Kategorie: ES 9038Q2M

Review: Sanskrit SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK.II / absolutely “bad”, not for “hi-fi-enthusiasts”

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so, 😉

got today the “SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK.II” (from Amazon) in red and the first thing to remark is that the case/DAC is absolutely small; absolutely smaller than you might expect..

second: had trouble in detecting it via USB under Windows 10..installed the original smsl(xmos)-driver (Thesycon), tried all different USB-ports, restart etc, no success..

connected then a blurayplayer via coax->suddenly the DAC via USB was detected..

third: the tone !!

generally speaking: absolutely nothing..absolutely no push/aggressiveness, no particular soundstage, no “3D”, no “airy”, brilliance, nothing, absolutely “flat”..

okay, for “normal” PC-soundcard-user its maybe an upgrade, but for really sabre-hi-fi-enthusiasts absolutely NOT !!  

i would say, from the overall tone-quality its in the ES9018/28Q2M-range, almost so bad like the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic-100 for example, the Xduoo-Link (portable) sounds almost better..(btw.just saw the Cambridge Dac Magic 200M uses also ESS Sabre-chips; the “100” used Burr-Brown, no 3D,soundstage,nothing)..

okay, so absolutely no comparison to an ES9038Q2M (not to speak of an ES9038Pro for example)->“worlds/”lightyears” between them (also i got the feel that the AKM4493 is not soo bad as Sanskrit has it implemented in this “Sanskrit 10th Anniversary MK.II”)

so, great/final conclusion:

buy the SMSL Sanskrit 10th Anniversary MK.II

“ABSOLUTELY NOT” !! 

absolut no recommendation; if u would buy a cheap chinese ES9038Q2M (for only 35$)  you will have an absolutely better tone/sound !!

AKM vs. ES-Sabre:

i really miss this “spectacular” 3D, soundstage,”airy”, aggressiveness/push from the ESS-Sabre-chips..no comparison, ESS-SabreChips are laps/”worlds” ahead !!

so, the other possibilty in this price-range would be the Topping D10S, one ES9038Q2M in it (the D50S for example is a dual-ES9038Q2Ms-build), but it has only an usb-input, no coax/toslink/no remote..

so, todays conclusion for me is to safe money and buy a Topping D50S (with this dual ES9038Q2M)..(obviously it would be better buying some DAC with an ES9038Pro or similar, but this also costs a lot more..) 

greets for now !  (was a tough/interesting afternoon ! 😉 )

New speaker / little experience-report / Volumio at 2.861 / some new ES9038Pro DACS / Universal USB to I2S Interface Indicator

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so, 😉

as i´ve bought some “new” speaker (Mission Cyrus 780 (one bass driver was defect, had to order some spare from the UK)), i´ve had to re-adjust/re-set/re-listen to my hifi in general..

I´ve just bought some AMD Ryzen on some Asus-Board too and so i could test the nowadays “onboard-sound-solutions” (in this case some Realtek S1220A with 120db SNR) against some “normal CD-transporter” or some Raspberry PI 4 over USB->I2S to some ES9038Q2M..

Absolutely still no comparison !! ->we forget these onboard-sound now and go directly to the USB->XMOS-USB-Bridge->I2S->ES9038Q2M vs. Raspberry Pi -> XMOS USB-Bridge->I2S->ES9038Q2M thing..

First thought (over PC->XMOS-USB->I2S->ES9038Q2M) these ESSabre-engineers “add/or re-invented” some really funny/sunny/airy components to the digital stream..absolutely lovely, much “more voluminous”, airier..(these advanced-bitstream-thing))

But after connected to the Raspberry Pi 4 via USB(3.0)->XMOS-USB-Bridge->I2S->ES9038Q2M its still an enermous “lap ahead”, guess its absolutely because of the short electronical circuits on the Pi (less latencies) and the less EMI-interferences on some PI-boards against the “noise” on some normal PC-mainboards..

So its again some “normal” CD-transporter (over spdif to some dac/ES9038xx) vs. Pi-4 (for saved media-content)..

