Singxer SDA-6

[R1200CL]

How do I tell my SU-2 it should use the external 10 MHz clock ?

Does it change automatically ?

 

Edit:

Found the answer. No wonder I couldn’t hear a difference before 😂

 

9. If you need to use an external clock, you must first set switch 5 at the bottom of the chassis. When switch 5 is turned ON, use an external clock. If the external clock is not input or the lock is abnormal at this time, the PLAY LED will flash red (the clock is in the unlocked state, and the sound can still be played, but it is not recommended), the lock is normal and the red is always on; when it is OFF, the internal clock is used. When the clock is switched, it is recommended to restart the device.

[patatras]

 I received my 10Mhz Afterdark external clock (Emperor Double Crown). Its noise phase is -118db at 1hz and -142db at 10hz.

 

What is the contribution to the SDA-6 (with Roon, HQPlayer and Diretta) ?

 

First of all, I started to burn it  for a week 24 hours a day to see the benefits ...

 

which are more air and material, more definition. It's not huge, but it's there. 

It must be said that the clocks of the pro version of this dac are of a very high level and that the bar is set very high.

 

On the SU-2 interface the progress is more noticeable. In addition, we gain smoothness, musicality, remarkable fluidity, a wider and deeper stage, splendid timbres.

Thus equipped, this Singxer duo produces high-class music on my system.

 

I prefer SU-2 with SDA-6 (I2S) than SDA-6 alone.

 

It's hard not to get addicting! 

 

Pierre

[etane]

On 5/2/2021 at 9:52 AM, patatras said:

 I received my 10Mhz Afterdark external clock (Emperor Double Crown). Its noise phase is -118db at 1hz and -142db at 10hz.

 

Pierre

May I ask where you purchased it from?  There is a seller on audiogon offering 1 month trial and might bite.

 

How does the clock connect to the system?  Only BNC from Afterdark to SU2, and USB is from source to SU2?

 

Could you also please explain the noise phase?  I see on afterdark page each phase spec has it's on price point.

 

Did you get 50 or 75ohm output to SU-2?

 

 

 

[etane]

I was pretty sure that my next upgrade is the SDA6 then all this talk about 10mhz external clocks.  I tried my best to not read them but now my eyes got tainted.

 

Please help evaluate my options:

 

1) Upgrade D90 MQA to SDA6 PRO.  Plus: NOS (I LOVE NOS). Plus: Sell D90 to fund half of it. 

 

2) Keep D90 MQA and SU2 and add Afterdark Queen w/ LPSU and BNC. Should be about the same outlay as option 1.  But, will it sound better than option 1?  Minus: Have to deal with more boxes and cables.  Minus: Probably will take a hit on resale.

 

3) Keep D90 MQA and SU2 and add Afterdark Emperor Double Crown w/ LPSU and BNC.  How will this option sound compared to option 1?  Plus: Should sound better than option 1 but at twice the outlay.  Plus: Should make me not upgrade clocks if this is the consensus sweetspot whereas the Queen will leave me wondering.

 

If I go with option 2 or 3, then I am considering the afterdark LPSU because it has dual outputs and it can benefit the Matrix H Card in my pc which is currently powered by an IFI 12v iPower adapter.  I could also get an ebay LPSU with dual output for half the price.  And, I would probably get an Oyaide BNC 75ohm cable.  Currently, am a fan of their cables.

[etane]

Apologize for the serial posts.  But, there is a 4th option to weigh on.

 

4) Pink Faun I2S PCIE bridge.  Plus: Doesn't take up any room (resides in SFX case).  Plus: Can sell my Matrix H Card to partially fund.  Plus: Can upgrade clock either OCXO or Ultra OCXO.  Minus: Needs to be sent in to modify if you change DACs.  Minus: Lack of reviews and comparisons.

[Tavy]

On 5/9/2021 at 6:48 AM, etane said:

1) Upgrade D90 MQA to SDA6 PRO.  Plus: NOS (I LOVE NOS). Plus: Sell D90 to fund half of it. 

This is what I did and I am very happy with the sound change (I don't care about MQA support as I am using Roon).

 

[w1000i]

On 5/9/2021 at 6:48 AM, etane said:

I was pretty sure that my next upgrade is the SDA6 then all this talk about 10mhz external clocks.  I tried my best to not read them but now my eyes got tainted.

