[Plasma Pete]

Hi,

I've had the D18 for just over a week now. Can only agree it has a nice smooth presentation, and that works for me as I listen to quite a bit of Sade, chill out, lounge and that sort of thing.

Right now it's fed by optical out from an iPure20 dock with apple-lossless and flac music from an iPad, sometimes optical out from a Rockboxed iRiver H140 playing apple lossless, and coax out from a Marantz CD7300 CD player. The D18 feeds a no-name but useful valve amp so as you might imagine my system sounds pretty smooth overall, and that's what I like about it. I also listen to quite bit of vinyl through the same not so bright amplification and speakers. So, for me the combination of the smooth sound of the DAC combined with a non-harsh amp/speaker combination is just about perfect.

Before buying the Yulong D18 I used an iBasso D12 or iBasso D10 as my System DAC and I have to say that although the D18 is a slightly smother sounding DAC it is not really, to my ears, that much better than the iBassos -however I am the wrong side of 55 so my hearing might not be able to tell the difference anyway, but I can tell that neither iBassos drive HD650s very well (real muddy bass, even for the HD650s) but drive Etymotic ER4Ps really well

I do have a question about the D18 DAC that I hope somebody can help answer:

The Marantz cd player can play CDRs with mp3 files on them. However something strange now happens when I try to play these mp3 discs on the Marantz through the D18. As soon as the cd player has read the disk (and this is when the music would normally begin to play) the blue light on the DAC that indicates a input signal is being received from the cd player just goes out and stays out untill i place a normal cd in the drawer. Even though the mp3 disk plays there is no signal from the DAC to the amp. This doesn't happen with normal CDs, nor when the cd player is connected directly by phono leads to the amp and the same mp3 songs are being played. Interestingly I can play the same mp3 files OK from the iPad>iPure>D18>amp. It seems the D18 can't deal with 320 Kbps mp3 when read in the cd player and sent to it via coax out. Anybody else experienced this, or can anyone even reproduce this problem? I guess it's not a serious issue as I could copy the mp3 files to iPad or iPod classic to play them through the D18, it's more of an annoyance as I have many Mp3 CDs and I was hoping to stick to apple lossless or flac on my digital devices that feed the D18 from now on.

TIA if anyone can come up with a solution for my mp3 problem.

Cheers,
Plasma Pete
Perth, Australia

 

[Somnambulist]

The price has dropped to $629 as well from a couple of places, I've noticed. Will get ordering next payday, although I'll try and shift the D100 first.
 
EDIT - or at least it had, gone back up to $699 again! Maybe it was a holiday special from China.

 

[Philharmoniker]

Must be a Chinese New Year sale....

 

[project86]

Quote:

Hi,
I've had the D18 for just over a week now. Can only agree it has a nice smooth presentation, and that works for me as I listen to quite a bit of Sade, chill out, lounge and that sort of thing.
Right now it's fed by optical out from an iPure20 dock with apple-lossless and flac music from an iPad, sometimes optical out from a Rockboxed iRiver H140 playing apple lossless, and coax out from a Marantz CD7300 CD player. The D18 feeds a no-name but useful valve amp so as you might imagine my system sounds pretty smooth overall, and that's what I like about it. I also listen to quite bit of vinyl through the same not so bright amplification and speakers. So, for me the combination of the smooth sound of the DAC combined with a non-harsh amp/speaker combination is just about perfect.
Before buying the Yulong D18 I used an iBasso D12 or iBasso D10 as my System DAC and I have to say that although the D18 is a slightly smother sounding DAC it is not really, to my ears, that much better than the iBassos -however I am the wrong side of 55 so my hearing might not be able to tell the difference anyway, but I can tell that neither iBassos drive HD650s very well (real muddy bass, even for the HD650s) but drive Etymotic ER4Ps really well
I do have a question about the D18 DAC that I hope somebody can help answer:
The Marantz cd player can play CDRs with mp3 files on them. However something strange now happens when I try to play these mp3 discs on the Marantz through the D18. As soon as the cd player has read the disk (and this is when the music would normally begin to play) the blue light on the DAC that indicates a input signal is being received from the cd player just goes out and stays out untill i place a normal cd in the drawer. Even though the mp3 disk plays there is no signal from the DAC to the amp. This doesn't happen with normal CDs, nor when the cd player is connected directly by phono leads to the amp and the same mp3 songs are being played. Interestingly I can play the same mp3 files OK from the iPad>iPure>D18>amp. It seems the D18 can't deal with 320 Kbps mp3 when read in the cd player and sent to it via coax out. Anybody else experienced this, or can anyone even reproduce this problem? I guess it's not a serious issue as I could copy the mp3 files to iPad or iPod classic to play them through the D18, it's more of an annoyance as I have many Mp3 CDs and I was hoping to stick to apple lossless or flac on my digital devices that feed the D18 from now on.
TIA if anyone can come up with a solution for my mp3 problem.
Cheers,
Plasma Pete
Perth, Australia

Thanks for posting your impressions. We pretty much agree (in a nutshell). 
 
