Review and Measurements of Sabaj D5 DAC & Amp

[deafenears]

SMSL, Sabaj and Loxjie is basically the same company.

hmm, SMSL says:

'Shenzhen ShuangMuSanLin electronics Co., LTD. founded in 2009 which located in the Shenzhen, China.And our branch company VMV technology(HK) Company Limited registered in HK in 2013.'

Sabaj says:

'SHENZHEN DAHAO TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD; Founded in 2016 in Shenzhen china with a team of experienced audio engineers and marketing persons.'

 

[August]

Amazing product with amazing price/performance ratio. I want to sell all the equipment I bought before, amirm your review is coming too late!He killed every player! ! !

 

[DeepSpace57]

I had a chance to play with D5 for a couple of weeks more than a month ago. In everytime when i first played the songs, it was less enjoyable then later on. I noticed it !! I now see the unit was getting better, as a result of Amirm’s words.

However, i shocked when i saw the filters of D5 actually work in amirm’s measurement. I could not hear any difference between them. This was the reason why i posted my unit back to retailer.

 

[Veri]

However, i shocked when i saw the filters of D5 actually work in amirm’s measurement. I could not hear any difference between them. This was the reason why i posted my unit back to retailer.

Digital filters generally have no real discernible sound quality differences besides some "roll-off" with the Slow filters they should sound just about identical.

In all honesty the manufacturer might as well pick one instead of leaving it to the user, but I'm sure some people will claim to hear differences so that is why the option is there. Some people are in fact more inclined to hear linear/minimum phase difference but most of us will not...

 

[VintageFlanker]

However, i shocked when i saw the filters of D5 actually work in amirm’s measurement. I could not hear any difference between them. This was the reason why i posted my unit back to retailer.

Nothing "shocking" in my book. Look at the filters measurements: all the effects start at 18Khz and above. I'm not surprised that you didn't hear any difference.

 

[DeepSpace57]

Nothing "shocking" in my book. Look at the filters measurements: all the effects start at 18Khz and above. I'm not surprised that you didn't hear any difference.

I had read a few posts in Su-8 topic. They believe linear minimum brings out WoW effect.

 

[Silou]

hmm, SMSL says:

'Shenzhen ShuangMuSanLin electronics Co., LTD. founded in 2009 which located in the Shenzhen, China.And our branch company VMV technology(HK) Company Limited registered in HK in 2013.'

Sabaj says:

'SHENZHEN DAHAO TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD; Founded in 2016 in Shenzhen china with a team of experienced audio engineers and marketing persons.'

I probably mixed it, but Sabaj and Loxjie is the same for sure.

 

[VintageFlanker]

I probably mixed it, but Sabaj and Loxjie is the same for sure.

Hum, you meant SMSL and Loxjie?

 

[Veri]

I had read a few posts in Su-8 topic. They believe linear minimum brings out WoW effect.

I had read that too, and remain skeptical.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Finally another one with imd hump. Would you include the two files please? Both of them. Also the non-present of imd hump doesn't mean it's not existing in like element x or d50s. The are close modulations nearby the harmonics which tricked me thinking it's harmonics except they aren't.

 

[Nango]

@amirm Do you think the provided unit was cherry picked by the company?

Furthermore: A mfr who uses the same measurement equipment than @amirm and knows the results in advance the only thing it seeks is to get publicity from this site. I don't see the reason why such products should be reviewed here. Edit: Where is the added-value for us if results already known?

 

[Silou]

Hum, you meant SMSL and Loxjie?

No. Loxjie and Sabaj even sell their stuff on the same Amazon shop in Germany called "SABAJ".

 

[Silou]

Furthermore: A mfr who uses the same measurement equipment than @amirm and knows the results in advance the only thing it seeks is to get publicity from this site. I don't see the reason why such products should be reviewed here.

I would agree with you if these companies published their measurements instead of just a normal datasheet.

 

[M00ndancer]

Furthermore: A mfr who uses the same measurement equipment than @amirm and knows the results in advance the only thing it seeks is to get publicity from this site. I don't see the reason why such products should be reviewed here.

I'm the opposite camp, do I trust things manufacturer publish? No. To accept the measurements it has to be repeatable. That's how you do science.

 

[Matias]

@amirm Audioquest published a paper with measurements of phase noise between cold and different levels of warm up. See attached. Notice the IMD hump cold and vanishing after warmup.

Could this Sabaj also have its IMD hump vanish after extended warm up too?

 

[deafenears]

I probably mixed it, but Sabaj and Loxjie is the same for sure.

Ah, you are indeed correct. S.M.S.L, Loxjie, and Sabaj.

https://trademarks.justia.com/owners/shenzhen-shuangmusanlin-electronics-co-ltd-3760284/
https://trademarks.justia.com/owners/shenzhen-shuangmusanlin-electronics-co-ltd-3440263/

 

[renaudrenaud]

About heat and the components. 20 years ago when we were measuring quartz in cd players, we were able to seen big oscillations around the working frequency when power on, and then with time and heating it was flat. Some quartz were ok quite immediately and others needed 24 hours.

 

[Nango]

I'm the opposite camp, do I trust things manufacturer publish? No. To accept the measurements it has to be repeatable. That's how you do science.

Definitely not. This site's purpose shouldn't be to repeat but to verify (different equipmented) measurements. Let them who use the same equipment open a thread somewhere here on this site and publish their measurements. I rather prefer this site to be for things like Neurochrome and similar, of course for well known brands as well but not for those who simply seek publicity and know the results in advance.

 

[Tks]

Its not the first time I have heard of such things. But in this case, 30 mins seems a reasonable amount of time for electronics to reach a stable temperature. At least its not some ludicrous " hours " ....

I believe it due to the heatsinks tbh. This whole industry is plagued with the most pathetic thermal solutions (or lack-of in actuality), it’s not a surprise the device would require a few minutes to get to its operating temperature for sensitive devices of this level of performance especially if the heatsinks are of some mass.

I wonder what operating temperatures these chips actually perform on average on. Or the whole device I should say for each manufacturers implementation.

 

[helloworld]

Definitely not. This site's purpose shouldn't be to repeat but to verify (different equipmented) measurements. Let them who use the same equipment open a thread somewhere here on this site and publish their measurements. I rather prefer this site to be for things like Neurochrome and similar, of course for well known brands as well but not for those who simply seek publicity and know the results.

Neurochrome also has apx analyzer