Audio-GD Singularity 19 DAC - Comprehensive Review and Impressions

Now it's ... that these things need 1500-2000 hours of burn-in:



This is how you spot a fanboy.

2000 hours of burn-in ... that's 83 days if you run it 24/7. 6 months if you do 8 hours a day. Meanwhile it starts off sounding horrible? What's the return period again?

Earlier in the thread I mentioned that I had details posted elsewhere ... apparently even that's too difficult for him to find ... even though others managed.

It takes a stellar intellect fuckwit to fail on that level. Which is probably how he was able to be convinced to give something 2000 hours burn-in in the first place. And of course, now it's back to "it must be defective".

 

Hmmm, the DAC19 isn't horrible. Over priced for sure unless you get a good deal used. Warm, slow, loose and flabby on the low end, but kinda charmingly so. Damn, that could be a description of me.... Anyway, that is all I really have to add to this thread, as I haven't, and likely won't hear the S19.

Oh, this thread did get me off top dead center to finally move on from the D19 and try something else. Schiit Bifrost Multibit - I like it!
Quick disclaimer - long time head-fi guy and generally a fanboy. With therapy, I seem to be getting better.....

 

Of course, HF is so twunted that I can't even "like" @Torq's post on there, excellent!

 

My laboratory stratum level 1 time standard only requires 4 to 5 days (96 to 120 hrs) to achieve lowest Allen Deviation. Put in perspective anything beyond a week to provide better than 95% performance is ridiculous. Life is too short.

Additional note: long power on-times preclude effective demonstrations at meets unless hot transports are employed.

 

But this gives good excuse for companies to explain why their DAC didn't perform well - wasn't powered on long enough, wasn't burnt in long enough, wasn't using the brain enough. Must be the user's fault.

 

Return period? I'd be past the end of the warranty by then!

 

These guys like AudioGD despite all Kingwa's gear absolutely sucking as most audiofools love three things:
1. Feeling special about themselves.
2. Fat bass.
3. Imprinting an artificially warm timbre on the sound. The more special or different the better as then they can show off to other audiofools how special their fear is.

This is an inherently low-fidelity proposition. AudioGD gear is designed to imprint a wet sort of rolled transistor timbre on the sound where Fiio is grainy. The bigger ones also have bass so overloud, it frequency masks the lower mids and zero treble detail (you can't hear the Eikon's treble distortion on it), while the little ones keep the artificial warmth and have tons of treble problems.

Since the Audio-GD Singularity 19 is the most special sounding metal box they make, very special people whose ears rode on special buses to the special school like it most especially.

That being said the Schiit Modi 2U and Magni 2U stack is better than anything Audio-GD makes as are various USB dongles from Grace, LH Labs, and Apogee.

 

Add to that most mid-fi and even summit-fi cans are overly bright with treble peaks or fucked up midrange, I can see why they want a mushy warm DAC to sooth their bleeding ears.

 

Are they actually mid-fi or summit-fi? Most of the summit-fi cans are total crap worse than the ancient midrange actually high fidelity models and the lower cost, more sensitive cans from the companies that make those. Planars and estats? HAHAHAHAHAHA no, don't tell me they show you as much what a recording sounds like as the current HD 600. They just don't. This stuff is mostly not relatively faithful to the original recordings which is what high fidelity means. Most of it totally sucks, doesn't cost that much more to make, and they want it to bad in a different way so they can sell it to people who want to be more unique as their gear is worse in a different way. Most of the summit-fi cans are really no better than the cheapo Koss stuff and the HD 598; most of them are actually worse in many ways. Can they compete with relatively hi-fi cans like the current HD 600 or the worse DT 880 600 ohms for something rather high-fidelity but with a fucked treble? No, not really. The Utopia is about it.

Otherwise it's just people wanting to feel more unique and more special. So you say your headphone is an heirloom variety of headphone like it's a tomato and your headphones were made by a carpenter in his basement like a chair and Jesus was a carpenter so carpenters are cool in advertising blurbs tailored to fit your target audience's cultural biases. They're not Christian and like oriental antiques? Then special lacquered heirloom wood like the door to a samurai's thatched roof hut in 1453; the special samurai who got to carry the special battle flag who of course was always the first one to get stabbed when the samurai got together to go steal some chickens from the next village over as he was always the one screaming and carrying a giant flag. Audiophools want to special like that guy.
The same as recidivists with tattoos on their faces are easier for the police to identify.

 

Old school summit-fi depending on taste: Sennheiser HD580, Beyerdynamic DT880 (or for the budget conscious, I think it was the 440), and AKG K500/600 family.

Nowadays, I'll define the top reference points as HD600/650, DT880-600, and K612pro.

The rest of us belong in an asylum.

 

Nails hit on heads.

I really don't have much experience of headphones, but I've seen this with speakers. I have seen huge, expensive speakers sounding like boy-racer car audio. Boom, Boom, Bloody Boom. At one listening session I began to mutter something about there must be a fault, and was shushed because it was a dealer-hosted event and we weren't supposed to offend.

