Interesting. They state that it takes 15 days for them to send the DA8 out as they don't have them in stock. So I wonder where they're getting them from? PC HiFi Shop? ebay?
I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I could buy direct from Yulong. Or if there was an equivalent to Grant Fidelity on this side of the Atlantic...
PC HiFi is the european distributor.
Audiophonics.fr is the french reseller.
Palmtop.it is the italian reseller.
If you buy the DA8 in Europe you have 24 months of warranty (European laws). Shipping included (inside Italy) from Palmtop: +/- 1049€
I can only recommend audiophonics.fr , I only had very positive experience with them - I bought Matrix X-Sabre from them, it took about week to have it at my doorstep. After 1 month I sent it back for analysis, there was weird high pitching noise in left channel originating from X-Sabre. I suspected it might just be a impure power input and their result was - there is nothing wrong with my unit. However, they still offered me full refund even though they did not have to. I politely refused with counter-proposal - I will pay the difference between X-Sabre and DA8, which they agreed to. Week after that, I had my current DA8 at home
I can only recommend audiophonics.fr , I only had very positive experience with them - I bought Matrix X-Sabre from them, it took about week to have it at my doorstep. After 1 month I sent it back for analysis, there was weird high pitching noise in left channel originating from X-Sabre. I suspected it might just be a impure power input and their result was - there is nothing wrong with my unit. However, they still offered me full refund even though they did not have to. I politely refused with counter-proposal - I will pay the difference between X-Sabre and DA8, which they agreed to. Week after that, I had my current DA8 at home
I bought my Yulong DA8 at audiophonics.fr as well. Two weeks after I had it, (I had to wait for a while since it was one of the first ones in France to be sold), price decreased for 100 euros but they refunded me difference very quickly.
Got mine also from Audiophonics.fr
5days for it to arrive.
and after 3 months of listening to the yulong DA8,i can only say i'm very satisfied .
thanks guys for the reviews and feedback.
comming from a Schitt stack.
Lyr/Bifrost
still have the Schitt stack but hardly use it anymore .
Drive a pair of dynaudio bmll with subw and a pair of T1 with the DA8 .
There is enough juice .
That should be a good combo. Anything made by Nelson Pass is gonna be great, and the DA8 does a fine job as an integrated DAC/preamp. Some people prefer running a dedicated preamp and that may or may not be an improvement depending on your system (and volume levels). I find the DA8 does a really good job unless using low levels, at which point the digital attentuation takes away too much resolution. That isn't unique to the DA8 - it happens with most every example of digital volume control. Anyway, I'd give it a shot for sure, and then later you could maybe add a dedicated pre if you felt some need to tweak the sound.
To avoid using low volume levels, I think theoretically it is a good solution to add a simple resistor to the signal path. Like adding a passive preamp with fixed volume knob. What do you think?
still have the Schitt stack but hardly use it anymore .
Drive a pair of dynaudio bmll with subw and a pair of T1 with the DA8 .
There is enough juice .
My DA8 has just arrived. I orderd it exactly 11 days ago from ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-new-version-YuLong-SABRE-DA8-DSD-32Bit-384KHZ-DAC-Decoder-Amplifier-/121100740043?ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123
1300 USD, free shipping with DHL. I cheated at customs, declared 150 USD value, so the import tax was just about 45 USD instead of 390 USD. I am not proud of it, but the taxes here are ridicuolosly high. I am sure that the customs officers have no idea what is the real value of this item.Anyway, do it on your own risk, you can be fined.
It sounds promising, but the noise floor is a little bit high, unfortunately I have only very cheap (USD 2) interconnects here, I have to replace the connectors of the old one (Jack>RCA). Or maybe the noise is becouse I put the unit close to my router and mac mini? Do you think, put the router far away makes sense? Or maybe it is just the cable. I will update you when the proper cable is put into operation.
The preamp seems good, conveniently loud listening volume at -24 dB setting, full volume in windows. (Connected directly to my Threshold SA/3 power amp) Yes I am running windows on my mac mini. No OS X installed at all.
This high noise floor thing is a little bit annoying, this device should be DEAD SILENT. I hope it goes away.
Avoiding customs is the main reason why I decided to order it from audiophonics. I agree that custom fees are very annoying, the lower value you are able to pass to them, the better for you (there is an old saying here - if you are not stealing from government, you are stealing from yourself ).
Regarding your high level of noise floor - I had exactly the same when I first plugged my headphones to it. It was like listening to Niagara falls, annoying and unignorable. But I let my DA8 to run for 10 days straight and all noise problems were gone. Maybe it just needs few hours to burn-in, maybe it has to settle for 230V power input, dunno - but some run-time really helped it, no audible noise at all. Btw - I have my PC right next to it, used to have Wi-Fi router 20cm below it, and neither of those were causing any problems (however, I moved router to my sisters room - I needed direct link to my home network and I could not afford to go through another router).
The preamp seems good, conveniently loud listening volume at -24 dB setting, full volume in windows. (Connected directly to my Threshold SA/3 power amp) Yes I am running windows on my mac mini. No OS X installed at all.
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