Monat: April 2018

Update: ES9028Q2M 384khz (MPD) in newer Dietpi (6.4 and up) I-Sabre-K2M-driver..

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so, 😉
after “Kennyliveforever” made a great post about porting/including the I-Sabre-K2M-driver in Volumio->http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=64, i´ve re-checked this driver-option in Dietpi (v6.6) again..
a few months ago i tried everything to get this driver in Dietpi (earlier versions) to work and there was/i heard absolutely nothing..
Now with the new DietPi (v6.4 and up) there was/must be a change in installing the driver..after you change the soundcard in rpi-config to “i-sabre-k2m” there “comes” a rpi-update and after that it loads some software from codeload.github.com, install some compiler-binaries and after that it compiles a complete new .dtbo (overlay) and includes it automatically afterwards..
some month ago, as said, these steps were absolutely not proceeded..

and now we have our lovely “384khz” back !!!

(i really don´t know why this is not clearly communicated via “fourdee” at dietpi..)
anyway, i started this whole blog/site by/of this problematic and alone for this, this blog has been paid off !! 😉 
okay, i had only a few minutes to test it, but i think with this ess-driver which uses (i hope) and demands the special capabilities of the ES9028Q2M i have a here a really better sound (about 10-20% min., i “surmise”); it comes now really up to my best combo at present->ES9038Q2M with Muses8920+Skysong-USB-bridge !!
but, and this is very important too: i strongly recommend to upgrade your ES9028Q2M to “Muses8920” too !!
(they cost only about 3,50$ from this seller by example (and they are not “fakes”, guess so 😉 )->https://www.ebay.de/itm/362255966842?ViewItem=&item=362255966842)
(i will test if this i-sabre-k2m driver also works with the ES9038Q2M..)

ES9038Q2M+Skysong/Singxer XMOS-USB-bridge->(final) thoughts/settings tone optimization

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so, 😉
after i tested a lot of different op-amps+filter-settings on the ES9038Q2M (Blue) lately i came to this (final) conclusion:
The Muses 8920, are/”sound” brilliant on these Blue, i think they are lately called “YJ-ES9038Q2M” Q2Ms..
much better as with the NE5532 or the OPA2134 for example (other possibility would be the AD797, LMEXXXX (see earlier post))..

by that to provide the Skysong/Singxer USB-bridge with an external 5V power supply also boosted the overall performance of the Bridge by 10-15% !!
absolutely to recommend !! 😉

absolutely wonderful bridge (read elsewhere they should be the “finest” with the best XMOS-implementation)..(i have the version with the golden crystek cchd957s))..

the filter-settings have here for me not such an impact on the sound/tone, guess 2-3%, max 5% 😉 , but u can hear it if u want..but the differences are really “paper-thin” (on other DACs/millboards it could have a greater impact)..
by that “kennyliveforever” made a great post in the forum-> http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=64 about how to include the “original” essabre-driver (I-Sabre-K2M) for the ES9028Q2M in Volumio (and then maybe in other audio-distros)..
so far for now !!

Op-Amps: NE5532 vs OPA2134 vs. Muses 8920 (02) + ESSabre-Link (+DietPi 6.5)

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so, 😉
got yesterday my “OPA2134” and had finally the time to check it out 😉

okay, fired up my Raspberry with the ES9028Q2M and thought first:” ? why sound it so “distorted” ?” (my main “rig” is at present->Skysong/Singxer USB-bridge (golden Crystek CCHD957s) + unmodified ES9038Q2M (Blue)..
Changed then the NE5532 to the OPA2134 and the result ?

Surprisingly good !! 😉

bought a few month ago some OPA2604; they were really, really, really bad (in any case on these Sabre-boards)..

This OPA2134 is very lively, airy, is more about middle-highs and really less “distorted”..
you can use them without any problems/thoughts to upgrade your NE5332..!

by that it brings me some “glance” back (in the highs) which i missed since 5 or 6 years ago, as i had to change my lovely Via VT1828S (onboard) to an “ordinary” Asus Xonar DX..;-)

changed then to the “Muses 8920” and ? Better 😉 ..it has the best from both op-amps: this airly, lively (OPA2134) but also the “push” (NE5532) mainly in the middle-lows..;-)(“its all about the slew-rate” 😉 ; funny+interesting article here->http://nwavguy.blogspot.de/2011/08/op-amp-measurements.html )
anyway this OPA2134 is as said very good..
the next possibility would be an “AD797” or some LMEs..(and Burson V5 of course)
ES Sabre itself recommend these “AD797″ + some LMEs (for the ES9006+ES9008 series)..its from a very interesting download->”Maximizing DAC performance…”->http://www.esstech.com/index.php/en/support/downloads (thx to “Mark04” again, over at the DIY-audio-forum->LINK)

(picture from “janos_904“->hope i could use it here..)

so, and another thing is that i´ve updated to Diet 6.5 and with every version it sounds better and better and the main advantage is that u have meanwhile almost no horrible “pops” in changing the music-file-format like flac to wav or 44,1 to 192khz for example..
i guess its also because u got a better/fresher raspian-(firmware) everytime u update it via DietPi..
greets for now..

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