ESS Sabre Reference DAC (8-channel)

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#406
DAC4392 + ESS Sabre: this is incredible.

DAC4392 + ESS Sabre: this is incredible.

I finally received the ESS Sabre reference DAC evaluation board ;
It has been configured to receive signals I2S through DAC4392 board.
(is in the lower right corner of the picture).

DAC4392 accepts input signals from Spdif (Both BNC and RCA), Optical Spdif,
USB and I2S.

The sound quality is incredible: is the most analog sound from a digital source, that I have ever heard!!


The scene is extremely realistic. Dynamics is robust. The sound is sweet and well-balanced.

This will be my last final configuration for a long time:

I have many DAC: Apogee Mini, Apogee Rosetta with BigBen, Citypulse, Musical Fidelity, Anagramtech Sonic 2 with Timelock with battery and PS mod analog output stage, but none of them arrives at the listening pleasure to ESS Sabre + DAC4392.

FANTASTIC!
 

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#409
Re: DAC4392 + ESS Sabre: this is incredible.

hirez69 said:
DAC4392 + ESS Sabre: this is incredible.

I finally received the ESS Sabre reference DAC evaluation board ;
It has been configured to receive signals I2S through DAC4392 board.
(is in the lower right corner of the picture).

DAC4392 accepts input signals from Spdif (Both BNC and RCA), Optical Spdif,
USB and I2S.

The sound quality is incredible: is the most analog sound from a digital source, that I have ever heard!!


The scene is extremely realistic. Dynamics is robust. The sound is sweet and well-balanced.

This will be my last final configuration for a long time:

I have many DAC: Apogee Mini, Apogee Rosetta with BigBen, Citypulse, Musical Fidelity, Anagramtech Sonic 2 with Timelock with battery and PS mod analog output stage, but none of them arrives at the listening pleasure to ESS Sabre + DAC4392.

FANTASTIC!
Click to expand...

Hirez69,

Great news.

How are you configuring the DAC4392 when it feeds Sabre?
From what I can see the 4392 already is doing upsampling. It
appears the Sabre is probably a superior upsampler / digital filter
combo than 4392.

Have you tried spdif straight into Sabre board?

Also is Sabre board stock?


Thanks.

T
 
#410
Re: Re: DAC4392 + ESS Sabre: this is incredible.

Terry Demol said:


Hirez69,

Great news.

How are you configuring the DAC4392 when it feeds Sabre?
From what I can see the 4392 already is doing upsampling. It
appears the Sabre is probably a superior upsampler / digital filter
combo than 4392.

Have you tried spdif straight into Sabre board?

Also is Sabre board stock?


Thanks.

T
Click to expand...

Hi Terry,

There is no need of a special configuration to connect the DAC4392 with Sabre:

ES9008's DATA2, DATA3, DATA4 and DATA5 must be connected together to PA_DATAR signal. In that way all Sabre's DACs have input data provided by DAC4392 board (DAC 1,3,5 and 7 will decode Left channel and the rest of them the Right one).
No buffer is needed: DAC4392's DATAR output pin can drive four ES9008 LVCMOS inputs.

PCM Bit Clock: PA_BCLK(J7/pin8) => EVB U57/pin7
PCM Word Clock: PA_WDCK(J7/pin6)=> EVB U57/pin9
PCM Data: PA_DATAR(J7/pin4)=> EVB U57/pin11,13,15,17

The only other thing to do is to remove the jumper on the SABRE EVB and choose DSD/I2s Input.

For DAC4392 specification please take a look at www.luckit.biz

Yes, I tried the Spdif input of Sabre, but IMO the I2S output from DAC4392 is far better.
I hope that someone else can confirm my opinion, but I am pleasantly surprised of sound quality of my Minimac (Foobar2000 or XXhighend, Vista, Spdif TosLink) with the DAC4392 + ESS Sabre bundle

😱
 
#412
Russ White said:



This will have to do for now 😉

Yes it is working, but I Brian and I still have a lot of testing to do.

Cheers!
Russ
Click to expand...


Well I'm in love 😀 although I'd love more to hear listening impressions 😉 But I can be patient....hopefully I'll get these parts tomorrow and have my opus working. That should hold me over until I can get a Buffalo.
 
#413
It Is Alive!!

Here it is making music. Feeding it on the bench from an SMC media streamer, then to IVY using SE outputs to my bench RevC amp.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Sounds very, very, very good (that's as subjective as I get 😉 ).

Code is still very basic, so we still have work to do, but there are no significant obstacles in view...
 
#414
Do you think the PCB is going to change? And how does it compare to the Opus with the Metronome? Is it A LOT better or just a slight improvement? Wondering because trying to decide if I want to order a second opus board and metronome to do dual mono on my current DAC or get the Metronome and the Ballsie or wait for the Buffalo....although still not sure on the price of the buffalo or time frame so I'm really not sure at this point....lol.
 
#418
Re: DAC4392 + ESS Sabre: this is incredible.

Hi hires69:

Are you playing the ESS demo board stock, ie with the included clock and analog output stage?

Also thanks to Terry Demol for the in depth answer bout the 'tails. Impressive output stage compliance.

Cheers,

WMS
 
#420
I have been listening to my "Buffalo" design now for several hours. The Sabre DAC is simply stunning.

The Sabre chip is indeed delivering on its promise. I have been very cautious not to get too excited about a basically unknown chip.

I have tested SPDIF, DSD,and PCM. All work flawlessly.

Dustin you did a great job with the chip. I will only say that it sounds fantastic. I am not good with audiophile babel, I can only repeat it is stunning.

I look forward to having the circuit fully vetted.

Will publish specs when I have them.

Cheers!
Russ
 
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