Weiliang DAC9 with AK4399

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Hi voxxonline your question depends on how technical you are about modding this dac, there is 2volt output directly off the output of the AK4399 chip so i just lifted the resistors taking the audio before the op amp stage to RCA with cap but if you dont want to do that yes I would take the fake opamps supplied and get real ones, sorry i cant suggest any because i dont use them on this dac, i am using CM6631a I2s usb again not using the adapter you can buy wiring directly to Ak4399 pins from datasheet.
 
AkM dacs do sound great without op amps, its just my opinion and although its not recommended by AKM I do it anyway, sorry i am not that technical myself but i do know a little about AKM chips by experimentation, i dont know much about the subbu dac but i have read great reviews about that ES9023 chip, for me I have listened to so many delta sigma dacs and most dont inspire me the way AKM does, but having said that its the input that makes a big difference I2s is the best using USB makes a big difference.
 
I had a good listen to this dac last night and i can say that it is one of the best dacs I have ever had, it just sounds so real the louder the more realistic, it does everything with ease, but also with depth. I hear things i didnt hear before and the timbre is very natural, if you like ak4396 and think it sounds good then you will love this dac I recommend it. I was thinking about getting the ess2018 (not saying its better or worse) based dac but now I am very happy with this dac and am sticking with the akm but i will be playing around with better input devices like I2s. Now i know why esoteric chose this chip.
 
This is my dac I2s modded
 

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I would say its good to compare dacs but i can say that there is always something better, but personaly i have chased and used dacs that are in my price range, i was a musician for many years and know what real sounds like. Bit like pc intel vs amd and ford vs gm in the end i think its about personal taste and alot to do with original recording quality. But i do have a weakness for getting the altimate sound in my space.
 
running direct without any output buffer is not recommended for good reason. it loads the dac more than desireable, raises distortion considerably, decreases common mode matching, as its very unlikely your amp, even if balanced, will be fully symmetrical. It will in some cases result in going over the output voltage compliance of the AKM (which may even shorten its life and will definitely lower performance considerably), no low pass filter, so you will get nigher noise etc etc.


voxxonline: the filter-buffer and the es9023 are single ended, the AKM is balanced

as far as clocks, it depends on your source, do you have a USB->i2s convertor? if you dont and want one, perhaps grab the Amanero along with the Synchronous reclocker module from Ackolabs Synchronous Re-clocker for Amanero use the Crystek CCHD-957 clocks. this way you get galvanically isolated, low jitter hires i2s and DSD
 
Good Evening ;)

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

the AKM DAC is a balanced DAC, so yes you need the output buffer/filter stage to also sum/convert the balanced output to SE, if your following amplifiers only have single ended inputs.

by source, I mean what will you drive the DAC with? the boards I mentioned/linked above are for giving high quality clocking, galvanically isolated (ground from the PC is isolated) USB input and synchronous clocking of the I2S, so that the same clock that drives the USB-i2s board (amanero), also drives the DAC.

its the DAC thats balanced, as are most high performance DACs, so you need to convert it to SE, no way around it, just using one phase of the output is a half-assed 'solution' but I wouldnt recommend it.

honestly if you havent bought it, I think there are better DAC choices, too many cut corners on his and you'll spend quite a bit and still not make up for the issues.
 
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