Yulong Audio Daart Canary

General Information

DAART, a new brand line of Yulong Audio family, which was crafted by collaboration of Yulong and experienced musicians to bring you audio products in good performance, yet very affordable.

Canary, as the first product in this brand, was inspired from flying wings which echoes in its slick and streamlined design.

Feature：
●Design Inspired by the nature. Extremely detailed.
●Precision volume knob with defined texture and turning feel.
●Single button selection and display in a 18K gold plated panel
●Plenty inputs and outputs- USB, Optical, Line in, line out, headphone out
●Can use as a headphone amplifier or a pure DAC
●High performance ESS9018K2M+XMOS U8 solution
●CLC power filtering and high power conversion
●V_ref regulated separately with ultra low noise LDOs
●Fully discrete, DC coupled, JFET input class A headphone amplifier

The heart of DAC is based on ESS9018MK2. There are 5 groups of low noise LDOs feeding its digital, analogue and V_ref power supplies for optimized performance. Output features ADA4705 and high current opamp OPA1688 for buffer bringing natural sound and effortless driving capability.

The headphone amplifier is full discrete, FET input DC coupling class A design. There is no capacitor in signal path from the decoder to headphone output which might degrade the audio performance. The bias of each stage was fine tuned to satisfy both measurement and listening performance. It has a very low distortion even under high output levels.

USB input supports DoP64, DoP128, Native DSD64/128/256, PCM 16-32bit, 32-384KHz
Coaxial and Toslink input supports PCM 16-24bit，44.1-384KHz
S/N ratio: -128dB
Dynamic range: 120dB
Distortion: 0.0004%
Frequency response: 20-30KHz -0.15dB
Crosstalk: -120dB
Headphone output: 100mW @ 600 Ohm, 200mW @ 300 Ohm, 400mW @ 150 Ohm, 1000mW @ 32 Ohm

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Latest reviews

YoYo JoKeR

100+ Head-Fier

5.00 star(s)
Jul 16, 2017

Pros: Smashing Value for money, Very Detailed, Well Built. Did I say it sounds amazing?

Cons: Channel imbalance at first few degrees of the volume control

Disclaimer: This review is written by me, it reflects my thoughts & honest opinion about the product.

Me: I am an avid admirer of music. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop. With time, my sonic preferences have very much grown. I avidly admire transparency, accuracy along with neutrality, I mostly listen to full sized open back headphones. I prefer & admire transparent solid state headphone amplifiers simply because they provide best possible accuracy, transparency & reliability.

I will describe this review in simple words that is readable & understandable to anyone. Let’s have a look at this amp from the eyes of a music enthusiast, shall we?

Intro: Yulong Audio is well known producer of Headphone amps. I find their designs very mature, leaving no room for error. Till now they did not have a budget product to appease the masses, so they have new ‘Daart’ series under which “Canary” is the first product under affordable price but with latest design to keep up the best possible sound quality. It packs such a good performance; it left me hooked up for a long time.

As expected by the Yulong trademark build, the Canary has a robust build quality. It has a precise & accurate finishing. Feels well put together. It is a pure class A JFET transistor amplifier using critically acclaimed ESS9018 mark2 decoder & XMOS USB interface. The amplifier part is fully discrete, with FET input DC coupling class A design. There is no capacitor in the signal path between the decoder to headphone output which might reduce the transparency.

The circuitry & internals speak for themselves. Components are well laid out; most components are Surface Mount Devices (SMD) Components are placed in a neat fashion. Board is excellently soldered and has a reliable workmanship. Architecture wise, on the front we have Volume control knob, a headphone with input selector switch. On the rear side, we have Power socket & switch, along with input USB A socket. Line out is in RCA format. Daart’s circuitry was carefully tuned & finalized by taking into account many audiophiles, musicians & critics. So now we know why it sounds so good.

Technical specifications of DAART Canary:

USB Input DoP64/128, Native DSD64/128, PCM 32Bit/384KHZ

Headphone Output 100mW @ 600 Ohm, 200mW @ 300 Ohm, 400mW @ 150 Ohm, 1000mW @ 32 Ohm

Crosstalk -120dB

Freq. Response 20Hz – 30 KHz -0.15dB

Dynamic Range 120dB

S/N Ratio -128dB

Line Out 2Vrms

Op-amp ADA4705 OPA1688

DAC ESS9018MKII XMOS U8

Sound: I was pleasantly shocked how good it sounded. I enjoyed long hours of listening through AKG K812, never feeling my ears pierce or getting fatigue.

This is where it's exciting. Though designed as a budget oriented device, by no means it is lacking sound quality. Solid Engineering & design is the answer here. Don’t be fooled by its 250$ price tag. This machine delivers wonders. Yulong said it will be very detailed & by that they mean business. It is THE most detailed unit I have heard under this price range. ‘Detailing’ is the highlight of the Canary.

Very transparent, flat and extremely detailed sound, I am hearing subtle details I’ve never heard before. Depth is amazing too. This is the device that redefines the budget listening. I should remember, a few years ago If wanted to buy an amp/dac under 300$, and I would get no choice other than schiit combo or O2 combo. And believe me those things don’t sound half as good as Canary does.

There is a slight imbalance at the very beginning of the volume range, but I guess it’s okay & is seen in most of the volume pots. This is a class A amp, hence must be warmed up for 15 minutes before listening. With time, it settles in & sound even better.

Verdict: With this device, Mr. Yulong has renewed my respect for him, he is simply brilliant. I am really proud that we now have an amazing sounding Amp/DAC & we can own it by not spending a bomb on it. Because not everybody can afford a 1000$ device. Canary is an excellent alternative, I fully stand by it.

It is a smashing value for money, well built, exceptional sounding, reliable & it is from the house of Yulong Audio!

Reactions: Reinhold, GLM101 and quahog_convo

DaniRojo

I'm not an expert by any means, this is more just a pure noob question... If it's class A why does it have an op-amp?

DorianLS

I have Yulong's first headphone DAC/Amp (the D100). It's leading qualities sound similar to the Canary: clarity, articulateness, quiet background. But the problem with Yulong which you should be aware of is that there is no one in the US who can service your unit should you need this in the future. I have a very simple problem which might well be fixed in 10 - If only I could find someone who services Youlong equipment

PS: Let me explain the problem in the event that the experts here might be familiar with it: When I turn the unit on it is attached by a USB cable to my computer, I first get the message "System Loading" followed a few moments later by "No Signal". Why is it not getting a signal? I upgraded the USA cable to no effect. I upgraded the USB cable to know avail. (DorianLS@aol.com),

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