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Yulong DA8

PaulyT

PaulyT

Behind the Curtain
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It's here! Haven't had a chance to do a "product shot" yet... coming. Here's a stock picture:

890226


And the manufacturer's page:

:text-link:

It's got coax, optical, aes/ebu, and USB inputs. It's capable of decoding DSD, and PCM up to 32bit/384kHz. It uses the ESS Sabre32 DAC chip, which is the same one Oppo uses in the BDP-105 and the HA-1 (their new headphone DAC/amp).

Preliminary opinion, after listening to my demo tracks with DA8 as DAC only (it has a built in amp which you can switch off to improve S/N of the DAC), along with my Woo WA6 and Denon D5000: really nice, a noticeable - albeit not ENORMOUS - step up from my previous DAC. Slight increase in resolution, especially of sounds on the very high end - cymbal ticks, chimes, plucking noises of a guitar, stuff like that. Not sure it'd be worth the cost of this as a replacement in this rig alone, but I'm very curious to see how it does with the Yulong A18 amp, that it's kinda designed to pair with. I was not 100% happy with the A18 paired with my SuperDAC 2496, so I want to hear if the DA8 fixes those issues. Busy day though, so I'm not gonna get to it until at least tomorrow.

More to come...
 
Hmm... it occurs to me I could try this in my speaker system too, since when I'm listening to the squeezebox, the 885 is functioning only as a DAC anyway... Could be interesting to see if there's any perceptible difference. Though of course, it doesn't do bass management or EQ... hmm. For the vast majority of my music, not having the sub channel (<40Hz only) wouldn't make much if any difference.
 
Did a couple listening tests today. First, tried the DA8 with unbalanced/RCA connection to the Yulong A18. So my total path is

FLAC -> squeezebox -> toslink -> DA8 -> RCA -> A18 -> Denon D5000

As with the test above with the DA8+WA6, the DA8 is a noticeable improvement over my old SuperDAC 2496. Clearer highs, slightly deeper and wider soundstage - but still not quite as good as with the Woo WA6. However, there was a slight brightness or harshness to the highs that I wasn't entirely happy with, and which I did not hear with the DA8+WA6 combo.


So, I then re-ran the test with balanced connections:

FLAC -> squeezebox -> toslink -> DA8 -> XLR -> A18 -> Denon D5000

This solved the above issues quite admirably. And the heavens opened up and ANGELS STARTED SINGING!!!




... ahem... sorry, got a bit carried away there. That was just for Jeff.

But I will say, the switch to the XLR interconnects removed that shrillness in the highs, and improved the soundstage overall. The DA8+A18 is a REALLY nice pairing this way, and I think I may have finally found a solid state rig that is better than the Woo WA6, mainly in its ability to handle bass with my low-impedance Denons. Imaging/resolution is just as good as with the WA6, which is one of the reasons I like tubes in general.

Note that I'm NOT saying that the difference in RCA and XLR is simply some interference issue in a 12-inch-long cable. No, rather a difference in the electronics of how the balanced signal is split and recombined on the DAC and the amp side of the connection. I don't know enough about the design of these components to know exactly why this would be. I also notice that I don't have the noise problem I did with the SuperDAC via XLR when turning the volume all the way up on the amp; with the DA8+A18, with either connection type (or no connection at all), there's only a tiny bit of hiss when the volume is maxed on the amp.


I realize this whole comparison is a little imperfect, because when moving from WA6 (via RCA, as the Woo only has unbalance inputs) to A18 (via XLR), it's a change in two variables: both the amp and the outputs from the DAC. So it's not really an A/B comparison, exactly. It may just be that the A18's RCA inputs are slightly flawed, or maybe intentionally tuned slightly differently by the designers, who knows.

In any case, I really like the DA8+A18 combo.


Next up is to repeat all of this yet again, this time with the (high impedance) Beyerdynamic T1 headphones. Hopefully I can get to that this weekend.


Sorry for all the long-winded posts. I know most of you don't care about headphone stuff much. But I'm using this in part as a "lab notebook" as I work through the evaluation of all this new stuff. It's a lot to keep track of. I'm sparing you the track-by-track notes that I write down in an actual notebook as I listen, at least. :laughing:
 
Towen7 said:
Don't apologize
Click to expand...
Yeah, no kidding. I may not be participating in this thread (largely due to the fact that I have little to offer and can't even ask articulate and intelligent topic-related questions) but that doesn't mean I'm not reading it and disinterested.
 
