occamsrazor Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Mono and Stereo High-End Audio Magazine: ESS Technology SABRE PRO Series of DAC NEW Thoughts? Mac Mini > RME ADI-2 DAC > Hypex Ncore monoblocks > ATC SCM-11 speakers & C1 subwoofer Link to comment
matthias Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Looking at the block diagram on the esstech page there is no separate path for DSD like with the AK4490. Matt "I want to know why the musicians are on stage, not where". (John Farlowe) Link to comment
matthias Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 BTW, AKM will announce the flagship DAC chip AK4497 at CES 2016. Very interesting to compare both. Matt "I want to know why the musicians are on stage, not where". (John Farlowe) Link to comment
occamsrazor Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 Interesting observations, thanks. Anyone have an idea of a usual timeframe before chips actually arrive on the market in actual products? Mac Mini > RME ADI-2 DAC > Hypex Ncore monoblocks > ATC SCM-11 speakers & C1 subwoofer Link to comment
Hiro Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 BTW, AKM will announce the flagship DAC chip AK4497 at CES 2016. Very interesting to compare both. Matt The info on AKM's latest AK4497 chip can be found here: AK4497 | AKM - Asahi Kasei Microdevices It's their first DAC chip to support 22.4MHz DSD, which could come in handy if someone wanted to bypass the DAC's internal upsamplers and go with computer-based/software upsampling instead. Link to comment
Sam Lord Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 No mention of volume control or direct DSD access. VC is not a problem with good external software. Waiting for Miska to weigh in.... Mac Mini 2012 with 2.3 GHz i5 CPU and 16GB RAM running newest OS10.9x and Signalyst HQ Player software (occasionally JRMC), ethernet to Cisco SG100-08 GigE switch, ethernet to SOtM SMS100 Miniserver in audio room, sending via short 1/2 meter AQ Cinnamon USB to Oppo 105D, feeding balanced outputs to 2x Bel Canto S300 amps which vertically biamp ATC SCM20SL speakers, 2x Velodyne DD12+ subs. Each side is mounted vertically on 3-tiered Sound Anchor ADJ2 stands: ATC (top), amp (middle), sub (bottom), Mogami, Koala, Nordost, Mosaic cables, split at the preamp outputs with splitters. All transducers are thoroughly and lovingly time aligned for the listening position. Link to comment
occamsrazor Posted January 13, 2016 Author Share Posted January 13, 2016 No mention of volume control or direct DSD access Personally I find USB HID volume control incredibly useful. I'm surprised that some new DACs don't support it such as the new Ayre Codex and Mytek Brooklyn. Mac Mini > RME ADI-2 DAC > Hypex Ncore monoblocks > ATC SCM-11 speakers & C1 subwoofer Link to comment
Sam Lord Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 Personally I find USB HID volume control incredibly useful. I'm surprised that some new DACs don't support it such as the new Ayre Codex and Mytek Brooklyn. Agreed. I fully expect the new AKM to have the features, just a bit surprised they didn't say so. Mac Mini 2012 with 2.3 GHz i5 CPU and 16GB RAM running newest OS10.9x and Signalyst HQ Player software (occasionally JRMC), ethernet to Cisco SG100-08 GigE switch, ethernet to SOtM SMS100 Miniserver in audio room, sending via short 1/2 meter AQ Cinnamon USB to Oppo 105D, feeding balanced outputs to 2x Bel Canto S300 amps which vertically biamp ATC SCM20SL speakers, 2x Velodyne DD12+ subs. Each side is mounted vertically on 3-tiered Sound Anchor ADJ2 stands: ATC (top), amp (middle), sub (bottom), Mogami, Koala, Nordost, Mosaic cables, split at the preamp outputs with splitters. All transducers are thoroughly and lovingly time aligned for the listening position. Link to comment
Miska Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 I'm quite enthusiastic about the new AKM chip, as it supports 768/32 PCM and DSD512 including Direct DSD mode. Based on the datasheet specs, it is quite a bit higher performing in DSD mode than PCM mode. By paralleling four AKM chips per channel the specs can match the ESS Sabre specs. At least previously the AKM chips are not even expensive, so the price impact for doing so won't be bad either. The new ESS Sabre has really good specs, but other than built-in DoP support and the improved specs it seems to be pretty much the same as the previous Sabre. The biggest improvement likely comes from support for slower clock speeds (previously full capability required 100 MHz clock) which means that lower phase noise clocks can be used (doubling crystal frequency tends to increase LF phase noise almost by 10 dB). Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
ted_b Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 The new Bryston dac (BDA-3) uses a pair of "new AKM chips", one goes on the PCM side of the DAC, and one for DSD (with a microprocessor sending the correct format after the USB receiver). Does anyone know which AKM chip this is? James Tanner is getting me one for review soon. "We're all bozos on this bus"....F.T. My JRIver tutorial videos Actual JRIver tutorial MP4 video links My eleven yr old SACD Ripping Guide for PS3 (needs updating but still works) US Technical Advisor, NativeDSD.com Link to comment
Miska Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 The new Bryston dac (BDA-3) uses a pair of "new AKM chips", one goes on the PCM side of the DAC, and one for DSD (with a microprocessor sending the correct format after the USB receiver). Does anyone know which AKM chip this is? James Tanner is getting me one for review soon. Sounds like good solution, I assume they do that in order to have different analog filters optimized for both cases. Many DSD capable DACs on the market probably have analog filters optimized for PCM inputs and DSD gets to live with that. (Schiit Loki was essentially Modi with analog section optimized for DSD) I'd be also interested to hear which chips they used! Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
audio.bill Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 The Bryston BDA-3 uses the AKM AK4490EQ DAC, which was their best until the 4497 was just announced at CES. Link to comment
bibo01 Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 ...The new ESS Sabre has really good specs, but other than built-in DoP support and the improved specs it seems to be pretty much the same as the previous Sabre. The biggest improvement likely comes from support for slower clock speeds (previously full capability required 100 MHz clock) which means that lower phase noise clocks can be used (doubling crystal frequency tends to increase LF phase noise almost by 10 dB). Where did you read that has support for slower clock speeds? Isn't "clock gearing" just an internal energy saving feature?! How curious are you? Link to comment
Miska Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 Where did you read that has support for slower clock speeds? Isn't "clock gearing" just an internal energy saving feature?! Because it says "Reduces MCLK frequency" in the description. Somehow somewhere I got an idea that they use internal DPLL to crank it up if necessary but the provided MCLK can be lower. But could be my daydreaming or wishful thinking. Well, we'll have the answer once the datasheet is leaked... Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
Bunpei Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 Interesting observations, thanks. Anyone have an idea of a usual timeframe before chips actually arrive on the market in actual products? I asked this on diyAudio forum and Brian of Twisted Pear Audio gave the following answer. "For the record, release of the final datasheet and samples from ESS have pushed out to the end of March." Will there be a Buffalo IV with ES9038PRO SABRE DAC? - Page 2 - diyAudio I guess Twisted Pear Audio used to be the biggest bulk user of ES9018 chip at its initial release stage. Link to comment
CR250 Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 How do you compare the chips if different designers build the DAC's? I don't see a way to tell if a difference you here is due to the chip itself, or something else. Link to comment
Bunpei Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 You can look at a product brief. http://www.esstech.com/files/7414/5193/1716/ES9038PRO_Product_brief_121715.pdf This DAC chip has an ADC module dedicated for some internal compensation or adjustment functions. Link to comment
pipis2010 Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 I think one more company that uses a similar chip is this one: http://www.audiotechnologies.gr/index_files/Page29427.htm Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile mobile app Link to comment
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