 

Please help evaluate my options:

 

1) Upgrade D90 MQA to SDA6 PRO.  Plus: NOS (I LOVE NOS). Plus: Sell D90 to fund half of it. 

 

2) Keep D90 MQA and SU2 and add Afterdark Queen w/ LPSU and BNC. Should be about the same outlay as option 1.  But, will it sound better than option 1?  Minus: Have to deal with more boxes and cables.  Minus: Probably will take a hit on resale.

 

3) Keep D90 MQA and SU2 and add Afterdark Emperor Double Crown w/ LPSU and BNC.  How will this option sound compared to option 1?  Plus: Should sound better than option 1 but at twice the outlay.  Plus: Should make me not upgrade clocks if this is the consensus sweetspot whereas the Queen will leave me wondering.

 

If I go with option 2 or 3, then I am considering the afterdark LPSU because it has dual outputs and it can benefit the Matrix H Card in my pc which is currently powered by an IFI 12v iPower adapter.  I could also get an ebay LPSU with dual output for half the price.  And, I would probably get an Oyaide BNC 75ohm cable.  Currently, am a fan of their cables.

 

Option 1 and forget about other tweaks.

 

[etane]

Thank you for the feedback.  Option 1 it is. 

[wolft]

Hello, I have now sold my RME Adi-2 DAC Fs, the Singxer SDA-6 is better. What Volume Setting do you recommended for Upsampling PCM --> DSD? My setting is: Min  -3 and Max 3. What is a good choice.

Some tips als recommended.

Wolfgang

 

MacMini M1 (HQplayer) --> NAA Windows + Singxer 5.00 driver --> USB --> Singxer SDA-6 --> (XLR/Cinch) Lavardin ISX Reference

[DomiJi]

22 minutes ago, wolft said:

Hello, I have now sold my RME Adi-2 DAC Fs, the Singxer SDA-6 is better. What Volume Setting do you recommended for Upsampling PCM --> DSD? My setting is: Min  -3 and Max 3. What is a good choice.

Some tips als recommended.

Wolfgang

 

MacMini M1 (HQplayer) --> NAA Windows + Singxer 5.00 driver --> USB --> Singxer SDA-6 --> (XLR/Cinch) Lavardin ISX Reference

 

Do you mean the volume settings in HQPlayer?

[wolft]

yes!

 

[etane]

Topping D90 sold out because of AKM fire forced me to pull the trigger on a SDA6 Advanced.  According to Aoshida's ebay site, it's their last one.

[SwissBear]

8 hours ago, etane said:

Topping D90 sold out because of AKM fire forced me to pull the trigger on a SDA6 Advanced.  According to Aoshida's ebay site, it's their last one.

 

The last one of what ? T90 or SDA-6 ?

I had questioned Liter from Singxer earlier this year about the incidence of AKM fire and he had mentioned that they had some inventory of AK4499, enough to face demand as they forecasted at this stage.

Re T90, you might have noticed that they will release a new version, the T90SE, based on ESS9038Pro this year. The prototype of this DAC shows absolutely stellar performance based on measurements: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=https://www.l7audiolab.com/f/topping-d90se-dac-prototype/. Remains to be seen how it will sound in production...

[etane]

9 hours ago, SwissBear said:

 

The last one of what ? T90 or SDA-6 ?

 

The last SDA6 on Aoshida's ebay page.  Other sellers still have them in stock but I surmise the inventory level should be low. 

If it matters, I cancelled the order with Aoshida and bought from Apos (who I believe is same store as Shenzhenaudio but based in Northern California) since they are more local to me and turns out I had store credit with them. 

 

Actually wasn't aware of the D90SE.  I don't know how to read graphs.  Are the measurements like leaps and bounds better than that of D90's which was already the king of measured dacs according to ASR?  I do have bias against ESS chips... so no buyer remore... yet.

[SwissBear]

A few weeks ago, Nicolas, a neighboring audiophile friend, came over to the house to let me play with his source: an Emerson Digital network player, an m-Scaler upsampler and a Chord Dave DAC.

