Which DAC measurements do you like to see next?

[Xulonn]

Beresford appears to be a small company in the U.K., which like Parasound in San Francisco, California, designs high quality audio gear and has it manufactured in Taiwan. Their $235 Caiman DAC/Preamp/Headphone Amp is their flagship product, and has a devoted following. (I assume that they call it a preamp simply because it has a volume control that can be bypassed.) Stanley Beresford himself sometimes posts at The Art of Sound, an unabashedly subjective-audio oriented forum with about 15k members.

If anyone has a Caiman SEG DAC to loan to Amir, it would be an interesting addition to the ASR collection of DAC tests.

 

[bakker_be]

This one seems interesting: https://www.osaelectronics.com/product/dacberry-pro/ It's even got a TPA6120A2 headphone amp built in

 

[amirm]

This one seems interesting: https://www.osaelectronics.com/product/dacberry-pro/ It's even got a TPA6120A2 headphone amp built in

It is but I can't find a US seller for it. Is there one?

 

[bakker_be]

It is but I can't find a US seller for it. Is there one?

I sent them a message, stating interest for a review on this site

 

[Bhargu]

No replies but unit arrived! It is a very cheap looking device by the way.

Expected that much. Did you listen to it? I wasn't sure if you listen to a unit before measurements. I was waiting for a measurement of this for some time. I was thinking of getting this to take on the go as this looked small and robust enough for throwing into a backpack, without the fear of a battery dying on you, but held off as I saw you were going to measure one.

Could you also measure the peak Vrms (clipping?) at 50 ohms. I usually see you measure at somewhere around 30 ohms and also 300ohms, which is understandable as they seem to be standard values for headphone amp measurements. Only very few manufacturers report at 50 ohms

 

[Frank Dernie]

Beresford appears to be a small company in the U.K., which like Parasound in San Francisco, California, designs high quality audio gear and has it manufactured in Taiwan. Their $235 Caiman DAC/Preamp/Headphone Amp is their flagship product, and has a devoted following. (I assume that they call it a preamp simply because it has a volume control that can be bypassed.) Stanley Beresford himself sometimes posts at The Art of Sound, an unabashedly subjective-audio oriented forum with about 15k members.

If anyone has a Caiman SEG DAC to loan to Amir, it would be an interesting addition to the ASR collection of DAC tests.

View attachment 14329

I have a Caiman Mk2 which used to be in a second system. I am not using since I put a Job INTegrated into this system since it has a built in DAC. I am using an old Original da Vinci CD player as a transport because it looks nice
http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/files/original_da_vinci_237.jpg

I suppose since it is obsolete and I am in England the hassle involved in getting it to Amir wouldn't be worth it.

 

[amirm]

Expected that much. Did you listen to it?

No, I just looked at it in the box. I have not done anything else to it. And yes, I can test 50 ohm load. Just remind me if I forget.

 

[Bhargu]

No, I just looked at it in the box. I have not done anything else to it. And yes, I can test 50 ohm load. Just remind me if I forget.

Thanks for that.

I heard customer opinion that it has an industrial look. Considering Hifime's DIY root, it is to be expected. They seems to be reusing their previous model's chassis.

 

[escalibur]

No, I just looked at it in the box. I have not done anything else to it. And yes, I can test 50 ohm load. Just remind me if I forget.

In case you might be interested in:

I believe the external supply primarily impacts analog and DAC related clock and ICS. As stated on the website, USB still draws about 100mA even with external power. This is for the usb receiver and receiver related clocks and ICs. Not sure if there is true separation. I think there may be some blending when using external power.

But here's the catch: Regardless of USB only or external, there is a pretty noisy regulator that converts the power to +/- voltage for the opamps. There's no way to avoid it. And since the USB power gets used to some degree no matter what, you have to make sure it's clean. So my experience so far has been the DAC sounds best just using the USB power with an external 5v PS attached. Using both USB and external increased volume output, but did not sound as good since I could provide clean power to only the external and not the USB. Unless you have headphones that need a lot of power I would focus just on the USB for power.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=155526.msg1687738#msg1687738

 

[bunkbail]

I am waiting for one to arrive.

Have you received the Katana DAC already? Also, how are you planning to power the DAC, use 1 psu or the recommended 3 psus?

 

[n2it]

Expected that much. Did you listen to it? I wasn't sure if you listen to a unit before measurements. I was waiting for a measurement of this for some time. I was thinking of getting this to take on the go as this looked small and robust enough for throwing into a backpack, without the fear of a battery dying on you, but held off as I saw you were going to measure one.

Could you also measure the peak Vrms (clipping?) at 50 ohms. I usually see you measure at somewhere around 30 ohms and also 300ohms, which is understandable as they seem to be standard values for headphone amp measurements. Only very few manufacturers report at 50 ohms

I do have the device. I haven't really tried with headphones - just the line out (which is variable). If you use only the USB bus for power, it can clip on the line out. Once I powered it separately (it has a 5 to 12 v input), no more clipping. I mention this as I suspect in your case that you want @amirm to test without additional power and also mention this so that Amir does test it with separate power for the rest of us.

 

[Bhargu]

I am looking for peak values. One with additional DC power will do. Measurements with only USB power might be useful for comparison or baseline of levels or noise characteristics.

 

[n2it]

In case you might be interested in:
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=155526.msg1687738#msg1687738

I haven't done a huge amount lot of listening of this one yet, but I have not heard any negative effects (i.e. noise) from using the additional power (which as I mentioned 2 posts back is needed to avoid clipping on the line out at full level).

 

[Veri]

Had diyinhk sent a DXIO PRO3Z spdif converter to Amir, 2018 XMOS XU216 device. Excited to see how it will perform
USB>SPDIF might not be necessary for many but SPDIF helps with my noisy/spotty USB ports.

 

[miero]

Audioprobe Spartan A (€ 123) is a pretty good USB DAC/ADC with balanced and headphone outputs.

http://audio-probe.com/en/product/audio-interface-en/spartan-a-en/

Unfortunatelly ADC part of my piece required a small SMD mod that disabled PWM for signal level LED indicators which influenced input signal at levels between -31.5 dBFS and -6.5 dBFS. I consulted this issue with manufacturer I got a following mod suggestion - http://mr.ieero.com/pub/AudioProbe_Spartan_A/AudioProbe-Spartan-A-mod-instructions.png

(photos of PCB + mod) https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=15jJt7jk_ADUt185d4YQHRANCPHnfPvE5

Here are my ADC focused measurements after the mod in a loopback (Notice: generated output signal is not a full scale, but -16dBFS):

 

[miero]

Measurements in a loopback before the mod. However that PWM LED issue influences mostly ADC part, so its DAC might be good enough with active monitors for example.

 

[yummy]

hey folks, any interests in NT-505? pretty easy to get one (used or new), dual ak4497, would like to see the actual measurememts,

Japanese always don't write the real specs, just too humble, thd+n = 0.002%, man

 

[amirm]

hey folks, any interests in NT-505?

I reviewed the NT-503 a while back: https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...asurements-of-teac-nt-503-networked-dac.2028/

What is different about 505?

 

[Dodo974]

Hello,

Another new dac: the Pro iDSD from ifi-audio

https://ifi-audio.com/portfolio-view/pro-idsd/

Perhaps a "little" expensive : around 3000€

 

[Veri]

Hello,

Another new dac: the Pro iDSD from ifi-audio

https://ifi-audio.com/portfolio-view/pro-idsd/

Perhaps a "little" expensive : around 3000€

€2,749.00 actually! Too much when you put it next to Benchmark/RME imo. If it was half their asking price I'd buy it.