I am currently testing the Up2stream AMP v4. Very good results so far.
I also have an Up2stream Mini and a DAC board with the ESS 9023 Sabre chip.
Who has experience with the comparison of the built in DAC and other DACs. My first listening tests revealed no difference between the Mini with and without the DAC board. So far I have only tested with old vintage gear (an AKAI AA-1020 and Phonar Laser 200 Plus speakers and made a quick check with Sony headphones. I also plan to perform a test on my highend system.
What is the “standard” DAC inside the Arylic compoments? How does it compare to the ESS 9023 Sabre DAC? Has anybody here made tests with other DACs that showed bigger variations?
Thanks for your feedback
Bidjan
P.S.: I also will compare with the DAC within my Lyngdorf TDAI-2170 amp and with the DAC in my Topping E50 (an ESS 9068AS Sabre chip).
Hi Bidjan
The inbuilt DAC is integrated into a MVSilicon BP1064A2 which is a BT5.0 dual-mode 32-bit DSP audio processing control IC, this performs a multitude of functions.
I’m sure that the DAC portion of this IC does a decent job, but as this IC has multiple functions, compromises are made on the quality of the audio reproduction.
If the sound quality is adequate to your needs, then fair enough but improvements to the sound quality can be achieved by adding an external DAC.
Even if you go this path, don’t expect audiophile quality reproduction, the base equipment is just not up to that standard mainly due to the use of Linkplay technology.
I have a multi-room setup using Pro v3 and mini boards, each have different external DAC’s, all of which have worked very well, the sound quality is more than adequate for this application. If I want some critical listening, then it’s vinyl on a different system.
Cheers,
Steve
Thanks a lot for your feedback. My feeling so far is, that the combination of Up2stream Mini + DAC board is sufficient for my vintage Hifi upcyling projects. I do not aim to build High-End quality systems. However, I want to build systems with beautiful sound for the “normal” listener.
My experience so far is, that I have much greater influence to improve sound quality by using ACPWorkbench equalization (after measuring the frequency response with REP and UMIK-1).