Updated my volumio-software on the Pi-4 (now at V2.851), absolutely great, super fast “scrolling” through the libraries (more CPU-power Pi-4)..

->https://volumio.org/get-started/

So conclusion for now (again):->forget the soundcard/USB-thing from the PC/MAC->its still about “normal” CD-transporter vs Raspberry Pi ->USB-bridge->ES9038xxx..

I´ve also bought some Synology DS214Play now->absolutely great, no lags/problems now, absolutely smooth..

by that i´ve found right now by chance these “Arduino-based Universal USB to I2S Interface Indicator” by dimdim.gr; its here->http://www.dimdim.gr/arduino/universal-usb-to-i2s-interface-indicator/ (+ there are a lot of very interesting infos about sabre+akm-boards in general on this site !!)

thats exactly for what i searched soo long !! (.ino is here->LINK)

also found some new ES9038Pro-DACS on massdrop for example->will post then more about it..

greets for now !! 😉

New: Topping D10s (1 x ES9038Q2M) vs. SMSL Sanskrit 10th SK10 MKII (AK4493)

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hi there, 😉

unfortunately nothing new from here building/buying around some new ESSabre (9038Q2M) chips (DIY) but 2 new, interesting DACs “came up the table” lately:

The Topping D10S with 1xES9038Q2M in it, XMOS XU208 + OPA2134  (changeable)->

goes for only 99$ !!  (Amazon,Aliexpress,Ebay,Audiophonics,Shenzhenaudio)..

a very detailed test about it is here (as always “audioscenereview”)->https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d10s-usb-dac-and-bridge-review.14859/

and/or the SMSL Sanskrit 10th SK10 MKII for a little bit more (110$)  (Amazon) ->

audioscenereview-review is here->https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/smsl-sanskrit-10th-mk-ii-dac-review.12148/

question is which sounds better ? (i will make a new thread about it in the forum (Link) and hopefully someone will/can post his/her experiences with both of them)

as i originally wanted to buy some Topping D50S (2xES9038Q2M, 250$ Amazon) because of the 3 inputs (USB,coaxial,toslink) the Sanskrit would be the better choice..

but as i like these phenomenal, unbelievable, “airy”, “openstage”-sound from the ESSabre-chips sooo much, its the question if these AKM4493 were sounding similar..

more to come… (gather some more information about them (the two) right now) 😉

Usability / Volumio->BubbleUPnp / Volume-Potentiometer-Hardware-None

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so, 😉

sorry for the lately uninteresting/not so “fresh” news about the ES9038Q2M/ES90xx-chips/boards etc..; maybe that will come back..

today, to keep this blog going, some usability-tricks/tips using a RPI-4B and volumio..->https://volumio.org/get-started/

runs fantastic (imo), is absolutely DSD-capable (remember to use an USB-bridge (XMOS or Anamero) “in-between” and set volumio on “DSD-direct”,”no mixer”, “no resampling”-> else u wouldn´t get the red/torquise DSD-lock-light on the ES9038Q2Ms..->

by that i´ve tried a lot of dlna-apps for volumio and best for me so far is->BubbleUPnP->LINK

there are millions of other (“Mediahouse etc.,etc.,”) but imo, BubbleUPnp correspondends superb with volumio..u can see in BubbleUPnP whats playing, can change the volume via the “normal” volume-keys and u can also play/send .mp4/.mkvs etc.  to volumio and it plays only the audio/tracks..great ! 😉

by that i´ve bought a 10kohm-poti again (wire-diagramm here->http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/?p=1660  ) and although we have a web-volumecontrol with a MCP4131 “here”->http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/?p=1306

i still thought its “usability-wise” better to use an old-school (analogue) poti but its still the same problem as first: u have only a very short range (i guess 35 degrees) from full to nothing and u have to turn it manually ;-)(but u are nearer on it 😉 )..still doesnt know the right conclusion for me, still in testing 😉 )..

greets for now and more to come !! 😉

again some new pics->DIY-DAC (ES9038Q2M) / 100.000 visitors..

