[asliarun]

I have been hearing some seriously good things about the Khadas Tone Board DAC. Not sure why they call it a tone board, but it is a full fledged DAC and just needs a case. But at $100, it is very reasonably priced. Also see the measurements, they rival measurements of Auralic and Oppo and are better than Schiit Modi. People are also saying very nice things about the board quality and component/build quality. Especially for the price.

No immediate plans to buy it due to family constraints but would be very curious to know if anyone else has heard of, or better still, heard the DAC.

https://www.khadas.com/tone

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-wesiontek-khadas-tone-board-dac.4823/

Case some folks are recommending: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/aluminium-boxes-cases/aluminum-case-for-khadas-tone-board-p-13626.html

Khadas (a company I never heard of until a few days ago) also makes some other interesting boards, and it looks like they are building all their boards to be complement each other and also dock/stack with each other.

Edit: Also seems like the company is very open source and DIY friendly. They have even made the full schematics for their DAC available online for free.

https://dl.khadas.com/Hardware/ToneBoard/Schematic/Tone_V13%20SCH.pdf

https://docs.khadas.com/toneboard/UserManual.html

[emailtim]

Digikey has them in stock.

https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/k/khadas/ktone-tone-board

[lacro]

Available at Amazon too.

[Hirst]

Interesting timing as mine was delivered yesterday.  I updated the firmware and plugged it in to my computer.  I have to state that my hearing is not the best and I require hearing aids for the upper ranges.  That being said I like this much better than my Sabaj3 or my Audioengine. 
My system is; Folsom's amp, Kuartlotron, GR Research Wedgies and dual servo subs. 

I also have Ian Canada's isolator+DAC+I/V running on a raspberry Pi.  At the moment the Tone Board to my ears holds it own but to be fair I am sure that there is a bit of "buyer's expectations" that may make the comparison bias.  I need to put a switch together so that it is easier to compare the two.  I also have to listen to the Tone Board with the Raspberry Pi.

For "bang for the buck" it is an excellent choice as it sounds better than my more expensive Sabaj3 and Audioengine. It does have limits as it would be challenging to modify it.  I understand that it does have good regulators but a good power source should improve things.  IIRC it does not use I2s even though it is listed as being available, it processes audio via usb only.    It does have I2s available on the 30PIN FPC connector but I do not know of anyone that was able to get it to work.

I love the boards from Ian and I intend on modifying them when I order parts for Folsom's new amp.  I do believe that Ian's boards will greatly benefit from the simple modifications but they are much more expensive than the Tone Board.  I bought Ian's boards because they had good reviews and they are designed for the DIY to tinker with and modify.  The Tone Board is nice to have as a good backup DAC to use while I work on Ian's. 

It would be wonderful to have someone that has better hearing give it a shot.   Looking forward to hearing the other reviews.

Paul

[lacro]

when I order parts for Folsom's new amp. 

Paul

New Folsom Amp??

[Hirst]

New Folsom Amp??

Keep your eyes open for the posting.  I understand that we will see something very shortly.

Paul

[OzarkTom]

This was an interesting review on Amazon.

There is no greater feeling than that of bargain. In the world of Hi Fi I have had the following dacs:
Schiit Multi Bit $599 (More Dynamic than the YGGDRASIL and funner)
Schiit YGGDRASIL $2,000 (Most Balanced)
Schiit Bitfrost $400
Cambridge Audio Azur DacMagic Plus Digital to Analogue Convert $400
NAD Masters Series M12 $3,499
GUSTARD DAC-X20 XMOS HiFi DAC 384KHz DSD  $999
Black Tda1543x4 DIR9001+4X TDA1543 $55 (Makes all music enjoyable)
Metrum Acoustics Octave MkII $1,200 (Best Bass)

This small little dac falls between Schiit YGGDRASIL and the Gustard Dac-X20. Over all my favorite dac is the original Bifrost (personal reasons: balance of detail vs musicality) but I bought this little guy because my bitfrost does not have USB; for the price of the upgrade I stumbled upon a dac that outperforms the NAD Master Series M12.

