Ferbose
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2004
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First of all, I must thank head-fier S.A.B. (Stuart) for letting me borrow his Zhaolu DAC 1.3 for review. His D1.3 is bought from Eddie with power supply upgrade, DY2000 metal opamp and blackgate mods. Since the word on the street is that Zhaolu is a giant killer that betters DAC1, we decided to compare modded D1.3 to my DAC1 (PCB revision C).
We had two speaker listening sessions at Stuart's place, and I borrowed the DAC home for a week for comparison against my DAC1 and PreSonus Central Station. In short, I have to say that Zhaolu is a sweet-sounding product for its price, but by no means a giant killer. Its DAC performance is a step below Benchmark DAC1, on the similar level as PreSonus Central Station. Zhaolu's headphone amp (stock) is a bit of a let down, not very usable compared to DAC1 or Central Station's built-in amps.
Speaker Listening
Big thanks to Stuart for letting me listen to his Harbeth Compact 7 driven by Quad pre-amp/power-amp. These Harbeths has more depth than any other speaker I have heard, including everything I heard at Stereophile's HE 2006 show. I am totally sold on the classic British monitor sound.
The Zhaolu is always used in the 24/96 mode. There is supposed to be a 24/192 mode, but D1.3's decoding chip does not even support 192 kHz. I don't know what 24/192 is supposed to mean and I didn't try it. DAC1 is used by its RCA out in variable mode, so we could level-match to D1.3, and use Quad pre-amp to do instant A/B. This puts DAC1 at a slight disadvantage due to redundant volume controls, but that's OK.
In two sessions a week apart, we listened to both Stuart's CDs and mine. We both arrived at similar conclusions in both sessions. DAC1 is slightly better in terms of detail, ambience and soundstage depth. Guitar or piano's lingering vibration is more realistic on DAC1 (better details in a natural manner). Live jazz recordings shows more room ambience on DAC1, which I associate with better low-level resolution. The whole soundstage is pushed a bit further back on DAC1, giving instruments a diffused and airy feeling. Zhaolu puts everything more up front and constricted. The differences are pretty small and not self-evident, but we both preferred Benchmark. When Benchmark is directly fed to Quad power-amp, bypassing pre-amp, the sound is even more pristine and transparent. This is the setup we want to own.
At home I also tried to compare the bass between the two on my Athena S2 speakers. Using Rebecca Pidgeon's "Spanish Harlem" track, I found that Zhaolu has a stronger bass, but less even. Benchmark's bass is slightly weaker but tighter as well.
Headphone listening
For headphone listening I first compared RCA outs of both units. Both are plugged into a Furman Power Factor Pro conditioner via stock cords. Using Pro-Co interconnects, they are fed into PreSonus Central Station. Central Station has very good input selectors to allow instant A/B. Benchmark is used in variable mode so it could be level-matched to Zhaolu. Using my ears and the loudness meter on Zhaolu, they are level matched to ~0.5 dB. This setup puts Benchmark at a slight disadvantage due an extra volume pot in its signal path. Both units are said to sound better on coaxial than optical, and I again put Benchmark at a disadvantage by feeding it optical signal from my Sony DVP-NS900V, a very low jitter transport (<250 ps), while Zhaolu gets the coaxial. Main listening is through AKG K1000 driven by PreSonus's internal amp or Cayin HA-1A class-A tube amp. K501 and SR225 are also consulted occasionally.
