[geoemm]

I pulled the trigger on this dac. It's available in massdrop for 55$ (International Shipping available)

 

[waynes world]

I pulled the trigger on this dac. It's available in massdrop for 55$ (International Shipping available)

Wow - great price.

 

[RAQemUP]

Been listening to the Zuperdac for this past week that I received from the last Massdrop. I have it connected to my iPhone 7 plus with the CCK 3 and it's been pretty amazing for the price of $55. The sub bass has good punch and detail is there in spades, especially compared to the apple lightning 3.5mm cable. It's not gonna beat my iFi micro iDSD BL soundwise but with it's small stack size it's a no brainer to take everywhere I go really.

 

[Jimster480]

Yeah, I 1st thought of getting k1, then I heard it's not that good with android. Then I thought of getting fiio q1. But now I feel zuperdac is pretty good especially because of the Dac used in it (same as oppo-know implementation matter more). But my doubts is whether zuperdac is 40$ and q1 30$ better than k1?

And I fear k1 is not that much of an upgrade to the normal dacs in laptop avd Android phones

K1 works fine with all modern Androids and works on iPhones / iPod touch too with the right cable.

Its an awesome little device and I totally recommend it at $40.

 

[riderx1]

I've always loved your reviews. Thanks.

 

[DarkSession]

Well i also got a sample from Zorloo. I intendet to get a European LG G6 with a "Standard" built in DAC which doesn't sound any special. But then my OCD got triggered and i bought the Asian version which has a Quad DAC (ESS 9018+). Its a upgraded version of the LG V20's Quad DAC but people say its rather a downgrade because the new dac lacks Bass, Stage and is way too bright. Especially Bass seems a problem that many people change back to the V20. They may have a similar chip but both sound completely different. Even audiophile shopkeepers say that the G6 has absolutely no bass and lacks dynamics compared to the V20. Many reviewers label the G6 with its Quad DAC as THE best sounding smartphone. Well this may be true for people who love analytic sound. But my ZuperDAC arrived and i tested them both. My conclusion is that the G6's DAC is pure marketing to trick people into thinking Quad = Better. If that would be the case Oppo and FiiO would be useless and would sell overprized Junk for over 400 Bucks if a smartphone alone can sound better. I think you get the point. The DAC in the G6 may cost 15 Bucks in production and we are comparing it to a 70$ Standalone DAC which only has the task to make music sound better.

Its a no contest, i see the ZuperDAC from the same way that you see it. Very Dynamic sound with awesome mids and deep non distorting bass. I dislike the G6 DAC sound and only use my ZuperDAC. No matter if i use 990 LE's. HD 650 or EC10s, the SuperDAC is way superior for people who want atmospheric dynamic sound with a deep sub bass. If you prefer sober, neutral or clear sound with focusing on the voice only, the G6 will do better. But the Instruments, Stage, Bass, Kicks, pretty much everything that does make a sound apart from the voice will sound thousand times better. And i rarely listen to acapella, so the G6 Quad DAC is not enjoyable for me.

My full review of the ZuperDAC is coming soon after testing it a little further.

 

[Jimster480]

Well i also got a sample from Zorloo. I intendet to get a European LG G6 with a "Standard" built in DAC which doesn't sound any special. But then my OCD got triggered and i bought the Asian version which has a Quad DAC (ESS 9018+). Its a upgraded version of the LG V20's Quad DAC but people say its rather a downgrade because the new dac lacks Bass, Stage and is way too bright. Especially Bass seems a problem that many people change back to the V20. They may have a similar chip but both sound completely different. Even audiophile shopkeepers say that the G6 has absolutely no bass and lacks dynamics compared to the V20. Many reviewers label the G6 with its Quad DAC as THE best sounding smartphone. Well this may be true for people who love analytic sound. But my ZuperDAC arrived and i tested them both. My conclusion is that the G6's DAC is pure marketing to trick people into thinking Quad = Better. If that would be the case Oppo and FiiO would be useless and would sell overprized Junk for over 400 Bucks if a smartphone alone can sound better. I think you get the point. The DAC in the G6 may cost 15 Bucks in production and we are comparing it to a 70$ Standalone DAC which only has the task to make music sound better.

Its a no contest, i see the ZuperDAC from the same way that you see it. Very Dynamic sound with awesome mids and deep non distorting bass. I dislike the G6 DAC sound and only use my ZuperDAC. No matter if i use 990 LE's. HD 650 or EC10s, the SuperDAC is way superior for people who want atmospheric dynamic sound with a deep sub bass. If you prefer sober, neutral or clear sound with focusing on the voice only, the G6 will do better. But the Instruments, Stage, Bass, Kicks, pretty much everything that does make a sound apart from the voice will sound thousand times better. And i rarely listen to acapella, so the G6 Quad DAC is not enjoyable for me.

