[CallMeMike]

Hopefully the combination of the idefender, ipower and sabaj da3 with DSD512 will not be far off the Mojo DSD256 at 40% of the cost..

A friendly salute to Down Under...

I believe the 'bedding in' grace period is up for the iPower / iDefender / Sabaj3; can you share any comments, please...? I'd like to join the poor man' s Mojo DAC substitute club 

[Cacophonix]

Amazon has a $10 off on the sabaj da3. So that's $89 now, and massdrop has the SMSL iQ for $110. Great deals all around 

[Triplefun]

A friendly salute to Down Under...

I believe the 'bedding in' grace period is up for the iPower / iDefender / Sabaj3; can you share any comments, please...? I'd like to join the poor man' s Mojo DAC substitute club 

I use the Sabaj da3 to front a dedicated daphile system with a g4560 CPU for DSD256 upsampling which is very enjoyable and an improvement on the smsl m8 which the da3 replaced. Adding the ipower idefender made a noticeable improvement in clarity and tighter bass and is well worth the investment. The fact the idefender supports the connection of the ipower via a micro USB port means you don't have to buy additional cables.

[Triplefun]

The Sabaj DA3 is incredible value. I upgraded my CPU from a G4560 to an i7 7700 using a broken offering off ebay (mem channel A not working, cost $169) and upsample to native DSD512 using Daphile. As stated earlier I also use the ifi iPower and iDefender.  The sound is almost on a par with my Gustard X20u. It even upsamples DSD128 and DSD256 to DSD512 with no noticeable distortion (the G4560 could only manage DSD128).

[CallMeMike]

The Sabaj DA3 is incredible value. I upgraded my CPU from a G4560 to an i7 7700 using a broken offering off ebay (mem channel A not working, cost $169) and upsample to native DSD512 using Daphile. As stated earlier I also use the ifi iPower and iDefender.  The sound is almost on a par with my Gustard X20u. It even upsamples DSD128 and DSD256 to DSD512 with no noticeable distortion (the G4560 could only manage DSD128).

Thank you, Triplefun, for your your valuable feedback...   

[restrav]

The Sabaj DA3 is incredible value. I upgraded my CPU from a G4560 to an i7 7700 using a broken offering off ebay (mem channel A not working, cost $169) and upsample to native DSD512 using Daphile. As stated earlier I also use the ifi iPower and iDefender.  The sound is almost on a par with my Gustard X20u. It even upsamples DSD128 and DSD256 to DSD512 with no noticeable distortion (the G4560 could only manage DSD128).

i just bought one sabaj DA3 for 90 bucks. i was originally leaning towards Topping NX4 (not the DSD) but i ended up with this one for $90. im also ordering a Audio-gd R2R 11 which is gonna end up being 400 bucks including shipping and what not.

this (sabaj and audio gd) will be my dive into chin-fi and also into hopefully finding a good replacement for delta sigma dacs as far as my main rig is concerned. if this R2R delivers it would be good riddance.

edit: actually it would be my second dive. sinve i already had the $1200 dual ESS Sabre 9018 with extensive op amp upgrades that i hated on the account of sounding crap. hopefully this time im not gonna be disappointed.

[restrav]

I also bought a monoprice 3.5 mm to male RCa cable for 4.5 bucks off ebay, but ill be on the look put for a proper (thick and heavy lol) cable (length 1 to 3 feet) preferably OCC for under 35 bucks. i dont feel like taking a chance on chin fi so if anyone has 1st hand experience with real quality cables from Chinese suppliers please let me know. other than case that i find an amazing pure copper with good connector cable for cheap i will stick with the monoprice.

[wushuliu]

i just bought one sabaj DA3 for 90 bucks. i was originally leaning towards Topping NX4 (not the DSD) but i ended up with this one for $90. im also ordering a Audio-gd R2R 11 which is gonna end up being 400 bucks including shipping and what not.

this (sabaj and audio gd) will be my dive into chin-fi and also into hopefully finding a good replacement for delta sigma dacs as far as my main rig is concerned. if this R2R delivers it would be good riddance.

edit: actually it would be my second dive. sinve i already had the $1200 dual ESS Sabre 9018 with extensive op amp upgrades that i hated on the account of sounding crap. hopefully this time im not gonna be disappointed.

I only just learned about the audiogd R2R. People seem to love it. If I'd have known about it sooner I would have bought one. They make great gear. And the price is the cheapest of the r2r dacs on the market.

