[project86]

Sub $3500 range? That's a rather broad price limitation.... tons of good stuff there. Auralic Vega, NAD M51, Anedio D2, Yulong DA8, BMC PureDAC, Matrix X-Sabre, Questyle CAS192D..... and tons more I'm sure.
 
MacMini to DA8 to HDVA600 to HD800? That's tough because I've never heard the HDVA600 before. People who I trust have mixed opinions about it.... some like it, some don't. MacMini can be a nice transport if you run Audirvana or some other good software (assuming you like dealing with OS-X - some people don't). DA8 and HD800 is already a great pairing though, even from the front panel headphone out. 

 

[Halitosis]

  Sub $3500 range? That's a rather broad price limitation.... tons of good stuff there. Auralic Vega, NAD M51, Anedio D2, Yulong DA8, BMC PureDAC, Matrix X-Sabre, Questyle CAS192D..... and tons more I'm sure.
 
MacMini to DA8 to HDVA600 to HD800? That's tough because I've never heard the HDVA600 before. People who I trust have mixed opinions about it.... some like it, some don't. MacMini can be a nice transport if you run Audirvana or some other good software (assuming you like dealing with OS-X - some people don't). DA8 and HD800 is already a great pairing though, even from the front panel headphone out. 

So I just ordered the DA8 (YuLong SABRE DA8 DSD 32Bit 384KHZ DAC Decoder&Amplifier silver 2013 version). Fingers crossed! Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Sid-Fi]

Just a heads up that I listed my mint Yulong DA8 on the for sale forums in case anyone is interested. Thanks. 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/730017/yulong-da8-50-price-drop

 

[lukeap69]

John, any chance you can compare the DA8 to Oppo's HA-1?

 

[project86]

  John, any chance you can compare the DA8 to Oppo's HA-1?

 
 
Sorry I have no experience with the Oppo unit. 

 

[148124]

are there measurements of da8 like in stereophile somewhere ?
 
measurements by the manufacturer shouldn't count at all in my opinion
 
find some independent tester with nice equipment and test procedures like new measurements of stereophile and than we can talk whether it's better than weiss 202 (I laughed so hard ... you made my day man)
 
if it measures so good than I can buy it in a heartbeat even paying the price twice
 
I wonder why yulong doesn't want to send just 1 unit for test to the stereophile or someone independent ...

 

[project86]

  are there measurements of da8 like in stereophile somewhere ?
 
measurements by the manufacturer shouldn't count at all in my opinion
 
find some independent tester with nice equipment and test procedures like new measurements of stereophile and than we can talk whether it's better than weiss 202 (I laughed so hard ... you made my day man)
 
if it measures so good than I can buy it in a heartbeat even paying the price twice
 
I wonder why yulong doesn't want to send just 1 unit for test to the stereophile or someone independent ...

 
It's not that simple. Think about how many review sites/magazines actually do competent measurements these days. The list is rather small.
 
Getting a review in Stereophile isn't just a matter of sending over a unit..... they only have so much space for reviews, and can pretty much choose any product on the market to cover. Do you think a small company like Yulong, more popular in China than here, is really on their radar? Or makes good sense for them to cover, from a marketing perspective?
 
I don't see why automatic distrust is the default stance. We know for a fact that Yulong has the right gear (Prism dScope III for example) so is it that massive of a leap to assume they know how to use it? Can you imagine a company posting faked measurements on a regular basis and just hoping that nobody ever calls their bluff? 

 

[Chodi]

   
It's not that simple. Think about how many review sites/magazines actually do competent measurements these days. The list is rather small.
 
Getting a review in Stereophile isn't just a matter of sending over a unit..... they only have so much space for reviews, and can pretty much choose any product on the market to cover. Do you think a small company like Yulong, more popular in China than here, is really on their radar? Or makes good sense for them to cover, from a marketing perspective?
 
I don't see why automatic distrust is the default stance. We know for a fact that Yulong has the right gear (Prism dScope III for example) so is it that massive of a leap to assume they know how to use it? Can you imagine a company posting faked measurements on a regular basis and just hoping that nobody ever calls their bluff? 

Stereophile only reviews products they request. Most often someone from the manufacturer needs to hand carry the sample and meet with them in Santa Fe to get an audience (which I have personally done several times). They already have a relationship with many companies who's products they tend to review. Some are advertisers. Once in a great while they will request a review sample from a new company but always as a result of a meeting and first listen at CES. The days of just dropping a personal call to John Atkinson for a review are long over. I give them credit as they try really hard to maintain their objectivity. A company like Yulong with little representation outside China has no chance unless the product received a major market buzz in the USA.

