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Review and Measurements of Sabaj Da3 Dac compared to Dragonfly Black

maxxevv

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By the way, since you are a Shure SE215 user too, do you know of a substitute regular cable (not balanced) in case that i break mine? The original Shure is way to expensive and i am sure in Amazon or AliExpress there might be good choices as well. The thing is knowing some reliable vendor who sells a good quality cable at a good price.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32916162030.html

The link I put previously also has 3.5mm jack with straight MMCX connectors. Pretty affordable and well measuring cables, though some may find them a little on the thick side of things.
 

uzapuca

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Thanks Maxxevv, i thought it was balanced only but now i read again and it is 3.5 mm unbalance which is great. Thanks for your good tips again! :)
 

more

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Adding the Sabaj Da3 balanced versus unbalanced performance:

index.php
Is it correct in stating that at 50ohm load balanced, power of 82.4mW is a voltage level of 4.12V? This then is quite comparable and actually better than the Topping NX4 DSD which is ~3.3V at 50ohm? (33ohm at 2.2V, 300ohm at 4.2V).

The reason why I ask is that I would like a balanced DAC/amp for my HD650. For some reason it sounds better using the 2.5mm balanced outputs on my Pioneer XDP-30R (dual ES9018C2M DAC's with dual ES9601K amp) vs. 3.5mm line out from my XDP-30R into an JDS Atom Amp (single ended) even though the Atom does go louder.

I maybe wrong, but I think the dual DAC, dual amp sounds better (wider soundstage) than the more raw power the Atom amp provides - I actually prefer the XDP-30R to the JDS Atom amp.

Cost aside, does having dual SABRE9018Q2C dac/amp (as in the Sabaj DA3) sound better then separate dual ES9018C2M dac / ES9601K amp (as in the XDP-30R)
 

Timbo2

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Please forgive my newbie's ignorance, but how does this cable work with two male plugs? How do you connect your headphones to it?

I'm guessing as I don't own these headphones, but there is a female jack on the headphone themselves. It's not uncommon for various removable connections to be used on different headphones.
 

Warbles

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I'm guessing as I don't own these headphones, but there is a female jack on the headphone themselves. It's not uncommon for various removable connections to be used on different headphones.
Hmmm... I see.. I wonder how, with what terms, one would search on Ali for same balanced cable with male & female? The obvious does not always bear fruit there!
 

VicSh

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Please forgive my newbie's ignorance, but how does this cable work with two male plugs? How do you connect your headphones to it?
Philips Fidelio X1 have a removal cable. On the left earpiece there is a 3.5mm connection for removable cable. :)
 

L5730

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The Da3 seems like quite a decent DAC/amp to pair with Takstar Pro 82.
Seeing that the Pro82s can only take about 50 mW and have reasonably high sensitivity, the lack of power output compared to more powerful amp or amp sections probably won't matter. ~2 ohm output impedance is about 1/16th of the 32 ohm headphones, so should have a minimal impact on frequency response at the low end - likely improving and cleaning it up compared with PC motherboard solutions.

For me, I don't want a desktop device with a battery in. Batteries have a lifespan, and it's another set of components which may fail. If the battery could be easily removed with warranty voiding, and the device operated on USB bus or external power then that's cool, but I doubt that. So the NX4 and such are ruled out for me.
I have a portable USB battery pack now anyway, and USB OTG hub, so can run and power devices connected to a tablet with plenty of 5v goodness.

As for the video posted of that fellow speaking.
Blind test = participants get stressed = useless results.
but...
Sighted test = participants are easily influenced by every other sense they have = really useless results.
So, what, don't test anything by people listening to it? :confused:
 

valencio

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I wondered (and would like to know) whether or not you were able to get the Sabaj Da3 to sample at any frequency other than 44.1KHz or 48KHz; and secondly, did you at any time during your testing install the Da3's XMOS USB DAC driver?
 

maxxevv

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I wondered (and would like to know) whether or not you were able to get the Sabaj Da3 to sample at any frequency other than 44.1KHz or 48KHz; and secondly, did you at any time during your testing install the Da3's XMOS USB DAC driver?

Under Foobar 2K, if I set output device to "WASAPI (event) SABAJ DAC" and play DSD files, the device shows "192khz". That's in the DSD/ DSF configuration settings.
 

valencio

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¡Thank you so much! ...worked perfectly, my issue is resolved.
Btw, didn't know about Foobar 2k but appreciate its introduction (I'd used Winamp Pro more than a decade)
 

andoniTG

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hi guys!
Got the da3 few months ago and I love the sound.
Do you think the new fiio btr5 would be an improvement?? I mean talking about sound quality and measurements.
 

flipflop

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Hi and welcome to the forum.
Do you think the new fiio btr5 would be an improvement?? I mean talking about sound quality and measurements.
Measurements might be better, sound quality won't be. There's nothing wrong with the Da3 except for the low power output.

You need to either get better headphones or equalize those you currently have.
 

andoniTG

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Hi and welcome to the forum.

Measurements might be better, sound quality won't be. There's nothing wrong with the Da3 except for the low power output.

You need to either get better headphones or equalize those you currently have.


thanks, it´s true, i´m just starting in this amazing world, I just own some iems (blon b20 and some Kzs) and beyerdynamic lagoon as overear.
My plan is to get soon some open overs, focal elex, or beyer 1990pros... im still doing some research about that.

I´ve read that the power output for the BTR5 its pretty impressive for that size, but well, if its not a big improvement over de DA3, I think ill keep the DA3, and at some point get a full size dac amp.
 

TLEDDY

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Sabaj Da3 and Tidal

The “M” music shows 96kHz while HiFi is 44.1

What gives?

BTW... Amazon shows 192 kHz!
 
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Warbles

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Hello.. Just daring to venture back into my Sabaj territory again after contentedly living on JDS solid state for long while... As ignoramus I get thrown by all the seemingly haphazard wordings and numbers that Ali listings chuck together under their products... Would this cable for example, be100% safe to use with balanced output?
NZ$ 15.33 33%OFF | TRN 16 Core Silver Plated Headphone Cable 2.5mm 3.5mm 4.4mm to 0.75 0.78 2pin mmcx Balanced Hifi Replacement Earphone Cable
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Usabg
Thanking you all very muchly..
 

maxxevv

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The 2.5mm TRRS plug one will work correctly with the DA3 for balanced output.

I use a few similar plugged cables with my IEMs and Headphones with the DA3.
 

Warbles

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The 2.5mm TRRS plug one will work correctly with the DA3 for balanced output.

I use a few similar plugged cables with my IEMs and Headphones with the DA3.
Thank-you so very much for prompt reply. Never fails to move me when such help is at hand for the largely tech-illiterate!
 
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