All depends on implementation, you typically donāt see a full fpga design at this price point because of pure cost of components and complications. I would assume the benefits are that you can fully customize the sound and also change or update in the future. I currently have 2 full fpga designs, and then also a few fpga corrected r2r designs, they all sound great lol, not too concerned about the technology they use
I can see why there is no ācheapā gear with it. Fpga chips are very expensive and they are only worth if you have decent design team to know how to implement what you want.
You donāt have any specifications (for the chips) and/or some photos of the PCB of these DACs, do you? Must say Iām pretty curious about them.
The chord stuff has been discussed in depth, by various people, but a lot of whats said is marketing bullshit. And you have to factor in the MScaler with the chord solutions.
AFAICS they are basically still delta sigma designs, but the basic idea is massive upsampling, allowing VERY large (in chords case they claim 1M tap) much slower roll off filters, and noise shaping to move the filter noise out of the audible frequency range.
Chords analog section is also novel, since it doesnāt include a traditional amplification section.
Most cheaper DACās with FPGAās use them as either a front end USB/upsampling/DSP like effects.
Thatās most likely what it is here imo
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From my collection, no, but online there are most likely pictures of internals. My pure fpga dacs I have atm are the nagra hd dac and the mola mol tambaqui (I think this is fpga lol). Other dacs I have use fpga for correction or processing
EDIT: Mola Mola is not fpga, is actually something else
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I havenāt found any chips fotos, but must say the Mola Mola is a beauty. It gains me just for the looks, hehe.
I did found some interesting material explaining how everything works and it is very interesting. Itās basically a DSM process, using adders and latches to create a single-bit streaming at higher frequencies, and after just a simple filtering of it. Definitively intriguing.
For a simple explanation: https://youtu.be/O6xDhYz-HjY
For a more comprehensive explanation: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4060709_An_FPGA-based_re-configurable_24-bit_96kHz_sigma-delta_audio_DAC
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Just saw the review of this DAC and its looking real good to me! Ive been looking for an upgrade to my SU8 DAC. I was thinking of trying r2r via Soekris 1321 or the Bifrost. But now this has come along. Aune seems like a very solid company. Ive always had respect for them. but ive never tried them. And FPGAās are known to come on high end DACās. Will this be a better upgrade than a r2r DAC? Iām glad your getting one Mon. Cant wait to hear your opinion on it.
Yeah very curious to hear how it sounds, and try out some op amps in there too. I also wonder what the fpga is actually used for, since the a to d is done by an ess chip (but itās not like I could figure that one out on my own since Iām not great with electronics lol)
Previous aune dacs were good but not super stand out to me, but solid nonetheless, hopefully this at least follows suit
I actually have some midrange dacs on hand at the moment, so I will be curious to see how they stack up
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Golden Ratio!?!?! OMG Iām sold.
Thereās also this part about the FPGA. No where on the product page does it mention the use of the ESS DACāWhich I have to say is rather misleading.
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So all the fpga is doing is actually handling the usb signal is what Iām reading (somewhat common actually), itās not actually acting as the dac nor does it seem to be handling dac filters or dsp (but it could be doing something like that I just donāt know for sure). Which makes sense as off the shelf usb implementation can be ass, using a fpga and designing your own can yield better sound quality most likely. But calling this a FPGA dac is misleading at best imo (well I mean technically it has one but not for a/d conversion). Nonetheless I am still eagerly awaiting mine
Edit: also now time to measure my other dacs and see if they are a golden ratio. Might measure something else to see if it has a golden ratio while Iām at it
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When you find nice PCB shots, let me know 
Anyone wants to find out what happens to sound when you stick a 0-drift Op-Amp in the thing? Only $114 a piece!
Edit: Might want to check the voltage the X8 runs the Op-Amp at first.
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lol I want one of these so I can op amp roll it and buy a whole bunch of the accessories to change the sound. I wonder if the op amp changes will be as dramatic as changing the tubes on my Lyr.
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It will most likely change the sound for sure, but I am not sure if it will be a drastic change, it will most likely be noticeable but not transform the dac or anything
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These are just some short thoughts/impressions with less than a day of listening, this aināt a review, and donāt treat it as one lol.
So Iāve been listening it to the dac for a bit now (actually picked it up pretty early this morning). I decided to be overkill I started off using the pinnacle 2 ultra with the mdr 10, and then later on tried out more reasonable amps and headphones with it. So far itās pretty nice, and I do like it, but right off the bat, I do have to say you can hear itās an ess chip, but itās a good implementation, and doesnāt really bother me here, not to common that you get a more laid back and smoother ess.
So far my preferred filter is slow minimum, I do find the brickwall and hybrid interesting, although not something I would say is my preferred, and apodizing just sucked in this instance lol, other filters were good but average. Running using usb with the aune driver, power brick works well and no issues there. Preamp out worked fine from my like 1 min test to make sure it worked, nothing sounded off there.