 

It turned out that its source gave an uncompromising lesson, especially in the micro-dynamics of music, to the ensemble that I thought was particularly well-groomed, consisting of Roon + HQPlayer, Diretta, and one of my DACs, either the Singxer SDA-6, supplied with I2S by the SU-2 interface, or the Gustard x-26 Pro.

 

As he himself explained on my thread, listening to dynamic music, ie amplified, he lacked this desire to dance, to stamp his foot, in short to celebrate with movements of his body the life that goes with the music…

 

After he left, I was keen to try and figure out what was going on. I started looking on the convolution side, blaming this process that I had been using for a long time anyway. By removing the convolution, I was able to replace Roon + HQPlayer with Audirvana, and found all the musical micro-dynamics that I had felt with the source of Nicolas. The DACs themselves were not involved, it was the digital music processing process that was involved ...

 

However, I was not completely satisfied, because if Audirvana offered me a solution for the PCM format, which I could up-sample to PCM 384 or 768, I was stuck in DSD and could not take full advantage of the NOS mode of my SDA-6 which has a strong preference for DSD 256 or DSD 512… It was frustrating…

 

Following this experience with Audirvana, a first conclusion quickly emerged: converting the PCM format to DSD, even with HQPlayer, really damaged the dynamics of the music. As @Le Dom kindly confirmed on the Diretta thread, it felt like listening in a Pullmann comfort, but not listening realistically.

 

With @Patatras, we have multiplied the experiments, until trying HQPlayer alone, in upsampling, in [source] mode ie respecting the original music format, upsampling the PCM formats to PCM 384 and the DSD formats to DSD 512, but without using Roon.

 

And things really took came together, each on our side: the SDA-6 and HQPlayer were made for each other, as long as HQPlayer was used on its own ie without Roon.

 

In PCM format, we thus find all the dynamics offered by this format, without any concessions. In DSD format, we find all the tonal accuracy and transparency, all the openness in the treble, offered by this format.

 

As @Patatras and I both use an SU-2 as input to the SDA-6, he suggested to me to change the power supply of the SU-2, which I did by purchasing a small adapter from Kitusne HiFi, which allows me to power this box directly from a 5v rail of my Paul Hynes linear power supply. Thus equipped, the SU-2 gives the full measure of its capabilities, still offering a more pleasant opening in the treble.

 

Finally, let us specify that Diretta is a very appreciable addition to this set. Set in "Sync" mode to respect the dynamic character of the music, it offers additional airiness and appreciable openness.

 

All in all, I am confident to welcome again a confrontation of my SDA-6, powered by HQPlayer in [source] mode, Diretta in “Sync” mode, and to confront the best DACs on the market, even if they are much more expensive.

 

Without claiming that this experience applies to all systems, it seemed important to me to share my conclusions with you: when I bought my SDA-6, I did so on the testimony of an industry expert who praised the advantages of the NOS mode of the AK4499 chip. I have done well, it seems to me, to follow this advice. HQPlayer offers this SDA-6 a truly ideal platform for producing quality music.

 

Thank you to Singxer for offering us this product at such competitive conditions and thank you to Jussi Laako for offering us HQPlayer as an upsampling platform to serve this DAC ... 

[etane]

@SwissBear well, I had similar experience when I added SU-2.  At first I was amazed at the increase in smoothness and air particularly in the highs as well as expansion in soundstage.  But, after awhile, it got boring.  Something was missing in the mids.  There was a lack of friction or warmth.  I solved this with cable changes mostly exchanging thin silver for older school thicker copper.  I also stopped using Jplay and just use Singxer's audio driver.  My most recent change is from ClearDay Shotgun silver speaker cables to Duelund tinned copper 16ga speaker cables.  This change is almost as revelatory as adding the SU-2 by filling in the mid and bottom with warmth and color altogether a good match with SU-2/D90MQA.  ordered more Duelund cables to make RCA.  btw, I switched to Oyaide Tunami power cable on the SU-2 and this also helped.

[DomiJi]

11 hours ago, SwissBear said:

A few weeks ago, Nicolas, a neighboring audiophile friend, came over to the house to let me play with his source: an Emerson Digital network player, an m-Scaler upsampler and a Chord Dave DAC.

