Bunpei

Does anyone have any further information on ESS 9039PRO such as; - Chip availability in market ? - subjective SQ in any specific implementations ? - any new DAC products that adopt the chip ? I have just found their official product brief; https://www.esstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ES9039MPRO_ES9039PRO_Product_brief_v0.2.1.pdf Bunpei

To Miska Can you kindly tell us the exact meaning of "DPLL bandwidth" ? I have never read any supporting documents for the mechanism. Bunpei

I'm sorry that the large font size selection in my previous post was my mistake. The big font post was not what I intended to do so. I completely agree with you, Miska. Synchronous clocking scheme that corresponds to a zero-PLL band width on ES9018 was introduced for the first time at ES9018-K2M architecture generation. That was a giant step!

I am a self-certified “fanboy” of ESS Sabre DAC chip family as a DIY digital audiophile. I bought ES9018 Evaluation Board, ES9018K2M Evaluation Board, Twisted Pear Buffalo DAC kit, Buffalo II DAC kit, Chiaki Nakajima’s 9018 Dual Mono DAC board and his 9038PRO Dual Mono DAC board. According to my limited experiences, their product generation naturally represents their base sound quality. ES9008 1st Gen, ES9018 2nd Gen, ES9018-K2M 3rd Gen, ES0038PRO 4th Gen. On the other hand, I have realized that the most dominating factors for the overall sound quality are a master clock, i2s/DSD-raw signal and DC power supplies given to the DAC chip. Just one replacement of de-coupling capacitor or diode for rectification circuit brings a significant SQ change. Frankly speaking, I think most of DAC products in market have not exploited a full potential built in Sabre chips. In other words, the total SQ depends on products and vendors. Therefore, an individual implementation factor may exceed the base sound quality gap determined by the chip generation.

Thank you very much for the information. They say just “FET”. I am eager to know whether their device is of Si based or GaN based.

Yes, your memory is correct! I asked Professor Yamasaki about that. He said, “applying GaN E-mode HEMT as a high-power switching device for 1 bit delta-sigma modulated audio signal this time might be the first trial”. He added, “Realization of such a simple & compact and energy-efficient class D audio amplifier is very valuable”.

Hi, jabber! I appreciated your comment! This board is not indicated as “Class-D amplifier” by the manufacturer. They just say “Optimized for Class D Amplifiers”. In this context, you are right. On the other hand, as for the definition of the “Class D Amplifer”, Wiki says “the amplifying devices (transistors, usually MOSFETs) operate as electronic switches, and not as linear gain devices as in other amplifiers.” I understand an ADC module is not essential. Moreover, I was surprised that there is a member who sticked to an analog input in this forum though it depend on his sense. Professor Yamasaki and I are “full-digital” orienting audiophiles” in a sense.

Professor Yamasaki of Waseda University and Bunpei tried applying not PWM but PDM (usual DSD) to an evaluation board provided by GaN Systems and preliminarily obtained a prospective results. Please read this post if you are interested in DSD; http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/323714-direct-pdm-input-gan-mode-hemt-class-amplifier.html

Hi, miguelito! Do you mean, "in US", "Simultaneously", and "seeking for your purchase"? If you need just a comment or an advice, the owner, Mr. Henry Dien who is from UK, of this company, High-End Ltd. in Tokyo, http://www.highend.jp/About_us.htm has his carrier of both dealing dCS products in his former company and dealing EMM Labs ones in his current company. He has a superior technical skill and repairs both old dCS products and EMM Labs current ones. Bunpei

Hi, Greg! I appreciated your recent posts in the tread of SDTrans in diyAudio Forum. I will reply to your PM soon after this posting. By the way, every DIY audiophile might know, "Everything matters" in audio devices as shown in Greg's post quoted above. For me, too many components that matter SQ significantly are brought into my system when I use a PC in real time audio plays. Therefore, I avoid using a PC and stick to using a humble and tiny SD memory card player in my activities for pursuing a better SQ. Even in such a simplified and confined situation, I realized that a resultant SQ heavily depended on a type and a brand of SD memory card! Moreover, one additional decoupling cap or one electromagnetic shielding metal foil wrapping of SD memory card can improve SQ of my system dramatically. That's why I could not shift my interests to down stream at all. Bunpei

Hi, Alex! I appreciated your comment on SDTrans384. Yes. Our SDTrans384 project has its origin in "Micro SD Card Transport" appeared in diyAudio Forum and it used to be a really "minimalist approach". (The first and the second pictures.) I am a system engineer who once developed software for an industrial measurement instrument with ADC/DAC devices. My initial idea was a DMA(Direct Memory Access) between a peripheral device and a memory. Therefore, a DAC chip and a memory card consist minimum components. However, the current status is shown in the third picture. At the end of several escalations, my player system, a combination of SDTrans384 (SD memory card transport) and ES9038PRO Dual Mono DAC board connected with LVDS/HDMI connector & cable, weighs more than 30 kg and located on two storied 60cm x 90cm wood boards. Approximately 95% of the total weight is of power supply circuits. Many selected components, such as NDK DuCULoN OCXO, CDE film capacitors, Evans Hybrid capacitors, Finemet-core transformers, Infineon SiC rectifiers and so on are used. It is quite deviated from the initial "minimalist approach", actually. I am satisfied with SQ of the system, though. I love a SD memory card player and have no plan to use a USB-based system so far.

You can look at the detailed setting in Victor Studio in Tokyo on this movie. Recording engineer is Mr. Hideo Takada, MIXER'S Lab.

