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

solderdude

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There are plenty of (portable) efficient headphones around that can be driven from dongle type DAC's and phones.
The E1DA will make those play 6 dB louder which is significant.

I would not drive a HD650 from a phone or dongle but plenty of people do and like it, they probably don't play loud.
The E1DA will play the same headphone about 6dB louder as well so certainly with higher impedance headphones this makes sense.

So there are portable phones that can serve both situations (home and dongle only)
The E1DA is simply better at this because of the balanced option.
In this case (where little voltage is present) balanced makes a lot of sense.
 

IVX

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Xulonn, I swear it was easy and I can prove that I worked on that project ok if 1 month, perhaps less. I googled for compact USB DAC HPA topics and found some junk like dragonfly and soundkey. All for tiny power comparable with 3.5mm jack of my Android and significantly worse for THD, S/N(my old 2016 $300 Nubia z11 has AKM DAC onboard and I measured THD .0015% and S/N -118dbA about 20mW@32ohm). What a hell is this? And I found ES9038Q2M.pdf, ESS didn't reply to me at all, so it was google again. I made some mistake in the initialization sequence and DAC kept silence. The reason was in an unusual manner ESS to change 10 times per page DEC/BIN and HEX data formats, I get used if hex on the first page, hex on the last for sure. So I started to search for the I2C dump, and found this forum/thread https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/ess-thd-‘hump’-investigation.5752/page-10
It was march 3 and my very first sample didn't work. Next 2 days I fixed that and showed about .00015% result on -10db https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/ess-thd-‘hump’-investigation.5752/page-11
So, I insist, it was a trivial engineering task, and here is no coquetry. If it would be difficult how people could step on the moon 50 years ago??
PS: “You shall not make for yourself an idol
 

BDWoody

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Xulonn, I swear it was easy and I can prove that I worked on that project ok if 1 month, perhaps less. I googled for compact USB DAC HPA topics and found some junk like dragonfly and soundkey. All for tiny power comparable with 3.5mm jack of my Android and significantly worse for THD, S/N(my old 2016 $300 Nubia z11 has AKM DAC onboard and I measured THD .0015% and S/N -118dbA about 20mW@32ohm). What a hell is this? And I found ES9038Q2M.pdf, ESS didn't reply to me at all, so it was google again. I made some mistake in the initialization sequence and DAC kept silence. The reason was in an unusual manner ESS to change 10 times per page DEC/BIN and HEX data formats, I get used if hex on the first page, hex on the last for sure. So I started to search for the I2C dump, and found this forum/thread https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/ess-thd-‘hump’-investigation.5752/page-10
It was march 3 and my very first sample didn't work. Next 2 days I fixed that and showed about .00015% result on -10db https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/ess-thd-‘hump’-investigation.5752/page-11
So, I insist, it was a trivial engineering task, and here is no coquetry. If it would be difficult how people could step on the moon 50 years ago??
PS: “You shall not make for yourself an idol

I truly hope you gain traction and can continue to develop more products. The appeal of your no nonsense, few (measured) compromises approach is exactly what many of us are looking for.

Your humility is incredibly refreshing.
 

Xulonn

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So, I insist, it was a trivial engineering task, and here is no coquetry.

When I eat my Russian borscht for lunch - made by fellow expatriates here in Panama who are ethnic Russians from the Ukraine, I will think of the sharing of knowledge and ideas by participants from many countries that we are experiencing here at ASR.

Thank you for your humble attitude, old-fashioned and sound engineering work, and for joining us in a simple and honest conversation.

As others have said, this forum is turning out to be the best internet forum ever for audio for people who appreciate good science and engineering. I have been participating at internet forums on and off for over 20 years, and was even one of the original founding group at AudioAsylum.com where I helped to manage their first internet server in San Francisco, and moderated three vacuum tube forums for a couple of years. But I eventually left because of the domination of subjectivist audiofoolery at that site.
 

graz_lag

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This product and its fit into the matrix of the headphone listener universe is interesting to me, even though I am strictly a loudspeaker guy, and I do not use headphones. I admire truly excellent engineering and design, plus the story of an obscure Russian engineer working on his own in China - and outperforming all of the bigger audio electronics companies is fascinating.

I am beginning to see where the confusion comes in when manufacturers of the best audiophile desktop headphone DAC/Amps say things like this (Info is from the Benchmark website, but I did not read the referenced technical paper.):



But the above is about pro-level expensive desktop gear, and when USB stick-size units are the topic, there are additional limiting parameters. (I am assuming that the E1DA would be most used by laptop owners when not at home or work with their desktop audio systems, which might include components like bigger, more expensive desktop DAC/HAmp.)

Trying to extract maximum performance from a tiny flash-drive size USB DAC/Amp using only the USB low-current 5v power supply would seem to present another difficult set of challenges - and it appears that lacking the HUGE advantage of mains power, IVX has done a tremendous job of working within the limits of the USB stick form factor and power availability.

Now here is a question for you headphone experts - should a budget-minded headphone seriously consider at least two sets of headphones including a single-ended type for home/office desktop use, and a balanced set to maximize performance when out and about using a laptop and a USN stick DAC/Amp?

