Lavaudio DS600 Review (Stereo DAC)

[GGroch]

Duh.....I just noticed that the newly released Lavaudio DS600 1.2 looks different from the 1.1, so you should be able to see which you have without opening it up.

• The Version 1.1 says "Lavaudio" on the top, "DS600" is on the front left and "DSD" on the front right, plus their are 2 "Hi-Res" stickers on top/
• The Version 1.2 says "Lavaudio Just for Fever" on top, "DSD" is on the left and "DS600" on the right, plus 1 long sticker on the top right.

Which did you get? Mine is due in today. After hoping for the opposite for a year, I am hoping for fever when it arrives

 

[alexis]

Duh.....I just noticed that the newly released Lavaudio DS600 1.2 looks different from the 1.1, so you should be able to see which you have without opening it up.

• The Version 1.1 says "Lavaudio" on the top, "DS600" is on the front left and "DSD" on the front right, plus their are 2 "Hi-Res" stickers on top/
• The Version 1.2 says "Lavaudio Just for Fever" on top, "DSD" is on the left and "DS600" on the right, plus 1 long sticker on the top right.

Which did you get? Mine is due in today. After hoping for the opposite for a year, I am hoping for fever when it arrives

I have the 1.1

Is it worth to swap the 5532 out?

 

[GGroch]

....Is it worth to swap the 5532 out?

Swapping the op amp in the Topping D50 DAC was discussed here. I agree with the sentiment. DACS are designed with extreme precision, the DS600 measures near perfect, Changing out the 5532 would be more likely to be detrimental, or make no difference, than to improve it.

On the other hand, some sweet star-quad patch cords with amphenol connectors....those are sure to raise the fever

 

[silverD]

I'm also fever free...and glad it's not printed on it.

 

[alexis]

So I've been using for several days. The DAC is not all stable. It will stop having sound. I either restart the computer or restart the dac. I thought this was I changed the USB driver setting initially. After I switch back to "Extra Safe", the situation improved but still occasionally would be no sound. Anyone has the same issue?

 

[GGroch]

Mine, a version 1.1, works perfectly. I left it at the default "Safe" and 2048 samples. Certainly try a different USB cable and USB port. Good Luck.

 

[alexis]

Mine, a version 1.1, works perfectly. I left it at the default "Safe" and 2048 samples. Certainly try a different USB cable and USB port. Good Luck.

I also have D90 which is pretty stable. I opened D90's driver and it sets at 512 samples. I changed that to 2048 and see if that crashes. In DS600, if I set it to 512, it would tell me it's too small.

 

[arunix]

Duh.....I just noticed that the newly released Lavaudio DS600 1.2 looks different from the 1.1, so you should be able to see which you have without opening it up.

• The Version 1.1 says "Lavaudio" on the top, "DS600" is on the front left and "DSD" on the front right, plus their are 2 "Hi-Res" stickers on top/
• The Version 1.2 says "Lavaudio Just for Fever" on top, "DSD" is on the left and "DS600" on the right, plus 1 long sticker on the top right.

Which did you get? Mine is due in today. After hoping for the opposite for a year, I am hoping for fever when it arrives

I received mine today and from your description it's the v1.2 model.

 

[GGroch]

I received mine today and from your description it's the v1.2 model.

Congratulations!! You got the 1.2 FEVER! The listing says the 1.2 comes with a USB power adapter which those of us with 1.1 did not get.

I doubt Amir has time to test the same DAC twice, but because Lavaudio claims significantly better 1.2 specs it would be interesting to see if it measures that way. To the rest of us who are feverless, we must make do knowing the 1.1 specs are plenty perfect enough.

I also have D90 which is pretty stable....

Alexis, I think correctly working DACS should be very stable not pretty stable. Unless you are doing something odd. It's probably worth uninstalling all your DACS and Drivers and trying again, only installing the Lavaudio by itself.

 

[GGroch]

Social distance bored so I opened my version 1.1 up and took some photos:

Mine board is indeed 1.1. It is surprisingly easy to open if you are careful, just 5 total Philips screws. The board fits back in very precisely, so work slow. All of the components are as described, so if they are fake they are deep fakes. The labeled parts are the same as what shows on the current v1.2 listing on Amazon (the 1.2 listing photo has been fixed to indicate dual ES9038Q2Ms) except, the two OPA1612 op amps in ver 1.2 are OPA1642a here. The 2 caps are labeled Elna. I see there was a mod done, wires added but nicely black gooped. The machined top case is more elaborate than I expected and nicely finished inside and out.