 

It turned out that its source gave an uncompromising lesson, especially in the micro-dynamics of music, to the ensemble that I thought was particularly well-groomed, consisting of Roon + HQPlayer, Diretta, and one of my DACs, either the Singxer SDA-6, supplied with I2S by the SU-2 interface, or the Gustard x-26 Pro.

 

As he himself explained on my thread, listening to dynamic music, ie amplified, he lacked this desire to dance, to stamp his foot, in short to celebrate with movements of his body the life that goes with the music…

 

After he left, I was keen to try and figure out what was going on. I started looking on the convolution side, blaming this process that I had been using for a long time anyway. By removing the convolution, I was able to replace Roon + HQPlayer with Audirvana, and found all the musical micro-dynamics that I had felt with the source of Nicolas. The DACs themselves were not involved, it was the digital music processing process that was involved ...

 

However, I was not completely satisfied, because if Audirvana offered me a solution for the PCM format, which I could up-sample to PCM 384 or 768, I was stuck in DSD and could not take full advantage of the NOS mode of my SDA-6 which has a strong preference for DSD 256 or DSD 512… It was frustrating…

 

Following this experience with Audirvana, a first conclusion quickly emerged: converting the PCM format to DSD, even with HQPlayer, really damaged the dynamics of the music. As @Le Dom kindly confirmed on the Diretta thread, it felt like listening in a Pullmann comfort, but not listening realistically.

 

With @Patatras, we have multiplied the experiments, until trying HQPlayer alone, in upsampling, in [source] mode ie respecting the original music format, upsampling the PCM formats to PCM 384 and the DSD formats to DSD 512, but without using Roon.

 

And things really took came together, each on our side: the SDA-6 and HQPlayer were made for each other, as long as HQPlayer was used on its own ie without Roon.

 

In PCM format, we thus find all the dynamics offered by this format, without any concessions. In DSD format, we find all the tonal accuracy and transparency, all the openness in the treble, offered by this format.

 

As @Patatras and I both use an SU-2 as input to the SDA-6, he suggested to me to change the power supply of the SU-2, which I did by purchasing a small adapter from Kitusne HiFi, which allows me to power this box directly from a 5v rail of my Paul Hynes linear power supply. Thus equipped, the SU-2 gives the full measure of its capabilities, still offering a more pleasant opening in the treble.

 

Finally, let us specify that Diretta is a very appreciable addition to this set. Set in "Sync" mode to respect the dynamic character of the music, it offers additional airiness and appreciable openness.

 

All in all, I am confident to welcome again a confrontation of my SDA-6, powered by HQPlayer in [source] mode, Diretta in “Sync” mode, and to confront the best DACs on the market, even if they are much more expensive.

 

Without claiming that this experience applies to all systems, it seemed important to me to share my conclusions with you: when I bought my SDA-6, I did so on the testimony of an industry expert who praised the advantages of the NOS mode of the AK4499 chip. I have done well, it seems to me, to follow this advice. HQPlayer offers this SDA-6 a truly ideal platform for producing quality music.

 

Thank you to Singxer for offering us this product at such competitive conditions and thank you to Jussi Laako for offering us HQPlayer as an upsampling platform to serve this DAC ... 

 

Thank you very much for this information. Its funny because i made the same experience. I just want to trial the new Audirvana Studio. So i setup Windows 10 for my fanless NUC with LPS and Fidelizer/Audiophile Optimizer. 

 

With Audirvana the music was much much more alive and full of dynamics and without any harshness. 

 

Did i understand you correct that you dont use audirvana anylonger because you can not setup Individual upsampling for PCM and DSD? This is now possible with Audirvana Studio. 

 

You can upsample PCM to 384khz and DSD to 512 or 256.

[SwissBear]

1 hour ago, DomiJi said:

 

Thank you very much for this information. Its funny because i made the same experience. I just want to trial the new Audirvana Studio. So i setup Windows 10 for my fanless NUC with LPS and Fidelizer/Audiophile Optimizer. 

 

With Audirvana the music was much much more alive and full of dynamics and without any harshness. 

 

Did i understand you correct that you dont use audirvana anylonger because you can not setup Individual upsampling for PCM and DSD? This is now possible with Audirvana Studio. 

 

You can upsample PCM to 384khz and DSD to 512 or 256.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience. Yes it's interesting to notice this kind of synchronisation between our respective quests.