[wushuliu]

I may try one out for giggles. As far as I can tell it's just another ESS dac with the ES9038 mobile chip (which despite internet forum assertions that it's the same as the PRO, I have yet see any proof or confirmation from ESS that is the case). There are fewer whiz bang features and components on the board so that may be a plus for sound quality.

EDIT: Cursory look at schematics shows use of ADP150 LDOs for power supply, which have a very good rep and much better quality than the typical generic stuff that is in most budget/mid-fi DACs. Otherwise it looks like a bare-bones, straight no-chaser build. Always a good sign. Less is more.

[Hirst]

Took the Tone board to a local DIY guy with a lovely DAC to compare it to.  Even with it being powered by a laptop USB and using "Windows Player" , it sounded very good.  As I mentioned before, at $100 it is a steal.  If this was powered by a decent power supply and plugged into something like a pi instead of an old laptop this thing would sound even better.  There is nice separation, good sound stage, nice detail but without sounding harsh.  It is very easy to listen to.   
IMHO it is not as good as Ian Canada's boards but it is a very good alternative....and $100.

Paul

[genjamon]

I ordered one today for my office system, to use with my laptop. But I’m intrigued by their Edge-V computer board that can hook right up to it in a neat little package. Could be just the ticket as an unobtrusive 2-channel htpc in my TV setup. And it’s modular so I can order the Edge-V after I get a sense of the sound of the DAC first.

[Hirst]

The VIM1, VIM2, and future VIM3 hooks up to it directly.  According to the footnotes if you want to use it with "The Edge" then you have to connect with usb.
Paul

[genjamon]

Edge-V also hooks up directly. It’s a variant on the Edge.

[wushuliu]

Evidently a new revised board is coming in a few months. There has been a sometimes enlightening sometimes amusing thread at Measurements-Land about a particular distortion profile unique to ESS chips that most manufacturers apparently ignore. It has been deemed a problem (whether or not it is audible seems to be unimportant in the discussion) and enough of a fuss raised that Khadas is fixing it and releasing a new board w/XLRs. The only point of interest to me is that Benchmark seems to have been aware of this ESS quirk and eliminated it for their own dacs, so I'm curious how this Khadas revision will sound compare to the current one. Hopefully someone will actually listen to both and note differences, if any.

[JohnR]

Looks like the balanced version has been planned for a while - https://forum.khadas.com/t/balanced-output/3312

Wonder how much it will be.

[dwk]

I picked one of these up along with the JDS Atom in what I guess you could call the "ASR Special".

Honestly, this pairing is just stupidly good for $200.  I've tried it running phones (HD6xx picked up used for $150. total package price of $350 for very very good performance), and as a pre-amp into a Neurochrome Mod-86 driving Kef Q150s. Very satisfying performance, and I'm not entirely sure 'for the price' is even needed.  Absolutely amazing what you can do at budget price points with a bit of care.

I'm definitely somewhat interested in the balanced version since my Mod-86 takes balanced input, but a balanced pre-amp that fits into the budget category is probably a lot harder to find and is going to cost a lot more than the Atom.  I'm not sure the channel tracking in the Atom is close enough to try using 2 as a balanced pair, but it's cheap enough that it might be worth a shot

[HT cOz]

I picked one of these up along with the JDS Atom in what I guess you could call the "ASR Special".

Honestly, this pairing is just stupidly good for $200.  I've tried it running phones (HD6xx picked up used for $150. total package price of $350 for very very good performance), and as a pre-amp into a Neurochrome Mod-86 driving Kef Q150s. Very satisfying performance, and I'm not entirely sure 'for the price' is even needed.  Absolutely amazing what you can do at budget price points with a bit of care.

I'm definitely somewhat interested in the balanced version since my Mod-86 takes balanced input, but a balanced pre-amp that fits into the budget category is probably a lot harder to find and is going to cost a lot more than the Atom.  I'm not sure the channel tracking in the Atom is close enough to try using 2 as a balanced pair, but it's cheap enough that it might be worth a shot

Sonny over on DIY Audio is coming out with a budget Pre-amp that looks interesting.  It would cost about 200 Euros for us non-EU folks.   
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendor-s-bazaar/274456-ak4490-usb-dac-dsd-support-post5813128.html