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

ZgSTar

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Does anyone know if a lightning to usbc cable can be used instead of the camera adapter on iPhone 11pro?
 

Jimbob54

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To me, this stick is magic. Is this a Dragonfly killer? Perhaps not as a portable phone DAC considering its power draw, but for desktop use it seems to crush DF. Why do I need a big desktop dac/amp for my medium power hungry phones when this magical thing exists? The latest generation is 3. What generation did Amir review? He gave it his strongest recommendation. The following generations mus be ever better, which makes me imagine this as a possible end game. Not!? Or what else is there for me in life?

I believe @amirm reviewed Gen 1.
 

Jimbob54

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My G3 is currently comfortably powering the 600ohm Beyer T1.2 (via Android and UAPP) with plenty of volume slider left to go.
 
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MalinYamato

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My G3 is currently comfortably powering the 600ohm Beyer T1.2 (via Android and UAPP) with plenty of volume slider left to go.
I have heard much good things about T1.2 and T5p.2 and may be something I may try to get in the future if I have the money for it. When do you prefer 9038S over other DAC/AMPS? I assume you have quite a few DAC/Amps around. It is nice to see bit-rate and sampling frequency being displayed on UAPP, but besides that are there any other advantages of playing Tidal Hifi through UAPP instead of Tidals Android app?
 

Jimbob54

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I have heard much good things about T1.2 and T5p.2 and may be something I may try to get in the future if I have the money for it. When do you prefer 9038S over other DAC/AMPS? I assume you have quite a few DAC/Amps around. It is nice to see bit-rate and sampling frequency being displayed on UAPP, but besides that are there any other advantages of playing Tidal Hifi through UAPP instead of Tidals Android app?

Quite a bit to cover there.

1. The t1 are nice headphones, but honestly not ones I think anyone HAS to try. Very hard to explain. Try the HD800 first.

2.i think the 9038 is fantastic for what it costs and does. I'm similarly impressed by the meizus etc. I'm not sure any are a replacement for full on desktop kit. 9038 can power bigger than meizu for sure.

3. My understanding is only uapp and maybe one or 2 others bypass androids resampling and volume limits. For the price, I prefer knowing I'm getting the DAC best direct.
 

highpurityusbcable

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Hello. I am sorry for such unproductive first post but there's a question that bothers me a bit because I want to support this brand. At least a couple of times I've read or heard that 9038s has a very "cold, clinical, analytical" sound and even a bass roll-off. The latter sounds like deep dark fantasies to me but I still want to confirm if there's any truth to that.
 

IVX

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highpurityusbcable, don't need to support any brands, let's forget that kind of socialism forever. I recommend joining our discord channel where we discussed all such things already and often more than twice.

PS: shortly, the DAC either Amp with less distortions in trebles(THDvsfrequency plot is flat) always sounds more bright vs muddy one, that may be interpreted as less bass, especially by untrained listeners. Actually, it is neutrality as is, muddy DAC/Amp sounds not neutral i.e. soft-muddy trebles which interpreted as more bass. If you wondered about the percentage ratio neutral vs muddy DACs on the market, I guess the muddy type is dominating due to it is cheaper and it always much more easy to make something inaccurate than vice-versa.
 
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highpurityusbcable

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@IVX, understood. I just want to upgrade my old trusty e10k and it already sounds a bit sharp sometimes. No, I'm not a basshead and neither are my favorite tunes, in fact, most of them are "bright" already. Still, thank you for the fast reply and an elaborate explanation. I will join discord only after buying to have my own user experience at least.
 

