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Review and Measurements of Sabaj D5 DAC & Amp

Enkay25

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Been using my Sabaj D5 from more than a week. I have no issues with the knob or as Sabaj say in the manual the konb :D

In fact I find it guite good (Maybe i am little gentle with it whenever I use it.....like I do with any other knobs hehehe)

The SQ of DAC is just excellent....clean and transparent (currently I am using only the SE and RCA line out).

The only nitpick I have is that the headphone amp is ....woookay....like it's not the endgame.

Also changing the filters setting makes no 'subjective' audible changes/difference for me ...atleast though my Hifiman Sundara/Sony wh1000xm3.

Now will look at the i2s connection et all .....though i might find not much of a difference, perhaps?
 

BDWoody

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Maybe using more resolving headphones can help differentiate the two better? Or maybe it's indeed "once you hit $100, you cannot tell the differences between DACs."

It's really not about the DAC being $100+, as the apple dongle and Chromecast Audio are both completely competent...and by competent, I mean transparent. I can't tell the difference between either of them, or my D70, or my D50s, or my LG G8 phone...as they are all competent.

Sound is the last thing to worry about...these are all going to be audibly indistinguishable from each other once level matched and tested blind.
 

Kane1972

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If a company (or companies) are making DAC chips that have already exceeded what humans are capable of differentiating from one another and anything better spec’d will not be heard by humans and those chips have in turn been implemented by several companies into DACs that again nobody in blind tests could tell the difference and any measurable SQ improvements will never be perceptible to any humans why do they still bother to improve designs? I understand finding ways to make them cheaper or add features but why work hard to improve specs? Is it simply for marketing purposes?
 

ZeDestructor

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If a company (or companies) are making DAC chips that have already exceeded what humans are capable of differentiating from one another and anything better spec’d will not be heard by humans and those chips have in turn been implemented by several companies into DACs that again nobody in blind tests could tell the difference and any measurable SQ improvements will never be perceptible to any humans why do they still bother to improve designs? I understand finding ways to make them cheaper or add features but why work hard to improve specs? Is it simply for marketing purposes?

Engineers jerking each other off, mostly, by proving they can push ever so slightly further.
 

graz_lag

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That's a characteristic of the human being, progress & progress & progress at all costs.
Whether some of that progress is of any interest - that's a totally different story.
 

raif71

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Been using my Sabaj D5 from more than a week. I have no issues with the knob or as Sabaj say in the manual the konb :D

In fact I find it guite good (Maybe i am little gentle with it whenever I use it.....like I do with any other knobs hehehe)

The SQ of DAC is just excellent....clean and transparent (currently I am using only the SE and RCA line out).

The only nitpick I have is that the headphone amp is ....woookay....like it's not the endgame.

Also changing the filters setting makes no 'subjective' audible changes/difference for me ...atleast though my Hifiman Sundara/Sony wh1000xm3.

Now will look at the i2s connection et all .....though i might find not much of a difference, perhaps?

knob on wood :p
 

DeepSpace57

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There is an obvious difference between dacs, amps and headphones. This is a fact !!! I posted a vid before to show up sound signature of two high end dacs. Even high-end ones can be detectable. Just stick to SINAD chart by Amir to not put your money into a bin. My philosophy is to purchase a pro-level hifi equipment for as less as possible. Sabaj D5 is obviously better than anything i have tried. Thats why i have still it. But this FW issue is sometimes irritating.
 
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BDWoody

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There is an obvious difference between dacs, amps and headphones. This is a fact !!! I posted a vid before to show up sound signature of two high end dacs. Even high-end ones can be detectable. Just stick to SINAD chard by Amir to not put your money into a bin. My philosophy is to take a pro-level hifi equipment as low as possible. Sabaj D5 is obviously better than anything i have tried. Thats why i have still it. But this FW issue is sometimes irritating.

Bold type and exclamation points...oh and a YouTube link...aren't as convincing as the results of some controlled testing.
 

Kane1972

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There is an obvious difference between dacs, amps and headphones. This is a fact !!! I posted a vid before to show up sound signature of two high end dacs. Even high-end ones can be detectable. Just stick to SINAD chart by Amir to not put your money into a bin. My philosophy is to purchase a pro-level hifi equipment as low as possible. Sabaj D5 is obviously better than anything i have tried. Thats why i have still it. But this FW issue is sometimes irritating.

I didn't watch your video, but are you saying you played the sound back via two DAC's and video'd that playback and that in the video one can clearly hear a difference?
 

cinstance

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I think people's ability to hear difference differs alot. Even in my small family of three, it spans almost the full spectrum. My wife does not care about sound quality at all, to whom Apple AirPods are the best thing in this world. My son on the other hand has super sensitive ears. He can easily name 5 notes played simultaneously on the piano blindly, while I cannot even tell how many notes are played. From very young age, my son was already very picky about sound quality. In the AP music theory exam he took last fall, most people think the aural section is the hardest, but to him, it is just "relaxation time" (his own words). I myself am kind of in the middle. I can tell the difference by listening carefully and repeating. My wife thinks everything is the same, and my son only needs a few notes to tell the difference, which usually is very "clear" to him.
 