 

I might give a trial to Audirvana again and thank you for pointing this out. I have to confess that I have a personal affection for the solution offered by HQPlayer alone. Thanks anyway.

[SwissBear]

Has anyone tried off-line upsampling, like PGGB, in connexion with the SDA-6 ?

[w1000i]

On 5/21/2021 at 11:03 PM, SwissBear said:

A few weeks ago, Nicolas, a neighboring audiophile friend, came over to the house to let me play with his source: an Emerson Digital network player, an m-Scaler upsampler and a Chord Dave DAC.

 

It turned out that its source gave an uncompromising lesson, especially in the micro-dynamics of music, to the ensemble that I thought was particularly well-groomed, consisting of Roon + HQPlayer, Diretta, and one of my DACs, either the Singxer SDA-6, supplied with I2S by the SU-2 interface, or the Gustard x-26 Pro.

 

As he himself explained on my thread, listening to dynamic music, ie amplified, he lacked this desire to dance, to stamp his foot, in short to celebrate with movements of his body the life that goes with the music…

 

After he left, I was keen to try and figure out what was going on. I started looking on the convolution side, blaming this process that I had been using for a long time anyway. By removing the convolution, I was able to replace Roon + HQPlayer with Audirvana, and found all the musical micro-dynamics that I had felt with the source of Nicolas. The DACs themselves were not involved, it was the digital music processing process that was involved ...

 

However, I was not completely satisfied, because if Audirvana offered me a solution for the PCM format, which I could up-sample to PCM 384 or 768, I was stuck in DSD and could not take full advantage of the NOS mode of my SDA-6 which has a strong preference for DSD 256 or DSD 512… It was frustrating…

 

Following this experience with Audirvana, a first conclusion quickly emerged: converting the PCM format to DSD, even with HQPlayer, really damaged the dynamics of the music. As @Le Dom kindly confirmed on the Diretta thread, it felt like listening in a Pullmann comfort, but not listening realistically.

 

With @Patatras, we have multiplied the experiments, until trying HQPlayer alone, in upsampling, in [source] mode ie respecting the original music format, upsampling the PCM formats to PCM 384 and the DSD formats to DSD 512, but without using Roon.

 

And things really took came together, each on our side: the SDA-6 and HQPlayer were made for each other, as long as HQPlayer was used on its own ie without Roon.

 

In PCM format, we thus find all the dynamics offered by this format, without any concessions. In DSD format, we find all the tonal accuracy and transparency, all the openness in the treble, offered by this format.

 

As @Patatras and I both use an SU-2 as input to the SDA-6, he suggested to me to change the power supply of the SU-2, which I did by purchasing a small adapter from Kitusne HiFi, which allows me to power this box directly from a 5v rail of my Paul Hynes linear power supply. Thus equipped, the SU-2 gives the full measure of its capabilities, still offering a more pleasant opening in the treble.

 

Finally, let us specify that Diretta is a very appreciable addition to this set. Set in "Sync" mode to respect the dynamic character of the music, it offers additional airiness and appreciable openness.

 

All in all, I am confident to welcome again a confrontation of my SDA-6, powered by HQPlayer in [source] mode, Diretta in “Sync” mode, and to confront the best DACs on the market, even if they are much more expensive.

 

Without claiming that this experience applies to all systems, it seemed important to me to share my conclusions with you: when I bought my SDA-6, I did so on the testimony of an industry expert who praised the advantages of the NOS mode of the AK4499 chip. I have done well, it seems to me, to follow this advice. HQPlayer offers this SDA-6 a truly ideal platform for producing quality music.

 

Thank you to Singxer for offering us this product at such competitive conditions and thank you to Jussi Laako for offering us HQPlayer as an upsampling platform to serve this DAC ... 

This was on windows or mac ?

[SwissBear]

2 hours ago, w1000i said:

This was on windows or mac ?

 

What was on Windows or Mac ? 

[w1000i]

59 minutes ago, SwissBear said:

 

What was on Windows or Mac ? 

What platform you used Roon on ? 

[SwissBear]

10 minutes ago, w1000i said:

What platform you used Roon on ? 

 

Roon is running on my NAS. HQPlayer on my Mac Mini M1.

