This is my first post / thread in this forum.
I have been reading extensively many sections of this wonderful website and i am glad to be part of the community now.
I am interested in finding an affordable solution for a DAC or independent DAP that is capable of outputting multichannel audio through RCA unbalanced to my receiver for listening to my collection of SACDs and generally dsd multichannel audio. I know that most audiophile SACD players (if not all?) are two channel solutions and that most album releases are mainly in stereo, but there are some really important recordings or remastered re-releases of historical classical concerts that interest me. Those are a whole different experience when heard from a multi-channel setup.
This topic has been thoroughly discussed and so far there are only a few options available. For native DSD playback, an Okto DAC8 for example (need to convert balanced outputs to unbalanced RCA) or an exasound E38 + exasound PP (if someone wants it as a DAP, that also has an absolutely correct DSD gapless playback), but these are some extremely high quality and expensive solutions.
A more affordable solution is (or better was) the discontinued Topping DM7. I wish the company would release a similarly (or lower) priced version with RCA unbalanced outputs only, as it would fit my personal DAC needs for good considering DSD multichannel playback alone.
If someone doesn't mind converting to PCM, which means no pure DSD decoding there are very cheap solutions like the ESI Gigaport (which i know is a noisy device) or similar 6-8 channel solutions.
I found this interesting sale on Aliexpress of a device that is of questionable quality, both in terms of build quality and audio quality that it is able to give through its outputs.
What is more interesting is the video on the link. I don't know if i am allowed to post the link to the aliexpress sale, so i will only post the video link.
We can clearly see that this relatively inexpensive player is playing DSD files (both DSD64 and DSD128) in 5.1 as shown in the display. This player has 6 RCA multichannel unbalanced outputs and is able to play DSD files including ISOs and DSTs in both 2 channel and 5.1 channel configurations.
I have never seen this in another device of such low cost.
After my first excitement, i noticed that the chip used is the ES9023P PCM only dac. Which apparently means that there is a DSD --> PCM conversion that allows the player to output 5.1 channel audio playback from such high res audio files. (with possibly devastating audio degradation?)
I remember back in the days when most universal DVD players that could playback SACD discs would use the MT1389 MPEG IC that would decode DSD and convert it to a 88.2KHz 24bit PCM stream to feed a basic PCM dac chip with audible (and measurable) degradation.
It would be interesting to know what kind of conversion is going on in this chinese DAP as it would be interesting if that is higher than 88.2KHz 24 bit PCM.
Another variant that i have found is this one:
Although this one states clearly that it has a DSD capable ES9038PRO chip and an LME49720 opamp. Could this provide a pure dsd multichannel playback?
SACD players made nowadays are only high-end models from reputable makers, costing thousands of dollars. Still they are not able to offer multichannel DSD playback as the old universal players like the Denon DVD-2910 did.
So i am still looking for an affordable solution to this, as my Denon / Yamaha and little Samsung Universal DVD/-A/SACD players have started showing signs of age on their laser pickup assy's. Also a lot of my SACD original pressed discs have started showing signs of wear and i can hear tiny pauses during playback or even the player comes to a halt and requires power off and power on again.
If this performs well enough with an adequate dynamic range and low distortion, it could be a solution for multichannel DSD playback, even though it isn't a "pure DSD" one .
Does anyone have an experience with this player? How does it sound? Do we have any measurements that provide some scientific data on how it performs?
Do we know of any recent attempts or products that are similar to the Topping DM7 or anything that is based on a respectable dac chip and provides pure DSD ouput through RCA, a DAC or a DAP or both in one device?
I have been reading extensively many sections of this wonderful website and i am glad to be part of the community now.
I am interested in finding an affordable solution for a DAC or independent DAP that is capable of outputting multichannel audio through RCA unbalanced to my receiver for listening to my collection of SACDs and generally dsd multichannel audio. I know that most audiophile SACD players (if not all?) are two channel solutions and that most album releases are mainly in stereo, but there are some really important recordings or remastered re-releases of historical classical concerts that interest me. Those are a whole different experience when heard from a multi-channel setup.
This topic has been thoroughly discussed and so far there are only a few options available. For native DSD playback, an Okto DAC8 for example (need to convert balanced outputs to unbalanced RCA) or an exasound E38 + exasound PP (if someone wants it as a DAP, that also has an absolutely correct DSD gapless playback), but these are some extremely high quality and expensive solutions.
A more affordable solution is (or better was) the discontinued Topping DM7. I wish the company would release a similarly (or lower) priced version with RCA unbalanced outputs only, as it would fit my personal DAC needs for good considering DSD multichannel playback alone.
If someone doesn't mind converting to PCM, which means no pure DSD decoding there are very cheap solutions like the ESI Gigaport (which i know is a noisy device) or similar 6-8 channel solutions.
I found this interesting sale on Aliexpress of a device that is of questionable quality, both in terms of build quality and audio quality that it is able to give through its outputs.
What is more interesting is the video on the link. I don't know if i am allowed to post the link to the aliexpress sale, so i will only post the video link.
We can clearly see that this relatively inexpensive player is playing DSD files (both DSD64 and DSD128) in 5.1 as shown in the display. This player has 6 RCA multichannel unbalanced outputs and is able to play DSD files including ISOs and DSTs in both 2 channel and 5.1 channel configurations.
I have never seen this in another device of such low cost.
After my first excitement, i noticed that the chip used is the ES9023P PCM only dac. Which apparently means that there is a DSD --> PCM conversion that allows the player to output 5.1 channel audio playback from such high res audio files. (with possibly devastating audio degradation?)
I remember back in the days when most universal DVD players that could playback SACD discs would use the MT1389 MPEG IC that would decode DSD and convert it to a 88.2KHz 24bit PCM stream to feed a basic PCM dac chip with audible (and measurable) degradation.
It would be interesting to know what kind of conversion is going on in this chinese DAP as it would be interesting if that is higher than 88.2KHz 24 bit PCM.
Another variant that i have found is this one:
Although this one states clearly that it has a DSD capable ES9038PRO chip and an LME49720 opamp. Could this provide a pure dsd multichannel playback?
SACD players made nowadays are only high-end models from reputable makers, costing thousands of dollars. Still they are not able to offer multichannel DSD playback as the old universal players like the Denon DVD-2910 did.
So i am still looking for an affordable solution to this, as my Denon / Yamaha and little Samsung Universal DVD/-A/SACD players have started showing signs of age on their laser pickup assy's. Also a lot of my SACD original pressed discs have started showing signs of wear and i can hear tiny pauses during playback or even the player comes to a halt and requires power off and power on again.
If this performs well enough with an adequate dynamic range and low distortion, it could be a solution for multichannel DSD playback, even though it isn't a "pure DSD" one .
Does anyone have an experience with this player? How does it sound? Do we have any measurements that provide some scientific data on how it performs?
Do we know of any recent attempts or products that are similar to the Topping DM7 or anything that is based on a respectable dac chip and provides pure DSD ouput through RCA, a DAC or a DAP or both in one device?
