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E1DA DACs Discussion Thread (PDV2, 9038S, 9038D, 9038X, HiFiToy, HPToy)
Nov 30, 2019 at 2:46 PM Post #452 of 1,482
zaero69 said:
Any idea when will we have more info on the unbalanced one?
Click to expand...

Latest news from discord are very promising. He posted CAD renderings of the board and said "Savitech USB/I2S bridge version" and
"ready to order PCB sample".

Will feature native DSD up to 256 and 32/384 PCM.

I've been patiently waiting to replace my sonata HD at work, wondering if I should get a sabaj DA3 or a beam for a long time, but I think it's well worth the patience.
 
Nov 30, 2019 at 8:49 PM Post #453 of 1,482
jsmiller58 said:
I am a new owner of the 9038s and the PoweDAC.

Lots of great things are written about these so I won’t repeat those. But nothing is perfect and each of these products have something that might disqualify them for some people, and I want to make sure these issues are clearly stated (yes written about elsewhere but since this thread is 30 pages, and almost all of them filled with tributes, sprinkling in every now and then reminders that nothing is perfect is probably a public service :) )

For those considering the 9038s as a portable DAC / Amp to run off their cell phones, this is a great solution... but... if you are someone that highly bothered by interference noise, and you want to use the 9038s with your cell phone, don’t get this. Seems that cellular signals (but at least for me not WiFi) are picked up as pops, crackling, etc. I am fine as I don’t hear it when playing music at reasonable levels, but I know for some they will consider this a disqualification - pages and pages of complaints about interference is written about on some DAP threads about interference with particular DAPs, so I know this really bothers some people.

For those considering the PowerDAC as a desktop / transportable solution, it is great! But, one major flaw. The PowerDAC will revert to full power when it boots up. You have to go into the Bluetooth app (it is controlled via a Bluetooth but does not play via Bluetooth) and lower the volume. You will be blasted by VERY LOUD sound if you forget. Like I have. Multiple times.
Click to expand...

the part about the interference is very true. It's been bothering me lately. I actually found it explained in the discord group -
"-Ivan decided to filter only 2 out of 4 outputs for a lower output impedance. That's why the other 2 outputs can still pick up EMI. -it's not the distance between the 9038S and your phone that matters, it's the distance between your phone and the cable.

e.g. having the 9038s far away from your phone will still result in EMI noises when your cable is wrapped around the phone"

So the only way to prevent noise reliably is to keep your 9038S as far away from your phone as possible, which defeats the purpose of having an easy mobile setup. Or, you can put it in airplane mode, which means you may as well have a DAP at that point.
So apparently 9038D has addressed this design issue by shielding all of the outputs. So I am curious to see what the battery drain is like on the 9038D. If it's not too terrible I will likely scoop one up as I'm finding the EMI in the 9038S to be the most annoying issue after a few weeks of use.
 
Nov 30, 2019 at 10:15 PM Post #454 of 1,482
Hisma said:
the part about the interference is very true. It's been bothering me lately. I actually found it explained in the discord group -
"-Ivan decided to filter only 2 out of 4 outputs for a lower output impedance. That's why the other 2 outputs can still pick up EMI. -it's not the distance between the 9038S and your phone that matters, it's the distance between your phone and the cable.

e.g. having the 9038s far away from your phone will still result in EMI noises when your cable is wrapped around the phone"

So the only way to prevent noise reliably is to keep your 9038S as far away from your phone as possible, which defeats the purpose of having an easy mobile setup. Or, you can put it in airplane mode, which means you may as well have a DAP at that point.
So apparently 9038D has addressed this design issue by shielding all of the outputs. So I am curious to see what the battery drain is like on the 9038D. If it's not too terrible I will likely scoop one up as I'm finding the EMI in the 9038S to be the most annoying issue after a few weeks of use.
Click to expand...
I was really hoping to upgrade my phone, and use my current phone as a dedicated DAP with the 9038s as the DAC/Amp attached by Velcro to the phone. Limiting the use to not enable streaming will definitely be a bummer.
 
Nov 30, 2019 at 11:42 PM Post #458 of 1,482
I don't have any noise problems from my Asus RoG Phone 2.
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 12:21 AM Post #459 of 1,482
Maybe it is based on the position of the wireless antenna in relation to the phone USB port. Sucks that I've had it on two phones in a row from completely different manufacturers. But it seems to not affect everyone, which is good. Was wondering why more people weren't complaining about it.
 
Dec 2, 2019 at 11:26 AM Post #460 of 1,482
Good Morning everyone, need a bit of an advice.

I recently purchased a pair of Blon bl-03s (excellent iem) and have been using them with headphone out of my MacBook Pro 2017, in addition to that I have a DragonFly Black but aside from an increase in volume, I don't hear any discernible difference in audio quality. Since I am on a budget, thinking of getting e1da PowerDAC v2, but was wondering if:

1. Given my current setup, is PDv2 worth the upgrade?
2. Considering relatively low impedance of Blons v/s the insane power output of PDv2, is there a possibility of frying my iems? Or making me deaf for that matter?

I'm fairly new to this hobby, so any help would be greatly appreciated! :) If I should be asking this elsewhere, please redirect

Thank you!
- anees
 
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Dec 2, 2019 at 11:36 AM Post #461 of 1,482
It will be loud, but won't break anything . There is an iem mode, you just turn it off and on till it goes to iem-mode. Actually the output impedence of the E1da makes it better for low impedence iems.

Oh, and you will need to buy a balanced cable.

The E1da would be an upgrade, but if you had really sensitive iems. The Blon-03 is not crazy sensitive. So it won't matter.
 
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Dec 2, 2019 at 1:44 PM Post #464 of 1,482
@AudiophileTigger you will not be disappointed also because there are some nice presets for blon03 from the E1DA discord people that makes them even nicer.
pdv2 or 9038 is the best upgrade you can do.
 
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