A new HOT dac.

A friend is kind enough to send me his DAC using ESS Sabre chip with a lot of "mod". There is a lot of people talking about this chip and claims how great it is.

The mod includes an almost rebuilt power supply circuitry with very low noise voltage regulator, tons of premium components in the analog section. However, I can't say I like the sound at all.



What not shown here is the analog section PCB which is located right under the digital board.

The DAC is now connected to a Pioneer universal player which is able to play high resoultion format like DVD-Audio and SACD. The Pioneer has been modded with a hirez data link interface to send digital audio signal instead of using standard S/PDIF.
The hirez link is able to deliver up to 24/192 PCM data in I2S format and raw DSD from SACD. Yes, the Sabre supports direct DSD input.
Both format in stereo (2 Ch) only.

Well, I have been think of not using the original I/V and replace it with one of my previous discrete I/V design and see if I can like this chip.

Stay tuned. :-)