[restrav]

I only just learned about the audiogd R2R. People seem to love it. If I'd have known about it sooner I would have bought one. They make great gear. And the price is the cheapest of the r2r dacs on the market.

well dont rush to judgement, the r2r 11 model that is real cheap for an r2r comes with some cost cutting which im curious how it would affect the sound. the headfi comments on them are scant and from users that i dont really care about their opinions. pretty much all the hype around R2r 11 comes from 2 youtube videos by Zeos and some idiot teenager from some middle of nowhere place in midwest who has half my experience with hifi but thinks that he can make a headphone recommendation video every month. both of them are dumbasses so im gonna see for myself. 

[restrav]

JUST for the sake of comparison and for good measure i bought one of these too:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FEDHHKE/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


im planning to buy an he400s to compare as well. even though if i find a real good deal (around the same price) i might just get a used B&W p7 wired because will definitely use it more than any HE400 or HD650 being closed an all. they also look real good as well. 

[karnana]

JUST for the sake of comparison and for good measure i bought one of these too:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FEDHHKE/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


im planning to buy an he400s to compare as well. even though if i find a real good deal (around the same price) i might just get a used B&W p7 wired because will definitely use it more than any HE400 or HD650 being closed an all. they also look real good as well.

Please share your comparison with da3 if you can!  You might try sonarworks or morphit for reference eq for headphones, it makes a great difference!

[restrav]

Please share your comparison with da3 if you can!  You might try sonarworks or morphit for reference eq for headphones, it makes a great difference!

if there is a free plug in for foobar ill give it a try. im not paying for those just now because ive never tried one. is there a trial version?

[karnana]

if there is a free plug in for foobar ill give it a try. im not paying for those just now because ive never tried one. is there a trial version?

No plugin for foobar but standalone for sonarworks and vst trials for both:

Morphit: https://www.toneboosters.com/download.html

Sonarworks: https://www.sonarworks.com/reference/downloads/win

Sonarworks has speaker calibration that is swell too but it needs a calibration microphone 

[restrav]

No plugin for foobar but standalone for sonarworks and vst trials for both:

Morphit: https://www.toneboosters.com/download.html

Sonarworks: https://www.sonarworks.com/reference/downloads/win

Sonarworks has speaker calibration that is swell too but it needs a calibration microphone 

thanks

 sabaj da3 arrived. sounds real good. sounds better than the LKS to me which is just downright weird. i listened the few hi rez albums that i have.
mark knopfler shangri la which is 96khz sounded good
Tchaikovsky souvenir sounds wonderful. it is the best it has ever sounded. it is 352.8khz PCM
i cant get the 3 dsd albms that i have to play.

regular red book sounds good too. this is no burn in. literally out of the box 30 minutes ago.
graham sash prison song is a harmonica driven little song that all ESS sabre dacs always fail at and NOS/TUBE always wins for me. but with sabaj it is sounding like my phillips NOS audio mirror dac but with an obvious quieter background and more dynamic. the songs sounds darn good.

Indian that dwells inside this chest by Kashmir is a low quality recording that i like (iut is 320kbps mp3) and that sounds good too.


 i think its a keeper.

[restrav]

i got the DSD to work too. Beethoven string quartet no 10 sounds pretty good.

[restrav]

i quickly preferred the slow roll off filter

[Triplefun]

i quickly preferred the slow roll off filter

Get the ifi ipower and idefender.  Also try DSD upsampling - no brainer using linux based daphile (make sure you use the latest beta) which you can temporarily load from a USB stick without compromising your windows install and no need to install Sabaj drivers. Create the USB boot using Rufus and daphile beta iso downloaded from http://www.daphile.com/firmware/private-beta/

[restrav]

Get the ifi ipower and idefender.  Also try DSD upsampling - no brainer using linux based daphile (make sure you use the latest beta) which you can temporarily load from a USB stick without compromising your windows install and no need to install Sabaj drivers. Create the USB boot using Rufus and daphile beta iso downloaded from http://www.daphile.com/firmware/private-beta/

i will. i have an Rpi 3b ready for daphile.

[Triplefun]

i will. i have an Rpi 3b ready for daphile.

Daphile does not run on the RPI.  You need a good Intel or amd cpu to support the up sampling. I was so impressed with the sabaj  that I bought an i7 7700 for dsd512 and was amazed with the result. A cheaper g4560 will do dsd256.

[restrav]

Daphile does not run on the RPI.  You need a good Intel or amd cpu to support the up sampling. I was so impressed with the sabaj  that I bought an i7 7700 for dsd512 and was amazed with the result. A cheaper g4560 will do dsd256.

oh i just assumed that daphile is one of the specially brewed distros for Rpi. i'm sticking with one of the linux distros for RPi probably volumio