ESS Sabre Reference DAC (8-channel)

[qusp]

nice work above, wow the Caprice is pretty jam-packed full of stuff, yep, I have found much change in the buffalo II character with the 3 different stages I have tried so far, with the best being a dual mono QRV08 discrete JFET buffer and line stage and I just need to figure a way to circumvent the servo so I can bias the ground. next is subjectively the transformers with TX2575 resistors.

@ Jkeny: go go duracell man, if he cant do it, nobody can

[qusp]

mature enough for ya?

[Spartacus]

Originally Posted by Bunpei

I should confess the description above is somewhat exaggerated.
Yesterday, I had a chance to listen to sounds of a brand new ES 9018 based DAC made by a Japanese audio vendor, Fidelix. Its type name is "CAPRICE".

Bunpei, I notice you are using the demo board with the stock PSU. It's OK, but the Sabre responds very well to attention to its power supply.

[chipzahoy]

Originally Posted by qusp

nice work above, wow the Caprice is pretty jam-packed full of stuff, yep, I have found much change in the buffalo II character with the 3 different stages I have tried so far, with the best being a dual mono QRV08 discrete JFET buffer and line stage and I just need to figure a way to circumvent the servo so I can bias the ground. next is subjectively the transformers with TX2575 resistors.

@ Jkeny: go go duracell man, if he cant do it, nobody can

I'm highly interested in your different stages!

Can you please share further details? Which transformers did you use?

[Bunpei]

Originally Posted by Spartacus

I notice you are using the demo board with the stock PSU. It's OK, but the Sabre responds very well to attention to its power supply.

Yes, I agree with you. I know the PSU is not the best one and the I/V stage on the board is a "vanilla".

Actually, the ESS ES9018 2ch Evaluation Board is used as a smart "ES9018 register setting device" for Buffalo DACs or CAPRICE DAC these days. As I reported on "Buffalo II" thread of this forum, I tweaked the board and extended I2C signals outward for connecting to external ES9018 chips.
(Its connection can be switched.)

The GUI-based register setting PC program provided by ESS is very easy to tune register values and useful.

[ecodoppler]

Originally Posted by Bunpei

Yes, I agree with you. I know the PSU is not the best one and the I/V stage on the board is a "vanilla".

Actually, the ESS ES9018 2ch Evaluation Board is used as a smart "ES9018 register setting device" for Buffalo DACs or CAPRICE DAC these days. As I reported on "Buffalo II" thread of this forum, I tweaked the board and extended I2C signals outward for connecting to external ES9018 chips.
(Its connection can be switched.)

The GUI-based register setting PC program provided by ESS is very easy to tune register values and useful.

May we know the price of this DAC?
Thank you
Ecodoppler

[leo]

Caprice for anybody interested CAPRICE

[Bunpei]

Originally Posted by ecodoppler

May we know the price of this DAC?

As for the price of "ESS ES9018 2ch XLR Evaluation Kit", you can look at this page.
ismosys.com

In countries where ESS Technology has their local distributors, you need to contact to the distributors. The price depends on a distributor. ISMOSYS only covers its territory.

[qusp]

Chipzahoy: well, I used 2 x peranders QRV08 only with a small value resistor at the input until I modify it for use with sabre, this is a pretty involved headamp/line stage that is at least 500 parts, I also have the D1 stage from nelson pass, also using transformers from Bud Purvine at onetics and i'm using a simple pair of discrete opamps

[ecodoppler]

Originally Posted by Bunpei

As for the price of "ESS ES9018 2ch XLR Evaluation Kit", you can look at this page.
ismosys.com

In countries where ESS Technology has their local distributors, you need to contact to the distributors. The price depends on a distributor. ISMOSYS only covers its territory.

Sorry Bunpei, I was inaccurate in my question. I wish to know the price of Caprice DAC; unfortunately The Fidelix webpage is only in Japanese.
Thank you
Ecodoppler