Great Job Paul!!!! Love the reviews and the attention to detail.........

My accomplishment was Neutral Gray Paint!!!
 
Zing said:
Towen7 said:
Don't apologize
Click to expand...
Yeah, no kidding. I may not be participating in this thread (largely due to the fact that I have little to offer and can't even ask articulate and intelligent topic-related questions) but that doesn't mean I'm not reading it and disinterested.
Click to expand...

:text-+1:
 
Thanks, gents. Glad to know I'm not "talking" entirely to myself...
 
Oh boy, one thing I haven't started to try yet is switching out cables and interconnects..... Must.... Resist.....

Anyways, I'm surprised a little that you notice such a difference when using the Denons, I can see why the T1's would sound so different on these amps but the Denons don't need much of a boost to be at their best.
 
Oh and when you are ready let me know and I will mail out the Bifrost, that's one review I would love for you to do. I have only a generic cheapy DAC to compare it to and I would love to see how it compares with your from your point of view instead of a Schiit fanboy. Lol.
 
walls said:
Anyways, I'm surprised a little that you notice such a difference when using the Denons, I can see why the T1's would sound so different on these amps but the Denons don't need much of a boost to be at their best.
Click to expand...

Well, low-impedance headphones are more current-limited. Tubes don't put out as much current, in general, as solid state (from what I understand). High impedance is more voltage-limited, and tubes are good with that. But yeah, I'm very curious to see if the T1 reveals more of these details and differences. I think these (modded) Denons are pretty awesome, but I haven't had much to compare them to until now.

walls said:
Oh and when you are ready let me know and I will mail out the Bifrost, that's one review I would love for you to do. I have only a generic cheapy DAC to compare it to and I would love to see how it compares with your from your point of view instead of a Schiit fanboy. Lol.
Click to expand...

Cool. Let me get used to the T1s a bit, that'll be my next major stage in all of this. The differences between DACs are kinda small compared to differences between headphones, but if the T1s are what everyone seems to say they are, they may be better for examining these differences.
 
I will say this much, the T1's make pretty much everything I listen to sound great, even stuff that isn't recorded well. They match so well with my WA2 and the Crack and will try them on the A2 tonight to see if they make that amp sing a little better.
 
walls said:
Oh boy, one thing I haven't started to try yet is switching out cables and interconnects..... Must.... Resist.....
Click to expand...

Well, again when going from one type of connector to another (e.g. balanced to unbalanced), it's not just the cable itself that's changing, but also the electronics in the components. We tend to think a cable is just a cable regardless of type, but XLR is fundamentally different from RCA, two signal conductors with two different signals, rather than just one.

I certainly wouldn't expect one XLR cable to be different from another XLR cable, assuming they're both of reasonable quality. I haven't gone that far down this rabbit hole of audiophile insanity.

I got my XLRs from Monoprice... My RCAs are DIY made from RG56, they're pretty damn awesome. :laughing: So it's not a problem of cheap-ass cables.
 
I use "good" cables, I will never buy premium cables but I will also never use the crap that comes free with a VCR. Lol.
 
I feel that the Balanced cable is not different signals, but a signal with opposite signals. 0 and 180 degrees.
any signal not 0 and 180 is common mode Rejected, or if a signal is only on one wire it would be down by half the level. When the signal is on both cables and 0 and 0 then CMR will remove the signal.

EMI is one reason XLR and balanced is used in Live and recordings. The xlr will see the emi as 0 and 0 and the CMR removes the added noise.

The second reason for XLR on live and recordings is it locks in place. Does not cause a short when disconnecting like a quarter inch Tip Sleeve guitar plug. RCA is the similar to xlr but it has the problem of the hot lead making connection before the shield/ground does.

With amps and speakers, the amps are sometimes running as bridged. When using the quarter inch connector with Tip and sleeve the sleeve is now on a power rail of the amplifier and can give someone a good shock. This along with the short to the amp when unplugging is why they created Speakon connectors.
 
Tubes and Solid State ?

Tubes do run better as a Valve on higher voltage and then will use a Transformer to bring the voltage down and bring the current up. Solid state runs at lower voltages and varies current.

Speakers or headphone drivers are a coil in a magnet and require current to function correctly.
This is one of the big reasons we moved to the Solid state.

Tubes have even distortion and Solid state has odd distortion. The odd distortion is harsh to our ears and perceptions. Even distortion will add some color and if tastefully applied will add to the sound if not over done.
 
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