I have no clue why your mp3 playback isn't working. I just tried a few 320k mp3 files from my music server, delivered via coaxial SPDIF, and it worked fine. Do you have any other DAC around to see if it can play them back under those circumstances? I wonder if the Marantz is only able to decode them internally but not able to send out a digital signal for whatever reason.... seems like a dumb design but I guess it could happen,
 


Quote:

Question is does smoothness decrease detail.
 
For example McIntosh gear is smooth but at the same time the detail is there....at least imo

I do hear some similarities. I've owned a few of their digital sources over the years and I do think that is the general idea behind the sound. The D18 is certainly not lacking in details. It just doesn't throw them in your face as being the main course, musically speaking. The overall perception on first listen might not be to notice the details but they are definitely there. As Slackman has mentioned, the D18 tends to make everything sound great - which is awesome for listening but not a match for actually working on music. 
 

 

[Plasma Pete]

Hi,
 
Thanks for the suggestion project86, helped identify that the problem is with my CD player and not the D18.  I did try another DAC (CD player>iBasso D12 > valve amp) and again both coax and optical out from the CD player failed to deliver any signal to the amplifier when a disc with mp3s on it was loaded.  The same set up played normal CDs just fine.  So, it appears that my Marantz CD7300 CD player can read, decode( not sure if that is the right word) and play mp3s via its normal L+R phono outs but fails to somehow 'decode' the mp3s in order that they can be sent via coax or optical outs.  Maybe this is a known problem with mp3-compatible CD players?  I'll have to google more about this.
 
Cheers,
Plasma Pete

 

[project86]

No problem, I seem to recall certain CD players that I've tried had the same "feature". I wonder if it is deliberate, because they think nobody will bother playing mp3 files with an external DAC? Or maybe it is more like a design flaw that they didn't notice?

 

[customNuts]

@project86 
Can you briefly mention how the D18 and the Violectric V800 DAC compare??

 

[project86]

I finished my review and added it at the beginning. 
 
CustomNuts: pretty much everything I said comparing the Anedio D1 to the D18 applies to the V800/D18 comparison as well. V800 and D1 are very similar in tonal qualities.
 
Compared to the D18, the V800 is the "better" DAC objectively speaking, but not necessarily better for all people. 

 

[Somnambulist]

Nice review. I keep meaning to order mine now but I've been at work and want to get rid of my D100 first...

 

[Philharmoniker]

Wonderfully written review! Would you be expanding this in the future with more comparisons to other DACs?

 

[Staal]

Very nice review as always project86.

 

[Philharmoniker]

The Yulong Forum on Erji.net has recently had a long discussion over the role of the fuse in the sound quality of D18 and seems to have reached a consensus that a modification of the fuse to a higher amperage could enhance the sound. I did not read all the discussions completely, but Yulong himself is setting up a upgrade program, which, according to him, the NA sales associate will also participate in as well.
Let's see how much change a fuse can bring.

 

[Digital-Pride]

Great review as usual Project86.

 

[project86]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!
 
 
Quote:

Wonderfully written review! Would you be expanding this in the future with more comparisons to other DACs?

I suppose I could. Did you have any specifics models that you wonder about? 
 
I figured it would make sense to compare it to the predecessor (D100), the competition (Matrix), and my reference unit (Anedio). But I can certainly do more comparisons if needed, assuming I've heard the other DAC in question. 
 


Quote:

The Yulong Forum on Erji.net has recently had a long discussion over the role of the fuse in the sound quality of D18 and seems to have reached a consensus that a modification of the fuse to a higher amperage could enhance the sound. I did not read all the discussions completely, but Yulong himself is setting up a upgrade program, which, according to him, the NA sales associate will also participate in as well.
Let's see how much change a fuse can bring.

That's interesting. I'd like to hear Yulong (the person) give his take on why it should make a difference.
 
I'm working on a review for another DAC, the Kao Audio UD2C-HP. The designer sent me a few upgraded fuses because he thinks they make a noticeable change in the sound. So far I haven't had enough time to test that idea. But the fuses should work in the D18 too so I'll try it when I have time (might take a while though). 
 
I'll be honest, this sort of tweak is not something I usually consider. But we'll see. 
 

 

[Somnambulist]

Could someone explain why a fuse change could improve sound quality? Just curious...