Although the A/B setup is slightly less favorable for Benchmark, it still manifested itself to be a better DAC. The two can sound indistinguishable on half of the CDs I tried, so one should not expect any night and day differences to exist. Zhaolu's only advantage is a smoother sound in the midrange and lower treble. But its smoothness comes at the price of the loss in detail and ambience in midrange. The lingering tones of cellos and guitars sound muffled on Zhaolu. Ambience of a live jazz recording is better resolved by Benchmark, but soundstage is the same. Bass is slightly stronger on Zhaolu, but tighter on DAC1. Treble extension on Zhaolu is not as good, as cymbals and pianos don't sound as crisp and steely. Zhaolu also shows a bit of digititis in the highest violin notes. As a violin player myself, I have trained myself to listen for unnatural sibilance and harshness in violin's upper range. I have realized that this problem is really due to digititis, often associated with jitter. Benchmark shows almost no digititis, but Zhaolu can show anomalies in the highest notes of violin. I have to conclude that Zhaolu's smoothness comes at the price of midrange clarity and treble extension. Some people might prefer Zhaolu's of presentation, but Benchmark portrays the recording more faithfully. Zhaolu's digititis is really minor because it only appears in upper treble, and should be unnoticeable unless one listens to a lot of hi-quality violin and piano recordings.
Then I switched to XLR on both units. My only pair of balanced cable is used on Zhaolu, and had to convert Benchmark's XLR to unbalanced signal using custom adapters. Since Central Station accepts balanced signals, this puts Benchmark at triple disadvantages (XLR-to-RCA, variable mode, and toslink). Nevertheless, the observations I made in the RCA outs remain unchanged. Zhaolu sounds smoother in XLR compared to RCA, but so does Benchmark.
As a DAC, Zhaolu is very similar to DAC1 but still falls behind in a few areas, and the same can be said about the built-in DAC of my PreSonus Central Station. A direct comparison of Zhaolu vs PreSonus shows that Zhaolu is smoother and more pleasant, but PreSonus has better resolution and transparency. Both suffer from slight digititis, but PreSonus shows them in lower and higher treble, while Zhaolu only in higher treble. Zhaolu's smoothness probably masked its digital artifacts in lower treble, a very smart design for a budget DAC. In terms of DAC quality, D1.3 can be considered as an equal of Central Station.
Headphone amp
Zhaolu's headphone impressed me initially. It sounds very smooth with my K501 and is powerful enough to drive my K1000. Then I realized it has apparent issues. Its extreme smoothness is really due to some serious loss in details and resolution. K501's famous soundstage collapses out of this amp. The loss of ambience makes live jazz recordings muddied, and the smoothness turns into a boring veil when I plugged in my SR225 for rock listening. DAC1's internal amp might be slightly lean and sibilant, but its speed and resolution is great for SR255+rock. PreSonus's headphone amp is the best out of the three—relaxed and detailed, strong bass and big soundstage.
Other observations
Optical and coaxial digital inputs showed no obvious differences on Zhaolu, which implies its jitter rejection could be pretty good. It looses some smoothness when not plugged into the power conditioner, which also happens to my Sony SACD/DVD player and Central Station. Zhaolu's power supply is not as solid as Benchmark's. Build quality from the outside seems pretty good.
Conclusion
In the tests I described above, I did not find modded Zhaolu D1.3 to better Benchmark DAC1. Zhaolu has a smooth sound, which makes it very appealing in its price range. However, its smoothness is a result of slight compromises in low-level detail and treble extension. The loss in ambience is actually its most obvious shortcoming, but it only matter for well-recorded acoustic music. It still exhibits very minor digititis in higher treble, but it is already better than my Sony DVP-NS900V SACD/DVD player that sold for $1000 back in Y2K. Its stock headphone amp is quiet and powerful, but its lacks the resolution and transparency suitable for headphones above $100.
Is Zhaolu a giant killer? No.
Is Zhaolu a best buy? I would say yes but read on.
Compared to my PreSonus Central Station, Zhaolu's DAC is similar in performance. Central Station offers two significantly better headphone amps, a bunch of convenient input/output options, and a hi-end passive preamp for $500, which is only ~$200 more than modded Zhaolu. In addition, PreSonus offers a better warranty service for US customers. If a system sounds slightly harsh, Zhaolu D1.3 can be an excellent solution. If only DAC is needed, Zhaolu is truly a great bargain. But PreSonus Central Station can be a center piece in a great two-channel system for both speakers and headphones. Zhaolu D1.3 and PreSonus Central Station are equally great bargains in terms of sound quality, but Zhaolu would better fit into most home systems. Benchmark DAC1 is significantly more expensive than either but its resolution, lack of digital artifacts and relative immunity to jitter and AC noise still puts it in a class above.
