ZuperDac Crowd Funding.
Apr 9, 2015 at 8:34 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 44

Eudis

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So what do you fellas think? Too good to be true?
According to the author, it has a good internal amp. Is it possible to even have something that small be full featured like in claims?

ZuperDac
 
Apr 10, 2015 at 11:18 AM Post #4 of 44
It uses the new ESS mobile amp chip ES9601. My understanding it's super small and the power is modest at about 49mW into 32 ohms. Probably won't be good for anything over 150 ohms, so portable headphones only, but assuming output impedance is under 1, it should be great for iems.
 
Apr 10, 2015 at 12:51 PM Post #5 of 44
The big issue here is the USB receiver. It uses a low-cost receiver chip that generates its own synthetic PLL signals (rather than relying on oscillators) from single 12 MHz XO. Jitter management is therefore not all that sophisticated, and that means the clock recovery management of the DAC will not be as good as something like a Geek Out, for example. For $49-69, however, this thing looks like a great deal. They'll likely follow the reference board for the 9601K closely.
 
Apr 22, 2015 at 9:59 AM Post #6 of 44
Does anyone know if the ZuperDac specs would beat the Stoner Acoustics UD series or the hifimediy Sabers? I'd most likely be using them for my Shure SE215s and Beyerdynamic T51p on my Android. Thanks
 
Jun 2, 2015 at 11:32 AM Post #7 of 44
I got in contact with the creators of ZuperDAC, and they told me that its output impedance is 4.7 ohms.
Does this mean that it isn't suited for headphones with impedance below 38 ohms?
 
Jun 2, 2015 at 11:38 AM Post #8 of 44
I got in contact with the creators of ZuperDAC, and they told me that its output impedance is 4.7 ohms.
Does this mean that it isn't suited for headphones with impedance below 38 ohms?


That's the general rule, x8. I imagine it will sound ok with some headphones below that but will depend on their individual impedance curves.

When I inquired, they wouldn't tell me a number. I was hoping it would be around 2 or so when they wouldn't say. 4.7 is pretty high for armature based iems.
 
Aug 28, 2015 at 1:45 PM Post #11 of 44
So far I like it. I'm not enough of an audiophile to give an in depth review of its sound so hopefully someone else can chip in with that.

It's incredibly small and the build construction is good. It powers off my iPhone just fine and drives my Flare Audio R2Pros just fine.

Roger Waters Amused to Death sounds fantastic in 96Khz FLAC.

I've got a Geek Out V2+ on order and I'm not expecting the Zuperdac to be on a par with that but with the venting on the GOV2+ it's not something I want to stick in my pocket clogging with lint so this fills a niche.

I don't know if this is the iPhone or the Zuperdac but volume steps aren't as granular as they could be but hey, this thing was a bargain.
 
Aug 29, 2015 at 6:33 AM Post #12 of 44
Also, regarding output impedance. I too asked them and was told 4.7 Ohms. When I queried them further on this they said it was based on the specifications they received from Sabre for the amp. When I looked at the Sabre specs I can see that they have a 4.7Ohm resistor on the output channel and I believe this is what Zorloo were referring to.

I don't believe this equates to what the measured output impedance will be so I think you can take that number with a piece of salt. Unfortunately I don't have the equipment to actually measure it on mine. I believe it involves taking measurements both with and without an inline resistor and calculating it based on the difference and the resistance of the inline resistor.
 
Sep 9, 2015 at 9:41 PM Post #13 of 44
I can pretty much confirm OI is close to the 4.7 ohm speculation. I have an Ortofon E-Q8 and it has an impedance curve that dips really low in bass (to 8 ohm). The E-Q8 looses a good bit of its bass response with the ZuperDac. The iPhone 5S has much better balls down low with its approximate 2.2 ohms.

Swing and miss.
 

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