puis toujours sur AVS, soundevolution a écrit:The word "sublime" is subjective. Being an EE (OEM) designer myself for a living, I have the possibility to design and listen to many DAC IC's. We use the ESS ES9018 ourselves in our DAC design. (see:
http://didit-highend.com) and of course this is a "sublime" DAC. So are the AKM DAC's. I already loved the AKM DAC's since the AKM-4393, for it's inner detail and very tight low-end.
I believe ESS and AKM DAC's have a very similar sound texture. Open, airy, layered and tight. This opposed to the TI DAC's which sound warmer, a bit muddier and more brown in color (hence Burr BROWN
).
That being said, DAC chips itself don't say a lot, it is what happened with the analogue design afterwards. A critical part with the ESS and TI (and any current-output DAC) is the implementation of the I-V conversion. In my opinion many designers drop the ball there. The benefit of the AK4490 being a "voltage-output" DAC is, less possibility to get it wrong, since there is no need for I-V conversion. (I-V conversion is one of the most critical circuits in DAC design)
Same time less is more, less (op-amp) stages. For me I could only judge the DAC IC alone by having the same sort of circuitry designed for it. When purchasing a ready designed product, it is the whole implementation, analogue stage, PCB design etc. that matters.
A relative poor DAC IC with excellent PCB layout and well designed analogue stages will sound better then the best DAC with relative poor layout skills and/or medio core analoge stages. There is so much that can go wrong in electronics design with regard to sound quality.
I believe we can't hear a difference between 0.00X% THD+N or 0.000X% THD+N. However this is very black and white. The fact an IC or circuit measures 10 times better, means the whole architecture is better and that will have (other) audible sound benefits in hearable arrays. THD+N figures are retrieved from measurements with static (harmonic) tones. Real world music is much more complex in harmonic structure.
The AK4490 has one of the best digital LPF filters, means the analogue LPF fitter can be chosen more conservative with as result less phase-shift in the audible hearing range.
The PCM1690 used myself in cost effective design, is a low-cost DAC IC, however in general designs medio core performing sound-quality wise. The AK4490 is a different league.
The AK4490 is a vast improvement over the PCM1796 used in the AV8801. Measured 0.00025% THD+N vs 0.0005% THD+N for the PCM1796 one can say the AK4490 is two times better in this regard. However the dynamic range of the PCM1796 is slightly better with 123dB vs. 120dB for the AK4490.
The AK4490 was the reason for me to go for the AV8802. Having it on pre-order.
AKM DAC's can be found in the Esoteric DAC's
With kind regards,
Bas