[w1000i]

On 5/21/2021 at 11:03 PM, SwissBear said:

A few weeks ago, Nicolas, a neighboring audiophile friend, came over to the house to let me play with his source: an Emerson Digital network player, an m-Scaler upsampler and a Chord Dave DAC.

 

It turned out that its source gave an uncompromising lesson, especially in the micro-dynamics of music, to the ensemble that I thought was particularly well-groomed, consisting of Roon + HQPlayer, Diretta, and one of my DACs, either the Singxer SDA-6, supplied with I2S by the SU-2 interface, or the Gustard x-26 Pro.

 

As he himself explained on my thread, listening to dynamic music, ie amplified, he lacked this desire to dance, to stamp his foot, in short to celebrate with movements of his body the life that goes with the music…

 

After he left, I was keen to try and figure out what was going on. I started looking on the convolution side, blaming this process that I had been using for a long time anyway. By removing the convolution, I was able to replace Roon + HQPlayer with Audirvana, and found all the musical micro-dynamics that I had felt with the source of Nicolas. The DACs themselves were not involved, it was the digital music processing process that was involved ...

 

However, I was not completely satisfied, because if Audirvana offered me a solution for the PCM format, which I could up-sample to PCM 384 or 768, I was stuck in DSD and could not take full advantage of the NOS mode of my SDA-6 which has a strong preference for DSD 256 or DSD 512… It was frustrating…

 

Following this experience with Audirvana, a first conclusion quickly emerged: converting the PCM format to DSD, even with HQPlayer, really damaged the dynamics of the music. As @Le Dom kindly confirmed on the Diretta thread, it felt like listening in a Pullmann comfort, but not listening realistically.

 

With @Patatras, we have multiplied the experiments, until trying HQPlayer alone, in upsampling, in [source] mode ie respecting the original music format, upsampling the PCM formats to PCM 384 and the DSD formats to DSD 512, but without using Roon.

 

And things really took came together, each on our side: the SDA-6 and HQPlayer were made for each other, as long as HQPlayer was used on its own ie without Roon.

 

In PCM format, we thus find all the dynamics offered by this format, without any concessions. In DSD format, we find all the tonal accuracy and transparency, all the openness in the treble, offered by this format.

 

As @Patatras and I both use an SU-2 as input to the SDA-6, he suggested to me to change the power supply of the SU-2, which I did by purchasing a small adapter from Kitusne HiFi, which allows me to power this box directly from a 5v rail of my Paul Hynes linear power supply. Thus equipped, the SU-2 gives the full measure of its capabilities, still offering a more pleasant opening in the treble.

 

Finally, let us specify that Diretta is a very appreciable addition to this set. Set in "Sync" mode to respect the dynamic character of the music, it offers additional airiness and appreciable openness.

 

All in all, I am confident to welcome again a confrontation of my SDA-6, powered by HQPlayer in [source] mode, Diretta in “Sync” mode, and to confront the best DACs on the market, even if they are much more expensive.

 

Without claiming that this experience applies to all systems, it seemed important to me to share my conclusions with you: when I bought my SDA-6, I did so on the testimony of an industry expert who praised the advantages of the NOS mode of the AK4499 chip. I have done well, it seems to me, to follow this advice. HQPlayer offers this SDA-6 a truly ideal platform for producing quality music.

 

Thank you to Singxer for offering us this product at such competitive conditions and thank you to Jussi Laako for offering us HQPlayer as an upsampling platform to serve this DAC ... 

Did you had a chance to compare DAVE to SDA-6 and X26pro.

I really think this is the best competition from the best in each design philosophy. :)

[SwissBear]

58 minutes ago, w1000i said:

Did you had a chance to compare DAVE to SDA-6 and X26pro.

I really think this is the best competition from the best in each design philosophy. :)

 

Yes.

But as I tried to report, the competition was not fair.

In the sense that the SDA-6 and x-26 were fed with a music flow which was not optimal, as far as I understand what is optimal today.

 

My best guess is that upsampling with HQPlayer, or with Aurdirvana as @DomiJi suggests, is optimal to make the best usage of the NOS possibilities of this DAC. And, as I explained, and this is my belief, respecting the original format of music, is very important to preserve the micro-dynamics of music.

 

I have a lot of respect for the work achieved by Jussi with HQPlayer. But my experience is just different at this point.