Next best exponential DAC quality level?

I wish secretaryguy would post this awesome system he must have. I’d like to see what a little “common sense” hath wrought…

Devices using the ES9038PRO chip include the ~$99 Khadas tone board, the ~$14,000 Lumin X1, and many others at price points all over the map. Same DAC chip (or different versions of the same DAC chip) with many different implementations and collateral features. What do you get for nearly $14K with the Lumin X1? The same DAC chip but 2 of them (one per channel); more sophisticated LEEDH volume control; optical fiber network input (in addition to RJ45 ethernet); a separate linear power supply; solid billet CNC casing. But no Toslink, Coax, or USB inputs. I think you have to pay extra for an IR remote.

FWIW, at least one device with that chip ranks near the top of the Audio Science Review comparisons. I have one of them, which cost me about $3K. I suspect the Lumin X1 might produce a noticeably bigger sound stage and maybe more precise/holographic imaging. In somebody’s listening room, to somebody’s ears, but not necessarily mine.

$99.00 laughing my tits off! I've spent over 20x that on speaker spikes. Ffs get with the program or have a ear transplant.

That’s absolutely correct. Then why do you and others keep insisting that a tube based DAC is inferior, has poor SQ compared to SS? Oh yeah, it’s the specs.

An example of a well built, well implemented DAC is made by Audio Note. The designer has said they measure and spec the device, then they tweak it during a listening session until it sounds like real music. They use masters as their sources.

What exactly is "well-implemented" in Audio-Note DACs?  It is quite obvious that measurements play little into Audio-Note's design process. These are not DACs designed remotely for accuracy. Their performance w.r.t. accuracy would put them right about 1983.  Here is there 4.1x CD player:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/audio-note-cd-41x-cd-player-measurements

• Poor SNR
• Poor output impedance causing serious frequency response droop
• Poor power supply harmonics rejection
• Poor channel isolation at lower frequencies
• Large amount of ultrasonic noise converted into audible noise
• Somewhat significant amount of spurious low frequency noise
• Terrible intermodulation distortion
• Nasty levels of jitter

Just what part of it is well implemented?

Devices using the ES9038PRO chip include the ~$99 Khadas tone board, the ~$14,000 Lumin X1, and many others at price points all over the map. Same DAC chip (or different versions of the same DAC chip) with many different implementations and collateral features. What do you get for nearly $14K with the Lumin X1?

You get transformers on the output complete with hysteresis and all kinds of other nice "tubey" artifacts. It does not cost a lot of money to implement an accurate DAC. It is when you don't want it accurate that it costs a lot of money. This is the art/reproduction thing. Their marketing blurb is impressive (Dual Sabre DAC featuring 140db dynamic range --- yes, the chip can, their unit?), and all kinds of superlatives, all rendered meaningless by transformers.