ES9038/9039 & AK4493 boards and ICs from China and possible fakes?

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#41
bohrok2610 said:
The output stage I'm using consists of just an I/V op amp stage but the op amp is a composite. There are many ways to implement a composite op amp. Mine is similar to what Samuel Groner and Martin Polak published in 2017 (https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/samuel-groners-super-opamp.337866/). That composite op amp provides the differential output and for single-ended output there is a summing op amp so in total 5 op amps per channel.

Attached is a picture of the ES9039Q2M dac and another with my dual AK4493 dac. The board below is my USB-I2S board. All my diy dacs have the same format so they can be fitted in the same chassis (shown here with RTZ dac).
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Those USB-I2S and DACs are for sale?
 
#42
Challenges:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/smsl-filters-mislabeled-on-es9039-dacs.55378/

Imagine needing to wade through this data, needing to understand and to pick the right one out of 8 to … just play an album.

Why those filter choices even exist I don’t understand. Leave such choices to average users and you can be sure they either leave it default or pick the wrong one. Let alone that the filters are named and/or implemented erroneously leaving the informed theoretical capable user to pick the “right” one from paper or display. Same results.
 
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#43
jean-paul said:
Not settle for less but what sense does it make for me as an enthusiast to invest again in extreme performance under the hood if the maximum speed allowed is 80 kmh? The current one already can do 220 kmh which it never runs. The latest one does 250 kmh. Probably not good analogy but imagine comparing flagship stuff and everyone prefers the cheapest most basic device. Happens with DACs. SMSL SU-1 is great with slight modifications.

Probably the market will be owned by the Chinese companies that have really improved DAC products (I mean that, kudos to them) and made them affordable as well. Can’t say that of Mola Mola. No middle field but either cheap and good or very expensive show off stuff.
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I also dislike ESS DACs, now using noDac LPF only for DSD, I want to try AKM DACs but looking the low price of SMSL SU-1 I think it's better to mod, could you share here or by PM the modifications?

TIA
Felipe
 
#45
Thanks, very interesting mods I use the same mods for my noDac with great success: regulated Salas BiB so not USB powered, passives low pass filter and outputs with step-up tx.

What better to buy Jean Paul: the complete DAC or only a populated AKM board?
 
#46
Depite all the AP's and stellar graphs one can pick the DAC with linear PSU (and not bus power) out in a minute. Modded SU-1 is often picked as favorite in blind listening, that is enough for normal use and leaves time to weed out good music from the vast amount of plain Jane music. Actually using audio devices to play music: novelty 🙂
 
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#48
As professional threadjacker I think this does not belong in this thread. Anyway, the SMSL has useful features, onboard local LDOs and pretty short connections all on 1 tiny board.

It does not bother the user with a display or choices like jumpers except on/off and which input. Install and forget should be the standard instead of academic choices and added confusing features no normal user will ever use.

It had the 1 opamp output stage which is a no no to some.
 
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#55
That is not hard as almost everything relatively recent sounds better than ES9038Q2M (certainly its predecessor ES9028Q2M). What the reason is I don’t know. It was once the next big thing everybody wanted and loved including those that have the tools to measure them. Seven filters!!! Or was it 8?! Hyperstream 3!!!! Or 4!?! It’s the ImPlemenTat1on! AVCC!

Truth is that one hears quite fast it simply is not top quality if it is used to listen to music.
 
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