Saidera actuallally, I do not have s8 at all, only Meizu HiFi DAC(non-pro, today taobao offers for $14. Highly recommended, must have!) but as I said, both devices have the same DAC chip without a buffer opamp, hence, they have good performance only without load. Meizu HiFi DAC Pro has the buffer and should perform under the load better.
I have to say, that dirt-cheap Meizu HiFi DAC(and s8 tempotec as well, because it is the same bare Cirrus DAC chip) anyway outperforms tonnes of ifi/fio/ibasso at 32ohm load because most of them never care about technical specs at all. Cirrus made the chip which makes high-performance audio simple as never before. If we compare that with ES9038Q2M which requires external power rails, at least two opamps per channel for I/V and buffering, CS43131needs datasheet-like connection with a few surrounding passive parts, that's it. All power rails made internally, all opamps inside too. However, if you are really audio-geek, you can notice that CS43131 based DACs all have exactly the same performance, like twins. ES9038Q2M with decent I/V, clock, low-noise power, and buffer give you a chance to get a top-level of performance, way better vs CS43131, however, poorly cooked ES9038Q2M may have shameful performance(DF cobalt THD+N -70db i.e. 11-12 bit of the actual resolution!), CS43131 never just because the chance to cook that wrong was dramatically reduced by Cirrus. Bravo, Cirrus Logic!
PS:
But even ALC5686 which has SNR 120 dB forget about that BS, many company if unlucky with reaching the needed specs use that naive trick. They show you the "SNR" with the switched off DAC's outputs, so-called auto-mute gate or so. You need to check the ONLY Dynamic Range instead of "SNR", DR is equal to real SNR*(-1). I was surprized that even AKM goes this way and trying to deceive with their cheap DACs like AK4377. Of course some manufacturers just copied that fake "SNR" from the datasheet to their products specs without measurements.
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