Gears used for comparison:
Disclaimer
I purchased Sabaj D5 as upgrade from my Topping Dx7s, D5 has 1 x ES9038pro, and Dx7s has 2 x ES9038Q2M.
I used to believe that dual DAC chip design must be better than single DAC chip, but when I did a review on Burson Audio Swing DAC, it is a ES9038Q2M vs 2x ES9038Q2M, and I found no significant difference on DAC performance, in fact, Burson Swing with 4 x V6 Vivid opamp performance better than Dx7s,that is the trigger of my upgrade to ES9038pro DAC – Sabaj D5.
Sound Stage:
D5 equips the latest ESS DAC chip ES9039Pro, during my comparison, it has
The best stage presentation with clear separation of instruments with good depth and width, vocal is smooth and lively.
When music is played, one can figure the location of each sound direction
From your headphone, far, near, center, side, forward and back, it is just amazing performance of the DAC. This is from my HiFiMan HE-1000 V2 on D5 balanced headphone output.
Sound Quality:
My HEK V2 is not too difficulty to drive (35ohm, 90db) with D5 balanced output (1912mW@32ohm), D5 drive it with authority, sound is clean, and vocal is smooth and pleasant. According to audio science review D5 SE output impedance is 3ohm, which is pretty good.
When I connect D5 line out to SP200 THX-AAA-888 amp, it sounds similar just SP200 has a tad better definition of music notes especially on low end, which must be from its stronger power and lower output impedance at 1.3ohm (audio science review), the difference is very small. Both D5 and SP200 are all new, so I am not sure if that impression will change over time. However, at the moment, my personal feeling is that D5 sound more pleasant though.
Conclusion:
Overall, D5 is a very good desk top Dac/Amp combination in one unit, its remote control is very convenient that you can control everything including on/off, that is big plus as some gears have power switch at the back which is
bad when you have stack up gears.
While I setup D5 driver with foobar200, this is the only DAC that I can setup to play DSD512 native and up sampling all PCM into DSD without any issue, meaning D5 can support DSD and sampling rate up to DSD512 and 768Khz completely.
| Headphone | HiFiMan HE-1000 V2 |
| AMP | SMSL SP200 THX-AAA-888 |
Disclaimer
I purchased Sabaj D5 as upgrade from my Topping Dx7s, D5 has 1 x ES9038pro, and Dx7s has 2 x ES9038Q2M.
I used to believe that dual DAC chip design must be better than single DAC chip, but when I did a review on Burson Audio Swing DAC, it is a ES9038Q2M vs 2x ES9038Q2M, and I found no significant difference on DAC performance, in fact, Burson Swing with 4 x V6 Vivid opamp performance better than Dx7s,that is the trigger of my upgrade to ES9038pro DAC – Sabaj D5.
Sound Stage:
D5 equips the latest ESS DAC chip ES9039Pro, during my comparison, it has
The best stage presentation with clear separation of instruments with good depth and width, vocal is smooth and lively.
When music is played, one can figure the location of each sound direction
From your headphone, far, near, center, side, forward and back, it is just amazing performance of the DAC. This is from my HiFiMan HE-1000 V2 on D5 balanced headphone output.
Sound Quality:
My HEK V2 is not too difficulty to drive (35ohm, 90db) with D5 balanced output (1912mW@32ohm), D5 drive it with authority, sound is clean, and vocal is smooth and pleasant. According to audio science review D5 SE output impedance is 3ohm, which is pretty good.
When I connect D5 line out to SP200 THX-AAA-888 amp, it sounds similar just SP200 has a tad better definition of music notes especially on low end, which must be from its stronger power and lower output impedance at 1.3ohm (audio science review), the difference is very small. Both D5 and SP200 are all new, so I am not sure if that impression will change over time. However, at the moment, my personal feeling is that D5 sound more pleasant though.
Conclusion:
Overall, D5 is a very good desk top Dac/Amp combination in one unit, its remote control is very convenient that you can control everything including on/off, that is big plus as some gears have power switch at the back which is
bad when you have stack up gears.
While I setup D5 driver with foobar200, this is the only DAC that I can setup to play DSD512 native and up sampling all PCM into DSD without any issue, meaning D5 can support DSD and sampling rate up to DSD512 and 768Khz completely.
