The thing is that they're selling on eBay and accepting PayPal payments. I would think that if the parts weren't as advertised, you could fairly easily get your money back. Between this and the overall very positive feedback they have, I'm tempted to try one of their sabre DACs. Maybe in April when my funds permit it.
The thing is that they're selling on eBay and accepting PayPal payments. I would think that if the parts weren't as advertised, you could fairly easily get your money back. Between this and the overall very positive feedback they have, I'm tempted to try one of their sabre DACs. Maybe in April when my funds permit it.
You have a Benchmark Dac. If one of those Chinese super cheap dac's even come close to your Benchmark I would be one very surprised audiophile. If it beats it we should stock up and go into business (not real likely).
You have a Benchmark Dac. If one of those Chinese super cheap dac's even come close to your Benchmark I would be one very surprised audiophile. If it beats it we should stock up and go into business (not real likely).
Why would you be so surprised? These chinese DACs have much better parts in them than my DAC1. The DAC1 is a good DAC full of features, with dual headphone amps etc which explains it's high price, but as far as the DAC part goes there is no reason to think a properly designed/manufactured chinese DAC with superior parts won't be a lot better. What makes you think so?
Audio-gd is a known quantity. I have owned an Audio-gd amp (since sold) and it was very good. You notice on that Audio-gd dac in the photo a whole bunch of wima caps around the dac as well as what looks like an independent clock package (the little silver thing). The people at Audio-gd have proven over many products that they know a thing or two about good sound. The cheap dac in the other photo looks great and in fact it may be, but the jury is still out. No known track record. I honestly would not be afraid to buy one myself if I needed a dac just to give it a try. The cost is so low it would be a cheap experiment. Let me know after you get it how this goes. If it's wonderful you may start a trend. You wouldn't be the first guy on this forum that discovered a hidden gem. It does happen. I believe the folks on this forum have gone a long way toward making Audio-gd a success with their export business through word of mouth. You might start something.
P.S. Why do they need two transformers to power that dac?
Just thought I would add that you can buy an Audio-gd 11.32 Dac/amp combo for $299 plus shipping with the ess9018 dac. There are long threads on this forum from owners with detailed opinions. A little safer purchase from a company with a good reputation.
What's odd is that the guts (inside) of the expensive Yulong ESS9018 DAC look much less impressive than the inside of that $300 chinese assembled ESS9018 DAC linked above. Not sure if that means anything.
I'm no engineer but it seems to me like these chinese DACs have decent builds. I'm sure design matters plenty though, but it would be nice if someone better versed would chime in and tell us what they think.
I'm not going to quote or repeat myself. The ebay-links elmoe gave are none of them any good because the analog stages stink (of opamp). There are good ones though, more expensive, and I already gave a link.
I'm no engineer but it seems to me like these chinese DACs have decent builds. I'm sure design matters plenty though, but it would be nice if someone better versed would chime in and tell us what they think.
The price is 1299$, and there's a review of it on head-fi since last summer (84 page long thread) + many others threads open on the exact same DAC:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/673033/review-yulong-audio-sabre-da8-reference-dac
I'm not going to quote or repeat myself. The ebay-links elmoe gave are none of them any good because the analog stages stink (of opamp). There are good ones though, more expensive, and I already gave a link.
The majority of the well reviewed dac's on this forum are using opamps in the analog stage. That fact alone would not disqualify the cheap Chinese dac's. I notice they even give a choice of several opamps to choose. Problem is, without ordering them all how would you know which work best in their circuit? We do have an opamp thread on the forum I guess you could do research but it is still guesswork as far as that particular circuit. Some very well reviewed headphone amps are using opamps.
You can use opamps, but if you want something better than ... you better avoid opamps. Elmoe gave a few link to boards even without opamps, but that is still the same questions as "how do you like your oats in the morning". I don't like oats!!!
I have experience with several opamps, (even discreet ones from VALAB), and I have a collection of several different ones in my stash, but you will still end up with a delta-sigma dac with opamps. And in my experience that is not the way to audio heaven (meaning: squeezing out the last drops). The problem being: they make a lot of nasty ultrasonic noise that requires lots of filtering, and filtering affects the time-domain of high frequencies. And amplification; that amplification of tiny signals is what makes or breaks a dac. And in any case you loose information.
I think the Yulong has the potential to be very good. But the one I linked is much less than half the price ($500 vs $1300 for the Yulong). I would be interested in that one and hear if I'm right or wrong. If there would be one affordable option that could it would be that one.
And I like the Matrix X-sabre. It's just soooo well made. (why is there no drool smilie?)
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