ESS Sabre Reference DAC (8-channel)

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#1,141
Re: Re: Dustin on the radio through Sabre, of course

krgaunt said:



Sorry to take so long to reply, vacation schedules and it took a little while to get back in touch with Bob at ESS.

The ESS demo room is 8'x12'x24' with 8" thick walls with internal sound dampening. It's HVAC is isolated from the building. A concrete slab physically separates the building slab from the demo room.

Equipment list:
CD/SACD Player: Denon DVD-1940CI (modified with DSD/Serial out jumper cable)
DAC board: ESS 8-channel Sabre Reference board (with metal film caps and Crystek crystal)
DAC: ES9008 Sabre Reference DAC
Op Amps: AD797 (3 per channel)
Receiver: Denon AVR3808CI
Front speakers: B&W 801 Series 2 with stands
Center speaker: B&W HTM1
Rear speakers: B&W 802
Subwoofer: None
Speaker wire: Std Monster cable
AV connectors: Std RCA cables

The demo board was the same one that ESS has made available on their web site. So there was nothing special that they were doing that wasn't disclosed by them. It's also the same board that was used in the comparisons done the an outside company. I was impressed how open and fair they were regarding the comparison testing. They needed a true comparison of the Saber chip for themselves, and they were happy to hand out copies of the test results.

In the list above, you will notice no subwoofer. Didn't need it, the 801's sounded awesome.

The interesting thing about listening to various CDs, not every CD sounded incredible. A lot of the sound depends on the quality of the recording, of course. For example, my standard CD copy of Dark Side of the Moon was lacking in sound quality...but then again it was recorded in '72. But every piece of music we listened to was noticably improved by the Sabre chip. Well recorded pieces had an openness and depth that the sound straight from the Denon (and into the B channel of the amp) didn't have.

RossG
Click to expand...

I would like to know some tecnical details about your equipment list:

CD/SACD Player: could you provide the mod. scheme to obtain DSD output?
DAC Board: what are the EVB capacitors replaced with metal film caps? what are the the metal film caps used? Which Crystek crystal have you used? as has been connected and powered? Thanks

hirez69
 
#1,145
I have a few Sabre32 on hand to test. Here is what they look like:
 

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#1,147
Thanks Russ
I don't clearly get what the new functions are...? I don't have the new datasheet. Is it available anywhere, or would you send it to me?

(I already tried to get one from the french representative of ESS but they just don't care about small customers.... sadly).
 
#1,148
The datasheet is not available yet. I have an NDA and I have promised not to reveal any details yet. I will when given permission.

I can tell you that Dustin shared this:

The biggest difference between the ES9008 and the ES9018 can be seen when you put in a very small signal, lets say -120dB. The Sabre8 would have some spikes at very low levels, sure tiny but they were there.

Now with the ES9018 he says you can input signals as small as -155dB with no errors whatsoever, its as clean as can be.

Now can you hear from -120db to -155db? Who knows. But hey its pretty darn cool.

Cheers!
Russ
 
#1,159
Hey Russ,

what do you think of the following ?
( possible ? good ? any comments? 😛 )

i'll try and mod a digital receiver for HT
to get I2S or SPIDF chanel output
- > multiple DCX2496 wiht I2S I/O if necessary
wich will do the Xover for all of my chanels
- > outputs to your Bufallo setup

are your bufallo setup to run 2 chanels only ?
if so i'd probably need 5 kits or more
( subs, FLH low, FLH high, FRH low, FRH high, RLH low, RLH high, RRH low, RR high and maybe a center rear )

- > amplifiers ...

what do you think about the digital path ?
what would be the best option ?
 
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