I received a BD-ROM media that contained totally 25GB sources last Saturday and listened some tracks carefully. With my transport and DAC, SDTrans384 & ES9038PRO Dual Mono DAC by Chiaki, those SQ differences that should be attributable to sampling frequency variations or bit depth variations were easily and clearly perceived.

A Japanese publisher, Stereo Sound Publishing,Inc., announced that they would release "Stereo Sound Hi-Res Reference Check Disc (BD-ROM+CD)" on June 20th, 2017. A reservation can be accepted via their web page, http://store.stereosound.co.jp/products/detail.php?product_id=2601 An overseas shipping is available. Price is 14,800 JPY (approximately, 133 USD) The hi-resolution reference disc (Bru-ray ROM) contains the following 12 pieces, 47 tracks, played by a Japanese trio, TOMA(Sax) & MAMI(Pf) with SATOSHI(Perc), recorded by Hideo Takada of MIXER'S LAB using multiple Merging Pyramix + HAPI and Pro Tools + HDX. <Track01-20> Variation in PCM/DSD format, sampling frequency & bit length 1. Down by the Salley Gardens (Traditional song of Ireland) Track01 PCM 44.1kHz/16bit Pro Tools + HDX [5:02] Track02 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pro Tools + HDX [5:02] Track03 PCM 384kHz/32bit Pyramix + Hapi [4:56] Track04 DSD 5.6MHz/1bit Pyramix + Hapi [4:57] Track05 DSD 11.2MHz/1bit Pyramix + Hapi [4:57] 2. Percussion Solo-A (Satoshi Ishikawa) Improvisation Track06 PCM 44.1kHz/16bit Pro Tools + HDX [1:43] Track07 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pro Tools + HDX [1:43] Track08 PCM 384kHz/32bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:30] Track09 DSD 5.6MHz/1bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:30] Track10 DSD 11.2MHz/1bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:30] 3. Danny Boy (Traditional song of Ireland) Track11 PCM 44.1kHz/16bit Pro Tools + HDX [3:36] Track12 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pro Tools + HDX [3:36] Track13 PCM 384kHz/32bit Pyramix + Hapi [3:29] Track14 DSD 5.6MHz/1bit Pyramix + Hapi [3:30] Track15 DSD 11.2MHz/1bit Pyramix + Hapi [3:29] 4. Greensleeves (Traditional song of England) Track16 PCM 44.1kHz/16bit Pro Tools + HDX [4:59] Track17 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pro Tools + HDX [4:59] Track18 PCM 384kHz/32bit Pyramix + Hapi [4:53] Track19 DSD 5.6MHz/1bit Pyramix + Hapi [4:53] Track20 DSD 11.2MHz/1bit Pyramix + Hapi [4:53] <Track21-26> Constant bit length, variation in sampling frequency 5. Alice in Wonderland (Sammy Fain / Bob Hilliard) Track21 PCM 96kHz/24bit Pyramix + Hapi [3:35] Track22 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pyramix + Hapi [3:35] Track23 PCM 384kHz/24bit Pyramix + Hapi [3:35] 6. Percussion Solo-B (Satoshi Ishikawa) Improvisation Track24 PCM 96kHz/24bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:15] Track25 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:15] Track26 PCM 384kHz/24bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:15] <Track27-32> DSD, variation in sampling frequency 7. Summertime (George Gershwin / DuBose Heyward) Track27 DSD 2.8MHz/bit Pyramix + Hapi [4:34] Track28 DSD 5.6MHz/bit Pyramix + Hapi [4:36] Track29 DSD 11.2MHz/bit Pyramix + Hapi [4:36] 8. Percussion Solo-C (Satoshi Ishikawa) Improvisation Track30 DSD 2.8MHz/bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:16] Track31 DSD 5.6MHz/bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:16] Track32 DSD 11.2MHz/bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:16] <Track33-41> PCM, variation in bit length 9. Someone to Watch over Me (George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin) Track33 PCM 192kHz/16bit Pyramix + Hapi [2:19] Track34 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pyramix + Hapi [2:18] Track35 PCM 192kHz/32bit Pyramix + Hapi [2:18] 10. My Foolish Heart (Victor Young / Ned Washington) Track36 PCM 192kHz/16bit Pyramix + Hapi [3:58] Track37 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pyramix + Hapi [3:58] Track38 PCM 192kHz/32bit Pyramix + Hapi [3:58] 11. Percussion Solo-D (Satoshi Ishikawa) Improvisation Track39 PCM 192kHz/16bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:15] Track40 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:15] Track41 PCM 192kHz/32bit Pyramix + Hapi [1:15] <Track42-47> Variation in PCM/DSD format, sampling frequency & bit length 12. All the Things You Are　(Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II) Track42 PCM 48kHz/16bit Pro Tools + HDX [4:41] Track43 PCM 96kHz/24bit Pro Tools + HDX [4:51] Track44 PCM 192kHz/24bit Pro Tools + HDX [4:39] Track45 PCM 384kHz/32bit Pyramix + Horus [4:46] Track46 DSD 5.6MHz/1bit Pyramix + Horus [4:41] Track47 DSD 11.2MHz/1bit Pyramix + Horus [4:42]

Just yesterday, on April 12th, "mora", a Japanese music distribution service released three sets of "Stereo Sound Hi-Res Reference (collections)". 1. DSD 11.2MHz/1bit 2. DSD 5.6MHz/1 bit 3. PCM 192kHz/24 bit All the tracks in the sets were played by Toma(sax.) & Mami(pf.) with Satoshi(prec.) and recorded by Mr. Takada of Mixer's Lab. A complete set will be released on Blu-ray and CD media from Stereo Sound Magazine publisher soon. Bunpei has no idea whether those are available or not for overseas users outside Japan.