Soekris "dac1541": DAC/Amp - Stream of Consciousness Impressions

System: Asus Essence ST coax out >Soekris DAC1541 >First Watt B1 >Allo Volt+/First Watt F5 Turbo >BD_Designs Oris 150(Lowther PM4a)/Vifa 10” Onken.



Impressions:

Filters: I like Red the most out of the choices when using my B1 in the system, with the B1 removed I find Red just a touch too in your face, and found myself gravitating toward using Black(unlit) just to soften the blow of all those blazingly fast transients a touch. On a more relaxed system I could see Red being a wonderful choice with big staging and speed. I echo @Jh4db536 in that I wish there was a filter that could have combine the strengths of the two. I look forward to community development of filters.

Build: A Solid compact little unit, feels quality throughout. I personally dig the green LEDs it has a very 1980s gear aesthetic in a positive way, I also was very surprised by the sea foam green chassis paint, I had assumed for some reason it was a grey until it arrived in person. Knob can be a tad touchy with skipping forward more db’s at a time than I would like.

Sound: I’m not one to wax poetic about audio, but I will say my overall impressions a day in are that the DAC1541 is an exceptionally clean sounding DAC without sounding etched/harsh. Resolution is quite good to my ears. Sound stage is large, particularly in height with my system, perhaps a little more than is realistic. Transients, separation, and over all sense of speed, especially on Red filter is pretty remarkable. Sounds less warm than my memories of Schiit R2R DACs, and a touch cleaner. If I had to sum it up in a sentence, a fast, just this side of warm-neutral DAC, with very good resolution, and excellent separation.

I did not try the headphone portion, so no thoughts on that.

Could I live with it? Yeah I think I could, I will be rebuying a Gungnir Multibit this year and see how that does with my current system, but I would give serious consideration to the DAC1541, or even the DAC1421 if it turns out to play in the same ballpark, as I have a completely SE chain. The ability to power headphones in a pinch, work as a nice clean preamp with remote support, and possible future filter development are just icing on the cake.



Thanks so much to @JoshMorr for letting me get a listen and thanks to @soekris for making another interesting fairly priced DAC.

 

So I got in half of the units in today (well, all the dac1321s and two dac1541s...the rest got delayed by the storm. The dac1541s got a delayed a bit at customs as the storm hit.)

Anyway, I went ahead and got everything set up (as I got the IHA-1 today as well.) The most immediate thing I noticed was was that the black background was not a meme: It is actually incredibly clear and free of haze. It's actually quite nice. In fact, I'd say the background is blacker than the Amethyst I demoed last November. I gotta spend some more time with it, especially since the only thing I have to compare it with is the ZX2 (which is a lot warmer) and I'm not use to the IHA-1 quite yet.

I went ahead and tested @dmckean44 's dac1321 (with his permission, of course) and, compared to the dac1541, here are the most notable differences:

1) They both have the same basic sound signature. Both have black backgrounds, though the dac1321 is a bit less clean.

2) The dac1321 is softer all around. I don't know if it is the hit in the macrodynamics, but it is also sounds more intimate in general than the dac1321.

3) While I don't find the dac1541 fatiguing at all, the dac1321 is even less fatiguing. It might have to do with it being softer in general.

4) The 1321 is tiny. Like, 40% the size of the already-small dac1541.

Just from these short impressions (as this is getting shipped out tomorrow,) the dac1321 seems to be a pretty good buy at its price point. The gap between the 1321 and 1541 is about what you'd expect, but the dac1321 seems to hold up pretty well. Better than my memory of the Modi Multibit and Bifrost Multibit (with the same price point as the Bifrost Multibit.)

Anyway, here's my setup at the moment:



"Paco, what the f**k is that headphone."

It's basically a Frankencan's Monster. That D2000 @BillOhio sent me? I ended up sending them to @Eudis Fernandes because he wanted to mod them to be more open. After a several weeks, Eudis messaged me about me buying some TH900 drivers for a super-low price, so I went ahead and did it. Well, now I have a headphone that started as a D2K, but came back with TH900 drivers, mods that make it not insufferable, and 3D printed, open-backed cups. Here's the FR for reference, but I like them quite a bit more than the Auteur (I'll do a loaner tour of these once I have a second headphone like a HD650M or HD800. Or Atticus. Haven't decided yet.):



I'll keep posting more dac1541 stuff as I go. I do have to say though, while completely standard and unremarkable, the amplifier in the 1541 is quite powerful. Though, the only thing that stood out on it was the speed being crazy, especially next to the IHA-1.

 

If that loaner comes to SoCal I want in

 

Søren,

Just to make sure I'm doing things right. To avoid all clipping ever on the dac1321, I would want to turn the volume knob to the right until I reach max level, then give it 14 clicks to the left to reach -4 db?

 

0db should not clip on the Soekris. If you have other DSP running you need to reduce the overall volume level in DSP to compensate for the maximum db boost it uses. So if you bump the bass +6db you need to drop the overall level by -6db in DSP to avoid clipping.

