Has any inexpensive Asian DAC manufacturer harnessed the ESS Sabre ES9038PRO Chip?
Regarding the above DAC (SMSL VMV D1), it got a favorable review from Audio Science Review. Amirm recommended it for balanced output use only. See: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-smsl-vmv-d1-da... |
@celander The SMSL VMV D1 was given a clean bill after a defective board was replaced in test unit provided. Performance from the unbalanced was as to be expected, just about 2-3db shy of the balanced in the SINAD test and jitter results improved in conjunction. SMSL responded in checking their inventory and did not find a similar issue and have the defective board on return for investigation. From what has been said about the unit subjectively is comparable to Benchmark DAC3 HGC, which is say resolved and transparent sound. |
☝🏻☝🏻 Agreed with respect to the defective board being identified, the replacement of which gave better results on unbalanced outputs. As for other measurements, the SMSL VMV D1 DAC still had the ESS hump in the IMD-volume plot regardless of the board replacement. But even at $900 on discount sites, it’s a bit more than most sub-$500 DAC’s having that chip. |
