ESS Sabre Reference DAC VS Prism sound ADA-8XR, DAD AX24 and weiss DAC?

[mbl]

ESS Sabre Reference DAC VS Prism sound ADA-8XR, DAD AX24 and weiss DAC?

Any comment?

[tritosine]

zetex !!

[duekfx]

I'm sure you'll be fine with the Buffalo DAC by Twisted Pear Audio. I've read some reviews about it.

[tritosine]

he wasnt asking about the BBBUUUFFFAAALLLLOOO but how sabre compares to those big name pro audio DA-s . Pro audio DA means it drives just about anything happily! Besides those are insanely expensive , while the "B" is "only" expensive .

1. bet they dont use ASRC in Prism stuff.
2. bet they wont have problem at 192khz, while you need >50mhz clock for sabre
3. you cant sync an >50mhz clock to other gear around , while Pro audio stuff provides all the sync connectors (I/O) .

[duekfx]

I'm sure he wasn't asking about Zetex either >.> As for the "expensive" part, Zetex knows how to overprice their semiconductors.
Besides, 1 DAC chip on it's own is uncomparable since datasheets aren't everything, so you will need a testing circuit. One of these is the Buffalo DAC. Read about it and you will get to know the ESS Sabre chip. A good idea would be to look for other "complete" DACs including the mentioned chips above and compare those. It will be much easier also. It's like you'd wanna make apple pie and compare apple against apple, that's not the way to go. My 2 cents.

[tritosine]

great. I can lend you a sabre board if you want


it is closest to the zetex as it is, once we look at zetex as DA+power stage. It indeed works as a PWM dac once we dont use power stage , as confirmed by "iand" at class-d topic.

1. both have asrc
2. 8 out
3. 32bit input / processing

while the ess has no dedicated crossover utility as zetex does, it can do some short FIR . I did some testing but you can't do anything steep with 512 tap filter, let alone we don know if that 512 tap is 2x256 mirrored coefficient for linear phase design / cost saving.

[Zoran]

I can say from the experiance working with the ESS
dac, that is very good designed chip. I do not observed any
problem or difficulcy.
*
If the over-number of options could be used like dis-advantage, maybe so...
*
The sound is more than good.
I tryed with all 4 dacs per channel in parallel with pasive Riv conversion,
and ballanced to SE interstage transformer.
sound is direct, clear, with good ballance and detail, without harshnes, not mellow at all, but with deep bass... Short...
*
80Mhz master clock used
*
chip is not going to overheat, it is just light warm,
one thing I did not saw yet:
very fast locking, almost instantly goin to audio conversion...
the spdif recever, and I2S I tryed, and all was more than good
*
maybee it will be 5-6 assembled units for sell.
now my friend finishing the programming of the mic. contr.
this is an originall design with ESS chip...
*
cheers

[mbl]

Anyone compare esstech to Prism sound ADA-8XR DAC?

Because most of the features in Prism sound ADA-8XR DAC that I do not need but the sound is very high end...

[mbl]

Anyone compare esstech to Prism sound ADA-8XR DAC?

Because most of the features in Prism sound ADA-8XR DAC that I do not need but the sound is very high end...

[daneman]

Zoran, are you using a resistor with just a few ohms and a trafo with a higher ratio (1:10) or a 1:1-conversion?

thanks, br,
Daniel