ESS ES9008/9018 Sabre dac

[leo]

I've had my eye on these chips for a while, only place I know that offered these for diy was twisted pair in the Buffalo dac modules, they have been pretty hard to get hold of usually selling out as soon as they are available
Anyway I managed to get one from the latest batch and it just arrived.
Be a bit busy to try it just yet though

[Filterlab]

Looks interesting, nicely laid out anyway. Get soldering man!

[Mr. C]

Yes these are a most acceptable piece of equipment, for the diy guys done properly this dac genuinely compete with a lot of quality dac's upto £5K.
A worth while project

[fordgtlover]

That's great Leo.

I'd love to read your listening impressions. For such a popular DAC and chip, there are very few reviews that I've been able to find.

[leo]

I've quickly lashed it up, good god this thing hints at huge potential! its already shouting feed me nice supplys

Nobody else played with one yet? I don't think the supplied output stage and supplys is going to do it justice tbh

[Mr. C]

Leo,

You maybe on to something, the true potential of this dac is good, it actually does produce performance that it can deliver, real nos dac killer lol!
Have fun

[themystical]

I've quickly lashed it up, good god this thing hints at huge potential! its already shouting feed me nice supplys

Nobody else played with one yet? I don't think the supplied output stage and supplys is going to do it justice tbh

So go on Leo....give it to us straight! Does it live up to its hype? How does it compare with your other DAC's?

[Marco]

If it betters his TDA1541 I'll be shocked and stunned

NOS DACs rule, Tony!

Leo's the DAC man, though, so he'll tell it as it is...

Marco.

[leo]

My TDA1541S2 (to me) still beats it with the human voice and sounds more realistic in that department BUT the dynamics , detail and sheer depth of the Sabre is infront , instruments on some well recorded music sound incredible!
Also this dacs regulated psu's and output stage are not optimal IMHO, once I've found some nice low output impedance regs and a discrete differential I/V this should make things much more interesting

The flaw with 90% of other dacs to my ears is that they sound artificial , they excell in certain area's but just don't sound real enough in the vocals.
Lets see how this one goes after a bit of experimenting

Just need to find some nice regulation, any idea's?

[Marco]

Sounds really interesting, Leo. I totally agree with you about the "artificiality" of other DACs compared to the TDA1541, and also for me the lack of weight, depth and scale, and like you say, the ability to convey a natural tonality. Everything else sounds 'digitally compressed' compared to the more 'analogue' sound of TDA 1541s.

*BUT* once you've sorted out the regulation, if the Sabre matches or betters the 1541 in the areas mentioned above then you'll be on to something really exciting. It will mean that at last modern CDPs or off-board DACs will offer the type of performance CD was designed to produce 25 years ago!

Marco.