Review and Measurements of Essence HDACC II-4K HDMI DAC

[Nick Laslett]

I’m looking forward to the Essence EVOLVE II-4K review. The ESS9008 DAC looks good from the spec sheet.

http://www.esstech.com/files/1414/4095/4309/es9008_dac_comparison_SPDIF_96000_compA_compb.pdf

I’m using a MiniDSP NanoAVR for Bass management and a second one for Dirac Live. A good 7.1 HDMI DAC would allow me to feed a power amp and ditch my AVR. Surely this device can manage to equal this year‘s Denons with 97-100 SINAD at 2 volts.

 

[Vasr]

The Denon model does come with a lot of extra features but it also has much higher distortion than the HDACC II-4K. The Denon is rated at .08% THD while the HDACC II-4K is rated at .00001% THD, the best in the industry, outperformed by none. The Denon signal to noise ratio is -98 dB while the HDACC II-4K is rated at -141 dB. These two specs alone tell you one thing; the HDACC II-4K is many orders of magnitude better sounding the the Denon.
...
With its superior specs, the HDACC II-4K will sound much better but it does lack all the whistles and bells of the Denon. Good luck.

Bob, I asked you to clarify this and you didn't respond.

You are comparing the measurements for your unit for a digital pass through (from HDMI to coax) not even to an analog conversion with the specs for Denon's power amp. Isn't this very misleading?

I’m looking forward to the Essence EVOLVE II-4K review. The ESS9008 DAC looks good from the spec sheet.

Where did you see what DAC chip was used in the Essence Evolve II-4K? I am not sure which forum I read it but it was supposedly some TI chip not ESS as written up in one of the reviews. Not sure of that information either way. Bob should be able to confirm.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Where did you see what DAC chip was used in the Essence Evolve II-4K? I am not sure which forum I read it but it was supposedly some TI chip not ESS as written up in one of the reviews. Not sure of that information either way. Bob should be able to confirm.

I asked when I reviewed it and was told that it was a SABRE9006A but that comment was later rescinded. I later looked into my review sample and found 4 BB stereo DACs. Current production may be different.

​

 

[Nick Laslett]

I found the DAC info in this review from March 2020 by John Gatski.

http://everythingaudionetwork.blogspot.com/2020/03/audiophilevideophile-review-essence-for.html

He has whole paragraph on the DAC. My only cause for concern is why they don’t make this more prominent in the spec sheet, if it has an ESS dac.

 

[Vasr]

I found the DAC info in this review from March 2020 by John Gatski.

http://everythingaudionetwork.blogspot.com/2020/03/audiophilevideophile-review-essence-for.html

He has whole paragraph on the DAC. My only cause for concern is why they don’t make this more prominent in the spec sheet, if it has an ESS dac.

That is incorrect I believe. See Kal's note above. I think the reviewers were incorrectly told initially that it had a ESS chip and that blog ran with it. Someone had posted in one of the forums after opening the box and finding no ESS chip. Which is why I asked.

Also the blog review as well as this unit's page claims to extract and send digital stereo from HDMI over optical up to 192k. But it is also HDCP compliant which limits any extracted digital audio out from HDMI to 48k max sampling rate. So, I am not sure what the real situation is.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Also the blog review as well as this unit's page claims to extract and send digital stereo from HDMI over optical up to 192k. But it is also HDCP compliant which limits any extracted digital audio out from HDMI to 48k max sampling rate. So, I am not sure what the real situation is.

That will depend on the source. From my review: "Even more amazing is that Qobuz, Roon, and JRiver all recognized its presence as Extractor, capable of exclusive mode (WASAPI) audio in multichannel at up to 24/192! "

 

[Vasr]

That will depend on the source. From my review: "Even more amazing is that Qobuz, Roon, and JRiver all recognized its presence as Extractor, capable of exclusive mode (WASAPI) audio in multichannel at up to 24/192! "

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was talking about its specs for the 2-ch digital out of the optical port after extracting it from the HDMI. This is where the HDCP restrictions come into play. It can receive whatever sample rate it can handle via HDMI and convert to analog out. But if it is sending out all or part of that audio as a digital output (as done here via the optical port using S/PDIF), it must be "degraded" to 48k max. So saying up to 192k for the optical port makes no sense to me as it does not receive audio by any means other than HDMI with HDCP. The review in that blog (not your review) makes a big deal out of sending the L and R out high-sample-rate-bit-perfect via its optical to an external DAC. Not sure how this is possible if it is HDCP and HDMI-licensing compliant.

Unless I am missing something...

Nothing magical about what happens upstream. Like any of these units, it provides an EDID with all of its bit-depth and sampling rate capabilities to upstream source. AVRs for example provide this along with the codecs they support, etc. On a PC, Windows low-level device driver parses this EDID during the connect handshake and configures that port with the attributes of that downstream device. Extractor is just a label provided in the EDID to identify itself. All applications that query the Windows Devices for output devices, get this information for the port to use. The applications aren't aware of what this is - just an audio port with a label and its capabilities as provided by Windows device manager.

Looks like magic though when it works seamless that way as intended and I am glad it does. So many units get this EDID handshake wrong.

 

[Dnmtsn]

Is this the same device under a different brand?
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-...-hdmi-spdif-usb-rca-32bit-384khz-p-13191.html

 

[Vasr]

Is this the same device under a different brand?
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-...-hdmi-spdif-usb-rca-32bit-384khz-p-13191.html

The Taiwanese company Cypress Technologies is the OEM/ODM for these units (also the Evolve 4K HDMI extractor sold under Essence branding http://en.cypress.com.tw/store/cata...PCM-7.1-with-EDID-Management-&-RS-232-Control ).

Essence likely has exclusivity to sell in the US.