I have no problem with people seeking the flavour that they want and like, whether it is chest thumping bass, air-slicing attack, or ear-drum-piercing treble. It is a free world. But it isn't hifi. (And hey, tone controls is cheaper than this perpetual swapping of equipment). And if it isn't hifi, it does not compete with sliced bread --- except for people with exactly the same flavour taste. Or room problems. Or hearing loss.

 

Hehe, you @Torq along with the lot of you must be the poster children for keeping undesirables from HF away from SBAF:
https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/audio-gd-singularity-19.831737/page-16#post-13461419




So there you go, all ye unscientifically minded Schiit fanboys! How dare you @Torq do DAC comparisons in blind conditions?! And you @atomicbob perform reliable and reproducible lab testing measurements in your lab?! How can any sound sciencer take seriously any of your claims, people? Schiit Yggdrasil better than AGD S19... I mean, seriously?

 

"other forum" is still allowed over there?

 

I suspect a hugeass MOAB carpet bomb will be deployed any time soon... Immediately after "Black Magic Specialist Baba" has been dealt with, and the commander in chief has given authorisation.

 

For sake of completeness I ran a Blind ABX test comparing the Audio-gd S19 with a Bifrost MB.

Setup picture:


Setup diagram:


After connecting system, each DAC input to the ABX tester is adjusted to match within 0.1 dB SPL using a passive attenuator.
A test run consists of 8 trials in which X is randomly assigned either A or B.
3 such runs were conducted for 24 trials in all.
Normally this is a challenging task requiring a lot of intense focus and a very quiet background. Not this time.
8/8 correct identifications in all three runs for a total of 24/24 correct.
The key aspects making this comparison easy were the following deficiencies perceived on the S19:

1. splashy, smeared cymbals, snare and toms
2. tubby, bloated upright bass and kick
3. hazy, unfocused vocals
4. audible residual hum at 75 ~ 85 dB SPL listening levels in 30 dBC lab environment with HD800

Great effort was made to eliminate ground loops and minimize influences of EMI or RFI. Shielded power cables were employed along with careful layout of signal vs. power cables in the test setup. The dScope technical measurements show the S19 having a considerable amount of residual hum not found in many other DACs regardless of design implementation.

In this Blind ABX comparison the Bifrost MB is by far a better value and the better sounding DAC.

Addendum edit - list of cables used:
1. Audioquest Forrest USB to DU-U8 DDC
2. Tecnec B-B-6in 75 ohm broadcast digital cable DDC to DACs with P-BF adapters as necessary (matched lengths)
3. Matched lengths of DH Labs Silver Sonic Air Matrix between DACs and ABX box.
4. WBC Gotham GAC-2 between ABX and Saga
5. WBC Gotham GAC-2 between Saga and Jotunheim
6. Shielded 18 AWG 5-15P to C13 power cables for everything

 

>calls sbaf disrespectful and disgusting
>chifi holds the only candle of hope to make $100 all in one rule the world
>says Aune/Fiio/iBasso produce endgame/holy grail level products
>has as display picture. probably uses bollywood music and anime OST for critical listening too smh.

I bet he's the kind of guy who takes Z reviews seriously and believes that SMSL stuff can be endgame.

Sometimes being vulgar, disrespectful and "disgusting" is necessary to pop the bubbles of those who are misguided by Kim Jude-un and ZeosWeebtera (like I was). At least we are not living a lie and telling ourselves that the "$1000 we wasted on a POS must be worth it because everyone else on hed-fy is saying so. Moar expensive mast be battar. *goofy laugh*".

sure, I won't lie, sometimes I feel that SBAF people can be dicks and sometimes, very rarely, a teeny tiny bit biased but not HF biased. But humans will be biased, that's what being human is like. But we are indeed super best audio friends. And friends can be mean and slightly biased but they are there for you and do care about you wasting your hard earned cash on greedy bastard companies and overhyped FOTM products.

 

And the funny part is that their post before the "disrespectful and disgusting" one actually was quite reasonable, saying: "If something is expected to turn from un listenable to gold with just burn in, that's just fooling yourself. People first say 'you didn't burn it enough' ......then the defective component excuse....and now 1000+ hrs burn in, what's next?" Seems like he can agree with the points, just not the style? Meh, with skin that thin then stay over at HF. Cheers

 

Added list of cables used.

 

I suppose that if the hum is coming from the unit itself, then that's how the cookie crumbles. If the poor design/engineering of a bit of gear gives it a very audible flaw, it will be easy to pick out in a blind comparison. It's a shame it's so execrable, we can't expect anyone else to have one to lend, to see if they all have the hum. We also can't trust the Ad-Fiers to be honest about it (even assuming they can hear it) or have a valid basis for comparison.

There has been quite a lot of surprisingly charitable effort made to give this thing a break, despite it apparently worth being written off as a bad job. It'd still be interesting to have one from another batch on hand, to check if they're all that bad. That said, even if the other was better, it wouldn't give a handle on levels of consistency and variance etc..

(Honestly not trying to defend it, but the whole affair is car crash fascinating.)