Which DAC measurements do you like to see next?

[Merkurio]

@amirm I encourage you to try and measure some well reputed and inexpensive recent DAPs such as the popular Shanling M0 or the new Xduoo X3II (both cost roughly 100 dollars and seems like they've great features and measurements for the price).

It would be very informative and useful for all of us looking for a nice little DAP without break the wallet (and for the community as a whole).

 

[amirm]

Testing DAPs is very tedious since my analyzer cannot control them. I would have to load up files one at a time and perform async operations. I can be enticed to test them but it will require a lot of motivation.

 

[Wombat]

USB phono preamps pleeeeze. Easy vinyl ripping.

e.g. NAD PP4

 

[Veri]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009WN7QT4/ cheap dac that is somewhat popular on amazon

https://stoneracoustics.com/udx/ https://stoneracoustics.com/udxa/ AKM4497 DAC that seems well put together and with decent mean-well power supply.. hope a device gets measured eventually with one of these new AKM velvet sound chips. I wonder if it holds up against the ESS 9038Pro

 

[andreasmaaan]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009WN7QT4/ cheap dac that is somewhat popular on amazon

https://stoneracoustics.com/udx/ https://stoneracoustics.com/udxa/ AKM4497 DAC that seems well put together and with decent mean-well power supply.. hope a device gets measured eventually with one of these new AKM velvet sound chips. I wonder if it holds up against the ESS 9038Pro

The RME ADI-2 DAC uses the AKM4490 and measured exceptionally when @amirm reviewed it earlier this year.

 

[Krunok]

USB phono preamps pleeeeze. Easy vinyl ripping.

e.g. NAD PP4

@Wombat Few of my my friends are using this one made by Rega and all are very happy with it.

http://www.rega.co.uk/fono-mini-a2d.html

 

[Krunok]

The RME ADI-2 DAC uses the AKM4490 and measured exceptionally when @amirm reviewed it earlier this year.

It's what is behind DAC what counts..

 

[andreasmaaan]

It's what is behind DAC what counts..

Yes.

 

[Veri]

The RME ADI-2 DAC uses the AKM4490 and measured exceptionally when @amirm reviewed it earlier this year.

It's really just out of pure curiosity. The AKM4497 is AKM's flagship. The ESS Sabre 9038Pro is ESS's flagship. We've seen excellent performance of both the 4490 and (a well-implemented) 9038 so far, but I've no clue if the 4497 is worthy of the flagship name. Potential differences are probably well under audible thresholds I'm sure but it would be fun to see 4490's theoretical limits surpassed

 

[Krunok]

.. I've no clue if the 4497 is worthy of the flagship name.

Just look at RME ADI-2 DAC and there's your clue.

 

[yummy]

don't lure Amirm into useless stuff

 

[yummy]

I strongly advice to skip the DAC measurement there's nothing special new or old out there right now, until the Topping dual ES9038pro comes out, or the SMSL D1 which is in stock (dual ES9038pro) but it cost $1,000 and won't touch -120db thd+n 20 - 20 khz uwt

 

[Veri]

I strongly advice to skip the DAC measurement

but but... isn't that what I refresh the homepage for every day, exciting new DAC measurement? what ever will I live for then lol

 

[AdamW]

@amirm I encourage you to try and measure some well reputed and inexpensive recent DAPs such as the popular Shanling M0 or the new Xduoo X3II (both cost roughly 100 dollars and seems like they've great features and measurements for the price).

It would be very informative and useful for all of us looking for a nice little DAP without break the wallet (and for the community as a whole).

There are measurements of lots of players, including a lot of Shanling and Xduoo players, at reference-audio-analyzer - see https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/catalog-reports.php?sp_1=9&tp=1 . The site's a bit wacky to navigate but has lots of good reports. Look for the 'pro' reports. There aren't reports for those exact players, but there are reports for the Shanling M1 and the Xduoo X3 (apparently not the 'II'). [edit: removed inaccurate initial assessment of those reports]

I agree it'd be awesome if amir could measure some for consistent results with his other reviews - I've got a DX200 in the mail and want to know if it measures appreciably worse than the Topping devices amir is fond of. From the reference-audio-analyzer results I think the answer is 'no, it doesn't, probably not worth dropping an extra $500 on a dedicated desktop setup', but it'd be nice to be sure

To get some kind of idea of how the measurements cross-compare you can find a device measured on both sites, and compare the results - the Pre Box S2 for e.g.: https://reference-audio-analyzer.pr...?id=1449&page=amp-pro-ject-pre-box-s2-digital

 

[maverickronin]

The site's a bit wacky to navigate but has lots of good reports. Look for the 'pro' reports. The Shanling M1 measures pretty well and the Xduoo X3 (apparently not the 'II') measures appallingly badly, for DAC functionality.

Did I miss something in the weird navigation? They looked pretty similar to me, with the X3 having a slight edge in a few things.

 

[AdamW]

Did I miss something in the weird navigation? They looked pretty similar to me, with the X3 having a slight edge in a few things.

Hum, just took another look and I was maybe a bit hasty before - the first thing I look at are the harmonic distortion numbers which seem pretty awful for the X3 -they're -85,9 / -97,6 / 0,005061 / 0,001312 (from 'fast' results) compared to -99,2 / -101,5 / 0,001091 / 0,000840 for the M1 - and when I zoomed through the other results before I thought the X3 looked obviously worse than the M1 everywhere else too. But now I compare more carefully you're right, aside from those HD numbers they're fairly similar in other measurements and indeed X3 might have an edge in some.

Of course, it's useful to compare against a high-end portable like the Opus #2 or DX200 or some of the higher end desktop DACs they have numbers for, to get an idea how significant the variations are.

(Note: I am not at all an expert, please experts correct me if I'm obviously being dumb in any way :>)

 

[Wombat]

@Wombat Few of my my friends are using this one made by Rega and all are very happy with it.

http://www.rega.co.uk/fono-mini-a2d.html

Thanks. I am considering the NAD PP4 because it has both MM and MC. MM only is a possibility still.

 

[maverickronin]

Hum, just took another look and I was maybe a bit hasty before - the first thing I look at are the harmonic distortion numbers which seem pretty awful for the X3 -they're -85,9 / -97,6 / 0,005061 / 0,001312 (from 'fast' results) compared to -99,2 / -101,5 / 0,001091 / 0,000840 for the M1 - and when I zoomed through the other results before I thought the X3 looked obviously worse than the M1 everywhere else too. But now I compare more carefully you're right, aside from those HD numbers they're fairly similar in other measurements and indeed X3 might have an edge in some.

OK, so I noticed that that the default on all those tests was -3dBfs and the X3 looses ~12dB between that and 0dBfs so I was just comparing -97.6 to -101.5.

 

[AdamW]

Right, the difference at 0dBfs is indeed much less than at -3dBfs. It's just that -3 number that's the real eyesore indeed.

 

[Grave]

I have read that CEntrance makes well designed DAC's. I think that they would be interesting to measure.

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/centrance-dacportable