We had two speaker listening sessions at Stuart's place, and I borrowed the DAC home for a week for comparison against my DAC1 and PreSonus Central Station. In short, I have to say that Zhaolu is a sweet-sounding product for its price, but by no means a giant killer. Its DAC performance is a step below Benchmark DAC1, on the similar level as PreSonus Central Station. Zhaolu's headphone amp (stock) is a bit of a let down, not very usable compared to DAC1 or Central Station's built-in amps.
Speaker Listening
Big thanks to Stuart for letting me listen to his Harbeth Compact 7 driven by Quad pre-amp/power-amp. These Harbeths has more depth than any other speaker I have heard, including everything I heard at Stereophile's HE 2006 show. I am totally sold on the classic British monitor sound.
The Zhaolu is always used in the 24/96 mode. There is supposed to be a 24/192 mode, but D1.3's decoding chip does not even support 192 kHz. I don't know what 24/192 is supposed to mean and I didn't try it. DAC1 is used by its RCA out in variable mode, so we could level-match to D1.3, and use Quad pre-amp to do instant A/B. This puts DAC1 at a slight disadvantage due to redundant volume controls, but that's OK.
In two sessions a week apart, we listened to both Stuart's CDs and mine. We both arrived at similar conclusions in both sessions. DAC1 is slightly better in terms of detail, ambience and soundstage depth. Guitar or piano's lingering vibration is more realistic on DAC1 (better details in a natural manner). Live jazz recordings shows more room ambience on DAC1, which I associate with better low-level resolution. The whole soundstage is pushed a bit further back on DAC1, giving instruments a diffused and airy feeling. Zhaolu puts everything more up front and constricted. The differences are pretty small and not self-evident, but we both preferred Benchmark. When Benchmark is directly fed to Quad power-amp, bypassing pre-amp, the sound is even more pristine and transparent. This is the setup we want to own.
At home I also tried to compare the bass between the two on my Athena S2 speakers. Using Rebecca Pidgeon's "Spanish Harlem" track, I found that Zhaolu has a stronger bass, but less even. Benchmark's bass is slightly weaker but tighter as well.
Headphone listening
For headphone listening I first compared RCA outs of both units. Both are plugged into a Furman Power Factor Pro conditioner via stock cords. Using Pro-Co interconnects, they are fed into PreSonus Central Station. Central Station has very good input selectors to allow instant A/B. Benchmark is used in variable mode so it could be level-matched to Zhaolu. Using my ears and the loudness meter on Zhaolu, they are level matched to ~0.5 dB. This setup puts Benchmark at a slight disadvantage due an extra volume pot in its signal path. Both units are said to sound better on coaxial than optical, and I again put Benchmark at a disadvantage by feeding it optical signal from my Sony DVP-NS900V, a very low jitter transport (<250 ps), while Zhaolu gets the coaxial. Main listening is through AKG K1000 driven by PreSonus's internal amp or Cayin HA-1A class-A tube amp. K501 and SR225 are also consulted occasionally.
Although the A/B setup is slightly less favorable for Benchmark, it still manifested itself to be a better DAC. The two can sound indistinguishable on half of the CDs I tried, so one should not expect any night and day differences to exist. Zhaolu's only advantage is a smoother sound in the midrange and lower treble. But its smoothness comes at the price of the loss in detail and ambience in midrange. The lingering tones of cellos and guitars sound muffled on Zhaolu. Ambience of a live jazz recording is better resolved by Benchmark, but soundstage is the same. Bass is slightly stronger on Zhaolu, but tighter on DAC1. Treble extension on Zhaolu is not as good, as cymbals and pianos don't sound as crisp and steely. Zhaolu also shows a bit of digititis in the highest violin notes. As a violin player myself, I have trained myself to listen for unnatural sibilance and harshness in violin's upper range. I have realized that this problem is really due to digititis, often associated with jitter. Benchmark shows almost no digititis, but Zhaolu can show anomalies in the highest notes of violin. I have to conclude that Zhaolu's smoothness comes at the price of midrange clarity and treble extension. Some people might prefer Zhaolu's of presentation, but Benchmark portrays the recording more faithfully. Zhaolu's digititis is really minor because it only appears in upper treble, and should be unnoticeable unless one listens to a lot of hi-quality violin and piano recordings.