Sound wise, itās solid, perhaps a bit more fun and interesting tuned than most of the dacs in the price range, but not that unusual. The sound changed a bit depending on the opamps used, I got mine with the extra opamps + my own v5i:
OPA2134 (stock): Sounded fairly neutral and average, pretty decent and not bad stock, still enjoyable and gave a more laid back and slightly relaxed sound
OPA2604: Sounded a bit dry and lifeless bit more detail though than the 2134, also a higher noise floor imo but a bit better staging, prefer stock here actually
MUSES01: IMO an improvement over the 2134, more refined and neutral but a bit less smooth, a bit better at recreating space, good for neutral yet engaging
NJM5532: More aggressive than other options, a bit more narrow, kinda v? shape, not sure how to feel about this one atm, I really want to get ahold of a higher quality NE5532 and see though, this felt like a slight dip in quality almost felt broken
V5i: More āmusicalā, warmer yet maintain clarity, wider, almost more spacious, enjoyable fun choice for me at least
So I pretty much like the v5i for fun and muses01 for neutral, but I would want to spend more time of course lol. Stock aināt bad though and you arenāt really missing out that much by not messing with op amps imo
Going off my experiences with the v5i, if you are looking for a fun and more āāmusicalāā dac, this is pretty good for the price, as imo if you were looking for fun in this range your options are limited. The muses01 is still enjoyable, so neutral with a hint of fun, also solid, but imo if you wanted something clean and neutral I would perhaps consider something else as it would get the job done for cheaper. Also these op amp changes arenāt drastic, but are noticeable, but I doubt they will make or break the sound for someone, just tweak it to your liking a bit better.
I do think this is a solid dac so far, but I would question how good it actually is. I think itās good for the price, but imo not actually stand out stock, and a bit better with the muses or burson, but even then I still donāt think it lives up to the name of āmagicā dac. A main competitor would be the el dac ii I would say, which is neutral with a hint of smoothness and sweetness, but I donāt have these side by side, but imo they are on a similar tier and I like both, the el dac ii is closer to the x8 with the muses imo, I think it would come down to amp pairing for which one I prefer.
Comparing to the e30, I do think the aune is better at detail, recreating space, a bit better timbre, and overall a bit higher performer, but that being said, IMO the e30 is close, and itās really hard to justify the price jump imo, because once you get into the range of 300 usd for the aune, I would say it would be worth it instead to save for a higher tier of dac where the differences are way more apparent like a bifrost 2 or ares ii, also a dac1421 (which can typically be found used in the 500-600 range), which imo I think is really worth it over the aune even though it costs a fair bit more if you are looking to make a significant upgrade
That being said this is pretty solid, and I do like it, but it doesnāt really stand out to me as much as I thought it would. The fpga thing is mainly marketing imo, but I donāt really know what itās doing in there (most likely handling usb or perhaps dac filters but idk) but itās not really acting as a dac so calling it a fpga dac is misleading, and doing a really unfair comparison with higher end fpga dacs I have, itās a multitude of leagues apart but again not fair comparison lol. A closer comparison with a real fpga dac would be the chord mojo, but I donāt have one of those on hand, and I donāt really rec using the mojo as a dedicated dac as there is not a true line out (double amping).
I would consider it if you are looking for something different yet good in the 300 range, but only if you donāt think you would be able to shell out the dough for some of the higher end more substantial dacs in the future (like the aforementioned b2, ares ii, 1421 etc), and the idea of opamp rolling appeals to you. But if you already have something like a d10, e30, or something along those lines with a single ended setup, I think it would be more worthwhile to save up for the aforementioned higher tier dacs that will actually offer you more for your money here if you plan on upgrading in the future.
Some good pairings that I tested with amps that I had on hand in the appropriate range would be the asgard 3 + x8 (this was overall solid, harshness was not an issue and it was pretty fun), the Gilmore Lite mk2 + x8 (I liked the burson here as it toned the highs of the gilmore a tad to a nice level, good detail too), hagerman tuba + x8 (I liked the muse here, was very reference sounding with the tuba, neutral), rnhp + x8 (with the burson this was pretty nice for timbre and spatial recreation for an ess). I would def prefer the higher end dacs I mentioned though with these amps as imo it would take them to another level, where the x8 would slightly upgrade them (currently on hand for what I would call midrange dacs I have the dac1421, ares ii (this one came today), and the parasound Zdac v.2, waiting on the bifrost 2 to come back in stock)
If stuff changes on how I feel, Iāll just update on that, and also eventually on if I am going to end up keeping this dac or not. Overall itās good for the price and is different, but I donāt think itās a class leader in performance or anything, but a nice outlier for ess dacs in terms of sonic signature and implementation, but I donāt think it does anything to place it in the realm of the higher end dacs in terms of performance, nor does it offer as much value as the topping e30 imo. Itās in a weird range price wise, I would be more enthusiastic about it if 200 was the price tag imo, but itās a decent buy at 300 for what it is if you like what it has to offer and wouldnāt consider saving for a higher end dac in the future imo.
Edit: The closest actual fpga dac comparison I have at the moment is the chord hugo 2, and while I personally wouldnāt get it for the dac only, I do think itās easily a higher class and the aune just doesnāt compare in most of all aspects, although that being said I think with the burson or warmer op amps itās more fun for casual listening perhaps, but I would easily still pick the hugo 2 if I had the chance. But really not a fair comparison of course. Also to be clear here, I donāt think having fpga makes something better, but it does offer a different sound, I am more pointing out the mildly misleading marketing of the aune calling itself a āfpga dacā
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Not what I was hoping for, but pretty much what I was expectingā¦
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Apologies if I made it sound less than positive, I do like the dac and will spend more time with it of course, again these are first thoughts. I just kinda have to consider that you could save up a few hundred more than the aune and take a fair bit larger leap in performance, which imo will get you more for the money than the aune. I typically wouldnāt post impressions this early as typically I like to spend more time with it, but imo I would say that I feel like my opinion on this wonāt change as much as it would with other components. And of course if it does I will update here. Iāve been listening nonstop for around 8 hours now with various components and matches, so will continue
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Will your DAC accept V6 Burson op amps? They are pretty tall.
It most likely would but you would have to flip it upside down with the cover off to do so. I donāt have any v6 on hand atm
I think youād need stilts for the x8 with a v6 lol