Had it in, it’s pretty interesting, it honestly reminds me of the signature of an entry dcs and an airist r2r combined (closer to airist though), and technicality wise it’s somewhere inbetween. It’s generally fairly smooth with great density, a warmer sweeter leaning signature that’s a bit relaxed in the treble, and presentation is more forward and intimate. Stage wise it is a bit constrained, more depth than width with things taking a closer focus, but it’s not that big of a deal breaker, just something to note. Resolution wise it’s nice but not stand out for the price bracket. Timbre and tonality are pretty great leading to it sounding reasonably organic although the presentation somewhat distracts from that. Dynamically microdynamics are strong, but macro feels somewhat handicapped and restrained, same thing with overall impact feels more limp and a bit rounded, and overall control doesn’t really feel like it has good command of whatever is going on. So far those are the standouts from a sound perspective.
It is very very picky on what’s coming into it, the usb input is fairly lackluster, it does improve a fair bit with a nicer ddc or digital source, using a berkeley alpha usb really improved the sound, and using an antipodes k50 with it’s wordclock connected really really helped, so that was nice to see, improved sound overall and while it didn’t really correct the lackluster macrodynamics, stage compactness, and control and impact, it did improve them still and made them a bit less apparent. Keep the PLL on, it sounds a lot better. Interestingly, it’s more neutral with PLL off, but feels more overall flat or lifeless, is better with pll enabled. Wasn’t able to use the 10mhz clock in since I don’t have a master clock anymore. Balanced is better than single ended, se is more lackluster and not worth.
Currently it feels like the goal of this dac is to push everything forward in a casual and sweetened, softer way which while personally isn’t my taste is something I can respect and see some enjoying. Somewhat like how the morpheus goes about things, although the morpheus is a bit more relaxed, warmer midrange focused, and it’s presentation doesn’t have that wall of sound esque thing that the sonnet is so good at, sonnet also has better single ended and also stage wise doesn’t have that constrained feeling. I’d also say that the sonnet generally has better technical ability than the SDS if you use usb, but if you use a nicer digital source it will be a more even playing field.
I don’t really have that many headphone amps left, but out of what I had, I thought it paired best with the mass kobo 394 ii, gave it a bit more warmth and body than normal, and also tightened things up a fair bit for a pretty pleasing combo, although it’s intimacy with that combo could bother some. I also think it paired reasonably well with the eddie current studio t, overall helped with both space and macrodynamics while keeping the sweeter signature but it did feel a bit more rounded and loose than I personally prefer. I wish I still had my viva egoista 845 because that likely would have been a great combo and ended up somewhat more balanced and fun. Still though none of these are what you would want to pair for this dac, I have a feeling this might pair well with something like a gsx mini, burson soloist 3xp, sparkos aries, or pathos inpol ear, but I have no way to test that so can’t really comment there
If you really liked what the airist offered, this really seems like a logical upgrade, just make sure to have a tighter leaning balanced amp and a good digital source to bypass lackluster usb performance, could be worth a look, think it offers something different enough to be worthwhile within the price range (but make sure to have a good digital source, and in terms of value there might be better value options around the similar range)
In terms of other comparisons I don’t know if I have really had anything recently that would be a somewhat similar sort of signature or focus outside of the sonnet (which only reason I had it recently was for my recent 10 dac comparison), I’d like to compare to an exogal comet plus or a spring 3 kte since I think those might be good comparison points for the signature this somewhat goes for. Good contrast to this would likely be something like a yggy a2, dangerous music convert 2, or something like a xi sagra. In terms of taking the next step above, I personally think something like a aqua la voce s3 would be a step above in a similar vein but without a lot of the aforementioned complaints I had about the sds, another somewhat direct upgrade could potentially be a merason dac-1 or playback designs merlot. I do somewhat want to mention chord but I feel like the chord stuff is too different in how it represents transients and it’s almost embellishment or artificial polish that it gives to things that make them not as similar