For the fact that changing headphones is much more simple than changing speakers, many people I know have the tendency to do that frequently.
Although not to the extend of changing headphone every 3 months or owning a half dozen of sets, I can say that for myself too.
I try to keep a base of two headphones, with a 3rd unit that comes and goes much more frequently.
I have never owned a balanced unit, so I personally see this E1DA 9038S as the great opportunity to try the balanced setup for a reasonable amount of money invested.

With RE: the Benchmark technical paper. I see @solderdude is online, maybe he can comment it a bit ...
 

solderdude

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Where can I find that paper ?

When balanced makes sense:

You need more voltage swing and only a limited voltage supply is available.
When the headphone in question has a crappy single ended cable with a relatively high resistance of a (common for L and R) return wire in relation to the impedance of the headphone.

Otherwise I see little advantages.
For line level interlinks I see advantages w.r.t. ground loop issues and long audio lines on stages.

When using balanced topologies present higher 2nd harmonic distortion is converted to 3rd harmonic distortion.
Noise levels in the recording are not lowered. Only background noise levels of output and input stages can become 3dB relatively lower to the signal but noise in music is almost always recorded noise so no practical advantages for line level audio.
There is for mic inputs of course.
 

solderdude

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When one has enough output voltage and current available there is no need for balanced operation.
The only aspect that may be an issue is the resistance of a common return wire with single ended headphones.
Benchmark solved this by having the 4 pin plug which means the return currents are not combined anymore and go separate all the way to the groundplane of the amp.
Simplest and most elegant solution for the common return-wire issue.

They make sense ... when there is enough voltage available (11.5Vrms) which in their case is so.

Balanced certainly makes a lot of sense in the E1DA because of the limited available voltage (small form factor)
 
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amirm

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Amir, I did not see a linearity test - did I miss something?
I forgot to post it. Just added it to the review:

index.php
 

Xulonn

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When one has enough output voltage and current available there is no need for balanced operation.
The only aspect that may be an issue is the resistance of a common return wire with single ended headphones.
Benchmark solved this by having the 4 pin plug which means the return currents are not combined any more and go separate all the way to the groundplane of the amp. Simplest and most elegant solution.

They make sense ... when there is enough voltage available which in their case is so.

Balanced certainly makes a lot of sense in the E1DA because of the limited available voltage (small form factor)

Thanks Solderdude. I was looking for a clear and simple statement that we can refer to as time goes on, and new arrivals at ASR ask the same questions over and over.

This conversation is making me interested in purchasing E1DA and balanced over-ear headphones in the $100-150 range (with pretty wooden backs, if possible), for listening to my laptop at outdoor locations here in the cool, tropical highlands, or occasionally with the Topping DX7s (balanced inputs and outputs) already in my main system.

However, using Google and Amazon to try to find "balanced" over-ear headphones and digital audio players (DAPs) is one of the most frustrating searches I have ever done and I finally gave up. Amazon, other online resellers, and even reviews at places like HeadFi do not clearly note if DAPs and headphones are balanced or single-ended. Motivated by this thread about the E1DA, I will start a separate thread on finding balanced DAPS and Headphones.
 

PuX

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will there be a version with regular 3.5 jack? or RCA?

also, what is the reasoning behind having a less common connector and 3.3V instead of more common 2V?

// the website has a page for HiFiTOY, a speaker amp - is it already in production or in development?
 
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amirm

amirm

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also, what is the reasoning behind having a less common connector and 3.3V instead of more common 2V?
This is balanced output so common value would be 4 volt, not 2. But even that doesn't quite apply as this is a headphone output, not line level so the devices output all that they can. In this case, it is 3.3 volt. In other cases it is well under 2 volt.
 

PuX

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This is balanced output so common value would be 4 volt, not 2. But even that doesn't quite apply as this is a headphone output, not line level so the devices output all that they can. In this case, it is 3.3 volt. In other cases it is well under 2 volt.
the confusing part is the 2.5mm balanced output. I can't think of a single headphone that uses this jack without aftermarket cables.
 

muths66

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the confusing part is the 2.5mm balanced output. I can't think of a single headphone that uses this jack without aftermarket cables.
Ya mostly is aftermarket. Like my takstar pro 82.
 
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amirm

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the confusing part is the 2.5mm balanced output. I can't think of a single headphone that uses this jack without aftermarket cables.
True. I had to make my own cable to test it.
 

muths66

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But many iem's.
i have a kz zs10 easily find 2.5trrs. Only headphone harder to find for me. i only have takstar pro 82, verum one and kz zs10 all able get 2.5trrs.only takstar need ppl to rewire the balanced cable i bought.
 

muths66

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Still unclear to me if this works with just a mobile phone. Or does it need extra y-cable USB?
i bought powerdacv2 another model of ivx. For cable i would say have to see your mobile brand and model.May or may not need splitter cable a not.But confirm will work either one.
 

Hemi-Demon

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Still unclear to me if this works with just a mobile phone. Or does it need extra y-cable USB?

What is a y-cable USB?

So can I assume a standard USB type c ( phone end) to type c (e1da) cable, is all that is needed for smartphone otg playback.

I know this is a data driven forum, but any subjective reviews on how the device "sounds".

Last one...is the 2nd mode (performance) the setting that eliminated the ess hump? Thanks.
 
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