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

[BDWoody]

You'd have to ask people who own it, check the testimonials on the product page

No, I have to see a proper blind test.

 

[bobrapoport]

you mean "hear" a proper blind test. Good luck with that, I dont sell them to stores, just factory direct to end users. These days all we have are the shared thoughts of those who purchase any product, there are not many stores left where you can get a demo of anything anymore.

 

[BDWoody]

you mean "hear" a proper blind test. Good luck with that, I dont sell them to stores, just factory direct to end users. These days all we have are the shared thoughts of those who purchase any product, there are not many stores left where you can get a demo of anything anymore.

I'd like to SEE the results of one from anyone...anywhere.

 

[bobrapoport]

If it ever happens I'll hook you up. However, most owners of this product swear by it, its the only popularly priced DAC / Preamp with 4 HDMI v2.0 inputs for 4K sources and TVs.

 

[BDWoody]

If it ever happens I'll hook you up. However, most owners of this product swear by it, its the only popularly priced DAC / Preamp with 4 HDMI v2.0 inputs for 4K sources and TVs.

I would bet money against anyone being able to do it.
Not a hit on your product, just on your unsupportable (other than through bias filled anecdotes) claims of sonic superiority.

 

[bobrapoport]

bias filled antidotes is all I have to share. Its a business, I've invested a lot of money and time in it so sure I'm biased. But I can sleep at night knowing I make a cool device that people love to own.

 

[pedrob]

You might be interested in my experiences and why I am now looking to purchase another unit.

The initial use was to provide a digital path from my CD player to my Receiver (other than optical), because it digitally processes channels and room correction. Digital-Analogue-Digital-Processing-Analogue just seemed to be too many stages. Digital-Processing-Analogue (ready for amplification) is to be preferred.

At the start I was only using it to embed the Digital Coax from my CD player into HDMI, which is connected to my Receiver. Initially it was set to bypass the internal clock, but I decided to try different re-clocking frequencies. It wasn't until I set the clock to match the source frequency that I heard any worthwhile improvement. And what an improvement it was! It was if I had upgraded my player by several factors. Not content to trust myself as there was a possibility I was expecting the improvement, I enlisted some others ears who had no idea what I had done. The result was the same, which shows I wasn't being influenced by my expectations. Listening to very well known recordings is virtually as good as a blind test.

I was then tempted to see if the same level of improvement could be achieved with my 4k Blu Ray player. Disappointingly there was a distinct downgrade, but once the clock frequency was adjusted to match the input frequency, the sound came to life, as if the player had also been upgraded by many factors. Everything was clearer and the surround channels were more distinct than before.

Unfortunately adjusting the clock frequency isn't straight forward and it cannot be done with the remote, which is why I am looking to have two units. One for my CD player and one for my Blu Ray player, which are 44.1k and 48k respectively. Each with its own HDMI input to my Receiver.

The question arises, why don't the results show up in bench tests? Now that's something everyone seems to be asking.

Music and movie sound tracks are extremely complex compared to simplified tests, which explains why clinical testing and listening tests can have such different results. Something that might test as average at best can sometimes sound spectacular. Sure we can capture the sound files and view them, but there will be very subtle differences that are impossible to visually compare and understand why our ears hear such huge differences. Perhaps one day someone will work out a way understand the minuscule visual differences our ears are easily hearing.

 

[BDWoody]

Listening to very well known recordings is virtually as good as a blind test.

Who told you that?

It's not...

That's all great, and I'm glad you like it, but extraordinary claims require more than 'yeah me too!'

 

[pedrob]

Who told you that?

It's not...

That's all great, and I'm glad you like it, but extraordinary claims require more than 'yeah me too!'

Are you saying it's impossible to be know familiar recordings inside out and how they sound on different systems? Anyway what the hell does 'yeah me too!' mean when I'm talking about a personal experience.

 

[SinnerSaint]

Personal:

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.

Thanks for contributing to the thread.

Haven't read all 6 pgs; lots of 'stuff'!

