AKM AK4490eq DAC chip
- Thread starter Blizzard
- Start date
A new breakthrough!
Look at the new Teac also. You can look at the $600 Aune S16. You claim the 4490 is better that the 4495. Have you listened to them? A week ago your DAC was so great. You have now found something better. And you are using USB! lol...This amusing also as it seems you really have not heard that many DACs or are actually not knowledgeable if you are just now hearing discrete class A. Sorry but it really makes it hard to take much of what you say seriously.
A new breakthrough!
The 4490 is their latest chip, as well as their flagship. Everyone who has tried both likes it better. I don't recall saying that I'm listening to the first DAC built using this chip. Yes it's amazing how new technology can be better than older technology.
Yes with the great sound I'm getting from USB, I can just imagine when I connect it up to a far superior Ravenna or SD card interface.
BTW, I thought I was a shill for ESS. I guess I'm probably fired now after this thread
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Which DAC's did you A/B with IC opamp output stage with -128DB noise floor vs discrete pure class A with -140db noise floor connected to the same DAC?
First time for me. I guess I don't have the vast experience you have
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The 4490 is their latest chip, as well as their flagship. Everyone who has tried both likes it better. I don't recall saying that I'm listening to the first DAC built using this chip. Yes it's amazing how new technology can be better than older technology.
Yes with the great sound I'm getting from USB, I can just imagine when I connect it up to a far superior Ravenna or SD card interface.
BTW, I thought I was a shill for ESS. I guess I'm probably fired now after this thread
I think you confused in regards to the 4495. Not an old chip. Who says it sounds worse? If you are speaking strictly numbers then the ESS chips are better... But they do not sound better.
http://www.akm.com/akm/en/product/featured/premiumaudio/
As far as being a shill... It seems that you might be a shill for the makers of Thorazine. You are so all over the place and it is a new thing every week... Maybe you need to just relax a bit. Nothing wrong with having an opinion, but your pontifications are way over the top...
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I've actually been talking about completely different things each week. Like active loudspeakers, interface protocols, DAC colorations, and now DAC chips. So to be a good member of this forum, is it a prerequisite that your posts should be exclusively dedicated to trolling, like yours?
The 4490 is their latest chip, as well as their flagship. Everyone who has tried both likes it better. I don't recall saying that I'm listening to the first DAC built using this chip. Yes it's amazing how new technology can be better than older technology.
Yes with the great sound I'm getting from USB, I can just imagine when I connect it up to a far superior Ravenna or SD card interface.
BTW, I thought I was a shill for ESS. I guess I'm probably fired now after this thread
Maybe AKM's latest chip but not necessarily their flagship. If the 4490 chip is their flagship than why didn't they give it a higher number than the 4495S chip?
Ken
The signal to noise ratio of a circuit has little to do with its sound transparency. The Sparkos labs, Burson and Dexa discrete circuits do not measure -140 yet they all sound better than any op amp. And they all sound different from each other. You can take the most transparent one and put not so good sounding resistors in it and it will measure the same yet sound way worse. This is from years of experience here. I have been playing with discrete stages for over 35 years. Every single thing you do makes it sound different. The solder, damping of board and board material, damping of parts, power supply bypasses, wire, etc. etc. If you go to Diyaudio and post your graph many will be impressed as a lot of nerdy objectivists hang out there. I only want one thing....the best sound possible. Any number of great discrete stages will sound more transparent than any op amp. Because you spend x amount of money having someone make you one does not mean it sounds as good as a cheaper one from someone else. You really have to listen to a lot of things to know what is possible. I am glad you found a better source then a stock Mirus.......but that is not hard to do.
As I stated, Schiit sells a new version of their Bifrost DAC with the 4490 in it that is suppose to be better than their older version with the older 4399 chip. However, they have an upgrade over the 4490 DAC and that uses 16 bit r2r DACS and a "closed form" digital filter. I am sure others agree is sounds better. So, if you like your DIY DAC with a 4490 then why not get an Yggdrasil with 20 bit r2r DACs (Schiits best sounding one according to everyone) and put your low jitter clocks and super output stage on it. Now that might be something really special!!!! I cannot get to excited about the latest $6 DAC chip from AKM.....there is much better.....remember, this is the "What's Best Forum". Of course, there is.....the "best for the buck" and I do like that approach as well.
