玩CAS階段小結

天下第一刀

用專業錄音棚的PCIe聲卡精度高﹐直接以S/PDIF輸出接HIFI DAC播放所有音樂文件音
質比較好﹐微軟最新的播放器好象不錯

TMSulcata

hkborn 發表於 2012-5-15 02:34
no wonder you can get good sound then, it's the job of a perfectionist. It's extremely difficult f ...

I like CAS is due to the potential to sound extreme good, and after setup, it's so easy to use, just a few command to key it and then enjoy the good music.

Regarding latest mobo, the quality is so nice, this is actually an improvement. We may confrig the CPU to disable it to single core and down clock.

Still lots to learn :)

charliey

amarra 2.4 version for mac is now HK$1.5k only ... i would not say it is expensive nowadays ... after upgrading my mac mini with SSD, i am still using a $5xx value usb cable to dac, and the quality is no worse than my CD album ... so i would not say mac today cannot be better than windows ...

hkborn

charliey hing,
I have a similar Mac set up as yours except that mine is MBP, I'm still using itune n vox as my major music player. I use a firewire dac so the sound is ok.
I'm quite interested in your minimax dac, the tube stage should give sweeter sound. My little suggestion to you is using a usb-spdif transport, from the spec of minimax, the dac does not support usb input on higher sample rates. This means that the best of the dac is on coaxial input, get a 75ohm BNC input, u may get improvement right away.

DigitalMana

I did try SDtransport for a few days too, the sound was quite good, on par with my HP and JMRC + JPlay, but it is VERY sensitive to the power supply.  But after two days of playing I gave up because copying files to SD card each and every time is too much trouble ... 太麻煩啦，冇嗮聽歌嘅樂趣。。。但當玩具玩下就幾好

Also with the AMR DP-777, there is a notable difference between "Zero-Jitter Mode“ and the Normal mode (inside the DP-777) when using with the SDtransport, so this suggest the SPDIF output from the SDtransport does contain certain amount of jitter.

hkborn

I use a few SD cards to store music, it's one time exercise only, SD serve as storing a large number of CD.
I connect it to Larvy Gold and play 16bit/44.1 only, it sounds far superior than PC based music. I think you should post your problem in Bunpei's DIYauido thread, it's quite strange that it's not bit perfect.
On power supply, I just use a cheap cheap transformer, with better power supply, it certainly performs better.

charliey

hkborn 發表於 2012-5-15 13:32
charliey hing,
I have a similar Mac set up as yours except that mine is MBP, I'm still using itune n ...

my dac is DAC plus version, usb should support  over 16 bit ... but anyway, thanks for your advice !

tommy6041

天下第一刀 發表於 2012-5-15 03:51
用專業錄音棚的PCIe聲卡精度高﹐直接以S/PDIF輸出接HIFI DAC播放所有音樂文件音
質比較好﹐微軟最新的播放 ...

微軟最新的播放器好象不錯
咩播放器

天下第一刀

tommy6041 發表於 2012-5-19 02:47
微軟最新的播放器好象不錯
咩播放器

Windows 7 Media player

odysseyhk

I read this comment in the original post "又好像近來熱爆的ESS9018，這晶片最主要功能一個是播放DSD檔，另一個是八聲道播放，最先採用的其實是oppo，好定不好就自己判斷啦！而家可以同時有八聲道同DSD嘅產品印象中只有exasound，呢班加拿大人開發咗usb to i2s driver，因此可以將八聲道或DSD送到9018晶片作解碼。其他流行嘅9018DAC，有幾多有八聲道呢?如果得兩聲道，點解唔用好的嘅9012 chips??"

Let me quote the paragraph in 6moon.com how to fully utilized 8 "DACs" in the ES9018 chips for a 2 channels configuration.

"Because the Sabre is an 8-channel part, today's standalone converters run dual-differential circuit topologies with paralleled DACs. There are two DACs per phase per channel (8 total) whereby each of those 8 DACs is fully balanced unto itself. This configuration allows for better than 132dB of dynamic range. "

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/wyred4/dac.html

konno

亻


- 發送自我的 iPhone 大板凳應用

hkborn

odysseyhk 發表於 2012-5-19 09:40
I read this comment in the original post "又好像近來熱爆的ESS9018，這晶片最主要功能一個是播放DSD檔， ...

please go to chip manufacturer's web-site and have a look!!
http://www.esstech.com/index.php?p=products_DAC

9018 is an eight channel chip, mainly for av use
9012 is two way chip

odysseyhk

hkborn 發表於 2012-5-19 12:26
please go to chip manufacturer's web-site and have a look!!
http://www.esstech.com/index.php?p=pro ...

Read the spec . 9018 and 9012 are same family with similar spec and therefore group together. 9018 can be configured for 2 channels use utilizing all 8 dac in it.

http://www.esstech.com/PDF/Sabre32 DAC PF 100622.pdf

hkborn

odysseyhk 發表於 2012-5-19 14:53
Read the spec . 9018 and 9012 are same family with similar spec and therefore group together. 9018 ...

chip set is a processor, difference of 9018 and 9012 is the former is able to convert eight channel and the latter convert two channels only, eight channel is better than two channels in terms of "numbers of channel " not necessary the quality of audio. Even oppo has two way stereo out.
I just wonder why manufacturers rush to use an AV based chip instead of 2 way based chip.

odysseyhk

Great, now u understand 9018 and 9012 are same quality level.

The choice of 9018 and 9012 depends on the design need.  I think 9018 gives more flexibility for engineer to implement a true balanced circuit.  

hkborn

"Great, now u understand 9018 and 9012 are same quality level. "

how can you draw such a conclusion??
The primary design of 9018 is for AV whereas 9012 is for stereo; if processing capacity of the chip remains the same, of course 9012 is better for 2 ways application.  

odysseyhk

They are the same design, 2 implementation variation. Shared spec. Quite obvious.

m40

The advantage of 8-channels 9018 is it can be configured to parallel the channels to become a 2-channel dac.   By paralleling channels, noise is randomly spread out while signal level is doubled (or more), the overall Signal-to-Noise level and Dynamic range can increased.     Accuphase and Weiss Medea (the old version with AD1853) use this way to boost signal-to-noise level.

You can check 9018 has better DNR than 9012.


I am not a fan of ESS dac in general, above is just from technical point of view.

  

hkborn

I just know there are rarely ess9012 chip DAC out in the market partly because 9018 is cheaper.
The really expensive DAC Qualia Indigo using 9012 chip costing USD45,000
http://www.stereophile.com/content/qualia-indigo-usb-dac

For 9018 products, OPPO may the best buy at least with blue-ray function as well as stereo.

hkborn

m40 發表於 2012-5-19 18:34
The advantage of 8-channels 9018 is it can be configured to parallel the channels to become a 2-chan ...

i double checked the spec:

9018 DNR 135(mono), 133(stereo), 129(8ch)

9012 DNR 133

I did ask a quote on DIY 9012 DAC which is way too more expensive than 9018 DAC, almost USD3000