Would like to go HDMI Audio Only [not actually/just black vid] out from Blu-ray player to HDMI in on the HDACC II-4K. Is the unit capable of stripping out the video signal completely?
Then HiRez Audio Only HDMI to the pre/pro for multichannel sources.
Then XLR out of the HDACC II-4K to XLR in on the pre/pro for stereo sources. Is the HDACC II-4K a true balanced design?

Appreciate the product, only questioning it's ability to deliver within the limitations of the HDMI protocols.

Much success,
SAINT.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Would like to go HDMI Audio Only [not actually/just black vid] out from Blu-ray player to HDMI in on the HDACC II-4K. Is the unit capable of stripping out the video signal completely?
Then Audio Only HDMI to the pre/pro for multichannel sources.

HDMI requires a video clock. Black video is the least necessary.

 

[Vasr]

Would like to go HDMI Audio Only [not actually/just black vid] out from Blu-ray player to HDMI in on the HDACC II-4K. Is the unit capable of stripping out the video signal completely?

Why would you want that anyway? Any audio device capable of taking audio over HDMI, will ignore the video. You cannot remove video data from a HDMI stream. Whether it is all black or has changing bits makes no difference. Unless you have a need to display a black screen while listening!

 

[svenz]

Any updates on whether this supports eARC yet?

 

[andrew]

To clarify, no it does not down-mix the multi-channel soundtrack, it de-embeds the front left and right channels from the multi-channel soundtrack for native, uncompressed, 24/96K audio. It does no down-sampling at all. It is meant to be used with 5.1 channel soundtracks, both Dolby True HD and DTS Master HD but it plays back in stereo only. If you have a downstream AVR with matrix surround features, it can turn 2 channels back into 5.1 or higher and these days sounds damn good.

Stupid question but what does this mean? Is the unit taking the stereo soundtrack shipped with 5.1 soundtracks or stripping out the front left / right channels? I'd have thought that the latter would be problematic given that voices are often in the center channel. And what happens with the LFE track?

 

[ragnarokzwei]

Stupid question but what does this mean? Is the unit taking the stereo soundtrack shipped with 5.1 soundtracks or stripping out the front left / right channels? I'd have thought that the latter would be problematic given that voices are often in the center channel. And what happens with the LFE track?

I was just recommended this unit as a way to hook up an apple tv to a stereo pair of focal powered speakers with balanced inputs, and I am wondering the same thing. My pro audio knowledge really doesn't translate to audiophile home-theater knowledge.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Stupid question but what does this mean? Is the unit taking the stereo soundtrack shipped with 5.1 soundtracks or stripping out the front left / right channels?

In effect, the latter.

I'd have thought that the latter would be problematic given that voices are often in the center channel. And what happens with the LFE track?

They are ignored. As he says: "It does no down-sampling at all. "

 

[andrew]

In effect, the latter.

They are ignored. As he says: "It does no down-sampling at all. "

Much appreciated. So doesn't this mean that the unit isn't suitable for playback of movies etc. over a stereo system (given that dialogue is most often in the center channel that is being dropped in this case)?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Much appreciated. So doesn't this mean that the unit isn't suitable for playback of movies etc. over a stereo system (given that dialogue is most often in the center channel that is being dropped in this case)?

Yes unless you choose the stereo track in the player. As he also states: " If you have a downstream AVR with matrix surround features, it can turn 2 channels back into 5.1 or higher and these days sounds damn good. " Your move.

 

[ragnarokzwei]

Yes unless you choose the stereo track in the player. As he also states: " If you have a downstream AVR with matrix surround features, it can turn 2 channels back into 5.1 or higher and these days sounds damn good. " Your move.

Ah, got it. I would be choosing stereo audio in the player's settings and it would get sorted out before being sent out the hdmi cable.

 

[andrew]

Sure. Here you go:

View attachment 24287

This is the same performance if I plugged the Gustard into USB port. I also tested it with the GPLL disabled in Gustard and it reduced performance by 3 dB so less capable DACs should be able to do as well.

Is it correct to interpret these measurements as inferring that the Coax (S/PDIF) output from the Essence HDACC (stripped from HDMI) is good enough to not be a bottleneck for modern DAC?