That is true for the high-end, but I think it's a smaller market. AKM will probably lose a lot of customers in the AVR, mobile, and automotive sectors. I have no insight into their revenue breakdown, but I would have guessed the mainstream products drive the business unit.
The story I hear is that AK4499 was designed to compete with ESS on specs, but surpass them in subjective sound quality. To date, I have not seen a commercial AK4499 dac that fully showcases what the chip is capable of. The Chinese dacs are good values at their price points, but not the best the chip could potentially sound.
Regarding the Rohm eval board, its down at the moment while working on some stuff but hopefully possible to make it better in incremental steps.
Regarding the Rohm eval board, its down at the moment while working on some stuff but hopefully possible to make it better in incremental steps.
Which doesn't mean anything to anyone who wasn't there during the evaluation. Even for those who there on that day in that room, it wouldn't mean anything the next day in a different environment.
In other words, subjective listening is useless for judging true sound quality.
I am always annoyed when I read subjective critics in Hifi reviews where all sort of sorts and size of speakers comes into, most of he time non treated room
I have many hope in digital EQ to be more and more in the high end consumer products as we see in the PA active monitors. Crazy to see all these High end loudspeakers, very expensive, but with small chance to sound as good as in the designer factory room you haven't
. Look at Class A in Steroidphil mag... few have active setups... The Martin Logan and the D&D only iirc. But for me at the moment, living with a personal computer as a source is a no go, I have no doubt though we will see more and more good digital sources easy to live with, like there are in the PA amps for active filter setups for instance, but better sounds than the basic MiniDSPs'...subjectivness... sometimes you don't know untill you heard better ! A good verity is a lie you accept for yourself. Where is the step ?
In other words, subjective listening is useless for judging true sound quality... of a standalone device in the whole process chain you need to hear a sound coming from it. (closer to what I wanted to say)
It's like saying a dac device is sounding good because the dac chip, it's always shortcuts and approximations. But when repeating experiments you begin to have a little more good subjective opinion
... in your personal context !
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IMHO tPass Labs HPA-1 is an enduring design that sounds good to many people. Probably more people would agree if they could afford it. Stereophile continues to use is as one of, or perhaps their main HPA for comparing headphones. They say its midrange openness and bass authority are 'unrivaled.' They are probably about right for now anyway. It was designed largely by experience with different circuit topologies and by listening. Some listening was on HPs, but most of it was done with Sound Lab electrostats in a treated room. IMHO an expert at that type of design can work successfully using such methods.
Denial that it can be done can't quite be the truth either.
Denial that it can be done can't quite be the truth either.
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1) Clean up the clocking, don't buffer/divide it in a CPLD.
2) Clean up the AVCC supply, use a discrete design just for that purpose.
3) Clean up the output stage, find a non-standard way that sounds better.
4) Feed it carefully produced DSD256 at all times
5) Use an analog volume control after the dac, design a stepped relay or switched attenuator volume control using good components.
Its a lot of work. Most of those things have been solved, but there is some more work to do.
For now I am switching attention to Rohm BD34301EKV. It doesn't measure as well but it sounds closer to a multibit dac than a typical SD. Not quite all the way to multibit sound though. It will take some time to figure out how good it can be.
Subjective listening is useless for judging true sound quality however, it is useful in marketing as you've seen on this forum time and time again.I am always annoyed when I read subjective critics in Hifi reviews where all sort of sorts and size of speakers comes into, most of he time non treated room
I have many hope in digital EQ to be more and more in the high end consumer products as we see in the PA active monitors. Crazy to see all these High end loudspeakers, very expensive, but with small chance to sound as good as in the designer factory room you haven't
subjectivness... sometimes you don't know untill you heard better ! A good verity is a lie you accept for yourself. Where is the step ?
In other words, subjective listening is useless for judging true sound quality... of a standalone device in the whole process chain you need to hear a sound coming from it. (closer to what I wanted to say)
It's like saying a dac device is sounding good because the dac chip, it's always shortcuts and approximations. But when repeating experiments you begin to have a little more good subjective opinion
You can buy things any way you want. It's your money. When you start making claims based on subjective observation, the reactions may not be the way you want.
the today news is that a dac is like a woman ,all are the same
I disagree. I haven’t seen a nagging DAC, ever.
Since I'm looking for a new DAC, I got a Loxjie D50 (almost identical to the SMSL M400) and a Gustard X16 for comparison.
I should have done better research beforehand.
A 17 year old transceiver chip AK4114 was installed in the Loxjie D50 (in the SMSL M400 AK4118).
Only half of the AK4499 chip was wired, the other half was not connected (dto. M400).
According to information, it would be better to use only 2 channels instead of 4. The only question is whether it sounds better or whether the measurements are better?