ES9038Q2M Board

Not all DACs with low THD sound good, because it is only one factor what matters. Correspondingly none of the DACs with high THD sound good. The meaning of “sound good” is something of individual perception, since a small fraction of listeners have an addiction to the distorted sound, particularly polluted with even harmonics. I wish them very happy listening, because it is none of my business.
A lot of people prefers the old 13-14 bits TDA1540, 1543 and hates the modern 20-24bits DACs 🙂

About ES9038 - some of my ESS based DACs have a possibility to change "on-fly" THD Compensation between:
a) "none",
b) "high harmonics" (like "tube sound")
c) "min. harmonics".

It was a surprise for me, that 40-50% prefers "none",not "minimum", (20% does not hear a difference at all).
 
IIRC so far two participants in this thread like the dac sound in stock form. All the others were not satisfied with the stock sound and tried various things to improve it. A standard 3-opamp output stage, as recommended by ESS and other dac chip manufacturers, helps a lot (if implemented on the dac ground plane or an extension of it). ESS app note for their earlier dac chips directly discussed the need for a continuous ground plane between the dac chip and opamps. They also recommended AVCC decoupling and regulation be as close as possible to the dac chip. In addition they recommended that MCU power regulation be separate from dac chip regulation. Examination of ES9038Q2M evaluation board gerbers can be informative for inexperienced designers.
 
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