 

[NJC]

The new version comes with a power supply? The site states an output voltage via RCA of 2.85 volts which would be nice to have over standard 2 volts. Upgraded caps too?

 

[stumper3819]

You guys with version 1.1, were you fortunate enough to score it for $130? Maybe they were blowing them out to make room for version 1.2. They are going for $195 w/coupon on Amazon. What do you guys think of it so far? Good bang for buck? Thanks

 

[GGroch]

Now available in deja vu black.

 

[spritemast66]

i got the V1.2 and these are the internals for the dac if anyone is interestee in the difference between v1.1 and v1.2 . I have a modi 3+ which i prefer over this board. The modi makes the music sound more lively like which is probably schiits signature sound. The DS600 imo is a solid dac as long as you dont have another dac to compare to.

 

[GGroch]

Welcome spritemast66!
Thank you for adding the photo.

Amir has tested the Modi 3+ and it tests great, like most recent DACs do.

If you look at the long colored ranking graph in his test, both the Modi 3+ and the Version 1.1 DS600 are in the top group (blue). Your 1.2 would probably test a bit better than the 1.1 or Modi. But, the measurements of all of them in the blue group are so good as to be indistinguishable.

I think most of the ASR crowd here do not believe you can hear ANY differences between the DACs in that blue group in a blind test. All of them have extremely low distortion and near perfect frequency response....so none of them should have a signature sound.

The problem is, unless you do a blind test (have someone switch between them without you knowing which one is playing)....all of us will think we hear differences. That's how our ears/brains work.

If you are doing a listening test, it is vital they both be outputting exactly the same volume....the louder one will almost always sound better. This may be a little difficult because the Modi does not have its own volume control...so if it is louder than the DS600 at 100% you will need to adjust in software. Of course, make sure you have the right drivers installed if needed (the DS600 windows drivers are on the Lavaudio site.).

Still, we all have our preferences...its just that well designed DACs are so perfect that the sound is not the reason for the preference.

 

[AdamG]

i got the V1.2 and these are the internals for the dac if anyone is interestee in the difference between v1.1 and v1.2 . I have a modi 3+ which i prefer over this board. The modi makes the music sound more lively like which is probably schiits signature sound. The DS600 imo is a solid dac as long as you dont have another dac to compare to.

Welcome Aboard @spritemast66.

 

[spritemast66]

I agree with you @GGroch They are extremely similar. I was going back and forth between the two dacs on some DT1990s and Drops thx 789. I was using my phone so it could have been an issue with the compatibility between the dacs and my phone. Anyways Thanks for the welcome guys!

 

[Radioman55]

Received DS-600 v1.2 upgraded today.
At first glance looks like a well built silver brick or say a D50s clone, with an old fashioned toggle power switch & 3.5mm front HP jack. At first observation, the DAC sounds quite bright with high level of gain (+2.5v), boosted mid & high range, not too bad but sounds different when compared to D50s.

The HP part sounds bust or plainly broken!

May be Armin could review this 1.2 version and can share his findings with us.

 

[Radioman55]

They are selling for $200 mark. I'm betting that they make decent profit from that MSRP, and consumers might believe they are buying a D50/D50s, while it is a knock-off. Not a terrible one mind you, but still.

The D50s does sound much, much different when compared with the LS-600 v1.2..

 

[GGroch]

The D50s does sound much, much different when compared with the LS-600 v1.2..

I am skeptical of your conclusion. The DS600 DAC outputs could not sound much different from the D50 unless Lavaudio is totally falsifying its published measurements of the 1.2. Lavaudio's published measurements of the v1.1 are extremely close to what Amirm measured.

If you read Amir's test, the weakness of the headphone out should be no surprise to you. There is no headphone amp...they just ran wires from the read audio outs to the front 3.5mm jack.

As you noted, the 1.2 has higher maximum output than the 1.1. If you feed it's max output to an amp that cannot handle it, then it would of course sound different as the amp's input distorts. A valid comparison would require the 1.2's variable output be lowered to match that of the D50.

I have a v1.1 and a D50 and they sound identical to me. Of course, the headphone output of the 1.1, while weak, is a good bit louder than that on the D50. I got in on the brief half off deal on a black 1.2 last week, it arrives Monday so I should be able to directly compare then and provide another subjective opinion..