cheapest es9018 kit yet?

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jerry g

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Joined 2005
I almost bought one of these cheap sabre 9018 from penny buying on ebay. and still might.

L9018DAC 32bit/192k ·¢ÉÕES9018´¿½âÂëÆ÷ ¹âÏË¡¢Í¬ÖáÊäÈë-ÌÔ±¦Íø

The good news is that more affordable sabre 9018 dacs are arriving..
the bad news is no one knows about the sonic quality...i will let others try these first, but it is tempting....

re 9018 cheap versus 9023 tweaked out, I'm told to go with the 9023 chip....but I'm still not sure.....
 
F

fredlock

Member
Joined 2008
The price of the DAC kit is $52.99, but you have to read further down below.

It is a kit,you need solder all parts by yourself. You have to pay the seller 25USD more, if you want the components soldered on the board.

Don't include ES9018 DAC Chip, which he charges 56USD for one,and don't include 4pcs Single Op Amp(can use LME49710,AD797,E5534,OPA627) , 25USD for the CM6631 USB card.

In short this will end up to be $ 159.00 w/o the opamp included. Not bad, still affordable and good for experimenting specially its a 9018 DAC. I might consider buying one. The only question is the support from the seller, if problem is encountered along the way.

Thanks for sharing the link.
 
R

randytsuch

Member
Joined 2003
randytsuch-audio.blogspot.com/2005/10/my-system.html
fredlock said:
The price of the DAC kit is $52.99, but you have to read further down below.

It is a kit,you need solder all parts by yourself. You have to pay the seller 25USD more, if you want the components soldered on the board.

Don't include ES9018 DAC Chip, which he charges 56USD for one,and don't include 4pcs Single Op Amp(can use LME49710,AD797,E5534,OPA627) , 25USD for the CM6631 USB card.

In short this will end up to be $ 159.00 w/o the opamp included. Not bad, still affordable and good for experimenting specially its a 9018 DAC. I might consider buying one. The only question is the support from the seller, if problem is encountered along the way.

Thanks for sharing the link.
Click to expand...

IMHO, pretty misleading to say you can buy an ES9018 DAC board cheap, but by the way it doesn't actually include the ES9018 chip unless you pay extra.

I was wondering how he was selling it so cheap, that question is answered.

Randy
 
H

hochopeper

Member
Joined 2009
randytsuch said:
IMHO, pretty misleading to say you can buy an ES9018 DAC board cheap, but by the way it doesn't actually include the ES9018 chip unless you pay extra.

I was wondering how he was selling it so cheap, that question is answered.

Randy
Click to expand...

Totally agree Randy!

IMO, the implication that some of the current vendors of ES9018 based DACs are somehow profiteering from higher prices is absurd.

Most of the options currently are reasonable value for the products that you receive, there isn't anyone getting rich off selling DIY ESS DACs thats for sure! By the time you're done populating these new 'cheap' options you won't be far off what you could have spent on TPA, acko, quangho and others.
 
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PreSapian

Member
Joined 2009
i didnt catch the fine print. i guess the fine print was the catch. at that price i would rather go for the $99 bord that is being sold at the bazaar than worry about dealing with the dubious quality of a typical chinese board, though this one looks to be higher quality than usual.
 
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P

PreSapian

Member
Joined 2009
im terribly sorry about that and intend to pay everyone back with $5 interest within a month. i got laid off several months ago and have been in a financial and emotional turmoil for a long while but am slowly getting myself back together. i think about this mistake everyday and am embarrassed by it every time i come here. the caps were never delivered to me since they got held at the customs but to refund you i had to have been able to deposit funds into paypal which i have no means of, having only korean bank account. i did find someone here who can transfer funds to my account, however, and am planning to ask her help in paying everyone back (and buy stuff on ebay afterwards...) once i have some spare money at the end of the month. once again i'm terribly sorry about the foul up- it was never my intention to wrong you guys and am not intending to let it stay that way. i beg of you for little more patience.
 
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T

ttan98

Member
Joined 2006
Hi,

Has anyone try this ES9018 DAC if so give us your impression?

I am interested in getting this DAC to compare it against the 2 DACs I own at the moment, i.e. Wolfson WM8740 made by Matrix Cube, and AK4396 purchased from Ebay made for DIYers.

I am quoted a price of $134 incl. ES9018 plus PCB and parts fully assembled and tested but excluding CM6631A and 4*op amps.

What do you guys think?
 
qusp

qusp

Member
Joined 2009
I think it looks like you get what you pay for...

I wouldnt trust anyone who frames a product like that and it looks like a cobbled together design without a single low noise power supply. oh btw the ES9018 isnt included in the ESS dac...

the wima caps look suspiciously bright red also....

the ESS is not a dac chip you can just throw together on a cheap 2 layer board, particularly power supply for analogue stages and the IV stage
 
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qusp

qusp

Member
Joined 2009
what? it sounds to me like you are mixing terms, no official document anywhere, ever... has made a claim like that.

it has some jitter rejection, thats all, it still needs low noise supplies for its analogue stages and of course the clock needs low noise to attain low phase noise/jitter itself. it is also completely unrelated to the IV stage and its power supplies.

if you provide shitty power to the analogue stages which includes the IV stage, clock and dac internal analogue references which have basically no PSRR at all, then you very directly limit the analogue performance of the dac, the 2 are directly linked and the datasheet makes the same point.
 
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F

fredlock

Member
Joined 2008
glt said:
Take a look at the recommendations from ESS and compare ESS Support Downloads
Click to expand...

Hi qlt,

Since you already tried a lot of these 9018 Dac, would you be able to try this too and give us your feedback. I know it will not be comparable to DIYAudio 9018 DACs, but just curious of your findings. You're doing a good job reviewing these DACs on your website and also learning a lot from you.
 
qusp

qusp

Member
Joined 2009
you want Glt to buy, build and test another ESS dac to satisfy your passing curiosity? its cut corners everywhere it possibly can and the seller misrepresented the sale, you are really interested because its elcheapo? no wonder pricing of such goods is becoming so polarized, cheap clueless designs and on the other side, dacs that cost as much as a deposit on a house.

that interest persists simply because it has a spot for an ESS dac on it, despite obviously bad design, mostly missing parts, a dubious seller, possibly fake parts? man the audio press and forums have a lot to answer for when someone can think a single part can make up for all of that.
 
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