Then I switched to XLR on both units. My only pair of balanced cable is used on Zhaolu, and had to convert Benchmark's XLR to unbalanced signal using custom adapters. Since Central Station accepts balanced signals, this puts Benchmark at triple disadvantages (XLR-to-RCA, variable mode, and toslink). Nevertheless, the observations I made in the RCA outs remain unchanged. Zhaolu sounds smoother in XLR compared to RCA, but so does Benchmark.
As a DAC, Zhaolu is very similar to DAC1 but still falls behind in a few areas, and the same can be said about the built-in DAC of my PreSonus Central Station. A direct comparison of Zhaolu vs PreSonus shows that Zhaolu is smoother and more pleasant, but PreSonus has better resolution and transparency. Both suffer from slight digititis, but PreSonus shows them in lower and higher treble, while Zhaolu only in higher treble. Zhaolu's smoothness probably masked its digital artifacts in lower treble, a very smart design for a budget DAC. In terms of DAC quality, D1.3 can be considered as an equal of Central Station.
Headphone amp
Zhaolu's headphone impressed me initially. It sounds very smooth with my K501 and is powerful enough to drive my K1000. Then I realized it has apparent issues. Its extreme smoothness is really due to some serious loss in details and resolution. K501's famous soundstage collapses out of this amp. The loss of ambience makes live jazz recordings muddied, and the smoothness turns into a boring veil when I plugged in my SR225 for rock listening. DAC1's internal amp might be slightly lean and sibilant, but its speed and resolution is great for SR255+rock. PreSonus's headphone amp is the best out of the three—relaxed and detailed, strong bass and big soundstage.
Other observations
Optical and coaxial digital inputs showed no obvious differences on Zhaolu, which implies its jitter rejection could be pretty good. It looses some smoothness when not plugged into the power conditioner, which also happens to my Sony SACD/DVD player and Central Station. Zhaolu's power supply is not as solid as Benchmark's. Build quality from the outside seems pretty good.
Conclusion
In the tests I described above, I did not find modded Zhaolu D1.3 to better Benchmark DAC1. Zhaolu has a smooth sound, which makes it very appealing in its price range. However, its smoothness is a result of slight compromises in low-level detail and treble extension. The loss in ambience is actually its most obvious shortcoming, but it only matter for well-recorded acoustic music. It still exhibits very minor digititis in higher treble, but it is already better than my Sony DVP-NS900V SACD/DVD player that sold for $1000 back in Y2K. Its stock headphone amp is quiet and powerful, but its lacks the resolution and transparency suitable for headphones above $100.
Is Zhaolu a giant killer? No.
Is Zhaolu a best buy? I would say yes but read on.
Compared to my PreSonus Central Station, Zhaolu's DAC is similar in performance. Central Station offers two significantly better headphone amps, a bunch of convenient input/output options, and a hi-end passive preamp for $500, which is only ~$200 more than modded Zhaolu. In addition, PreSonus offers a better warranty service for US customers. If a system sounds slightly harsh, Zhaolu D1.3 can be an excellent solution. If only DAC is needed, Zhaolu is truly a great bargain. But PreSonus Central Station can be a center piece in a great two-channel system for both speakers and headphones. Zhaolu D1.3 and PreSonus Central Station are equally great bargains in terms of sound quality, but Zhaolu would better fit into most home systems. Benchmark DAC1 is significantly more expensive than either but its resolution, lack of digital artifacts and relative immunity to jitter and AC noise still puts it in a class above.
