The local flagship DAC and headphone amplifier.

Here are something new and amazing. These devices measured very very well. 

The spec sheet can be find from the webpage/facebook : www.stoneracoustics.com

USB DAC




Headphone Amplifier

Excellent. A full fledged unit. Why opt for fully balanced?

elhefe wrote:Excellent. A full fledged unit. Why opt for fully balanced?

Thanks a lot! These devices aiming a higher entry market and balanced carrying much more benefits comparing to unbalanced. 

1. Double up slew rate
2. Double up amplitude
3. Better transient performance
4. Much lower noise
5. Much lower crosstalk
6. and many many more....

Maybe I will write up an article in the website later.

chchyong89 wrote:

[]...These devices aiming a higher entry market...[]

[]...Maybe I will write up an article in the website later...[]

Not to forget the indicative price tags they carry

Just the thing that I need. How to order?

jimel71 wrote:Just the thing that I need. How to order?

Dear Sir

you can order from E1 Persona Audio located at Sungei Wang after 28th. 
www.facebook.com/e1personalaudiomy

The price is around RM18xx/unit. 

Hi chchyong,
You measurement pictures on your website is very blurry.   Can you kindly upload higher resolution pictures ?

hirez wrote:Hi chchyong,
You measurement pictures on your website is very blurry.   Can you kindly upload higher resolution pictures ?

You can click on it for higher resolution image. 

From the Stoner Acoustics website, the specs of EGD Reference USB DAC...

DSD native support up to DSD64 & DoP up to DSD128

USB DACs with DSD support usually don't have any problem playing from an Apple Mac as no driver needed, just select the DAC audio device detected and the Mac audio player which supports DoP will play DSD or SACD ISO without any problem. Audirvana or Amarra player does the job but is costly to purchase.

However, in order for a Windws PC to play asynchronously through the USB connection, usually a driver for the DAC need to be installed. The free Foobar player supports DoP allowing it to play DSD at the proper resolution... however getting the right Foobar settings and installing the required plug-ins is a complex thing for a person new to this. Will the normal Foobar SACD Decoder plug-in work for DoP or do we need to get the custom modified SACD Decoder. Will the Foobar ASIO plug-in be enough without the SACD Decoder?

Maybe I missed it, I searched Stoner Acoustics site and the facebook page and couldn't find any "driver" download link for the EGD Reference DAC. Is it bundled as a disc in the box or buyers will be given the url address to download it? Or NO driver needed as it can be detected and installed automatically by Windows?

Yes, I do know that this is a newly launched product so a FAQ or Support page needs to be posted to help buyers or to answer any relevant questions.

My best wishes for the product to perform well in the audiophile market.


PS... Almost forgot. Your thread title "The local flagship DAC and headphone amplifier." states that the USB DAC is also a headphone amplifier but, from the posted pictures, I don't see any headphone jack at the front panel. When a DAC is also a headphone amp, there will be a jack in front for connection to headphone. If this DAC do not have a headphone amp, then your thread title need to be corrected.

B
The driver is there at the bottom of the page. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1x2Aqj5Q_jMeGRMVHBTYjhwU0U/view?pli=1

The specs look impressive but hopefully the could give more specs similar to Stereophile's measurement for comparison.

hi@fi-audio wrote:From the Stoner Acoustics website, the specs of EGD Reference USB DAC...

DSD native support up to DSD64 & DoP up to DSD128

USB DACs with DSD support usually don't have any problem playing from an Apple Mac as no driver needed, just select the DAC audio device detected and the Mac audio player which supports DoP will play DSD or SACD ISO without any problem. Audirvana or Amarra player does the job but is costly to purchase.

However, in order for a Windws PC to play asynchronously through the USB connection, usually a driver for the DAC need to be installed. The free Foobar player supports DoP allowing it to play DSD at the proper resolution... however getting the right Foobar settings and installing the required plug-ins is a complex thing for a person new to this. Will the normal Foobar SACD Decoder plug-in work for DoP or do we need to get the custom modified SACD Decoder. Will the Foobar ASIO plug-in be enough without the SACD Decoder?

