiit Heresy for which you can find url cupple posts up. It will be satisfactory for both of those headphones. By the way T60 is monster with mah intake of 3W @ 50 Ohm's. Now please explain us what is the difference between Argons and Fostex it's obvious driver is the same Foster one.
Edit:
I would go for Fostex TH-500RP (3W @ 48 Ohm's, 1 dB more LPS & open back) if you can find ones for the price of T60RP instead but that's me.

 

[IVX]

While Covid19 paralyze the industry, I have some news regarding 9038SG3.
1) The new USB audio bridge PCM 32/384 DSD256, including native DSD256 with Android(in the most cases you have only DSD DoP128 under Android but now you have native DSD256)

2) Solved LTE buzzing noise issue and USB bad connection related to "loud white noise"(cmedia USB bridge design defect). However, Zoutput now higher(0.1ohm)

3) Added HW-volume 127 steps, works with PCM and DSD on Windows/Mac/iOS/Android/Linux

4) Standby mode to reduce battery discharge if DAC is idle
5) Expanded frequency response, at 384KHz 5..160000Hz +0.1/-3db or 9..108000Hz +0.1/-0.5db or 20..80000 +/-0.1db also slightly improved S/N and THD under load due to 4 layers PCB
6) I plan to offer the 9038 tweaker App for Android to let you if you really geek, control many internal registers of ES9038Q2M. 2nd and 3rd harmonics compensation value, 7 types of Nyquist's filters(probably custom FIR as well but I have doubt if somebody need), a few MCKL frequencies to optimize THD in high order harmonics, PLL bandwidth etc. Some parameters could be dynamically changed depends on Fs or HW-volume(3 zones may use independent THD compensation settings). The max volume setting(probably, independent for each channel) to maximize linear volume control response even if you using high sensitive IEM. The built-in app Preset Manager allows save/load all tweaked parameters(however, 9038SG3 can't memorize that, so need to use App to tweak the DAC). I still thinking about that App feature list, any ideas are welcome.

 

[IVX]

Some measurements:

 

[Earfonia]

Simply awesome! Can't wait to get my hand on the 9038SG3

 

[IVX]

my pics had specific names which you can't see before open that in a new window.
1) it is 0dbfs no load FFT plot
2) -3dbfs 32ohm load (160mW)
3) -6dbfs 32ohm load (80mW)
4) -10dbfs 32ohm load (33mW)
5) Fs = 384kHz, frequency response
And one more plot, -20dbfs 32ohm load (3mW):

 

[Tks]

Hey @IVX

The plots look great. I am wondering though, will the current balanced version see these sorts of upgrades in a future hardware revision as well, or is the original E1DA 9038S going to remain the same?

 

[IVX]

I've posted news about 9038S Generation 3. G2 is out of stock.

 

[Tks]

I've posted news about 9038S Generation 3. G2 is out of stock.

OMG I was completely lost. I thought this was talking about the unbalanced version LOL >_< Sorry about that, I understand now!

This is great news. By the way, is this revision going to be available soon, or is this going to have to wait until Corona stops it's rampage?

 

[IVX]

ASAP but depends on covid19.

 

[Crane]

Nice to see much updates to this great device, great work! I have the G1 of this i believe and since i mostly use it with my android phone and IEM (definitely just limit the volume) was wondering will version work with all android phones without the damn splitter, currently i'm just using micro usb with adapter for usb-c to usb-c (gonna assume the IEM mode is also being updated).