Advice asked portable usb Dac

[jjazzy]

Really need some advice regarding USB portable dacs.

Everyone in the world seem to be thrilled about the SE SAbre dacs, I Own a Ibasso DX90 which contains the ES9018K2M, which I read seems to be a really good build in dac, I never liked the Ibasso dx90, I saw it as a lost money case situation.
In my opinion it was harsh sounding, to direct to me even ear fatiguing.

I love my shures se846, now with the new red filter even more. I use it with the TW2, and love the sound the most on my headphone direct on the macbook air M1, it is smooth sounding, and hear every detail. The problem in this is, the macbook air is not that really portable. I don't know which dac the new mac air M1 are using?
(I don't like the iphone headphone dongle neither at all, nomather what kind of positive measurements it gets)

I am kind of oldschool regarding hifi, I love and adore tube sound (yes they distort in measurements, but I love the smooth sound). I always was a fan of burr brown and wolfson (the good implementations, so the more expensive equipment)

but where do you go nowadays? it seems like everything is sabre dac, or you get dacs like the mojo which are to big and in my opinion a little too much in price)

How is the sound signature of the ess 9038 or 9218/19 etc... if they are like the DX90 9018, I already know I won't like it. Or are they more analog sounding?

I was actually shocked of all the dac I tried, I like the sound with the se846 on my macbook air m1 on 96khz the most?

so anyone has some advice which way/brand/chip dac to go? if you are a fan of the analog(but airy) sound for my Iphone
ps I had focus on bass, I love neutral but not clinical (the dx90 sounds clinical to me)

It actually annoys me that I love the macbook air headphone direct with my se846, because now it seems hard for me to find a dac that has the same kind sound of sound signature, without beeing over the top smooth or too warm. to me the macbook air m1 still sound quite neutral.

 

[msing539]

Maybe an R2R DAC like the Cayin RU6 would suit you better.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Hiby RS2 looks promising also

 

[baskingshark]

Really need some advice regarding USB portable dacs.

Everyone in the world seem to be thrilled about the SE SAbre dacs, I Own a Ibasso DX90 which contains the ES9018K2M, which I read seems to be a really good build in dac, I never liked the Ibasso dx90, I saw it as a lost money case situation.
In my opinion it was harsh sounding, to direct to me even ear fatiguing.

I love my shures se846, now with the new red filter even more. I use it with the TW2, and love the sound the most on my headphone direct on the macbook air M1, it is smooth sounding, and hear every detail. The problem in this is, the macbook air is not that really portable. I don't know which dac the new mac air M1 are using?
(I don't like the iphone headphone dongle neither at all, nomather what kind of positive measurements it gets)

I am kind of oldschool regarding hifi, I love and adore tube sound (yes they distort in measurements, but I love the smooth sound). I always was a fan of burr brown and wolfson (the good implementations, so the more expensive equipment)

but where do you go nowadays? it seems like everything is sabre dac, or you get dacs like the mojo which are to big and in my opinion a little too much in price)

How is the sound signature of the ess 9038 or 9218/19 etc... if they are like the DX90 9018, I already know I won't like it. Or are they more analog sounding?

I was actually shocked of all the dac I tried, I like the sound with the se846 on my macbook air m1 on 96khz the most?

so anyone has some advice which way/brand/chip dac to go? if you are a fan of the analog(but airy) sound for my Iphone
ps I had focus on bass, I love neutral but not clinical (the dx90 sounds clinical to me)

It actually annoys me that I love the macbook air headphone direct with my se846, because now it seems hard for me to find a dac that has the same kind sound of sound signature, without beeing over the top smooth or too warm. to me the macbook air m1 still sound quite neutral.

Just my 2 cents, but the DAC chip is secondary to tuning and implementation and the rest of the circuitry. I've tried ESS chips that were very harsh/bright, and some that were tamed well. I wouldn't be too caught up on the DAC brand.

If you can read about the Questyle M15, it is a really nice neutral dongle, has high gain/low gain and balanced/single ended options, very musical yet detailed. Doesn't get hot and doesn't drain much battery from smartphones. It has great technicalities, and can power fussy low impedance/high sensitivity IEMs all the way to demanding power hungry cans.

It is a dongle though, not a DAP.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Just my 2 cents, but the DAC chip is secondary to tuning and implementation and the rest of the circuitry. I've tried ESS chips that were very harsh/bright, and some that were tamed well. I wouldn't be too caught up on the DAC brand.

Agreed. It would probably make more sense to group by chipdacs, FPGA DACs, and R2R DACs but even that is not perfect since many R2R DACs use FPGA processing.

 

[jjazzy]

I understand the answers, but it is quite hard to find a dac, it seems like my taste is definitely not the mainstream taste. Especially if you like the airy but still natural and smooth sound (without the focus on bass). For a lot of jazz that signature is really nice.

Hench I was so shocked the direct headphone of the macbook air m1 was so nicely accurate and smooth but not feel like the highs are cut off in any way. Haven't found a portable usb dac that has that signature yet. (which is quite bizar in my opinion)

 

[Death_Block]

Ifi use burr brown. I find the hip DAC quite warm

 

[jjazzy]

Today I was so fed up of all the reviews and went on trying all of them. Especially got annoyed by reviews commenting like almost all good dacs sound the same (no they don’t!!)

I did came to the conclusion though I propably hate the ess sabre sound, because every dac with that chip, I disliked it. I had a ibasso dx90 hated that one too (was also ess sabre 9018)

Used:
Shure se846 gen2 red filters. Every dac cable connected, audio lossless

Ifi hip dac 2:
Nice balanced sound, clean but a little thin even with the extra bass enabled. You heared every detail but quite focus on the high frequenties (not bad as a overal though) but maybe not a good match for IEM (burr brown dac)

Fiio BTR7 and 5
One simpe answer, feature set nice, built quality as well, but god did I hate the sound, hard, direct in your face, and the low end frequenties felt like a big woofer with to much power in your face. Would I say not detailled but not musical at all really fatiging

Dragon fly cobolt:
Now we where getting somewhere again, although you heared there was some tweaking in the frequenties, but back came some smoothness (don’t care what measurements say in reviews) it was musical. I hear where it misses some, but on average it performed, for IEM at least.
Even for a ess sabre it was quite okay

The ifi go bar:
Really nice, a little above the dragon cobolt, not much though. And ofcourse the go bar has a bigger feature set. It is ess sabre, and I could hear that again, but they were able to tame it some.

The ifi xdsd gryphon:
YES NOW we are getting somewhere!!! I loved it, they know what they are doing, perfect in any way possible, exactly the right warmth, felt like a whole stage was opening in front of me. Bright but never ever harsh or fatueging. Can say only one thing, perfect. For big headphones and IEM.

Afterwards I tried the btr7, 5 again… but after the gryphon it was unlistenable, even the cobolt sounded better.

Didn’t test the bluetooth because for that I use the TW2 I already have on the go.