Review and Measurements of Sabaj D5 DAC & Amp

[DeepSpace57]

You agreed that a $100 USB stick dac = full sized $15k dac, you should delete your account.

Quite weird to say ‘yes some little usb sticks beat many overpriced heavy crappy designs’. Size does not matter, what matters is just how it performs, LOL

 

[BDWoody]

You agreed that a $100 USB stick dac = full sized $15k dac, you should delete your account.

Hmmm...yeah....that's really not at all what I said.

What I said was about the sound only, just like my entire initial post, which was in direct response to the posters question.

At this point, you are simply trolling, so no real interest in further ignoring my initial instinct. Either come up with errors in my post explaining why no audible differences should exist...I mean other than because of price difference...or stop trying to claim something you can't support.

Maybe you should take @ahofer up on his $10k offer?

 

[ahofer]

You agreed that a $100 USB stick dac = full sized $15k dac, you should delete your account.

Back it up. In one sense or both. You sound like a good candidate for the blind test challenge. You could win $10k to charity and possibly a pair of Harbeths. For you, maybe the downside is $1k to Amir and delete your own account.

 

[BDWoody]

Are differences of opinion not allowed? If the guy likes his D5 then why does he have to be told he's embarrassing himself?

He's not embarrassing himself because he likes his DAC, nor because of a difference of opinion.
He's embarrassing himself because he's making claims he can't support, while basically trying to demean other contributors.

It's just a lot of confident ignorance.

 

[essence]

Yes. As a designer, builder, modifier, and evaluator of tube preamps for the past 50 years or so, my strong suggestion is "don't."

What balanced preamps would you recommend? Tubes no, LDR no, I did take a liking to BPPBP - Bruno Putzey's Purist Balanced Preamp but wished there was a prebuilt available and anything with half decent specs seems to cost magnitudes above D5's price point, this is one of the reasons the D5 is so value, seeing as the line out is variable.

I am having a problem with my D5 where when I use the SE headphone there's a tiny amount of leakage into the RCA line outputs. Not too much of an issue as I don't use unbalanced headphone output very much.

 

[Kane1972]

I'm going to sound like an idiot here, but how do I test the voltages with my multimeter?

 

[Kane1972]

Hmmm...yeah....that's really not at all what I said.

What I said was about the sound only, just like my entire initial post, which was in direct response to the posters question.

At this point, you are simply trolling, so no real interest in further ignoring my initial instinct. Either come up with errors in my post explaining why no audible differences should exist...I mean other than because of price difference...or stop trying to claim something you can't support.

Maybe you should take @ahofer up on his $10k offer?

Hey, can you link me to this offer? Going to see if I can get anyone to give it a shot! lol

 

[BDWoody]

Hey, can you link me to this offer? Going to see if I can get anyone to give it a shot! lol

It's an offer by @ahofer. He replied right after me.

 

[ahofer]

It's an offer by @ahofer. He replied right after me.

1. It’s $10k to a charity of your choice (a US 501c3 acceptable to Vanguard charitable Endowment)
2. electronics have to measure similarly (by Amir), operate within normal performance envelope, and the blind test conducted and overseen by Amir, but videotaped for audit.
3. And you have to pay Amir $1k if you lose, for his time and effort. (Obv. He can waive that if he wants).

I’ve offered smaller amounts directly to the taker, and other have offered to chip in. But that would take some coordinating, and more people to Ok the terms.

Edit: Oh, I forgot, Alan Shaw of Harbeth offered a pair of speakers. But he will have to agree to terms as well. At any rate, if you are serious there’s clearly more around.

 

[Kane1972]

1. It’s $10k to a charity of your choice (a US 501c3 acceptable to Vanguard charitable Endowment)
2. electronics have to measure similarly (by Amir), operate within normal performance envelope, and the blind test conducted and overseen by Amir, but videotaped for audit.
3. And you have to pay Amir $1k if you lose, for his time and effort. (Obv. He can waive that if he wants).

I’ve offered smaller amounts directly to the taker, and other have offered to chip in. But that would take some coordinating, and more people to Ok the terms.

So a Topping DX7 and Pro-Ject pre box s2 would fit the criteria? What about monitoring, would the challenger get to chose those? Is the test room adequately acoustically "treated"?

 

[Kane1972]

Surely the $1000 losing fee should also go to charity if the winnings do?

 

[ahofer]

Surely the $1000 losing fee should also go to charity if the winnings do?

I pay Amir $1k for his time. if you can pass 9/10 trials. I just figure he should be compensated.

 

[SIY]

What balanced preamps would you recommend? Tubes no, LDR no, I did take a liking to BPPBP - Bruno Putzey's Purist Balanced Preamp but wished there was a prebuilt available and anything with half decent specs seems to cost magnitudes above D5's price point, this is one of the reasons the D5 is so value, seeing as the line out is variable.

I am having a problem with my D5 where when I use the SE headphone there's a tiny amount of leakage into the RCA line outputs. Not too much of an issue as I don't use unbalanced headphone output very much.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of familiarity with commercial equipment- this is one of those things where, if I needed it, I'd just build one. Bruno's design is, of course, excellent, but yeah, you have to break out the soldering iron.

If someone else doesn't have a suggestion, you might do well to look at some pro gear, which is much more likely to have balanced I/O and be free of tweaky design "features."

 

[Enkay25]

Interesting development.


Ontopic: has anyone recieved the usbtool for the firmware upgrade? Mine shows in transit.

Any audible difference in latest 1.4v?
Any change in the menu/filters etc?

 

[AnalogDE]

I'm going to sound like an idiot here, but how do I test the voltages with my multimeter?

Set to Volts mode and make sure leads are on the volts measuring terminals. If you have a picture i can show you...

 

[cinstance]

Set to Volts mode and make sure leads are on the volts measuring terminals. If you have a picture i can show you...

When testing audio output such as a 1kHz wave played, the meter needs to be set to "AC voltage".

 

[AnalogDE]

When testing audio output such as a 1kHz wave played, the meter needs to be set to "AC voltage".

Right.

 

[TorbjornJ]

Also very interested in feedback from the people that have updated their firmware - what was better with the new firmware.
I also have a non functional (90% of the time) wheel, but I can use the remote so it's not a big deal.. but when I am going to sell it in the future it would be nice to have it fixed.

 

[felizecat]

Also very interested in feedback from the people that have updated their firmware - what was better with the new firmware.
I also have a non functional (90% of the time) wheel, but I can use the remote so it's not a big deal.. but when I am going to sell it in the future it would be nice to have it fixed.

That is the kind of feedback I really don't like about a new product. This is the type of comment that leads me to look elsewhere. Hopefully, yours will get fixed soon. Talk about a downer.

 

[zym1010]

Talked to a Sabaj representative. Basically the volume knob issue and various issues on sampling rate switching are fixed (in v1.4 firmware).