 

[project86]

  Stereophile only reviews products they request. Most often someone from the manufacturer needs to hand carry the sample and meet with them in Santa Fe to get an audience (which I have personally done several times). They already have a relationship with many companies who's products they tend to review. Some are advertisers. Once in a great while they will request a review sample from a new company but always as a result of a meeting and first listen at CES. The days of just dropping a personal call to John Atkinson for a review are long over. I give them credit as they try really hard to maintain their objectivity. A company like Yulong with little representation outside China has no chance unless the product received a major market buzz in the USA.

 
 
Exactly. And to be honest, it doesn't make all that much sense for Stereophile to give coverage to companies like Yulong, Audio GD, Eddie Current, Questyle, etc. These companies all have merit but lack the sort of mainstream buzz that helps sell magazines. 
 
This is something we struggle with at InnerFidelity from time to time. Although we have a different model than Stereophile and can more easily review items from smaller or lesser known brands, we have to balance that out with more well known stuff too - else we become thought of as a niche website for underground gear. 
 
My review of the new Yulong D200 will be posting at Headphone.guru rather than InnerFidelity or HeadFi. All prior Yulong gear I've tried has been covered here, which made the most sense at the time. But the D200 seems to be a timely enough product considering the price and features, and the editors there were willing to give it a shot. But then again I consider Headphone.guru to be somewhat more of an underground type site in the first place, what with all the music reviews and such. Different focus than InnerFidelity, though some crossover exists.
 
Anyway, getting back on point - most manufacturers never give you any measurements beyond a few basics. Output impedance and power capabilities of headphone amps are mentioned in vague terms (if at all). I'd say Yulong is ahead of the curve when it comes to informing buyers. But as always, you decide who you trust.

 

[148124]

yeah that's unfortunately true what you have just written guys
 
I would love to see some audio-gd too in set of new measurement procedures in stereophile, maybe some high end units like master 7 or nfb-7.32
 
I love stereophile reviews because they do some serious set of procedures which show loud and clear what's going on inside of tested unit but there are only measurements of course
 
I think they are very objective in their reviews - many times they are not epic but show flaws of the design and they are not afraid of showing it public like many other sponsored idiots writing tons of epic bullsh1t about some crap units
 
This is the only place where reviews of sound quality (by ears) matched exactly what I thought about some audio gear (maybe I have same kind of ears or vision of perfect sounding unit) from 90' up to now

 

[Decoy]

I have a DA8/A28 combo and when I run the DA8 on "Pure DAC" with the XLR outputs running into the A28, it is extremely loud.  If 0 volume is at 7:00, I hardly get to 8:30.  I was under the impression that the unamplified signal coming out of the DAC should be rather quiet and let the A28 amp do all the amplification.  I have to keep it so low that sometimes I start to get channel balance issues where one channel is far quieter than the other.  I am using LCD 2.2s and HD800s on 4-pin XLR cables, and they both exhibit the same behavior.
 
It would seem rather silly to have a dedicated DAC and then use amp to drop the volume because the line out signal coming out of the DAC is too loud.  If I take it off "Pure DAC," I can dial down the volume. But again, why am I dialing down the volume on the DAC out just to amplify it again?  I have to imagine running the signal through two rounds of amplification can't do great things for the fidelity of the signal.
 
Any thoughts?

 

[project86]

It's been a while since I tried that particular combo, but I don't recall any issues. DA8 full scale output is 4.2V which is fairly standard for an XLR output. I do know I tried multiple DACs with my A28 - Anedio, BMC, Parasound, etc, all of which should be similar output voltage, and it was fine.
 
That gain seems unusually high.... what happens when you use SE connections between the two? Or how about SE output from the A28?

 

[Decoy]

Using only the DA8 single-end jack, the volume is comfortable at about -42dB, so that's about 1/4 of the way up on the digital readout.  If go into pure DAC mode and use the A28, the high impedance single-ended jack is very loud except at extremely low volume, similar to my problem with the balanced output.  If I use the low impedance jack, I can go up to about 8:30-9:00 on the volume.  When I hook the DA8 up to my Stax SRM-727, the comfortable volume is right in the middle, so perhaps it's the A28.
 
If it matters, I am using foobar2000 at full volume using the ASIO driver supplied by Yulong. No DSPs, no replay gain, no anything.  I tried to look and see if there are any gain jumpers that can be set internally but didn't have much luck.  I'm stumped...

 

[project86]

Yes, it sounds more like an issue with your A28. I don't think mine or any others I've heard of had such high gain. And I'm not familiar with any jumpers for changing that, unless some revision has taken place recently. 
 
Did you try connecting them with RCA cables just to see how that does? I know the whole point of a balanced DAC and amp is to go balanced.... but this is just for testing purposes. 

 

[Decoy]

Using the RCA cables, a comfortable volume is a little less than 9:00.  I posted a question about my issue in the A28 thread.  They suggested that the problem could be with the volume pot.  But in any event, I think the DA8 is probably fine.  I'll try to figure out what to do in the A28 thread.  Thank you for your help.  It has been invaluable.