Chilli

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Hello. I am sorry for such unproductive first post but there's a question that bothers me a bit because I want to support this brand. At least a couple of times I've read or heard that 9038s has a very "cold, clinical, analytical" sound and even a bass roll-off. The latter sounds like deep dark fantasies to me but I still want to confirm if there's any truth to that.

hmm. I bought the 9038s (version 1) and would not describe it as cold, clinical etc, and I have it running with ncore amps and a transformer volume control between. 2 channel set up.
It is accurate, but perhaps when compared with other DACs they have or the equipment they pair it with, then people might think it is.
It has not been my experience, and I have plenty of DACs to compare it with.
There is no bass roll off. It’s awesome. Buy with confidence, as long as you know what you’re buying. Join the discord channel to ask about details and questions before you buy. The people will be nice.
 

MalinYamato

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highpurityusbcable, don't need to support any brands, let's forget that kind of socialism forever. I recommend joining our discord channel where we discussed all such things already and often more than twice.

PS: shortly, the DAC either Amp with less distortions in trebles(THDvsfrequency plot is flat) always sounds more bright vs muddy one, that may be interpreted as less bass, especially by untrained listeners. Actually, it is neutrality as is, muddy DAC/Amp sounds not neutral i.e. soft-muddy trebles which interpreted as more bass. If you wondered about the percentage ratio neutral vs muddy DACs on the market, I guess the muddy type is dominating due to it is cheaper and it always much more easy to make something inaccurate than vice-versa.
If the objective of those so called muddy makers is to make cheap DACS, why dont
they adopt the technology found in 9038S? I hope that someone here or there, perhaps an EE, may reveal the sonic secrets of this little stick, which costs less than DF black but according to measurements competes well with DF cobalt.
 
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MalinYamato

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I am merely a confused consumer. Is less more? Why do I need a big desktop amp/dac when this exists? I do understand Amirs measurements, which do make the stick look very good, but I dont get WHY I better get a big box or boxes called stack instead, unless I need more than 340mw@32. My Oppo outputs 220mw@32 and my Sundara and AH-D7200 sing according to my liking. I am fine, but if there is something that is much better, I would be happy to know. Should be nice to have MQA in this one, not that I know whether MQA improves the sound, but I dont mind spending 10 dollars more having it there as in case it does improve the sound a little.
 
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Jimbob54

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I am merely a confused consumer. Is less more? Why do I need a big desktop amp/dac when this exists? I do understand Amirs measurements, which do make the stick look very good, but I dont get WHY I better get a big box or boxes called stack instead, unless I need more than 340mw@32. My Oppo outputs 220mw@32 and my Sundara and AH-D7200 sing according to my liking. I am fine, but if there is something that is much better, I would be happy to know. Should be nice to have MQA in this one, not that I know whether MQA improves the sound, but I dont mind spending 10 dollars more having it there as in case it does improve the sound a little.

I think thats the point when you stop wondering if there is a "better" then, at least with those cans. They sing to your liking, stop. There is a always a box/ gadget/ tech that will be "better" in both the objective and subjective senses than anything you, I or anyone else has. My cut off is probably around where I'm at now. Youll be a $$$$ better off than me if you stop now. My trouble is I enjoy the buying and trying too much.

I mean, I'd love to hear my selection of cans on a Mola Mola and and Benchmark HP4 but it would be pointless, I'm sure I'd perceive it "better" than what I'm currently listening to (HD800 through a SMSL M500 and Geshelli Erish) but I've read enough on here to know the bulk of that "better" is due to the fact I know I'm listening to thousands of dollars , not hundreds. And I will never afford it. So I'm happy (but restless) .
 
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VonGoethe

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In my opinion, cobalt is completely another class of products. Plastic vs anodize aluminum(however, cobalt noticeable bigger so the weight could be comparable), 20 times difference in power, 100 times difference in distortions, 4 times lower PCM Fs(96 vs 384kHz), $300 vs $85. After all these differences the idle current consumption 70 vs 88mA doesn't look impressive, isn't it?
For everyone who itching to buy DF cobalt I honestly recommend taking a look at Meizu HiFi DAC. 5 times smaller aluminum case, 2-3 times less idle current consumption, the same or higher output power, 10-20 times fewer distortions, 3 times less noise = higher dynamic range, 32/384 +DSD, $19 vs $300 price.
Hi @IVX ,
I own 9038s gen2 - love it, just ordered gen3, but as I have rediscovered the beauty of my TDK IE800 unbalanced IEM, I am looking for an unbalanced solution.
9038D is still not available, so do you think MEIZU PRO is soundwise on same level as the non pro version, that you recommend here?
 