Have you heard the latest and best Meitner, MSB, Empirical Audio, Berkeley Reference, Lampy, Border Patrol (using 18 bit NOS and tubes), Aries-Caret Kasandra (parallel 18 bit NOS with tubes), Trinity, DCS, TotalDAC, etc., etc. DACs? The Mirus DAC is merely ESS DAC chips with a bunch of op amps on the output and fairly ordinary power supplies.....not very tweak. A really great reference will give you some idea of what is possible. DACs these days are like waves on the sea.....every 10 seconds another one rolls in. This thread will be like that.....it will just roll out to sea as you find a better reference (very soon, I think).
As I stated, Schiit sells a new version of their Bifrost DAC with the 4490 in it that is suppose to be better than their older version with the older 4399 chip. However, they have an upgrade over the 4490 DAC and that uses 16 bit r2r DACS and a "closed form" digital filter. I am sure others agree is sounds better. So, if you like your DIY DAC with a 4490 then why not get an Yggdrasil with 20 bit r2r DACs (Schiits best sounding one according to everyone) and put your low jitter clocks and super output stage on it. Now that might be something really special!!!! I cannot get to excited about the latest $6 DAC chip from AKM.....there is much better.....remember, this is the "What's Best Forum". Of course, there is.....the "best for the buck" and I do like that approach as well.
Have you heard the latest and best Meitner, MSB, Empirical Audio, Berkeley Reference, Lampy, Border Patrol (using 18 bit NOS and tubes), Aries-Caret Kasandra (parallel 18 bit NOS with tubes), Trinity, DCS, TotalDAC, etc., etc. DACs? The Mirus DAC is merely ESS DAC chips with a bunch of op amps on the output and fairly ordinary power supplies.....not very tweak. A really great reference will give you some idea of what is possible. DACs these days are like waves on the sea.....every 10 seconds another one rolls in. This thread will be like that.....it will just roll out to sea as you find a better reference (very soon, I think).
K
Perhaps because it was a project they were working on for a longer period of time that already had the "4490" designation. The team who designed the 4495 had their chip ready first. Higher numbers don't always mean better.
Perhaps because it was a project they were working on for a longer period of time that already had the "4490" designation. The team who designed the 4495 had their chip ready first. Higher numbers don't always mean better.
The purpose of this thread was to share my experience with the AK4490 chip. This is what I've done. However I've also shared my opinion of the discrete output stage, compared to IC opamp based. This is not a comprehensive evaluation on every single implementation theoretically possible.
Pretty crazy stuff Ric. One week ago the Mirus and his SD card was the worlds best. Now it is on the scrap heap. Numbers do not equal sound as you point out. Only a fool would really think that. I feel sorry if someone has been reading his rantings and purchased a 5 grand Mirus only to find out a week later it has been supplanted by what is basically Schit's entry level DAC.. Yes the R2R look really nice. Hope to be getting one in the near future.
Regards
Bob
The aspect of the Mirus I have praised in this forum, has been the implementation of the SD card transport. I still haven't seen a lower jitter/noise implementation of a transport. My opinion has not changed 1 bit on that. However, I do feel that the circa 2008 ESS 9018 chip has been beat in the pure listening enjoyment category. However I won't say the AK4490 will beat it in the transparency department. Further tests will need to be conducted. However, since the 9018 is getting a bit long in the tooth, there's possibly a chance ESS hasn't given up on innovation as well.
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So all your ranting and raving have nothing to do with sound. They are just your misguided assumptions on how forward advancing technology must always sound better. Heaven only knows what you must think of the TDA1541 or PCM1704s... Oh and let's not forget those old bad sounding tubes ...
Some of you are wondering which one of the AKM DACs is @ the top (best)? ...Indeed the first one @ top: http://www.akm.com/akm/en/product/detail/0054/
They are in order of the best first, then second, third and fourth. ...From top to down. So the "VERITA" AK4490EQ is thee best; best THD+N, best DSD Input.
They are in order of the best first, then second, third and fourth. ...From top to down. So the "VERITA" AK4490EQ is thee best; best THD+N, best DSD Input.
Yes massive difference in THD+N. Plus it uses the latest algorithms for the Veritas engine.
Well yea... Better THD a tiny bit worse SN. Higher DSD rate. Exact same family... Maybe a Bat could tell the difference in sound.
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