[dbbloke]

Seems people use taobao agents to buy phones and other stuff from china now, and I just stumbled across some very interesting kit. I'm skint/in-between houses but someone might feel like taking a jump. All prices excluding packaging, and may require usb daughtercard, I guess the agent sorts out a final price minus a small commision.
 
The basic one is getting 43 views a day on ebay, so someone must have one or be interested.
Xmos looks kinda interesting though
 
'basic' es9018 dac - £100
'sq' es9018 dac - £150
xmos xs1-l1 usb-spdif/coax - £35

 

[Theta Alpha 1]

That's the Weiliang.
 
 
I have one of his AK4399 DAC's with dual R-core.  You can find them on ebay as well.

 

[dbbloke]

Would love to know your thoughts on sound quality preferably with some kind of comparison.

 

[Theta Alpha 1]

Okay, I'll try to compile a review soon.

 

[reiserFS]

He seems to be selling BLC clones as well, I might be down for one just to hear how it sounds.

 

[RudeWolf]

The ES9018 is a incredibly hard to implement properly.

 

[dbbloke]

Wow, constant updates. Love this site for cutting edge stuff.
 
Seems you can now get the XMOS as a daughtercard for the DAC 1-9. So it's all in one box. From many reviews of his other gear, I can only imagine this with the 9018/4399 sounds much improved.
 
And if you have a soldering iron to hand, the BCL can be got as a kit, shame the yuan is strong.

 

[Rune3400]

I am thinking of buying a "cheap" ES9018 dac too. I found this one: http://www.hifiwow.com/dac-decoder-digital-to-analog-conveter/es9018-32bit-sabre32-reference-audio-dac-w-cm6631a-usb-input-182.html

The price is GREAT - does anyone have experience with hifiwow.com?

 

[RudeWolf]

One question - why the ES9018 as a budget DAC chip? Why not the ES9023 or one of the usual suspects like the Wolfson or PCM179X BB's?
 
Are you sure that at these pricepoints it is possible to do justice to the ES9018?

 

[Rune3400]

That is a good question which is why I subscribed to this thread (hoping someone has actually heard a budget es9018 dac). 
I asked an ebay seller (weilang) about a dac with es9018 and he replied that he "liked" the sound of the es9018 (I take it he ment he favored it to other dac chips).

For me personally it has to do with my (unqualified) view on hardware - I belive in newer = better when it comes to 1's and 0's. All that is left is to hope that the analoge part of the dac is reasonable. 

 

[Rune3400]

It seems people aren't too happy with these cheap es9018 dacs: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/237075-diy-es9018-hi-end-usb-dac.html

 

[jimmychan]

I am very happy with Audio-Gd's 10SE2 9018 DAC with H/P amp.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

One question - why the ES9018 as a budget DAC chip? Why not the ES9023 or one of the usual suspects like the Wolfson or PCM179X BB's?
 
Are you sure that at these pricepoints it is possible to do justice to the ES9018?

 
Agreed. An ES9023 or one of the new BB5101/5102 based DACs where the chips themselves have a built-in output stage is going to be a better option, even if they only use a Tenor USB chip. The ES9018 cannot be implemented properly on the cheap according to everyone I've spoken to who has tried.

 

[bioport]

How did you manage to get the USB Card installed and which one did you choose? Thanks