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Review and Measurements of Okto DAC8 8Ch DAC & Amp

Honken

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For what it is worth, I'm feeding my subs (SVS PC-2000) with RCA <-> XLR cables wired as pictured. I have no issues that I can discern.
26RM-36XM-01.jpg
 

cyruz

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There seems to be a consensus regarding the fact the shorting pin 3 to ground could be harmful in some balanced output stage circuits. Has Okto clarified this is not the case and we would incur only in a performance degradation?
 

wineds

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For what it is worth, I'm feeding my subs (SVS PC-2000) with RCA <-> XLR cables wired as pictured. I have no issues that I can discern.
View attachment 114137

I made some cables like that too for when I need single ended out. Barely any hum at all and only perceivable with ear in the speaker cone. Probably identical to any single ended connection in that respect.
 

dualazmak

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Hi dualazmak, thanks for taking your time for such an extensive reply. Honestly I don't consider that for a simply esthetic reason.

Just for your reference, let me suggest you one additional route; you need to have, however, another DAC capable of AES/EBU digital input and RCA unbalanced output.

DAC8PRO has one AES/EBU digital out of "CH1+CH2 through digital out". You may connect this into another DAC capable of AES/EBU digital input like ONKYO DAC-1000. In this case, DAC8PRO and DAC-1000 are fully "in sync" since AES/EBU signal contains the "sync clock info" for DAC-1000; DAC-1000 does not use its internal clock but it uses the AES/EBU signal for synchronization. You may use DAC-1000's RCA unbalanced output into sub-woofers or amplifiers.

I fully confirmed this and I can use this route as shared in my specific post.
 

AnalogSteph

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It be noted that when combining different DACs, you better check whether their outputs are actually time-aligned as well. Group delay for digital filters may vary by dozens of samples, so I would generally recommend to combine only DACs with the same converter chips (or at least ones sharing the same filters, which may be found within one manufacturer).
 

cyruz

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Just for your reference, let me suggest you one additional route; you need to have, however, another DAC capable of AES/EBU digital input and RCA unbalanced output.

DAC8PRO has one AES/EBU digital out of "CH1+CH2 through digital out". You may connect this into another DAC capable of AES/EBU digital input like ONKYO DAC-1000. In this case, DAC8PRO and DAC-1000 are fully "in sync" since AES/EBU signal contains the "sync clock info" for DAC-1000; DAC-1000 does not use its internal clock but it uses the AES/EBU signal for synchronization. You may use DAC-1000's RCA unbalanced output into sub-woofers or amplifiers.

I fully confirmed this and I can use this route as shared in my specific post.

This is a good alternative as well, provided that you have an additional DAC with AES input. Sadly it is not my case, I have a DAC but with a simple SPDIF input. I guess a cable for this could be arranged for such a short distance, but we will start again discussing about XLR to RCA, although for a digital signal.

I think that an opamp buffer is the cheapest and best solution to this.
 

josh358

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This is a good alternative as well, provided that you have an additional DAC with AES input. Sadly it is not my case, I have a DAC but with a simple SPDIF input. I guess a cable for this could be arranged for such a short distance, but we will start again discussing about XLR to RCA, although for a digital signal.

I think that an opamp buffer is the cheapest and best solution to this.
AES3 and SPDIF are similar enough so that you can usually go from one to the other. Use the Canare transformer with -10 dB attenuation:

http://www.canare.com/ProductItemDisplay.aspx?productItemID=15
 

Honken

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If this solution distorts my subwoofers I don't really know as I don't really trust my measurements fully, but their measurements look similiar with both RCA and XLR output. Quick listening tells me that it sounds more or less the same as when they were fed from SE outputs. I'll admit that I don't know if this applies to full range inputs as well.
I made some cables like that too for when I need single ended out. Barely any hum at all and only perceivable with ear in the speaker cone. Probably identical to any single ended connection in that respect.
Indeed, my measurement mic picks something up at max amplification on the subwoofers amplifiers but I can't hear it. I have had more discernable hum with some RCA <-> RCA cables with my previous DACs. Normally I have the subwoofer amplifiers volume dialed in at around 10 'o clock and there they are dead silent (I can't tell the auto off standby apart from when they are idling).
 

dualazmak

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This is a good alternative as well, provided that you have an additional DAC with AES input. Sadly it is not my case, I have a DAC but with a simple SPDIF input. I guess a cable for this could be arranged for such a short distance, but we will start again discussing about XLR to RCA, although for a digital signal.
I think that an opamp buffer is the cheapest and best solution to this.

Let me add one point for your notice. The AES/EBU digital out of DAC8PRO is the "Through digital of CH1+CH2" which is not under the control of DAC8PRO's preamp functions including the Volume and Gain controllers. In case we can control the "Master Volume" in upstream before DAC8PRO, i.e. by JRiver's or Roon's or Digital Crossover Software's Volume controller, we would have no problem in Master Volume control. This is the case with my system using JRiver or Roon. Or you may apply "Volume Control" in downstream at active sub-woofer or amplifiers with volume control.

"Where and how to control Master volume and relative gains" is one of the critical issues in multichannel multi-amplifier audio system, and I discussed and shared a lot on this in my project, like in this post.
 
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dualazmak

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It be noted that when combining different DACs, you better check whether their outputs are actually time-aligned as well. Group delay for digital filters may vary by dozens of samples, so I would generally recommend to combine only DACs with the same converter chips (or at least ones sharing the same filters, which may be found within one manufacturer).

Yes, I agree with you; "with the same converter chips" is ideal, I also believe. In this sense, the use of headphone out of DAC8PRO into RCA unbalanced lines should be better and simpler, I assume. And it is under volume/gain controls of DAC8PRO.

In my specific "alternative test case" with AES/EBU digital out into ONKYO DAC-1000, I have carefully contacted with ONKYO and Pavel of OKTO, and they kindly confirmed that in this case both DACs are fully in sync as wrote in my specific post.

After my recent decisions on amplifiers, now I mainly use the headphone-out RCA routes into my L & R sub-woofers.
 

josh358

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Yes, I agree with you; "with the same converter chips" is ideal, I also believe. In this sense, the use of headphone out of DAC8PRO into RCA unbalanced lines should be better and simpler, I assume. And it is under volume/gain controls of DAC8PRO.

In my specific "alternative test case" with AES/EBU digital out into ONKYO DAC-1000, I have carefully contacted with ONKYO and Pavel of OKTO, and they kindly confirmed that in this case both DACs are fully in sync as wrote in my specific post.

After my recent decisions on amplifiers, now I mainly use the headphone-out RCA routes into my L & R sub-woofers.
For what it's worth, I've tried combining at various times an Exasound and a Dac8Pro with various two channel DAC's, usually with AES3 from a Lynx AES16e card, but recently with the AES3 output of the OKTO. I was prepared for DAC latency to be an issue, but in practice, it never was, despite the fact that DAC latency varies with sampling frequency in an idiosyncratic way.
 

Deribas

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Could anyone respond please as to what delivery times are currently experienced with Okto Dac8 PRO? The amount of delay on my order placed last year is truly concerning. Is the company even intact still?
 

DWPress

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I ordered mine on Oct 2, 2020 and received it just last week. I was anxious too but the wait is totally worth it if this is what you need.
 

Feyire

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Could anyone respond please as to what delivery times are currently experienced with Okto Dac8 PRO? The amount of delay on my order placed last year is truly concerning. Is the company even intact still?
Expect 5-6 months.
 
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