 

[bobrapoport]

Is this the same device under a different brand?
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-...-hdmi-spdif-usb-rca-32bit-384khz-p-13191.html

The CYP version is not sold in the USA, Essence has the exclusive rights to selling these devices here. Note; the CYP model is targeted to the Pro AV market, not the audiophile channel. There are variations in the parts selection that make the Essence version sound better than the house version and those improvements are confirmed in reviews of the two versions. There are no rave reviews for the CYP version sold in Europe, nor over 25 customer testimonials as found on the Essence HDACC II-4K and Evolve II-4K product pages on the Essence site. I ship the Essence version worldwide so you do have some choice in the matter. Essence is the #1 seller of these devices in the world, its our specialty. Thanks.

 

[formdissolve]

If the signal over HDMI has no DRM or HDCP, you can play the audio at 192 (although 192 over optical can be flakey on any product). But you are correct that if the signal over HDMI has HDCP flag, then it will be forced to downgrade to 48kHz and most downconvert to 16-bit as well.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was talking about its specs for the 2-ch digital out of the optical port after extracting it from the HDMI. This is where the HDCP restrictions come into play. It can receive whatever sample rate it can handle via HDMI and convert to analog out. But if it is sending out all or part of that audio as a digital output (as done here via the optical port using S/PDIF), it must be "degraded" to 48k max. So saying up to 192k for the optical port makes no sense to me as it does not receive audio by any means other than HDMI with HDCP. The review in that blog (not your review) makes a big deal out of sending the L and R out high-sample-rate-bit-perfect via its optical to an external DAC. Not sure how this is possible if it is HDCP and HDMI-licensing compliant.

Unless I am missing something...

Nothing magical about what happens upstream. Like any of these units, it provides an EDID with all of its bit-depth and sampling rate capabilities to upstream source. AVRs for example provide this along with the codecs they support, etc. On a PC, Windows low-level device driver parses this EDID during the connect handshake and configures that port with the attributes of that downstream device. Extractor is just a label provided in the EDID to identify itself. All applications that query the Windows Devices for output devices, get this information for the port to use. The applications aren't aware of what this is - just an audio port with a label and its capabilities as provided by Windows device manager.

Looks like magic though when it works seamless that way as intended and I am glad it does. So many units get this EDID handshake wrong.

 

[bobrapoport]

I think the review used un-protected hi res audio music only for that test and in that case it can pass up to 24/192K content from the Optical Output of the Evolve II-4K. So its restricted for most applications but there is a narrow range of content that HDCP does not impact and that can sound great when fed to a downstream DAC even though it may be redundant in my humble opinion.

 

[pedrob]

The CYP version is not sold in the USA, Essence has the exclusive rights to selling these devices here. Note; the CYP model is targeted to the Pro AV market, not the audiophile channel. There are variations in the parts selection that make the Essence version sound better than the house version and those improvements are confirmed in reviews of the two versions. There are no rave reviews for the CYP version sold in Europe, nor over 25 customer testimonials as found on the Essence HDACC II-4K and Evolve II-4K product pages on the Essence site. I ship the Essence version worldwide so you do have some choice in the matter. Essence is the #1 seller of these devices in the world, its our specialty. Thanks.

I must have missed the differences. The DCT-37 seems to do a good job, so I'm wondering how much improvement might be had with the Essence and it's changes? Being a sceptic, I'm wondering if it's the other way around and Essence has the exclusive rights so sell the CYP in the US? Even though it seems to be a reasonable assumption, I could be completely wrong.

 

[bobrapoport]

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, both models have the same features and do a good job. The difference is in the specs, the Essence version includes some better parts that result in lower THD and N, leading to what most people think is higher end sound quality. The DCT-37 is aimed at the ProAV channel because of its great feature set, not sonic merits. You are correct about the DCT-37 being the OEM model and the Essence being a specialized version for which we have exclusive rights to sell it in the USA. Hope this helps clear things up.

 

[pedrob]

Lower THD+N is always a benefit. Since the US/AU exchange rate is pretty dreadful I suppose the Essence would end up be fairly expensive. I'm thinking DHL might be around US $50.

 

[bobrapoport]

I have a lot of Aussie customers already, we can ship via DHL or even Fedex International Economy for a lower rate. Because its sold direct with no dealers or distributors, its still a bargain even after accounting for the exchange rate. You will love this device. To order from Australia, please use this online order form, I will send you a PayPal invoice for check out. https://www.essenceelectrostatic.com/essence-online-order-form/

 

[pedrob]

I had a look and The Essence HDACC II-4K seems to be $599, which is around AU $840. I'm sure it'd be awesome, but I'm seeing the DCT-37 for AU $572 including delivery. THD + N = 0.00001% at -141 dB S/N Ratio is surely impressive.

 

[bobrapoport]

The HDACC II-4K has the best specs in audio history and its audible, an order of magnitude better than any preamp / DAC on the market. See if you can find any reviews for the DCT-37 or consumer testimonials. If others are happy with it, you will be too. The basic features are the same. Good luck.

 

[BDWoody]

The HDACC II-4K has the best specs in audio history and its audible,

Better specs at some point isn't going to lead to better sound.
You keep making the same claim about it sounding better, when that's incredibly unlikely. Transparent is transparent.

Specs look great. Won't sound better.

 

[bobrapoport]

When we were at .0001% THD and -125 dB s/n ratio in the original model, I thought nothing could ever sound better too. But then I heard .00001% at -141 dB and it was an order of magnitude more transparent, not a small difference but a huge improvement. I think we have reached the point of diminishing returns at the current specs, its seems impossible to me now that they can be beat. You'd have to ask people who own it, check the testimonials on the product page. There's never been a better time than right now to be an audiophile.