 

The dac1321, dac1421 and dac1541 already have 1 dB margin for the volume level, the recommeded way is to just turn the volume full up, then hold the FILTER button for four seconds, that will lock it at 0 dB, which is actually -1 dB digitally. You can also lock it at levels down to -4 dB, but that's harder to do on a dac1321 without the display, as you say, you then need to count steps....

 

Alright, so ALL the group buy units are shipped out now, so hopefully there's some more impressions coming. I believe @porkfriedpork has his in today, but he's already given his impressions. I'm giving more of my own once the Atticus is in (as I'm more familiar with it than this open-backed modded TH900.)

That said, I need to find someone to run the February group buy in my stead. I don't think I could do this a second time, especially with the amount of stuff that will be going on around then (step-son's adoption by me, for instance.)

 

I'll copy @MrTie 's excellent format.


System: Custom Ryzen PC running Win10 x64 via USB > Soekris DAC1541 >Moon Audio Inspire IHA-1 w/ Westinghouse 5U4GB/psvane drivers > HD800 (SDR), HE-1000 v1, HP-1

Impressions:

Filters: I like red the most with most listening material, though on the HD800 I think that black sounds a little more pleasing for extended listening. I'll be loading some custom filters later on, as I have the programming cable already.

Build: Very nicely put together with quality components. Smaller than I was expecting, but this isn't a bad thing. Overall, very impressed with the design, and since there was a loose screw inside that I had to open it up to fix, I also got a look at the very clean internals. Top notch.

Sound: Comparing this to my Gungnir Multibit w/ USB v5, the Soekris DAC1541 has a noticably blacker background, slightly less width and overall space in the stage (I've always found the new Schiit filter a little exaggerated here), and much more accurate/less bloated bass. Transients are exceptionally clean and defined, and I don't hear any haze/lack of detail. Compared to the Oppo UDP-203 (Sonica more or less), the DAC1541 is blacker, has a more neutral presentation (less glare), better detail retrieval and overall just sounds more pleasing to the ear. This isn't a DAC that grabs you with its euphony, but none the less it's such a solid performer that it's clear that it is superior to the Gungnir Multibit in accuracy.

Internal Headphone Amp: The internal headphone amp is surprisingly capable. It's extremely neutral, with excellent bass reproduction, however the overall stage is somewhat closed and narrow compared to my IHA-1. I would explain it like listening in a very dead\treated room with the integrated amp vs in a real live venue on the IHA-1. Transients and cymbals have a more natural decay on the IHA-1 but the integrated unit is quite good, and very detailed comparable to something like an Asgard2 but with better detail and a blacker background.

Overall, is it what I expected? Yes, pretty much dead on with what folks described. I'm very happy with the presentation and this will definitely live in one of my systems (office or living room). My RME ADI2-Pro arrives in the next few days, at which point I'll do a head to head comparison and decide which one will be used in the office for the headphone system.

Thanks to @PacoTaco for arranging the group buy!

 

Thanks for writing up your impressions. Will you be comparing the balanced headphone outputs by any chance? I’ve been eager to see how the DAC1541 and ADI-2 Pro compare as all-in-ones.

 

Maybe. I don't really use balanced that often, as I don't really hear much improvement.

 

@SineDave ... Any impressions of the built-in headphone amp? I think a few of us are interested in this unit as an all in one system.

 

I haven't tried it yet, but i'll try to write up some impressions tomorrow vs my IHA-1

 

..or, you know, you could always trim rather than boost anyway, so the ghosts of recording engineers don't haunt your dreams.

 

Internal amp impressions added above.

 

Is there something wrong with the volume knob on my unit? It is unbelievably cheap feeling, pretty loose and makes a horrible scraping, screeching noise when I turn it. I haven’t even turned it on but I’m pretty annoyed about the volume knob. Easily the worst volume knob I have ever encountered. I know it’s a digital knob so it doesn’t really matter but no knob should make a screeching noise when you turn it. I want to remove the knob to see if I can smooth it out but there is no screw to loosen it. Is the knob removable?

 

My unit made screeching noises as well. I used krytox 103 to to try and mitigate it, but my volume knob has gotten worse over time, and it is starting to bind now.

Edit. I searched my stash of random odds and ends and used an old apple remote to change volume. It works pretty well.

 

Well at least I know the unit isn’t defective. I’m honestly surprised that this hasn’t been mentioned before. I’m considering buying an apple remote just to avoid the sound of the knob grinding on the faceplate.

The good news is that the unit sounds awesome. A pretty noticeable improvement over Modi Multibit. The built in amp is no slouch. I could easily live with this DAC as an all in one system.

But seriously Soekris, fix the f'ing volume knob. This is a $1.2K DAC and the knob feels like it came off a Fisher Price toy.

 

I bought a remote precisely for that reason. Apple knockoff...there are some quirks but it does work.

 

My volume knob makes scratchy sounds as well, although it turns freely with no binding. I agree that it has a cheap feeling. A weighted knob would make a big difference.

 

Ran to Best Buy and bought an Apple remote. Works as advertised. Never touching the knob ever again. My Kia has a pot that is a bazillion times better than the Soekris knob. I hope this pot was chosen for performance reasons because it is a tactile nightmare. Seriously, I would prefer up and down buttons for volume adjustments over this thing.