Review and Measurements of Hifime UDA38Pro DAC

[amirm]

Weird. 300mA is 3.6 watts at 12V, does the USB spec allow more than 2.5W these days?

The current consumption may have been due to regulator shorting out or something. It was a quick glance though so I may have missed a decimal point on the display. Right now it just shows zeros for amps used.

 

[gvl]

The current consumption may have been due to regulator shorting out or something. It was a quick glance though so I may have missed a decimal point on the display. Right now it just shows zeros for amps used.

Zeroes can't be right? Does the red LED go out when external power is disconnected? Perhaps it is hooked in before the regulators (likely).

 

[andreasmaaan]

I'm surprised by the poor customer service. Earlier this year I bought exactly this DAC but because we were moving apartment at the time it took me a few weeks to get round to unpackaging it and plugging it in. That meant that it was over a month later that I actually listened to it for the first time and realised I didn't want to keep it (the statutory cooling off period is 14 days here).

Despite my late (but very polite) request, they allowed me to return it for a full refund, although I did have to pay return postage. They were pretty responsive and helpful over email though.

 

[Veri]

There was a previous review on the hifime sabre 9018 also, and it wasn't great also... but it wasn't a disaster like this.

I think it's quite safe to say by now, that the 9038Pro chip is a bitch to implement for a nice clean output at least..

 

[Simer]

Purchased it beginning this year, been listening to it for about two weeks, wasn't totally overwhelmed with the sound and then when i got the Topping D50 never used it anymore.
These measurements clearly demonstrate why i preferred the Topping D50 over the UDA38pro. And i say preferred because the Topping died on me, halfway in a song it began to stutter and crackle and went dead. Currently using a Gustard X20pro (2 x ES9028pro) and this sounds 100 times better then the UDA9038pro.

As Amirm said, don't buy a product just because it has a top of the line dac chip, implemention is much more important.

This is the third dac Amirm tested with ES9038pro that goes south.
Is this particular ES chip so hard to implement properly?

To do the implementation you need to spend many hours on testing and so on. That is the difference they produce products on the fly.
It's not the chip the problem. Not working hard is the problem. Again respect for Amir and the effort and money he invested to save our butts.

 

[gvl]

Based on what I came across the high output current from the 9038Pro presents additional challenges when designing output stages, you can't just bolt-on something that worked in the past.

Btw, looks like the 9038Pro chip is $100 a pop, is that right?

 

[amirm]

Zeroes can't be right? Does the red LED go out when external power is disconnected? Perhaps it is hooked in before the regulators (likely).

Yes the LED only comes on with external power. I measured current consumption and it is under 1 milliamp which is just (barely) lighting up the red LED.

I disconnected USB and selected Toslink. I then drove that with my AP. I then connected it to my lab supply and I cannot get any output. I even tried an S-booster power supply with the same results.

Powered it with USB and it now outputs. Exact same horrible output though so the problem is not related to USB vs Toslink.

The external power supply input seems to either be doing nothing (other than lighting the LED) or broken in mine.

 

[Patrick1958]

Based on what I came across the high output current from the 9038Pro presents additional challenges when designing output stages, you can't just bolt-on something that worked in the past.

Btw, looks like the 9038Pro chip is $100 a pop, is that right?

http://www.shawelectronics.com/es9038pro-8-chnl-new.html

 

[amirm]

OK, I sent them a message with a link to this review. Let's see if they acknowledge it and help figure out what is going on.

 

[gvl]

http://www.shawelectronics.com/es9038pro-8-chnl-new.html

Close. I thought delta-sigma chips were supposed to be inexpensive

 

[garbulky]

That level of distortion is clearly very audible. I didn't think that any modern dacs in the last few decades even performed that poorly. Those harmonics were just BAD. They should be ashamed of calling themselves "hifi" in their brand name.

 

[Ron Texas]

This is a particularly important review as it is a warning not to buy this nasty DAC. It's something in production, available, and at a price range which is popular with the member population of ASR.

 

[Zilfallion]

Close. I thought delta-sigma chips were supposed to be inexpensive

There's almost certainly discount bulk pricing available on this type of part. I'd be surprised if any decent size DAC manufacturer was paying 75-100 for them.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Well seems maybe your unit is broken. Not broken as designed just broken.

I also wonder this, does it have the DAC chip claimed or maybe it is something else inside?

 

[gvl]

Well seems maybe your unit is broken. Not broken as designed just broken.

+1. It is just too bad to be true. Perhaps there was a marginal component and 12V fried some part of the power regulation circuit.

I also wonder this, does it have the DAC chip claimed or maybe it is something else inside?

I'm having hard time imagining what DAC chip can result in this level of distortions.

 

[amirm]

1. It is just too bad to be true. Perhaps there was a marginal component and 12V fried some part of the power regulation circuit

I tested it first with USB alone and got that horrible performance. So these are separate problems.

 

[manoy385]

I purchased the Topping NX4 DSD before learning about this site and before Amir's review went up. I was heavily considering the UDA9038Pro before pulling the trigger on the NX4. Looks like I dodged a bullet. Hopefully this is just a defective unit cause I also have their lower end UAE23 (ES9023 chip) and I didn't notice any distortions on that unit even at max volume.

 

[gvl]

I tested it first with USB alone and got that horrible performance. So these are separate problems.

Did you test with USB before or after you connected the unit to 12V? If after, it is possible 12V fried a component and it is now shunting the power rail. Just a thought.

Edit: never mind, you said you tested it first with USB... Still there could have been a busted or semi-busted regulator to begin with.

 

[n2it]

I have one of these - got it a few weeks ago - and don't think these measurements are representative of what I have - I think the test unit could be defective. The only issue I found is when it was powered only by USB, using line out, I was getting clipping on very loud parts of the music when at 100% (it is a variable line out). Once I added a 12 V power source, I have not heard anything negative.

I usually just listen with speakers. So, I just tried with usual test songs with my headphones (beyerdynamic DT 770 - 250 Ohm) and at 3 o'clock (12 v powered), they were quite loud (too loud) with no audible distortion. I turned up to full (i.e up to 11) for just a bit (way too loud), and did not hear any distortion. I played some songs with prominent bass and was not able to get any audible low end distortion.

In subjective listening tests, I can't hear any real difference between the UDA38Pro and the Topping NX4 DSD. Also, the UDA38Pro doesn't use many of the additional features (e.g. filters) of the ES9038pro and if DSD (or DSD upsampling) is important to you, it is limited by its USB interface to DSD 128 (which the Topping NX4 DSD and D50 USB interfaces are capable to 512).

 

[Sythrix]

Finally, I have something to link when someone says "All >$100 DACs sound the same. It doesn't matter."

This is the reason why I continue to support measuring over subjective impressions. There are probably people out there thinking that distorted bass they're hearing is somehow a sign of quality because of this DAC...