Very good choice. i have been reading a lot of good things about sparkos...
Will the Katana be sent out to a few reviewers - like Janis over on the Roon site? It would be nice to see a hands on review of the Katana like the Boss Dac:
Allo Boss DAC review - Raspberry Pi - Roon Labs Community
Allo Boss DAC review - Raspberry Pi - Roon Labs Community
Just a few more words on how Katana sounds. I don't impose my listening impressions on anyone , but want to give an idea of what I hear(take it with a grain of salt)
First do not think that Katana is an ESS sabre DAC and has a specific sound signature . That signature was because of the monolithic opmap stages from ESS EVM (that everyone copied) . Katana was designed by us with almost 0 EVM schematic (output). Its not about the DAC ic...80% from what you hear is how the DAC ic was implemented
The combination of a great clock (lowest jitter ever in any of our designs) + buffer right next to the DAC ic makes music be very revealing . You will hear ..everything. Best words to describe it "crystal clear".
The supercaps with the film capacitors right next (3mm) to the DAC ic provides incredible power on bass and multiple SMD film decouple hi frequency (cymbals etc) , but understand this is not an artificial bass booster , just enough electrons (since bass needs more DC)
At last the opamp stage in class A has, what I best describe , as analog sound. All frequencies seem to be handled with extreme ease (I think its because of Class A amplifier and of course the genius of Andrew that designed those opamps sparkoslabs.com )
Katana , I hope , will change the RPI audio from low(er) quality to true hifi competing with the best commercial offering of sub 1000$ category . If you like streaming music from whatever services , if you like open source software and its freedom , especially if you enjoy incredible sound quality at reasonable prices , Katana was made for you.
Your generation (whatever generation you are) needs to change from those Bluetooth , mp3 and low quality audio and listen to a proper audio system. Its (almost) like when you seen HD video you cant go back to standard definition (well not quite since eyes can process thousand times more information that ears)
Yes I am biased (since I am one of the designers of this dac) , but frankly Katana is a gem.
Use good PSUs , (at least one for RPI and one for Katana) and give it about 1 week to open up (supercaps and film caps)
Now , I will stop my BS . I gave my best.
Planning for a vacation with wife and kids.
View attachment katanabox1.pdf
First do not think that Katana is an ESS sabre DAC and has a specific sound signature . That signature was because of the monolithic opmap stages from ESS EVM (that everyone copied) . Katana was designed by us with almost 0 EVM schematic (output). Its not about the DAC ic...80% from what you hear is how the DAC ic was implemented
The combination of a great clock (lowest jitter ever in any of our designs) + buffer right next to the DAC ic makes music be very revealing . You will hear ..everything. Best words to describe it "crystal clear".
The supercaps with the film capacitors right next (3mm) to the DAC ic provides incredible power on bass and multiple SMD film decouple hi frequency (cymbals etc) , but understand this is not an artificial bass booster , just enough electrons (since bass needs more DC)
At last the opamp stage in class A has, what I best describe , as analog sound. All frequencies seem to be handled with extreme ease (I think its because of Class A amplifier and of course the genius of Andrew that designed those opamps sparkoslabs.com )
Katana , I hope , will change the RPI audio from low(er) quality to true hifi competing with the best commercial offering of sub 1000$ category . If you like streaming music from whatever services , if you like open source software and its freedom , especially if you enjoy incredible sound quality at reasonable prices , Katana was made for you.
Your generation (whatever generation you are) needs to change from those Bluetooth , mp3 and low quality audio and listen to a proper audio system. Its (almost) like when you seen HD video you cant go back to standard definition (well not quite since eyes can process thousand times more information that ears)
Yes I am biased (since I am one of the designers of this dac) , but frankly Katana is a gem.
Use good PSUs , (at least one for RPI and one for Katana) and give it about 1 week to open up (supercaps and film caps)
Now , I will stop my BS . I gave my best.
Planning for a vacation with wife and kids.
View attachment katanabox1.pdf
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Congratulations on getting the Katana through production. Enjoy your vacation - you have earned it!
Looking forward to the reviews of this DAC.
on HAT of the opamp, will it have future expansion we can add? i thought the power supply of the opamp be aligned with the io of sparkos and raspi.. whi is it located perpendicular to the other io?
Analog stage hat has no further expansion . Most important was the ground connection coming from Avcc (right next to the output of the DAC) so the loop will be very small and will not pick any noise. Second power coming from above (dual rail) has also the Gdn next to it for the same reason .
thanks cdsgames.. so this new dac.. as opposed to usbridge and digione.. can it play DSD512?