Has any inexpensive Asian DAC manufacturer harnessed the ESS Sabre ES9038PRO Chip?

@celander 

The SMSL VMV D1 was given a clean bill after a defective board was replaced in test unit provided. Performance from the unbalanced was as to be expected, just about 2-3db shy of the balanced in the SINAD test and jitter results improved in conjunction.

SMSL responded in checking their inventory and did not find a similar issue and have the defective board on return for investigation.

From what has been said about the unit subjectively is comparable to Benchmark DAC3 HGC, which is say resolved and transparent sound.

@celander 

Considering its a full mono implementation of the 9038Pro requiring one chip for each channel, Noratel PSU, Neutrik connectors, an up to date XMOS USB implementation, its a reasonable price and its casing was built with performance over pure aesthetics. It would have been nice if they could have figured out IMD issue as Bencmark had with the DAC3 HGC, but that unit also has an unbalanced issue in both samples. Still, even with that, its performance is still very good.

At the moment, only if the new AKM4499 could have the potential to match this result with a possibility of not IMD issue, and maybe we will see RME or SMSL produce a unit.

I have ordered one of the SMSL units via Massdrop and will run it through a subjective comparison to my NAD M51. That unit had also received a pretty solid result via Stereophile and number of other publications. I do expect a notable difference as the M51 is known to be relaxed and resolved player and the SMSL being a more involved sound. I will be running them through a pre to ensure both have a fair shake as the NAD has a superior digital attenuation system.

I do believe that we do honestly need to see clear measurements that these new far east companies are competent designers. That really should extend to all manufactures since we've seen some odd results from respected brands as well. SMSL does appear to be capable of engineering a high degree of performance.

@kot 

I certainly hope so and I have a Pass/Revel setup that should be fair enough display a change in the chain. It has been when I first put the M51 though its paces and found improvement over the Marantz I had and the Wadia it was directly compared to. The sound signature is expected to be different to my current setup and hopefully a step in the direction I purchased the unit for.

@doak 

The test on different Audio-gd unit had shown some very concerning results with audible effect. That unit was recent and based on the ESS9038 Pro, so either a defect in the unit or refinement in design may be required from Audio-gd.

Only additional tests will determine what is the reality with them, but the moment, I would prefer additional measurements and listening to determine if their products are sound.

@doak 

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-audio-gd-nfb-2...

Everything you asked in terms of data requested. Understand that a number of companies have resulted in results from all over the spectrum and Amir has shown to be very amicable and willing to further investigate issues with manufactures. This is if they feel the measurements are not respective of the product.

@doak 

As you wish. I found the secondary commentary of Amir and the general candor of Amir to be respectful. I didn't care for your response as being accusatory, which is entirely unnecessary at that juncture.

I can understand why you may feel not obliged or uncomfortable to engage in open discussion, there are many around that can be challenging and even obtuse at times, but its certainly shouldn't be a cause for complete disengagement since it allows the proverbial troll to succeed when one should not.

I do find their products the be interesting as they subscribe to highly limited use of negative feedback (no feedback in their view), but this is a rather challenging engineering path as many designers would attest. My own Pass stuff is built upon this, but is limited feedback design over none where measured use over excess use.

This obviously impacted the measured results as one might expect. Subjectively, the perceived differences were notably less than one might expect, but isn't surprising considering the excess use of NFB during the distortion wars and its resulting of sterile sound in the past. Still, I have seen controlled use of technique can be beneficial, but each designer has the ability to choose their own topology.

Never the less, a better measured result in conjunction would have been preferable. For the time being, it  becomes rather curios.