Okay, my impressions. Let me introduce myself.
An 48 year old man from Holland, with interest in audio. Interested in Home theater and stereo audio. I've spend to much on this hobby in the past.
I have had a lot. Speakers, receivers, amplifiers, tube-amplifiers, some dacs, etcetera. I even believed for a short while ( a week or so) in better audio cables.
Anyway. I needed a dac for I have to work a lot on a pc now a days. The dac output from my pc to my JDS Atom amp is not that great. Some noise and interference.
First. Why i bought this dac? Affordable. I am not going to spend more on a Chinese dac. For sure when I am buying in China. I have read problems sometimes with Chinese (and other) equipment. I also don't like the 'heat' problems with the newer ESS dacs. Maybe they aren't there with a good implantation. I don't know.
Everything works on the dac. No clicks. I had dacs before that you heard clicking. I had to use audio programs that kept the connection alive between switching tracks. To avoid this sending white noise, is an option. Kodi does this. Tidal add-on and Kodi and the clicking was gone. I think Roon, JRiver and Audirvana does this also. But with this dac it is not needed.
The round knob. That's a knob from a car stereo. That way you will know what I mean. It feels and works exactly like that. I would have liked a nicer sturdier knob. But as often, there is always something to complain.
The sound. Listening with my headphone setup, I can hear things I never heard in songs. I hear the bells ringing. What's that for an instrument? Even now when I am typing!
O, wait. That's the postman at the door for a package delivery.
A clean sound it has, Luke. The force is in this dac. Volume adjusting needs less then using the dac output from my PC (as expected).
The filters, I almost forgot. I have some sensitive ribbon speakers. With them I noticed that a slow filter is somewhat better. Or maybe its my imagination. But hard to tell the differences. On my HD650 I use the sharp roll off filter. The HD650 can use some sharpness.
But I havent listened long enough between the filters, to judge or can say for sure I hear differencess.
I am constantly listening to this dac after the delivery now. A lot of days off from work. I have to work on my Thesis from the undergraduate phase as a 48 old male. Never to late to learn something. For what it's worth. I keep reaching for my headphones.
Will I buy it agian, if I drop it by accident? Yes, I will.
And now I am very curious about the real measurements.