Yulong Aquila II DAC and Headphone Amp Review

[amirm]

I guess then I don't really know what your criterion is for what you would buy if you were looking for one at any time.

It is a subjective, judgement call. It is wisdom as opposed to knowledge. After testing hundreds of DACs, I have a sense of what satisfies me, and what doesn't. The decision is binary and forced. You must make a choice.

You all can assign your own recommendation metric based on consensus and see how far you get.

 

[Tks]

Are there any studies to show at what level a panel of listeners can tell the difference in A/B trials between top-level (better than 120 dB ) SINAD and lower-performing DACs? Where is the audibility point?

Of course not, seeing as how up only until recently no one actually knew how good any of these devices performed to even fathom initiating such trials to begin with. It'd be like talking about space flight before airplanes existed. Not only that, no one was really keeping track of SINAD in measurements all that much, most people are more concerned with other metrics that tell a more complete picture.

Also, no one really knows where the threshold is because other factors sometimes manifest. There's a guy on YT that played back the performance of a bunch of devices, one of which was the DX7 Pro (119dB SINAD device), and I AB'd it with success(obviously he's recording the output of his HD800 to binuaral mics, so that maybe changes things). But what does that mean when I sometimes can't AB between my RME dac and my phone?

So yeah, I haven't seen any SINAD trails plainly put. Maybe someone can correct me here.

 

[jae]

I have a DX7 Pro and am happy to have it. But the conclusions seem harsh. It’s in the blue and plenty of power for headphones. Did I miss the impedance metric? In any case, there are plenty of $1k+ DACs that don’t come anywhere close. And there’s no audible difference to any DAC to the left of it anyway.

Only reason why I didn't get the DX7 was because of the output impedance

 

[Vasr]

Is the reason to necessarily compare with the DX7 Pro instead of a Schiit Modius/Magnius combo at $400 only because of the display and the single box?

 

[jae]

Is the reason to necessarily compare with the DX7 Pro instead of a Schiit Modius/Magnius combo at $400 only because of the display and the single box?

Product type, price point, features, build quality, exact same dac chip, both chinese/competitor companies...etc

 

[w1000i]

@amirm Can you try jitter for optical with JIC enabled in DAC

The idea that optical, USB and other input should perform the same for jitter. can you confirm the result.

 

[Thomas savage]

It is a subjective, judgement call. It is wisdom as opposed to knowledge. After testing hundreds of DACs, I have a sense of what satisfies me, and what doesn't. The decision is binary and forced. You must make a choice.

You all can assign your own recommendation metric based on consensus and see how far you get.

This is a ok DAC , fairly ok price , decent HP amp. I kinda like the style of it personally. I can't get excited about it though so can see why it's not ' recommend '.

Anyone who wants to buy it can go ahead , no one here is stopping you lol Those having a reality crisis based on the recommended status of this thing I'd suggest cognitive behavioural therapy failing that a good few beers and some ' offline ' socialising .

 

[YSC]

this actually looks like competitive in my book, solely because it goes to >100 db SINAD with plenty of power on tap for headphone, analogue volume control (which avoids the SINAD degradation when changing volume) and does not cost a few kidneys to buy, at this performance point it's more like buying a car solely for travelling to work, once pass that point of enough power and space, the rest goes to how much extra you want to pay for the extra performance or luxury.

 

[samsa]

this actually looks like competitive in my book, solely because it goes to >100 db SINAD with plenty of power on tap...

It's competitive on performance, but on price? Compared to the Topping L30 ($130) or the JDS Atom Amp ($99) or ... ?

At $640, I would want this to perform better and look more attractive. Granted, the goalposts have moved, but this is 2020.

 

[w1000i]

It's competitive on performance, but on price? Compared to the Topping L30 ($130) or the JDS Atom Amp ($99) or ... ?

At $640, I would want this to perform better and look more attractive. Granted, the goalposts have moved, but this is 2020.

It has an FPGA to clock all input to the same quality, but @amrim didn't evaluate other input unfortunately like optical

 

[JohnYang1997]

It has an FPGA to clock all input to the same quality, but @amrim didn't evaluate other input unfortunately like optical

But considering the USB input isn't even that good especially for ESS based dac. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/okto-dac8-stereo-dac-review.14705/ This is what to look up to.

