Although nice, I do not believe this is worth the asking price when there are alternative products that tick all the same boxes that this does at a fraction of this cost. I would highly recommend anyone looking at this product take a look at the Schiit Jotunheim and compare for yourself. I am not an industry 'shill', nor am I a Schiit 'fanboy'. I have many DAC/Amp combos by many manufactures such as Marantz, Fiio, Oppo, Audioengine, Nobsound, and many other obscure names. I actually own and use the Schiit Jotunheim for my daily listening in my home office, and I find the value incredibly hard to beat for the performance it offers.
Schiit Product Page:
http://schiit.com/products/jotunheim
ElzizoThe price seems about right, you are getting a DSD DAC after all. A lot of times that is enough to drive up prices, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the only reason it is so high in the first place.
JukaHuh?! Not sure I understand your comment. Nuforce udac5 was my first DSD DAC. Under $200 and excellent as a portable unit. I also have the Schiit Jotunheim for home use -- it's a balanced DAC (& excellent performance/value) for a fraction of the cost.
AnentThe Jotty doesn't handle DSD. As far as I know, only the Loki does from Schiits line-up. Also NuForce is not a reputable enough company for me sorry. I still remember how to they tried to sell the uDAC2 with out proper engineering involved. The point is simple, a properly implemented DSD dac with with higher-end components will obviously cost more.
JukaWhere I do not agree with the comment that Nuforce is not a reputable company (I have owned several of their products from Mass Drop purchases, and been happy with the performance and the quality), Juka is correct that the only item that Schiit sells as apart of their current line up is the Loki that processes DSD files. I was mistaken when I read the specs on the Jotunheim. Not an issue for me personally since I only own 1 classical DSD album that I play on my Fiio X3 Gen 2. Anent is correct that the Jotenheim is an excellent value for how much performance vs the price.
Link to Schiit DSD setup in different OS configurations:
http://schiit.com/guides/dsd-setup Only the Loki is called out in this 'How To'
ElzizoTypo :) yes, only the Nuforce, not the Jot, is DSD compatible & I also only have 1 DSD album besides freebie songs...
The Jot DAC chip (AK4490 x2) is capable of handling DSD, but Schiit just doesn't support the format.
The DA9 uses AK4497 DAC chips, which are new and roughly 10x more expensive than the -90, BUT this cost will come down making the present DA9 cost overly high in the next year time frame....
No doubt: impressive specs on paper. But it's still based on a 'new' DAC chip; expect that cost to fall, but will the DA9 as well?! (--I doubt it.)
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Got me curious about the crosstalk. Perhaps the proprietary 'Pivot Point current feedback topology' is the cause? Makes me think of the Speedball add-on circuit with the Bottlehead Crack. (http://www.electronicdesign.com/analog/what-s-difference-between-voltage-feedback-and-current-feedback-op-amps)
Is this what you saw:
● SNR: -130dB
● Dynamic Range: 125dB
● THD+N: 0.0003%
● Frequency Response: 20-30KHz-0.15dB
● Crosstalk -120dB
I highly doubt that listed specs is true. It is also obviously incomplete as well.
Take the O2 for example: https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/JDSLabsO2ACPowered.pdf The crosstalk is -120 at 10 Hz but it steadily increases to -60 at 20 kHz. So that -120 dB doesn't specify at what frequency it is at or what the maximum crosstalk is within 20Hz to 20kHz
That SNR is also very suspicious. First of all it has negative sign on it WTF. If it was a typo though, I have seen plenty of Chinese manufactured AMP/DACs that list the DAC CHIP SNR rather than the unit's SNR.
But let's assume it is 130 dB though. The Yggy for example is >117 dB SNR at 2V. The DAC Chip spec: https://www.akm.com/akm/en/file/datasheet/AK4497EQ.pdf lists its SNR of 128 dB at 2V (or 131 dB at 2.6V). So either the SNR increased by 2 dB or their whole unit manage to only loose 1 dB, for $1000 this is actually a steal!
ElzizoThank you for reminding me about the Schiit. I assume you use the DAC/headphone amp combo. Is that right? I think it's the amp with the modular DAC (for an additional $100) that makes the Jotunheim a particularly good bargain.
sononymousI am. I bought it particularly for the 4 pin balanced for my high ohm headphones like the HD650. This thing has power to spare, no matter what you plug in! On high gain I never dial it passed 3 out of 10 on the volume pot. The USB DAC is exceptional. I have the Joutenheim plugged into an Intel NUC that is running Ubuntu Studio. Works great. l also use the rca pre-outs for my powered Audioengine A2+. They sound completely different (in a good way) and goes to show that the $100 DAC option in the Joutenheim is a no brainier with all of the connectivity options this thing has. I'm very happy with my purchase.
Keep in mind that Schiit is currently back ordered on the USB DAC, but they should have more next week. I inquired since I'm considering buying another Joutenheim for the office. I love it that much.
When I am back from traveling I'll take a picture of my setup.
SOULSIKAnd here is where I am going to strongly disagree with you. In the $1000+ range , this DAC/Amp offering and the features it provides has many other competitors that provide very similar functionality and features. In the $500 and under range for DAC/Amps, the Joutenheim really does not have any competition when you compare features, especially when the Joutenheim has a 4 pin balanced out.
I understand cost is relative to what you can afford, but for many, the Joutenheim is most likely going to be a better option if you are not looking for DSD playback.
Elzizosure there are 1000+ dac/amps that da9 is in. But I still stand by the fact that da9 is in a different league than the jotunheim. Ive owned 1k+ dac/amps. sometime just the dac costs 1k. I go harder on overpriced products so I wasnt expecting much when I first received this but I am not able to tell you too much. buy it yourself to compare to the jotunheim and tell me its not in a different league OR Just watch my review in aughust.
ElzizoAs a Jot owner, I'd like to mention that it's a great amp but kind of a lame DAC. When I got mine, I opted for the balanced dac option and wish I hadn't as its detail retrieval is noticeably less than my NuForce DAC80. This Yulong unit is almost assuredly better as a DAC than Jot is.
Schiit Product Page: http://schiit.com/products/jotunheim