SONCOZ SGD1 Audio DAC Review

[raif71]

Aii, like a USB to spdif converter. But would it’s volume control still be in play ?

I would guess no...it's just a digital signal out of the coax which goes into another amp or receiver that will control the volume. I have an old Fiio dap (X3II) that has a coax out which I can basically connect to the receiver to get good quality music out of the speakers. Volume of the dap will have no effect and only the receiver controls the volume. I have other dap and phone which have no coax out but only usb and if some device has something like you say USB to spdif, then that would be useful.

 

[amirm]

How could the hump escape the designer with all the drama about it on this forum?

The solution is not well-known. It is also not easy to copy.

 

[gvl]

The solution is not well-known. It is also not easy to copy.

Maybe so, but it's just given the sensitivity to this issue on these boards (it's all your fault BTW) I don't know if this review is going to help the sales or the opposite.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Maybe so, but it's just given the sensitivity to this issue on these boards (it's all your fault BTW) I don't know if this review is going to help the sales or the opposite.

The best scenario is
-asr exposed the imd hump
-manufacturer fixed it
-new revision released
-win win

 

[gvl]

Sure, but manufacturer likely knew about it all along as it was the main critique for the KTB, so why it had to be exposed here in order to be fixed?

 

[JohnYang1997]

Sure, but manufacturer likely knew about it all along as it was the main critique for the KTB, so why it had to be exposed here in order to be fixed?

Or maybe they think it's not an issue. Idk. Or they had to trade off imd for noise performance. This is the best noise performance from 9038q2m so far.

 

[maxxevv]

Or maybe they think it's not an issue. Idk. Or they had to trade off imd for noise performance. This is the best noise performance from 9038q2m so far.

Engineering is always about trade-offs for what is perceived as important and what is not to the designer.

I run into that almost daily in my work. It may be a conscious decision from the designer.

 

[gvl]

It almost doesn't matter what they think, as now it's just another ESS DAC with IMD hump. Had they fix it the DAC would have been a champ.

 

[raif71]

You either triumph over the hump for measurement's sake or still be triumphant with the hump coz the hump is not audible, right?

 

[miero]

To me it seems that an engineer has to choose between hump or worse distortion:
- https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ess-thd-‘hump’-investigation.5752/post-173343

 

[JohnYang1997]

You either triumph over the hump or still be triumphant with the hump with the use of current ess dac coz the hump is not audible, right?

It can be audible with high dynamic range music and cracked at high volume. -67db and around -70db is possibly audible. And it's worse kind of distortion than harmonic distortion.

 

[JohnYang1997]

To me it seems that an engineer has to choose between hump or worse distortion:
- https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/ess-thd-‘hump’-investigation.5752/post-173343

D50s with 9038q2m is solid on both. And there are many 9038pro implementations with even better performance.

 

[777]

Probably the instrumentation amplifier solve IMD hump.

 

[Veri]

Or maybe they think it's not an issue. Idk. Or they had to trade off imd for noise performance. This is the best noise performance from 9038q2m so far.

I do think so. Perfect linearity, perfect multitone. Too bad about IMD hump but is it audible? Most likely no. At the same time we're looking at Matrix X-Sabre performance in $400 ballpark.

So I'd say "Nice".

 

[JohnYang1997]

Also the second and third harmonics are under -140db is just incredible even with thd compensation.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

We both have the same analyzer so the question becomes who is better looking. I vote for myself:

Recently shaved the chest hair though as I was getting too popular around here....

You musta cleaned up at the discos in the '70s.

 

[JohnYang1997]

@amirm Can we have a spectrum of SMPTE at -35dB just to visualize how the distortion looks like on this device? Thanks.

 

[Tks]

I do think so. Perfect linearity, perfect multitone. Too bad about IMD hump but is it audible? Most likely no. At the same time we're looking at Matrix X-Sabre performance in $400 ballpark.

So I'd say "Nice".

Tbh, I either listen to my device with the amp Maxed out, and the DAC output being variable, but mostly very low output to offset the high amp volume setting. Or mostly DAC at max level, and then mess around with the amp volume knob.

Either way, I never really would find myself troubled with that hump practically speaking. It's mostly just a feels thing (engineering excellence in the same way aesthetic excellence that folks may desire). Also it upsets me in principle, how ESS can let this out on the market, worse yet, no indication of any revisions coming, no recalls, and worse yet, no new next gen chips. It seems they themselves are having to contest with this hump issue and perhaps themselves don't even know how to fix it and somehow offer an appreciable difference in their next planned chips.

Meanwhile AKM, well they're doing great as we can see by the D90 measurements.

So I don't mind people using these chips if they can squeeze out this level of performance for this price. I just wish they would shun ESS a bit until they get their act together.

 

[WolfX-700]

@amirm Can we have a spectrum of SMPTE at -35dB just to visualize how the distortion looks like on this device? Thanks.

I've already done this. I'll post it when I get home from work (about half an hour).

 

[JohnYang1997]

I've already done this. I'll post it when I get home from work (about half an hour).

Awesome!