ESS Sabre Reference DAC (8-channel)

[qusp]

no you dont, but the wording on the ds has not changed since it was required, it still states that it is confidential and not to be distributed; they have not posted it for public consumption anywhere, so its still a bit grey imo and i wish they would make it clear. if they wanted it made public they have the mechanism to do that, yet they have chosen not to

[AndriyOL]

Originally Posted by Bunpei

Have you accessed to this page and read documents there?
ESS Support Downloads
I think documents for ES9008 are applicable to ES9018 as well.

Thanks.
Not allowed to distribute the datasheet. They prefer individual requests.

[Bunpei]

RayCTech commented in exaU2I thread;
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digit...ml#post2512675

Originally Posted by RayCtech

If you read the datasheet - ESS recommends 352.8k -> 1536k samplerates to be used with OSF disabled.
If you manages to make a work-around like using a higher clock frequency and thus be able to use the OSF it is up to the designer to solve any issues.

Likewise ESS recommends the "Best Default" setting for the DPLL.
If a product use other DPLL settings it is up to the designer to solve any issues.

I've heard such ESS recommendations for the first time in his post.
Though I've read the datasheet carefully, I failed to find any direct statements corresponding to these.
Are these points well-known to people in this community?

My understanding is ES9018 can accept I2S input of sampling frequency up to 500kHz using the internal OSF.
As for DPLL Bandwidth Parameter, "use the best DPLL Bandwidth settings" is a hardware default. However, I think they do not say explicitly "It's our recommendation.".

[qusp]

Originally Posted by AndriyOL

Thanks.
Not allowed to distribute the datasheet. They prefer individual requests.

my point exactly, this makes it difficult, perhaps litigious to run a group buy and resulting diy project

[Bunpei]

Real 32bit I2S output capable transports such as SDTrans and exaU2I become available for DIY users now.
Is the "24/20/16 Bit for Serial Data Modes" setting as "32Bit" essential for playing real 32bit effective I2S signals? When "24Bit" is set, does ES9018 ignore the residual 8bit?

I remember someone said "Even if 24Bit is selected, ES9018 processes I2S data as full-32Bit-effective".

Does anyone compare those settings of "24Bit" and "32Bit" for real 32bit effective music sources?

[AndriyOL]

Could anybody tell what will be better replacement of AD797 for SABRE DAC based on ES9018?
I have found only LME49990.

[qusp]

you said it already, if there is a better performing and better sounding chip than the lme49990 i dont know what it is. some others to look into are the lt1007/lt1037, but i doubt they measure up to the national chip, which also sounds superb in the right design. my favorite used to be ad797 followed by opa827. if i were you i would also look into the fully differential chips like ths4131

[Bunpei]

The datasheet tells us,

IIR BANDWIDTH
Normal (for least in-band ripple for PCM data set to Normal)

Does anyone kindly tell me the meaning of "Normal"?

Whenever we play PCM sources, is it better for us to set the parameter to "Normal" though it's hardware default is not "Normal"?

[Bunpei]

Is such a kit or commercial product available that implements dual mono mode of ES9018 DAC chip with all 8 channels in parallel?

What I want to mean in the term "all 8 channels in parallel" is;
all DAC1, DAC2, DAC3, DAC4, DAC5, DAC6, DAC7, DAC8 pins are tied together for one differential positive output and
all DAC1B, DAC2B, DAC3B, DAC4B, DAC5B, DAC6B, DAC7B, DAC8B pins are tied together for one differential negative output.

[acko]

Originally Posted by Bunpei

Is such a kit or commercial product available that implements dual mono mode of ES9018 DAC chip with all 8 channels in parallel?

Yes, you can use AckoDAC AKD12 (9012) with its controller AKC12 in Mono DIF mode. AKC12 can be also used with 9018 chips.