To be fair, he really doesn't know. He apparently ordered a Marantz after he was told by a Marantz rep (he said he
called them) that "..Because of the low supply, Sound United is only putting the superior AKM 4458 into their ”premium“ brand Marantz."
As I mentioned before, Denon tech support, for some reason has not been very good or useful (in my experience). In this case, their response would be correct for the models made in 2020. For units made in 2021, depending on the manufacturing date, some will have different DAC chips than...
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I have since told him that based on info from Marantz website (and that's in writing so I trust that should be more reliable than what the rep said to him on the call). Regarding which IC is being used on the new units, the only responses in writing from both Denon and Marantz customer support as posted by other ASR members so far has been that they would not share the information.
I have tried multiple times to make the point that we really don't know the facts and are just going in circle reporting hearsay and rumor about which unit gets which ICs.
The only facts based on my own observation on this topic are that there have been photos published on Denon.jp websites (possible other websites too but I don't remember which one now) for the original DAC board and the new one.
For details, refer to my post#89, click one of the link to see the photos:
same feeling after filling up with gasoline in my car and a nice wash: I feel a little more power :D
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I have the photo of the original board only because it copied and pasted it on Excel way back, and that's why the resolution is quite poor. If you enhance and magnify it you can still see that the pinouts look very similar between the two. So if we can trust the Denon.jp website photos, it shows the IC they are using now has very similar pin configuration. Then I Googled for multiple DAC datasheets, and all I could find was that aside from the AKM ICs, only the ESS Sabre DAC ICs have the similar pin numbers (both have 48 pins) and layout So you can draw your own conclusion based on those two DAC board photos if you wish. Other than that, I really don't know how to solve this puzzle without someone doing a tear down of a new unit.
I am getting tired of suggesting that we don't assume the PCM5102A is the replacement chip based on hearsay and rumors, and in doing so, someone might get misled inadvertently and end up making decisions based on inaccurate information. I though I would post on what I know so far, only because I can see that you are taking this DAC chip thing very seriously.
Actually I just remember there may be one more "fact" to point to, that is Geoflux reported there were 7 PCM5102A onboard of his AVR-X3700H. That would be a fact if he did do a tear down and saw those 7 chips.
I just bought a AVR-X6700H manufactured in Nov 2020 - I'm hoping for the best. I should have it by next Weds. I may send my AV8805A to amir if he can test it quick and ship to my eventual EBay buyer. Unless of course, he finds that the ESS DACs somehow improved the performance of the 8805. :)
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That would really puzzle me though because the cost of implementing 7 PCM5102A for the main zone channels would unlikely cost less overall, then implementing just 2 8 channel chips
such as the ES9006. Denon and Marantz have been using the same IC, the AK4458 since 2016(or may be 2017) for their whole AVR line up, from the lowest model to the AVR-X6700H and Marantz SR8015 obviously for standardization reason as that typically means better cost efficiency. So why start using a different board for the 3700, and likely the SR5015 too logically speaking?