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so, 😉

because we have almost a 100.000 !! visitors here on the site (hooray, tomorrow i guess 😉 ), i post some additionally pics on the improvements of the DIY-DAC..

I´ve added some 0.96OLED (I2C) to display the data-format and rate (DSD/PCM-44.1k-384k DSD256 and so on); by that i use also 2 new LEDs (blue for DSD and red for PCM) to make the dac more shiny 😉 ..

problem was to get the information through the usb-bridge if it got DSD or PCM..will post then more about it..

unfortunately nothing “more” new about these “whole” ess sabre-things, maybe then more, greets for now !! 😉

(fifth picture is from a “Copland CSA100”->Quad Mono Sabre)

DIY-DAC: Telekom Media Receiver 303A as case/with 12V/3A power supply->as audio-streamer with Rpi4 + XMOS-USB-bridge + ESP32 as display-controller..

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so, 😉

i´ve found a few days ago some “withdrawn from service” 😉 Telekom (uarghh ;-( )  Media Receiver 303A->was first interested in the internal HDD->500GB Seagate, but have seen then this has also a built-in 12V/3A power-supply and its from the dimensions almost ideally as some Raspberry Pi4-ES9038Q2M-audiostreamer !! (not soo big) 😉

Display-wise its a little bit limited (due to the available space (height)) in the front, but some LCD1602 will maybe do it fine..

found then an easy way to connect some to an ESP32 via I2C and via some “web-remotes” (see other posts here “Project-1” etc..) we can select via some photocoupler/relais the inputs of the ES9038Q2M (Coax,Toslink, I2S/USB), adjust the hardware-volume, filter-selection and so on and can display the settings on the display/LCD1602) !!

so far so fine, but this is a heck of a lot work to do !! 😉 ..

(i´ve planned to use Volumio on the raspberry ->easy controlling via the web-interface, DLNA-capable, MPD etc..)..

as said, here at first testing-out some aspects/parts for it and a first result by example is that these 3A makes the “blue” ES9038Q2M absolutely a little bit “airy(ier); had before some 2A power supply (12V)..

by that the “Leaf-XMOS-USB-bridge” (->http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/?p=2066) is better than first thought..

+ also my new “ESP32” will come to a new life 😉  (not to mention the Raspberry Pi4 2GB)

makes really a lot of fun here, and i will inform you about some further improvements !!

greets for now !! 😉

SFB2

New Skysong-/SMPCB ES9038Q2M-boards + addons..

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so 😉 ,

found by chance these new ES9038Q2M-boards..normally i don´t like the other/new boards different from the “green” SMPCB, V1.06-V1.07 but there are some interesting details with it..

First, on the new, blue SMPCB they use some “DS9281” for “better coaxial conversion, less jitter, less “lock”-problems, “better coaxial line”, like we know before that the original coaxial-line is not the best->link here->http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/?p=2058 and here->http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/?p=1833 , tags AK4118-receiverchip + SRC4192…

Link Aliexpress/Ebay(35$)->https://de.aliexpress.com/i/32860202632.html?spm=a2g0x.12057483.0.0.580c31f9766Lc9

second, as said, i don´t like any other ES9038Q2M than the old green SMPCB, “Skysong” from which had these phenomenal XMOS-USB-Bridge (see other posts before) also made a new ES9038Q2M with a lot of LEDs for the frequency-rate etc..(maybe these i would buy and only because they made such a great xmos-bridge)

Link Ebay/Aliexpress(44$ and up)->LINK

third, there are also some CSR8675-bluetooth->I2S-solutions->(with aptX, LDAC etc..)

Link Ebay/Aliexpress (29$ and up)->https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32860202632.html?spm=a2g0x.12057483.0.0.47897ef2tKiCRj

fourth, i still want to buy next a “Topping D50S” (have to wait a little bit) and next month a Raspberry Pi4 with 2GB and still search some toroidal transformer 15V-0-15V for the green ES9038Q2M here..

more to come and greets for now !! 😉

SFB2

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