I think so, the soekris stuff is a tad analytical leaning, and this makes for a good studio reference type sound, really helps with spatial recreation and timbre too, with the filters you cant tweak it more towards your liking too, sounds up your alley where you like good detail and a bit more forward sound
Thank you for all of your words, which are also expressed with love.
As far as the op amps are concerned, I can speak part of them completely, I did not own or hear another part of the op amps.
It was certainly not easy to switch the spoiled ears to a less good product.
I do not know how it is with you when you have new devices to hear.
For me it is what I hear first that mostly shapes me. If I listen to it for a longer time, it tends to pick up when everything is quiet, I am mostly satisfied.
I think that you can probably judge that even better if you go from high end to less good and you notice the differences more directly than someone who has hardly been in contact with high end devices.
Thank you for your impressions. There is really nothing to complain about. Great Mon
Thank you for your kind words. I am still using it, still pretty nice. Currently I am using it with the fostex hp-v8 and my th900 mk2 lawton purplehearts and it does hold up decently well. I am still deciding which opamp I want to leave in there
Edit: so I went back to the stock, and it is pretty solid, to where imo I can say that I wouldnāt feel the need to swap out the opamps imo. I still kinda prefer either the muses01 or the burson v5i, but again thatās another like 40-50 bucks on top of this dac that could be used again to be put towards the higher end more significant dacs.
So spending more time with it today, my initial thoughts I feel are still fairly accurate of how I feel, just trying it out on more stuff. Did decide to throw it into the higher end setup, but I was limited to amps with unbalanced in, but it did do decently well for the price imo. It was nice with the mz3 using the muses op amp, and was pretty solid with the bakoon with the burson for some things that I though paired well enough that was single ended
quite impressive dollar per dollar⦠I think the e30 then the X8 give solid options at their respective price points. If you go up another $100 or $200 what would you suggest? SMSL M500, Topping D90, Sabaj D5 are all in that price point.
I personally think going up, I would absolutely go with the bifrost 2, ares ii, dac1421 range imo. I would skip stuff like the topping d90, gustard, lks, d5 as imo they are margnial upgrades, they are moreso measurement machines and are an upgrade, but barely from stuff like the su8 or m300.
If anyone is looking to purchase this DAC, I would advise you to buy it from somewhere other than Linsoul. I placed an order for one on May 18th and it still hasnāt shipped. Iāve contacted support a couple times and have gotten the run around.
A week of silence after my order I contacted support and was told they were " testing" the DAC and it would ship the next week.
Another week of silence and I contact them again. They say it will ship next week.
Another week of silence. I contact them again. Their response āwe will update the tracking number to you later.ā
Fast forward one more week and here I am. Still nothing. Please learn from my mistake and buy from elsewhere.
Got my tracking last week after one month and several attempts to cancel the order, still hasnāt been picked up by DHL.
After six weeks of pain, itās arrived! Donāt have the E30 anymore so I canāt A/B them but I did notice a difference coming from my mobo (into my RebelAmp lol) and tbh the look and feel of the thing is just amazing. One thing I did notice was it gets as warm as my RebelAmp. Canāt really say much about the sound since Iām not the analytical type but I will say itās staying and Iām just waiting for my Loki to arrive (delay until 2nd week of July) and my endgame will be complete!
I think you can try hifigo.com, ship in 3 days
https://hifigo.com/products/aune-x8-hifi-dac-audio-decoder-es9038q2m-usb-dac-amp-dsd512
Hey, Iāve just found your post in Buy/Sell thread in which you want to sell Aune x8. Can you tell why? Your initial impressions seemed positive. I was pretty intrested in this DAC and Iāve had really hard time to decide if I should cancel Topping D50s order but for now Iām staying with D50s
Hi All,
I have thx 789 and planing to invest in a smooth but natural sounding dac. I love naturally textured and detailed vocals and detailed bass without it being too analytical. not so picky about upper treble since thx feels bit sharp paring with my dx90 which has ess chip. i have hd 598 and er4 xr and planning to invest in 6xx if i set up a good balanced dac.
which one suites best for me between aune s6 pro and x8 purely from a dac and sound quality perspective and is there any other better option under 600 dollars
Personally in that range I would also look into a bifrost 2 or ares ii, the bifrost 2 is pretty organic with a bit of warmth and smoothness without going too far, good body as well with a wider more spacious stage. The ares ii would be that warmer more fun type of tuning, with a bit more focused stage but more depth and more forwardness. Personally I would skip the x8 here as I donāt think it really would compare to the other options in the range. The s6pro is decent as an all in one but imo I donāt think itās worthwhile as a dac only.
I will say that perhaps it might be worthwhile to consider a different amp as well if you are looking to reduce harshness and sharpness from the thx amps
Thanks for the suggestions @M0N . I will consider bifrost 2 and ares 2 also. The only reason I had s6 pro in list is that it was available in the only hifi online store in India. Now that is sold too. Basically if I buy any dac I will have to pay 45 % customs duty of the item I buy .
Ahhhh ok thatās going to severely limit your options then. The bifrost 2 is most likely not going to be an option where you are, the ares ii might depending on how customs would work but my guess is that would be too expensive as well. The x8 is a nice dac and would do what you want it to, I would also look into the allo revolution dac (with the shanti lps upgrade) as well as that would allow you to set the dac to tilt warmer and smoother which is what you are after. Personally I would prefer the allo revolution to the aune x8 (generally I would say the allo is more resolving, refined, and more spatially impressive, and can allow you to change how it sounds through harmonic adjustment and an oversampling filter bypass) but the x8 is still a pretty decent option if the allo isnāt an option.
Thanks for your suggestions. I will look into allo revolution dac alsoā¦
Hello;) Currently i own x8 with asgard, i have a question about x8, is this dac presents sabre sound? Iām asking because i like this signature, and maybe is it worth to look for more expensive ess sabre dac units?
Added to aune x8 with muses op-amp custom linear power supply, sound changed alot: bass region changed completely, sound become more 3d, switching back to stock power supply shows immediately flat and not energetic level. Im very pleased with the sound. Actually it is like to switch to another dac. I donāt know anything about their power supply, i order from local engineer only for 40$!
The change is way bigger than op amp change, and i noticed thay opamps which i tried, started to show another results as with stock PS.
Waiting for big burson op-amp.
If you already own X8, first step buy or order custom power supply.
Totally agree, iāve also seen another user saying that aune x8 with XP2 power supply and sparkos SS3602 opamp sounds better than d90.
What is actually on the power supply for data on the power supply?
12 volts and 2 amps?
If so, I still have a power supply that I could offer.
And the Burson V5i I can also highly recommend as opa.