ZeDestructor

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If the objective of those so called muddy makers is to make cheap DACS, why dont
they adopt the technology found in 9038S? I hope that someone here or there, perhaps an EE, may reveal the sonic secrets of this little stick, which costs less than DF black but according to measurements competes well with DF cobalt.

There's nothing particularly special or unique about this, just good, careful, data-backed engineering.

I am merely a confused consumer. Is less more? Why do I need a big desktop amp/dac when this exists? I do understand Amirs measurements, which do make the stick look very good, but I dont get WHY I better get a big box or boxes called stack instead, unless I need more than 340mw@32. My Oppo outputs 220mw@32 and my Sundara and AH-D7200 sing according to my liking. I am fine, but if there is something that is much better, I would be happy to know.

For the *vast* majority of headphones, you don't in fact need anything more than this tiny DAC+amp combo.

We have stacks with seperate DAC and amp for a variety of reasons, though - some of us want to have one DAC power both headphones and speakers, others have really inefficient headphones, so we want a monstrously powerful amp like a THX 789, others just want the best performer, and others still have non-core features like integrated music streaming (e.g Matrix Element) or DSP (RME ADI-2 line) or any combination of the above. Oh, and a knob to control volume is nice too.

Should be nice to have MQA in this one, not that I know whether MQA improves the sound, but I dont mind spending 10 dollars more having it there as in case it does improve the sound a little.

From a technical perspective, MQA brings nothing over a 16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC as far as audio storage, transfer and reproduction goes. In fact, it actually makes things a bit worse because it's packing data into the high-frequency region of the audio and then extracting that, which is inherently a lossy.

From a practical side, however, MQA claims to have better masters than non-MQA releases. I have no idea how true that is however, and personally have no interest in getting into the MQA nonsense.
 

IVX

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There's nothing particularly special or unique about this, just good, careful, data-backed engineering.
100.0% agree, normal engineering. Nothing special, just I made it as for myself, that's it. In most cases poor design could be explained not only ignorant "engineers" were involved but "economy" if not say greediness. I remember I was shocked when I saw the DAC+HPA with 100 pounds retail with nickel-plated 3,5mm jack! The difference vs gold-plated is a couple of cents, and in case 100mlns pcs/year it is worth to go but this is the same useless DAC like cobalt and other junk(my $300 snapdragon855 based android has comparable power, and a lot better THD+N, SNR!), no way to sell more than 10000/year. So what is that, $100/year is economy? Some buddy asked me:
- why you care about the gold-plated PCB in your DACs if nobody can see that?
Ha-ha, I can see that, and it is enough ;)

PS: about MQA, it is lossy compressed format like mp3, aac, aptx and so on, I don't understand how marketing-guys did explain that it so nice and even "improves" original uncompressed tracks. I tend to think about that like about the mp3 rebranding, if finally, users pay for that, marketing won.
 

Jimbob54

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Can you pls tell how you have connected? Is this correct?

HP balanced 2.5 mm jack --> HP slot-- 9038s--USB slot --> C-to-C cable --> DAP/laptop/phone.

Have you had to use the other (Y-split) cable?
Correct- well, Im adapting 4.4mm on the HP cable to 2.5mm via an adaptor but that has no bearing. Dont need a Y split for power on the G3 from either my Pixel 3 or my old Oneplus 3T
 
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MalinYamato

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Thanks, Mr. Ivan. BTW, your company's next priority is 9038D and then the 9038ap DAC, right?
9038ap ? Is this a new product and where can I find info about it?
 
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