My full review of the ZuperDAC is coming soon after testing it a little further.

A DAC that you buy is not literally a chip.
SO the $15 CHIP in the phone is more expensive than the DAC CHIP in this device.

And that is what you have to understand.
One is based on bulk pricing for a chip alone, the other is retail of a audio device that contains many chips.

Analytic sound is infact cleaner and closer to "reference" what you are saying is that you don't like reference sounds and instead want things that sound worse or "different" from how it was recorded because that sounds better to you.

 

[DarkSession]

Sure but it still lacks dynamics and stage. This is something that every music lover wants, im able to differentiate between my own taste and Audiophile Reference. And imho the G6 just sounds ... well not neutral, its way under neutral, its more like plain boring because everything is turned down even mids. I had HD 650s with a FiiO E10 and a Essene ST-X 1 and 2. They sound rather neutral and have a small stage. But at least they did not lack dynamics. I know what Analytic means and i know what excessive means, And if the Music doesn't play dynamic enought with almost zero bass, then this is something that you can't call a audiophile reference, because the original sounds way different. More flashy, more variable. You could build a Headphone with almost no Bass, you could say that the Sound is very precise and clean. But it doesn't mirrow how the original Audio Engineer of the Song wanted it to sound. I think you know what i mean. Reference sound is not - 16 DB at 250-500 KHz compared to the original Sound of your headphones. If you take Reference Headphones and pair them with a even more neutral Dac, you will get a huge lack of bass. This is exactly what i experienced with the G6. The Lows get cancelled fully out and the dynamics are not there. For example the ZuperDAC i use is also considered analytical but sounds completely different than the G6. Same for my ST-X. Its considered the best sounding PCI Soundcard together with the ZXR. Its analytical too, right. But it sounds how the Songs are meant to sound, not muffled and crippled like on the G6.

I will also order the 1001 Triples that you own just to have another view on this subject, but i guess nothing will improve in terms of Stage and Bass because they play even more analytic than my EC10s.

 

[Jimster480]

I havent ever listened to a G6 but I doubt that it has -16GB at 250-500khz.

Maybe the G6 just lacks power if that is how you are describing it. Usually if it has no bass that is due to power requirements as bass takes the most power by far.

 

[DarkSession]

Well i was exagerrating with -16 DB but thats basically how it sounds to me. Power is not a problem, i tried High Gain mode and Normal Audio mode. This is just how the Sound signature is, people prefer the V20 sound and every G6 review says the same. Its way beyond neutral. Which doesn't make it okay to sound that liveless with a minitaure stage.

 

[Jimster480]

Well i was exagerrating with -16 DB but thats basically how it sounds to me. Power is not a problem, i tried High Gain mode and Normal Audio mode. This is just how the Sound signature is, people prefer the V20 sound and every G6 review says the same. Its way beyond neutral. Which doesn't make it okay to sound that liveless with a minitaure stage.

Maybe they just messed the phone up then.

 

[DarkSession]

I guess so.

 

[peter123]

Dynamics are often mistaken/mixed up with bass quantity. The Zuperdac, despite all its greatness, is not neutral but have exaggerated bass and warmth to my ears.
Your neutral is probably different from mine.

That's the next thing, I really hate this audiophile mumbo jumbo about "how the artist intented for it to sound". It's pretty obvious, given that the majority of recordings have pretty poor quality, that most artists doesn't give a crap and even if they did who would know what that would be, you, me, my mother? You tell me....

Also the dac chip is only a very small part of what creates the final sound. I've probably heard/owned close to 20 devices using the ESS9018 chip and only two of them has sounded close enough that I couldn't easily tell them apart: the Zuperdac and the Geek Out 720. That being said still shows how great value the Zuperdac is as the Geek Out 720 was twice its price even when Massdrop did the end of life sale for it.....

 

[waynes world]

Dynamics are often mistaken/mixed up with bass quantity. The Zuperdac, despite all its greatness, is not neutral but have exaggerated bass and warmth to my ears.

I guess that's why I like the zuperdac so much then!

Also the dac chip is only a very small part of what creates the final sound. I've probably heard/owned close to 20 devices using the ESS9018 chip and only two of them has sounded close enough that I couldn't easily tell them apart: the Zuperdac and the Geek Out 720. That being said still shows how great value the Zuperdac is as the Geek Out 720 was twice its price even when Massdrop did the end of life sale for it.....

Yup, that's a good endorsement for the little beast.

 

[RedJohn456]

[QUOTE="waynes world, post: 13667866, member: 333894"]I guess that's why I like the zuperdac so much then!



Yup, that's a good endorsement for the little beast.[/QUOTE]

Then you are gonna love what's coming next