Review and Measurements of Melokin DA9.1 ES9038PRO DAC and Headphone Amp

[amirm]

We have company coming over for the next two days but I will try to find some time to do it. Please remind me if I forget.

 

[Ron Texas]

I suppose when a manufacturer starts with a high end DAC chip and makes something that measures poorly one wonders what the cause of it may be. Testing with a lab power supply will either confirm or eliminate the internal power supply as the culprit.

 

[Chr1]

This is what I am hoping. I can understand why a manufacturer would opt to omit bulky, expensive power supplies when low voltages are required. Not only does it keep the cost and size down, things like postage will be minimised. I have been using a good quantity spare battery for my motorcycle for my last three DACs. Good quality, affordable power plus the benefit of a backup for cold weather emergency starting in the winter!

 

[Ron Texas]

This is what I am hoping. I can understand why a manufacturer would opt to omit bulky, expensive power supplies when low voltages are required. Not only does it keep the cost and size down, things like postage will be minimised. I have been using a good quantity spare battery for my motorcycle for my last three DACs. Good quality, affordable power plus the benefit of a backup for cold weather emergency starting in the winter!

It takes balls to ride a motorcycle in the winter.

 

[Chr1]

Thankfully winters here in Edinburgh aren't as bad as they used to be and my main concern for my wee city bike is the corrosion due to the grit/salt put down to prevent ice. The R1 is strictly summer use only and the Triumph STR675R is only used on dry roads winter or summer! (I live in the center of town where traffic is horrendous so a car is impractical.)
Anyway, I can certainly recommend a good vehicle battery as a clean reliable source of 12v and easily maintained by a decent trickle charger when not in use....

Got my fingers crossed that the cheapo stock switching power supply is the cause of the less than satisfactory figures for the DA9.1. Not sure if this is likely or not as I am not really familiar with the various tests and what can influence the data obtained...here's hoping anyway.

 

[selvakumar]

This is a review and detailed Measurements of Melokin DA9.1 ES9038PRO DAC and Headphone Amp. I purchased this for a discount after contacting the manufacturer to get such. I have gotten quite a few requests for measuring it due to it sporting the high-end ES9038Pro DAC chip.

Unboxing is pleasant with the unit being double boxed and inside, covert with nice plastic bag. Once removed, you are greeted with above average machining and construction:

View attachment 13555

You can see the Topping D50 on top of it which I used as a reference for measurements which uses the lower end ES9038Q2M version of the same DAC chip from ESS. The topping retails for $249 but is frequently on sale for $199. The retail price of Melokin DA9.1 is $360 but it includes a headphone amplifier which the D50 does not have.

Purchasing was a pain as I had to pay in advance to the manufacture using paypal and then wait 2-3 weeks (?) for delivery. Definitely not in the same class of Amazon Prime.

The unit has UAC2 compliant drivers and it automatically installed itself in Windows 10 Creators edition. Since my Audio Precision APx555 analyzer only supports ASIO, I used ASIO4ALL wrapper to communicate in "bit exact" mode to both DACs for measurements. Both units have other digital inputs which I did not test.

Measurements
As usual, let's look at dashboard view of Melokin DA9.1:

View attachment 13556

We see that the output at 2.5 volt RMS is above average (typically 2 volts). Other figures look good. But there is a catch: I could only get these clean results if I set the headphone volume control to zero. I initially tested with it at max volume and was greeted with these horrible results:

View attachment 13557

As you see, we lost more than 50 dB of performance while the output volume did not change at all! Somehow the headphone amplifier is loading down the line out of the DAC. Puzzling and definitely a design mistake.

Next I ran everyone's favorite, linearity test:
View attachment 13558

Not good. Not only do we lose linearity early, but each channel does its own thing! One deviates positively while the other, negatively. We can see this in scope view of -110 dB signal (post filtering):
View attachment 13559

It is easy to see that the output is much lower than the other.

Next I ran SMPTE Intermodulation distortion test:

View attachment 13560

So once again we seen differing performance in each channel (in red). More so, we see clipping starting at -15 dB.

The topping D50 while not perfect with that "hump" in mid-levels, does very well and keeps its channel distortions the same.

To be honest, at this point I lost interest in further testing given how much more gear I have to test. I think the message is fairly clear. But let me know if you want something else tested in it.

Summary
The Melokin DA9.1 ES9038PRO came with a lot of promise and kind discount from the manufacturer. Good out of box experience and build quality put me in good mood. The goodwill got lost though when seeing measurements that demonstrate anomalies which should have been caught and fixed prior to manufacturing.

Lesson here: don't go by part specs. Insist on seeing measurements.

If you are still interested in buying this unit, mine is available for purchase. Send me message.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

If you like this review, please consider donating funds for these types of hardware purchases using Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).

Hi is your unit available i need

 

[Patrick1958]

Got my fingers crossed that the cheapo stock switching power supply is the cause of the less than satisfactory figures for the DA9.1. Not sure if this is likely or not as I am not really familiar with the various tests and what can influence the data obtained...here's hoping anyway.

Any update on this ?

 

[yummy]

if not faulty unit, this is a toy level toy

 

[amirm]

Hi is your unit available i need

It is. Please "start a conversation" with me if you are interested in buying it.

 

[Chr1]

Any update on this ?

Would be most grateful if you could quickly retest the DA9.1 with your lab supply prior to parting with it too!...

No worries if not though btw. Really appreciate all your effort re testing of it so far regardless. Many thanks again.

 

[amirm]

Would be most grateful if you could quickly retest the DA9.1 with your lab supply prior to parting with it too!...

Ok, I just tested it. It makes the tinies (1 dB) improvement and that may just be run to run variation:

Likewise, linearity is the same (in green):

I didn't see supply related issues in the original measurements anyway so this is not surprising.

 

[Chr1]

Thanks Amir. Very much appreciate your help. Thanks!

 

[Patrick1958]

Two dacs with ES9038pro chip, both with amanero board, both measured poorly.
Audio GD and Melokin.
Do i see a trend emerging?
Makes me wonder how the Hifime UDA38pro will perform (unknown usb protocol).

 

[amirm]

We definitely need to break the streak.

 

[amirm]

Was testing this for another reason and happen to be testing S/PDIF instead of USB and noticed that linearity problem is not there for S/PDIF. So I then downloaded their generic driver and it seems to improve USB performance:

Still not as good as S/PDIF but quite a bit better than ASIO4ALL on top of native Windows UAC2 class driver.

 

[gvl]

Any improvement in the THD+N department over SPDIF?

 

[amirm]

Any improvement in the THD+N department over SPDIF?

Maybe 1 dB better:

If I reduce the level a bit more to 2 volt nominal, it gets a bit better still:

 

[gvl]

Thank you, interestingly noise and mains hum is basically absent, only harmonics.

 

[amirm]

This is available for sale by the way if anyone is interested.

 

[Jimster480]

Not too shabby; if you don't care about using usb.