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BDWoody

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I think people's ability to hear difference differs alot. Even in my small family of three, it spans almost the full spectrum. My wife does not care about sound quality at all, to whom Apple AirPods are the best thing in this world. My son on the other hand has super sensitive ears. He can easily name 5 notes played simultaneously on the piano blindly, while I cannot even tell how many notes are played. From very young age, my son was already very picky about sound quality. In the AP music theory exam he took last fall, most people think the aural section is the hardest, but to him, it is just "relaxation time" (his own words). I myself is kind of in the middle. I can tell the difference by listening carefully and repeating. My wife thinks everything is the same, and my son only needs a few notes to tell the difference, which usually is very "clear" to him.

There are definitely vast differences in how people hear. No one with any sense questions that.
However, there are seldom good reasons for things like competently constructed DAC's, cables, amplifiers, etc to sound different to anyone, no matter how they personally hear.
 

Majestyk

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I recently compared my Logitech Transporter with my new RME ADI-2. Both use the AKM and I set the filters to Sharp. At first I thought the RME didn't sound as good but I figured my mind was playing tricks on me since I could only hear one device at a time and it took to much time for me to connect each unit. So I ended up buying a really nice switch by Zektor so I could hook them both up at the same time. Plus I have a third party program that allows me to use Foobar to control the Transporter, so I could play both devices at the same time using one program.

Once I established that the switch sounded the same on two of the inputs (I used two identical CD players with identical CD's) I hooked up the RME and Transporter and level matched them. I left the Transporter at max volume and the RME ended having to go down to -4.5 to match. At first I thought both units sounded the same but after awhile I could definitely hear differences. Surprisingly the RME has a slightly wider soundstage. I was not expecting that. It also has a little more clarity as well.

So I can at least say that a modern DAC can out perform a DAC from 2006. That said, old vs new might not have anyting to do with it since Archimago has measured both the Transporter and the ADI-2 Pro and both measured very well...the ADI-2 came out ahead but not by a huge margin.

(Sorry to get off track from the D5)
 

BDWoody

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I recently compared my Logitech Transporter with my new RME ADI-2. Both use the AKM and I set the filters to Sharp. At first I thought the RME didn't sound as good but I figured my mind was playing tricks on me since I could only hear one device at a time and it took to much time for me to connect each unit. So I ended up buying a really nice switch by Zektor so I could hook them both up at the same time. Plus I have a third party program that allows me to use Foobar to control the Transporter, so I could play both devices at the same time using one program.

Once I established that the switch sounded the same on two of the inputs (I used two identical CD players with identical CD's) I hooked up the RME and Transporter and level matched them. I left the Transporter at max volume and the RME ended having to go down to -4.5 to match. At first I thought both units sounded the same but after awhile I could definitely hear differences. Surprisingly the RME has a slightly wider soundstage. I was not expecting that. It also has a little more clarity as well.

So I can at least say that a modern DAC can out perform a DAC from 2006. That said, old vs new might not have anyting to do with it since Archimago has measured both the Transporter and the ADI-2 Pro and both measured very well...the ADI-2 came out ahead but not by a huge margin.

(Sorry to get off track from the D5)

We're you doing your own switching, or was this done unsighted?
 

Majestyk

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We're you doing your own switching, or was this done unsighted?

I did my own switching. I initially had the RME in input 1 and the Transporter in input 3. I ended up preferring the sound of input 1. I reversed the connectors on the switch and I preferred input 3. I lowered the volume of the RME further (by .5) and I found the volume of the Transporter to be a hair louder but I still preferred the sound of the RME. Once the volume is mismatched by 1db it can really taint the results.

Without the simultaneous playing of both DAC's I probably would have had a different conclusion. (I initially found the Transporter to be better without the swtich)
 

BDWoody

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I did my own switching. I initially had the RME in input 1 and the Transporter in input 3. I ended up preferring the sound of input 1. I reversed the connectors on the switch and I preferred input 3. I lowered the volume of the RME further (by .5) and I found the volume of the Transporter to be a hair louder but I still preferred the sound of the RME. Once the volume is mismatched by 1db it can really taint the results.

Without the simultaneous playing of both DAC's I probably would have had a different conclusion. (I initially found the Transporter to be better without the swtich)

Matching levels is half of the process to get meaningful results...the other half is listening without knowing which is playing. If you know what's playing, you still have mountains of bias you (anyone) would be fighting.

Can you get someone to do the switching for you? Might be interesting to see if you can still spot the difference?
 

Majestyk

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Matching levels is half of the process to get meaningful results...the other half is listening without knowing which is playing. If you know what's playing, you still have mountains of bias you (anyone) would be fighting.

Can you get someone to do the switching for you? Might be interesting to see if you can still spot the difference?

It would have defintiely been preferred to have someone else do the switching but I can now clearly hear the vocals (and instruments) shift slightly when I go from the Transporter to the RME, so having someone else do it now probably won't really do anything beneficial. Who knows, maybe the soundstage is too wide on the RME and normal on the Transporter. Something I never considered.
 

Lmitchr

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A site that works hard to measure and rank the differences between DACs and then professes that there are no differences between DACs makes no sense me.

I should add that there is much in the world that makes no sense to me these days.
 
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