 

[PeteL]

It has an FPGA to clock all input to the same quality, but @amrim didn't evaluate other input unfortunately like optical

Yes I'd like to see that too, not that very often you find a FPGA on a fairly priced product. The Idea is not wrong, but obviously USB is not the right interface to test that feature, being Asynchronous, any Jitter would be Intrinsic. It's certainly a pricy choice compared to just go with standard spdif receivers, that do a simple clock recovery and resync. going with a FIFO, you are basically turning the spdif protocol in a asynchronous protocol, fully synced to the internal clocking. The question then become, how jitter free is that master clock. It would not do any effect on the USB, but I'm still surprised jitter distortion is not better than that, because going to those lenght to buffer and repush samples, you would think that it would come with exceptional clocking, all the inputs would have the same performance, but still limited. In any case what we see here is still an improvement on about any optical interface that I know. If we see that it's already good, but the concept could get you better, but again... Compromised. You can't put a pair of 20$ crystals in a product that price just to say you have jitter in the femto seconds, It has to make sense.

 

[Veri]

Yes I'd like to see that too, not that very often you find a FPGA on a fairly priced product.

A ton of DACs come with an Altera FPGA programmed to do re-clocking duties. Not that unique.

 

[PeteL]

A ton of DACs come with an Altera FPGA programmed to do re-clocking duties. Not that unique.

Thanks for the precision, any model you think ofin this price range?

 

[Veri]

Thanks for the precision, any model you think ofin this price range?

From the top of my head, SMSL SU-8, SMSL D1, SMSL M400. All DACs though, not dac+amp. If you look at teardown it is easily recognisible:

 

[w1000i]

But considering the USB input isn't even that good especially for ESS based dac. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/okto-dac8-stereo-dac-review.14705/ This is what to look up to.

But what if optical jitter will be like USB which is not the case with other DAC. the optical will cut source noise and RF and if the jitter performance like it USB then it better than any other DAC with optical

Update: Okto dac8 stereo really good with other input

 

[Vasr]

It's competitive on performance, but on price? Compared to the Topping L30 ($130) or the JDS Atom Amp ($99) or ... ?

This is a DAC+Balanced Pre-amp+Headphone Amp. The others you have listed are just analog headphone amp/pre-amp. If you are saying you don't need the stuff your "comparable" units don't have, then this is not the product for you.

The cheapest alternative for a balanced combo with good measurements is the $400 Schiit Modius/Magnius. This unit adds a display, pre-out volume control and DSD capability which adds to that price. What else am I missing to include?

However, is it worth the entire $240 price differential for those features? Hard to say. It does seem a bit overpriced to me even accounting for the more expensive DAC chip. Applies to DX7 Pro as well.

 

[w1000i]

Other point, This DAC can disable ASRC ESS and as reported from Z-review it change the sound but he couldn't describe it. Other reviews said it smooth the sound more than ASRC with gentle presentations.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Other point, This DAC can disable ASRC ESS and as reported from Z-review it change the sound but he couldn't describe it. Other reviews said it smooth the sound more than ASRC with gentle presentations.

ASRC and internal PLL are the best things about ESS based chip(as well as no pop). They completely eliminate jitters of any kind. Hence in no way anyone should disable them and implement their own inferior versions of them.
Using AK based chip is a different story.

 

[YSC]

This is a DAC+Balanced Pre-amp+Headphone Amp. The others you have listed are just analog headphone amp/pre-amp. If you are saying you don't need the stuff your "comparable" units don't have, then this is not the product for you.

The cheapest alternative for a balanced combo with good measurements is the $400 Schiit Modius/Magnius. This unit adds a display, pre-out volume control and DSD capability which adds to that price. What else am I missing to include?

However, is it worth the entire $240 price differential for those features? Hard to say. It does seem a bit overpriced to me even accounting for the more expensive DAC chip. Applies to DX7 Pro as well.

Same as my thought, and hey it's the Audio world where a single small function extra often make a double price jump for no reason!

So for me personally as long as it's not organ selling expensive with unperceived distortion figure what matters are:
1) functions, be that you choose what suits you
2) power for headphone amp if you are planning to use one
3) look and size