Maybe I missed it, I searched Stoner Acoustics site and the facebook page and couldn't find any "driver" download link for the EGD Reference DAC. Is it bundled as a disc in the box or buyers will be given the url address to download it? Or NO driver needed as it can be detected and installed automatically by Windows?

Yes, I do know that this is a newly launched product so a FAQ or Support page needs to be posted to help buyers or to answer any relevant questions.

My best wishes for the product to perform well in the audiophile market.


PS... Almost forgot. Your thread title "The local flagship DAC and headphone amplifier." states that the USB DAC is also a headphone amplifier but, from the posted pictures, I don't see any headphone jack at the front panel. When a DAC is also a headphone amp, there will be a jack in front for connection to headphone. If this DAC do not have a headphone amp, then your thread title need to be corrected.

Dear Sir, thank you for pointing up. Let me address some replies to you and hope it helps.

MAC OS and Ubuntu support up to UAC2.0 (USB Audio class), while Microsoft windows don't. Any audio devices that is running at UAC2.0, you need to install the driver to make it works on windows. 

The EGD comes with a toggle switch, allowing you to toggle between UAC1.0 and UAC2.0. This making the EGD more transportable if you wish to carry it elsewhere and hook it up to the PC with Microsoft Windows. But with the limitation of the UAC1.0, EGD only can support up to 24bit/96khz. Either UAC1.0 or UAC2.0, the EGD's USB receiver is running asynchronously. 

The tutorial to set up DSD playback, Bit-perfect playback under ubuntu, EGD's driver are provided under the product's FAQ, you just need to scroll further down.

For the headphone amplifier, I am aware that the images did not show up well on your browser. The XLR-4P connector is used to drive the headphones. 

STC wrote:B
The driver is there at the bottom of the page. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1x2Aqj5Q_jMeGRMVHBTYjhwU0U/view?pli=1

The specs look impressive but hopefully the could give more specs similar to Stereophile's measurement for comparison.

Thanks a lot, I will try to publish more measurements when I have a better audio analyzer on hand.

What audio analyzer are you using at the moment ?

hirez wrote:What audio analyzer are you using at the moment ?

I am using QA400 and another USB ADC(PCM4222) which i built myself. Very much bottlenecking. 

Thanks to chchyong89 and STC for the clarifications. Appreciated it. Ya, I should have been more meticulous when browsing that site. Sorry for being careless.

The High Performance ESS Sabre9018AQ2M DAC used should be the same as Oppo HA-1 which uses The ESS Sabre32 Reference ES9018.

Yes, impressive specs. I do know that there are various other factors, besides the internal DAC used, which determines the audio quality. If just referring to the same DAC used by both EGD Studio Reference and Oppo HA-1, with similar XLR outputs, the audio should technically be of the same high quality.

With just a minimalistic XLR output and a USB input, the EGD has less input and output connections compared to Oppo HA-1 (with Bluetooth)... BUT the EGD price is much lower which is more "affordable" for people who wants audiophile quality without spending too much.

* EGD US$450
* Oppo HA-1 US $1,199

* Referenced from the product's official site.

So the XLR-4P connector is used to convert the XLR output to a jack for connection to a headphone, understood. The EGD model is a DAC built specifically for connection to PC. The EGA model is a Headphone DAC Amplifier built specifically for headphone connection. Please correct me if I am wrong. A question... Can the EGD DAC be used as a headphone amp using the XLR-4P connector?

hi@fi-audio wrote:Thanks to chchyong89 and STC for the clarifications. Appreciated it. Ya, I should have been more meticulous when browsing that site. Sorry for being careless.

The High Performance ESS Sabre9018AQ2M DAC used should be the same as Oppo HA-1 which uses The ESS Sabre32 Reference ES9018.

