[Bozon]

Possibly in the future, but that's not a project I want to commit to at my current house. I have been looking at ESS 9038Pro based DACs for several days now and have pretty much narrowed it down to K9 Pro, VMV D1SE or M500 MkII. I am wondering how much better the DACs on the K9 or the D1SE would be than the less pricey M500.
Also, just to clarify, I still plan on using my Gungnir MB for the majority of my slower-paced music. Cheers

I had the M500 (version 2 If my memory is correct) I found it having a balanced sound, but the implementation wasn't clean at all. It has evident distortion (like a clipping sounding distortion). I actually was very surprised that a product with a top chip like this sounded so poorly.

If a recommendation is allowed. Consider the LG UltraGear GP9 sound bar as an incredible 9038 pro DAC and headphone amplifier. As speaker itself is ok at most, but used as a DAC/headphone amp (it has a line out and headphone connection) sounds incredible. And is also cheap and available everywhere.

 

[desertsilver]

Having had my AKM for a few months, I still get that priceless feeling. One of only two blind purchases that have exceeded expectations.

LOL, guess paid it with a Mastercard

 

[kumawooms]

I've had the ESS version for about a couple weeks now. There is only ONE thing that's been bugging me about this thing that's making me consider returning it.

When using USB, it skips every once in awhile (once every couple songs or soon average? It's not steady, predictable or repeatable).

I've had this happen with other DACs before, but I've always been able to fix it quickly by changing the USB cable or plugging it into a different port. Nothings working this time.

I'm using macOS, with an M1 MacBook Pro.

Any idea what might be causing this?

 

[FiiO]

I've had the ESS version for about a couple weeks now. There is only ONE thing that's been bugging me about this thing that's making me consider returning it.

When using USB, it skips every once in awhile (once every couple songs or soon average? It's not steady, predictable or repeatable).

I've had this happen with other DACs before, but I've always been able to fix it quickly by changing the USB cable or plugging it into a different port. Nothings working this time.

I'm using macOS, with an M1 MacBook Pro.

Any idea what might be causing this?

Dear friend,

Do you mean the sound will skip 1s while playing music sometimes? Are there any interference or certain operation when the issue happen?
And if you have another PC, you could check whether there will be same phenomenon?

Best regards

 

[kumawooms]

Dear friend,

Do you mean the sound will skip 1s while playing music sometimes? Are there any interference or certain operation when the issue happen?
And if you have another PC, you could check whether there will be same phenomenon?

Best regards

Yes, sound skips 1s or less when playing music (or listening to anything). There's no interference or other operation I'm doing on the computer that should cause this - sometimes it happens when I'm not doing anything at all. I unfortunately don't have another computer to check it on.

I did just try restarting the computer to see if it continues. I'll let you know if that fixes it.

 

[kumawooms]

Yes, sound skips 1s or less when playing music (or listening to anything). There's no interference or other operation I'm doing on the computer that should cause this - sometimes it happens when I'm not doing anything at all. I unfortunately don't have another computer to check it on.

I did just try restarting the computer to see if it continues. I'll let you know if that fixes it.

After restart, it worked without skipping for awhile, but then began to skip again after a day's use.

 

[desertsilver]

Could it be from heavy computer load? I occasionally experience skipping when starting some resource heavy app which put pressure on either cpu or disks while listening via foobar.

 

[kumawooms]

Could it be from heavy computer load? I occasionally experience skipping when starting some resource heavy app which put pressure on either cpu or disks while listening via foobar.

I don’t think so, sometimes the only thing I’m doing is listening to music. I would hope that an M1 MacBook Pro is sufficient to avoid issues with heavy computer load, although maybe it has to do with the M1 based OS? I don’t know much bout the interplay between computer chip and DAC. I ordered an exchange so I’ll see if the replacement device has the same issue. Just based on the sound and feature set, I really want this one to work for me.

 

[littlexx26]

ES9039PRO is revealed

 

[Moon5123]

ES9039PRO is revealed

I thought they will name it 9068 pro

 

[kumawooms]

I don’t think so, sometimes the only thing I’m doing is listening to music. I would hope that an M1 MacBook Pro is sufficient to avoid issues with heavy computer load, although maybe it has to do with the M1 based OS? I don’t know much bout the interplay between computer chip and DAC. I ordered an exchange so I’ll see if the replacement device has the same issue. Just based on the sound and feature set, I really want this one to work for me.

Replacement unit also skipping - I guess its the computer, or at least how the DAC interacts with the computer. Anyone else having this problem with an M1 Mac?

I was using a Modi/Magni stack and a Topping 30 stack before, and neither had this issue, except that the Modi did for a little while but problem went away completely once I changed the cable out.

Oh well, guess I have to decide whether this is a dealbreaker or not.

 

[kRed]

Replacement unit also skipping - I guess its the computer, or at least how the DAC interacts with the computer. Anyone else having this problem with an M1 Mac?

I was using a Modi/Magni stack and a Topping 30 stack before, and neither had this issue, except that the Modi did for a little while but problem went away completely once I changed the cable out.

Oh well, guess I have to decide whether this is a dealbreaker or not.

I have an M1 MB Air and I have never experienced any kind of problem with AKM version. Actually, I've never had any issues at all, except finding it powered on a couple of time (so now I turn it off by the switch on the back, instead of just pressing the button on the front of the unit).
Well, I must say that the usb cable it came with was broken and it would skip audio/disconnect for a second if anything was moved. With other cables it works just fine.

 

[Wasabiz]

Replacement unit also skipping - I guess its the computer, or at least how the DAC interacts with the computer. Anyone else having this problem with an M1 Mac?

I was using a Modi/Magni stack and a Topping 30 stack before, and neither had this issue, except that the Modi did for a little while but problem went away completely once I changed the cable out.

Oh well, guess I have to decide whether this is a dealbreaker or not.

I had this issue using Qobuz and Audirvana, it skips the song halfway. But now I access Qobuz from Roon, and it hasn't skipped.
Roon seems to fix a lot of my issues I was experiencing with the K9 ESS.

 

[kumawooms]

I had this issue using Qobuz and Audirvana, it skips the song halfway. But now I access Qobuz from Roon, and it hasn't skipped.
Roon seems to fix a lot of my issues I was experiencing with the K9 ESS.

That’s interesting - I wonder if it’s Apple Music (what I use).

 

[Wasabiz]

That’s interesting - I wonder if it’s Apple Music (what I use).

Apple Music directly from iPad/iPhone OTG cable works fine for me, I don't have a Mac device to test...., but Apple Music seems to lag a lot from the device when changing to next song