Hey,
@IcedFrosty !
Any news about AK4499 and ES9038 release date?
Keen for both
Thanks for giving a Us a ballpark figure as to when they will be released! I’m guessing it will delayed for a while and hopefully by 11.11 or Christmas!! But there’s definitely censorship issues between Beijing and Hong Kong with Shenzhen in the middle of it (where the Zishan is made) and trade wars and issues with global supply chains that may delay the project especially access to the microprocessors!
It could be risky or more expensive if there’s limitations or scarcity to the markets for the microprocessors. But Both microprocessors can be had by US official redistributors so you can build a DAC yourself if you have all the correct measurements and evaluation boards if it becomes too pricey to get from China?!
Guess we’ll all have to check on player.ru those guys are on it especially in the knowing how restricted markets work!
“(NOT) Amen
A Dac, is a Dac, is a Singular sound processing.
AK isnt Sabre neither Cirrus etc.”
Mostly true but it depends on the how sophisticated the circuitry is to isolate the chips into separate “mono” channels. But the “improvement” is only about like 15% with more dBs due to less stress the chips are under.
Also it’s not necessarily true that more expensive aren’t “superior” sounding. Since everyone on these threads are focus on the Analog in the Digital-to-Analog hardware. Its really the software end that makes the magic happen with sophisticated software engineering with flawless integration with the hardware and the know-how how to use the apps and algorithms besides the high end specs. It shouldn’t be overlooked especially when 90% of the complaints about the Zishan(s) and many chi-dacs revolve around firmware issues. And to be honest I would prefer seeing more software engineering discussion happening in the Audio DIY community with flawless integration with the hardware rather than endless talks about esoteric discussions about the hardware of high end specs researched on the internet but like the fear of “driverless” cars, having input/say with “hands-on” experience with circuitry gives a false sense of security as many can’t accept that sensors in monitoring these things can be self diagnosis software can do a better job than any human. If you want total control get a vinyl or cassette player sans digital-to-analog conversion because everything can done digitally these days with better files with more information of data being processed at a faster rate (including audio signal, DC offset issues, total harmonic distortion or THD+N, etc) The digital simply reads the files so whatever is on those recordings is in the playback even the “errors” are read. It’s that simple. Better specs also expose imperfections in the recordings and “amplifies” them in many cases.
“The output impedance of 10 Ohms makes it not suitable for all IEMs, it is noticeable how the frequency response varies. It's a shame Zishan hasn't solved this yet.”
The frequency response repair can be fixed with other better clocks or sampling repairs on the actual files using software. Also high and low pass filters also have pass through variations in both the hardware and software side that coincide with “release” and smooth or steep slopes of the filters so it’s a lot more complicated then just charting the output impedance requirements. Moreover the Zishan Dsd is designed with Dsd and high res filters in mind. Some IEMs are more sensitive or require more power and unless you know what you doing in terms of playing with resistance values (as a prerequisite you must know algebra and how it relates to circuitry). I wouldn’t mess with this since it would make the player MORE unstable with ‘some’ other iems not working and then you would be back to square one. Just get a external headphone amp make it easy on yourself (problem solved!)
“Not about rockbox, but I can hear the difference between a "bad", cpu inexpensive _realtime_ resample algoritm to a good one (heavy on cpu).
I can't hear any difference of resamples with a good real time resampler, I tried this many years ago.
There are many realtime resample algorithms, not all sound the same, some are bound to HW restrictions (cpu, battery).”
I have no idea what he is talking about? He’s half right about the cpu, battery consumption. However, higher end players like Ashton & Kern that cost 3,000 do have the firmware, multi core processor and firmware to upsample in real time but that’s what you paying for! The Zishan is a budget DAC even if you put firmware that can upsample don’t attempt this! Just upsample your music files beforehand. Most SRC software are pretty stable and do a great job if you see the benefits of upsampling. Aforementioned information is a bit dated about the algorithms which has more to do with buffering time and cpu speed, and hardware spec prerequisites in order to run real-time upsampling programs to DSD and DXD that chips like the AK4497eq were designed for not to mention Xmos daughter cards with great clock accuracy of run through PC or MAC. And they do sound better with the right dac (pre amp or desktop) that can handle them! Just do your research there are plenty of viable options!
Noise is very interesting one. Many people believe that it’s all bad in the Audio signal. However, if you are listening to flac, wav, aiff, mp3 or even dsd (at 1 bit) beneath the 24 bit high resolution introducing noise like dithering actually makes your files sound better. A great dither algorithm/internal dither that doesn’t strip the file of its natural sounds can enhance what you hear! Flat and triangular works best. But some files do require noise shaping dithering. It’s actually been scientifically proven that by introducing dither at lower resolution improves sound for Human ears. This all done be software not hardware! However some very sensitive iems will actually make the lower resolution sound worse because they can pick up the noise.
For instance, homemade iems lack the ability to be fine tuned with dedicated software like a high-end iems can(ba, hybrid or not) and it’s reflected in the price like Fearless iems have with its Y2K software comes to mind. Moreover, if you have iems that cost 400+ than do yourself a favor a buy a 3,000 DAC not crap on a budget dac with already excellent sound albeit not “perfect”!
It’s somewhat fruitless to chart things if you can’t access apps that can reconfigure the sound coming out of the iems; There are apps that can do this. Or enabling more decoders to have more features on your digital files baked into them like MQA. Just my opinion though...