Yes, impressive specs. I do know that there are various other factors, besides the internal DAC used, which determines the audio quality. If just referring to the same DAC used by both EGD Studio Reference and Oppo HA-1, with similar XLR outputs, the audio should technically be of the same high quality.

With just a minimalistic XLR output and a USB input, the EGD has less input and output connections compared to Oppo HA-1 (with Bluetooth)... BUT the EGD price is much lower which is more "affordable" for people who wants audiophile quality without spending too much.

* EGD US$450
* Oppo HA-1 US $1,199

* Referenced from the product's official site.

So the XLR-4P connector is used to convert the XLR output to a jack for connection to a headphone, understood. The EGD model is a DAC built specifically for connection to PC. The EGA model is a Headphone DAC Amplifier built specifically for headphone connection. Please correct me if I am wrong. A question... Can the EGD DAC be used as a headphone amp using the XLR-4P connector?

If not mistaken, the Oppo HA-1 is using ES9018S. It is very easy to make a ES9018 to work, but need a lot of care to optimize it. I think there are over hundreds of different ES9018 boards on the ebay. All of them sounds different. 

The HA-1 is more likely an all-in-one products, which is different market comparing to the EGD. We make the EGD a pure standalone DAC. The main highlight on the EGD is the isolated analog stage, which is a must on high performance D/A. The onboard receiver and the ESS do accept other format of inputs. To implement it, we just need to add another connector on the board. But we are only using what's the best on EGD - USB. 

Yes, the XLR-4P is a standard connector to drive a balanced headphones. When loading, the EGD is pulling around 350mA from the USB, you don't have that much power headroom left to drive a headphone properly. 

The sound of EGA will be very unique, fully differential with global feedback loop. 

Hope this info helps.

What chip are you using for the USB interface ?    How are you isolating the USB host noise from the DAC ?

hirez wrote:What chip are you using for the USB interface ?    How are you isolating the USB host noise from the DAC ?

For the ADC, I am using SA9027 for the PCM4222. On the EGD, I am isolating the I2S, I2C line with TI ISO. Using 6kV DC/DC to isolate the power line.   

The easiest way to check whether this isolation work is to do a loop back test on a laptop, if you measure a non-isolated DAC by looping back the signal back to the ADC on the same laptop, the SNR will be very terrible because of the ground loop problem. 




It's pretty much thanks to my previous job as i managed to touch a lot of branded speaker amplifiers that are using non-isolated SMPS. The system form a loop back to the AC line and making the system SNR measured terribly bad. But most of the times, these things are beyond human ears to hear the difference, I guess.

chchyong89 wrote: But most of the times, these things are beyond human ears to hear the difference, I guess.

Brutally an honest opinion coming from a manufacturer. You have my utmost respect.

Cheers!

Great.    Have you done any jitter measurements ?

hirez wrote:Great.    Have you done any jitter measurements ?

This is the measurements with 11205Hz(it should be 11025Hz). The side bands are siting below -130dB. 

 

STC wrote:

chchyong89 wrote: But most of the times, these things are beyond human ears to hear the difference, I guess.

Brutally an honest opinion coming from a manufacturer. You have my utmost respect.

Cheers!

Thanks bro

The user manual is up.   

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1x2Aqj5Q_jMLWlBRjBickpvckU/view?usp=sharing

Can we have some internal pictures? 

What better measuring equipment are you looking up to?   An AP?

hirez wrote:Can we have some internal pictures? 

What better measuring equipment are you looking up to?   An AP?

Sure, here they are : 





I am trying to be very ambitious wishing the revenue can give me an APx555 in return. 

Something i tested today. 

Curious to know.  Can you post the test results here?

hirez wrote:Curious to know.  Can you post the test results here?

I can't  They are a competitor.

The EGD and EGA with LCD-X 

Guys, first Review is up!!! More to come... 

http://earmass.com/2015/11/16/stoner-acoustic-egd-benchmark/

Thanks to earmass for his time on this.