Review and Measurements of Sabaj D5 DAC & Amp

[mkawa]

reducing volume on the source end reduces dynamic range and is bad. the 9038 chip has a digital domain volume control that happens somewhere inside the oversampling block and is effectively lossless and extremely low noise. on the d50s i'm auditioning, the ess volume control is far superior to my preamp.

 

[mostresticator]

reducing volume on the source end reduces dynamic range and is bad. the 9038 chip has a digital domain volume control that happens somewhere inside the oversampling block and is effectively lossless and extremely low noise. on the d50s i'm auditioning, the ess volume control is far superior to my preamp.

Thanks. What if I had something like the Schitt Sys between the D5 and amp? Would you keep the DAC maxed and control volume with Schitt?

 

[AnalogDE]

Anyone has problem with sabaj D5 + tidal. Everytime I change track volume on sabaj drops to 70% sometimes 40% (volumie in windows).
I have drivers installed and in tidal exclusive mode with volume passthrough is on.
Ok NVM. I dont know why but I had volume normalization ON
Dont know how that happened

Ran into the same issue. I think it also happens when you restart the app. You have to go fiddle with the settings. I still get pops whenever I start a new track..

 

[mkawa]

do you need two inputs or do you just want a volume knob? if you don't need two inputs, remove everything from the signal path between your amp and dac and use the much more precise 9038 volume control exclusively.

if you do want two inputs, pick up a cheap nobsound input switcher from amazon and/or one of their rk27 based passive preamps. the pot in the schiit has an incredibly annoying channel imbalance at high impedance and much worse crosstalk specs than the alps rk27 (blue velvet)

 

[AnalogDE]

MacOS seems to be jumping back and forth between the Sabaj and my Displayport (monitor speakers), and then jumping around the sample rates.. aghh.

The latest Tidal app seems to have fixed the pops -- finally!

 

[AnalogDE]

The latest Tidal app seems to have fixed the pops -- finally!

Spoke too soon... Pops still happen when switching between songs with different sample rates.. They fixed the issue with the sound settings not sticking when you re-start the app (according to the release notes -- haven't tested it)

 

[DeepSpace57]

All i can say is tidal app on MacOs ruins all pleasure i get from D5 and 789. The last update changed the entire config i somehow managed to fix before. It nows gives lower than max volume.

BTW, when tidal changes the song, the volume of Audio MIDI is also changing RANDOMLY! No logic behind it at all! One song is ok to listen, another one’s is extremely low! One song is extremely high sounding, the next one is just ok! What the hack is that?

 

[AnalogDE]

All i can say is tidal app on MacOs ruins all pleasure i get from D5 and 789. The last update changed the entire config i somehow managed to fix before. It nows gives lower than max volume.

BTW, when tidal changes the song, the volume of Audio MIDI is also changing RANDOMLY! No logic behind it at all! One song is ok to listen, another one’s is extremely low! One song is extremely high sounding, the next one is just ok! What the hack is that?

the latest update they just pushed out today seems to have fixed the volume issue for me... hoping it doesn’t come back...

 

[mkawa]

i just switched to amazon music HD. the tidal apps are a disaster area, and the price of amazon music when buying an annual is like 1/4

 

[AnalogDE]

i just switched to amazon music HD. the tidal apps are a disaster area, and the price of amazon music when buying an annual is like 1/4

The only issue I have with amazon is that they don't support exclusive/direct mode in their app.

 

[mkawa]

they don't, but i'm playing most of jeff buckley's discography at 24/192 lossless right now and even if i were to keep tidal (i'm not, but i did consider it), i would still pay the 80 / 12$ per month for their 'ultra hd' collection.

 

[mostresticator]

thinking of making the switch to Amazon from Qobuz. Liking the trial so far and they have a lot of albums I like that Qobuz doesn't...

