If you are looking for a DAC with very low distortion in several standard basic measurements, then this DAC is not for you.It has somewhat high 2nd and 3rd order harmonics at low end frequencies, though it has very linear chips: PCM1792, OPA627, and OPA604.
I asked the manufacturer whether mine is defective or whether it is so by design. They wrote that they were sorry that they could not answer.
The graph shows the output of the DAC into a 9.2 kOhm pot (Scosche passive volume control purchased at Amazon) at 20Hz pure sinusoidal tone (Pierre Verany CD track 19 (20Hz, 0dB) one of the tracks for measuring harmonic distortion).
The A/D is Behringer UCA202 (27 kOhm input impedance, max input level 2dBV, according to the manual). The 9.2 kOhm pot was used to attenuate the output signal of the DAC to about 6.5 dB below the max input level of the A/D.
The 2nd and 3rd harmonics in the graph are not products of the A/D. I check it by using other DAC with the same measurement setting.
The harmonic distortion becomes lower as the frequency becomes higher. It also becomes lower as the load impedance becomes higher.
The minimum burn in time of 200 hours did not pass yet. The DAC does not sound fatiguing.
Edits: 12/10/14 12/10/14
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Topic - a measurable euphonious tune in a DAC? - dave789 14:10:52 12/10/14 (29)
- manufacturer's test result - dave789 08:21:36 12/23/14 (0)
- Restoring "Removed" Harmonics..... - Todd Krieger 23:51:57 12/12/14 (16)
- RE: Restoring "Removed" Harmonics..... - Tony Lauck 10:34:57 12/13/14 (3)
- RE: Restoring "Removed" Harmonics..... - John Elison 23:45:56 12/13/14 (2)
- RE: Restoring "Removed" Harmonics..... - Tony Lauck 09:25:26 12/14/14 (0)
- RE: Restoring "Removed" Harmonics..... - dave789 06:53:52 12/14/14 (0)
- not restoring harmonics above 22kHz - dave789 10:19:21 12/13/14 (0)
- harmonic dist. 20Hz - 20kHz - dave789 10:00:43 12/13/14 (10)
- 20kHz pic - dave789 10:10:48 12/13/14 (0)
- 15kHz pic - dave789 10:10:26 12/13/14 (0)
- 10kHz pic - dave789 10:09:53 12/13/14 (0)
- 5kHz pic - dave789 10:09:27 12/13/14 (0)
- 1kHz pic - dave789 10:08:56 12/13/14 (0)
- 500 Hz pic - dave789 10:08:13 12/13/14 (0)
- 200Hz pic - dave789 10:07:43 12/13/14 (0)
- 100Hz pic - dave789 10:07:08 12/13/14 (0)
- 50Hz pic - dave789 10:06:39 12/13/14 (0)
- 20Hz pic - dave789 10:06:11 12/13/14 (0)
- your purchase may be different - dave789 07:46:29 12/11/14 (2)
- Well... - Bill Way 20:11:24 12/11/14 (1)
- RE: Well... - dave789 20:21:18 12/11/14 (0)
- comparison with Audioengine D1 - dave789 03:41:04 12/11/14 (0)
- RE: change by load - dave789 14:15:10 12/10/14 (6)
- RE: change by load - Thorsten 02:56:42 12/11/14 (5)
- possibly something wrong in power supply . . . - dave789 03:33:09 12/11/14 (4)
- RE: possibly something wrong in power supply . . . - Thorsten 21:32:36 12/11/14 (3)
- defective active ground drive, for example - dave789 22:28:46 12/11/14 (1)
- RE: defective active ground drive, for example - Thorsten 22:59:06 12/11/14 (0)
- it is very frequency selective. - dave789 21:59:09 12/11/14 (0)