Received the Sabaj D5 last week and had a look at how it works over the weekend.
I seem to be facing really low volume issues when connected through XLR. The DAC was fed through coaxial from my Yamaha WXC-50. At max 40 set in the DAC, it is not loud enough with the amp at 80%. I could hear clipping too, which is weird. Don't know if anyone else is facing this. The clipping was really bad that I was worried it was going to damage the speakers.
In comparison, the Topping D70 is louder than this at 45 (Topping volume levels go the other way, a lower number for high volume -99dB to 0dB, so around 55%). After crosschecking all connections, doubting myself I pulled the SMSL-SU8 and connected instead of the D5. At 30 it was really loud, so I am pretty sure the problem lies within the D5 XLR preamp module.
Did not check outputs from RCA as I could not find the spare set of RCA cables, so will check that today evening and update back. I will also try to feed it through optical / USB and see if it makes a difference.
One of my mates has a D5 that is being used with headphones. He has agreed that I can borrow it today to check if I have got a faulty one or the whole XLR balanced output module in D5 is not fit for use.
Note: My AS-2100 has given up and has to go for service. So this is the temp amp CXA80 set is set to 80% of its amp power for HT and DAC usage. The XLR input is connected to DAC and RCA to Receiver. This is to keep volume controls through DAC and Receiver.
Update : This was fixed by changing the output in dac to "Line out"