 

[DeepSpace57]

I still have an issue with Tidal and MacOs. The volume is too low at exclusive mod even if thx 789 is at gain 3 and max volume. Briefly tidal is just ruining everything!

 

[TorbjornJ]

Just received my D5 and wondered what kind of Windows drivers people use? (fresh install of windows)
Can't seem to use 32bit/384khz in windows, have to turn it down to 192khz then everything works as normal.

 

[Enkay25]

Just received my D5 and wondered what kind of Windows drivers people use? (fresh install of windows)
Can't seem to use 32bit/384khz in windows, have to turn it down to 192khz then everything works as normal.

Try downloading the drivers from the Sabaj support.
http://www.sabaj.com.cn/en/services.asp?id=79

 

[peterwen]

https://hifi-express.com/collection...pro-heaphone-amplifier?variant=26167321788516
Recommend the Sabaj D5, the sound is so pure and more detail. And the price is good with the ES9038pro. I bought it with the discount code: 15discount. I select it sent from Japan and it only last 3 days to arrive. So surprise to me.

 

[themystical]

Here is the response from Sabaj support:
I found the Nvidia Shield useing USB3.0, it is not suitable for Sabaj D5.

I have the same issue with the Nvidia Shield. Can’t seem to find a solution or a fix from Sabaj

 

[Phenolablation]

Hello, Thank you very much for your detailed assessment of this products capabilities. I learned a lot. I do have a question though I am hoping you can answer. As you indicated, the DAC components are comparatively better than the amplifier. Seeing as though the RCAs are pre-outs and not true line outs, where should I set the volume of this unit when I tie it to my THX AAA 789? Thanks again. I look forward to your next review.

 

[Fabio]

Hello, Thank you very much for your detailed assessment of this products capabilities. I learned a lot. I do have a question though I am hoping you can answer. As you indicated, the DAC components are comparatively better than the amplifier. Seeing as though the RCAs are pre-outs and not true line outs, where should I set the volume of this unit when I tie it to my THX AAA 789? Thanks again. I look forward to your next review.

As there is no noise or distortion penalty in going full power I set mine at maximum and attenuate in thx 789 (using xlr connection)

 

[fraa]

Hi, I am new here. I am considering buying Sabaj D5 or Topping D70 but I can't decide which.
I found a criticism of D5 in a Japanese discussion site and translated the gist of it below.
I would appreciate any thought on this and which of D5 or D70 I should choose.

(a summary translated from a post on 2019/09/01 23:50 at https://bbs.kakaku.com/bbs/K0000579959/SortID=22884769/ )

ES9038PRO has 8 channels, which makes the output current too large to I/V conversion by a single OPamp, if the 8 channels are wholly utilized. People have been coping with this challenge by, for instance, coupling an OPamp with a current buffer, using two parallel OPamps, or using a discrete I/V converter instead of OPamps. One such example is an implementation by the Japanese boutique AIT Labo http://aitlabo.net/ . There are pictures on this page of their DAC implementation using ES9038PRO. Compare this with the Sabaj D5 circuit board http://www.sabaj.com.cn/en/productshow.asp?id=79 . It uses two OPamps per channel for I/V conversion and post-filtering. That means it only uses a single OPamp per channel for I/V conversion. As said above, it is not enough to handle the output current of the all eight channels from this high-end DAC chip. The chip is like an American V8 engine, which requires an extraordinary power train. An ordinary one cannot handle the enormous torque and its drive shaft would break. This probably means D5 only uses two channels out of the 8 available on the chip. Of course, this is nowhere explained in the Sabaj D5 page. The blurb reads "its official dynamic range is up to 140" about ES9038PRO. Why say anything about the "official" dynamic range of the chip, rather than their implementation? It even mentions the price of the chip! They emphasize how great the chip is to cover up their cheap implementation of the set. The D5 is like a car with a huge V8 engine that uses only two cylinders because of its weak power train, advertised emphasizing the engine, without mentioning anything about the power train.