That is what I thought as well. Saw this when I was looking into mobile dacs.
Also, not sure if this is the case, but I was pretty sure that Macs would disable volume control for external dacs. Even if this were a dac/amp combo, there is no way to control the volume with the pictured setup unless you do it in-application.
There's a way for the DAC to communicate with the device it is plugged in about volume, mute or not, etc. On macs the Core Audio framework has provided this function for ages, and I suppose there's similar implementation on other systems. Thus the system volume control is the DAC's volume control, but how DAC handles this volume setting is its own problem. Digital attenuation within DAC, digital controlled analog, motor-driven pots, etc.
If the volume control is disabled then it's either the DAC does not support this communication thing, the DAC has not the ability to turn the physical volume nob by itself, or the DAC is set to line out to a separate amp so it shouldn't provide a volume control.
I would hope to see a communication protocol between DAC and external amp though. Forwarding volume control signal to the amp seems to be a transparent enough and super convenient function.
I still own a HiFimeDIY Sabre DAC and the source always controls the volume even though that's almost never true of any other DAC. My OnePlus One, Galaxy S6, MacBook Pro and Surface Pro all dictate the volume level when I use that tiny thing.
What seemed more odd about this drop than the volume feature is the fact that this particular DAC is $64.99. Any device I've ever bought from HiFime has cost $30 or less.
Then I checked HiFime's website and saw that their new DACs are more expensive. The DAC in this drop is about $5.00 cheaper than it would be if you bought it direct.
http://hifimediy.com/
HiFime has had DACs that costing more than $30 for a few years now at least. This HiFime Sabre 9018 DAC/Amp is probably quite good. I have the HiFime U2 sabre DAC and it is very good, but recently I got the ZuperDAC which is awesome. The HiFime Sabre 9018 DAC/Amp has the same dac & amp chips as the ZuperDAC, so I wouldn't be surprised if the HiFime dac sounds great as well.
Waynesworld:
Thanks for sharing your experiences with HiFime's higher-end DACs.
Did you feel I'd inferred that the DAC in this drop wouldn't be a good value? If so, then you might have skimmed the last part of my post:
"Then I checked HiFime's website and saw that their new DACs are more expensive. The DAC in this drop is about $5.00 cheaper than it would be if you bought it direct."
In other words, I noticed that things had changed at HiFime. I definitely didn't suggest that their higher-end DACs were unimpressive. For one thing, I haven't even heard them.
In fact, my inexpensive HiFime DAC is very useful. It's ridiculously portable and works with every source I own. I count on it whenever incompatibility limits my other choices.
I had owned that $30 DAC too that was based on SAbre 9023 this is more expensive Sabre 9018 based. I was waiting for their new release which would replace the 9018D. But since I wanted one in urgency I bought the Centrace slim.
Are you inferring that you didn't infer anything from my inference? How dare you!
Looks as though I should compare specs and form factor of the Sabre 9018 and the ZuperDAC to see the differences, since both use the same DAC and amp chips. Two differences seem to be that the Zuper does 192k and is ultra-fancy: http://www.zorloo.com/#!zuperdac/ci25
Yes, that's what I dared to infer!
I wouldn't be surprised if the Hifime 9018 sounds awesome (like the Zuper). But one thing I like about the ZuperDac is it's form factor (like the Dragonfly's) such that I can attach it to the back of my phone:
How's the synergy, WW? I own those same headphones (among far, far too many others). I find the Amperiors to be too efficient, which means that I tend to pair them with amps that allow minimal volume settings without canting to one speaker. Also, I wouldn't want to use them with a glaringly bright amp.
Fairly neutral but dynamic. Synergy is great with most everything I have (nighthawks, mt220's, m100's and others plus VE earbuds and various iems). I like it enough that I bought another one for my laptop. Massdrop should drop them so that I can stop posting off topic lol. Having said all this, I really like Hifime (the company and their products) and I believe that their offering here will be well worth the $.
You are currently viewing a single conversation. Return to Full Discussion
http://hifimediy.com/DACs/ready-made-dacs/Sabre-9018-DAC
Also, not sure if this is the case, but I was pretty sure that Macs would disable volume control for external dacs. Even if this were a dac/amp combo, there is no way to control the volume with the pictured setup unless you do it in-application.
What seemed more odd about this drop than the volume feature is the fact that this particular DAC is $64.99. Any device I've ever bought from HiFime has cost $30 or less.
Then I checked HiFime's website and saw that their new DACs are more expensive. The DAC in this drop is about $5.00 cheaper than it would be if you bought it direct.
http://hifimediy.com/
Thanks for sharing your experiences with HiFime's higher-end DACs.
Did you feel I'd inferred that the DAC in this drop wouldn't be a good value? If so, then you might have skimmed the last part of my post:
"Then I checked HiFime's website and saw that their new DACs are more expensive. The DAC in this drop is about $5.00 cheaper than it would be if you bought it direct."
In other words, I noticed that things had changed at HiFime. I definitely didn't suggest that their higher-end DACs were unimpressive. For one thing, I haven't even heard them.
In fact, my inexpensive HiFime DAC is very useful. It's ridiculously portable and works with every source I own. I count on it whenever incompatibility limits my other choices.
Looks as though I should compare specs and form factor of the Sabre 9018 and the ZuperDAC to see the differences, since both use the same DAC and amp chips. Two differences seem to be that the Zuper does 192k and is ultra-fancy: http://www.zorloo.com/#!zuperdac/ci25
I wouldn't be surprised if the Hifime 9018 sounds awesome (like the Zuper). But one thing I like about the ZuperDac is it's form factor (like the Dragonfly's) such that I can attach it to the back of my phone: