推荐一款 HIFI入门级解码器 DAC A-1（後有評測）

xzh · 发表于 2010-3-15 14:01

和10周年PK过吗?

没完没了 · 发表于 2010-3-15 15:42

枪的厉害啊，专业枪文+mj党。

viruslink · 发表于 2010-3-15 17:10

今天是3月15号的特别日子，请注意下。

恰骋 · 发表于 2010-3-15 20:51

看做工和pcb板,朝露D3好太多了.
价格应该是朝露D3的一半差不多.....

莳云人CT · 发表于 2010-3-15 21:10

谢各位提醒与关注。

空想具现化 · 发表于 2010-3-16 12:53

用户帮顶，虽然买了用了1小时就闲置了

莳云人CT · 发表于 2010-3-17 10:09

谢谢你的关注与购买，但如果在退货期限内，建议还是退了好；反之可发于二手版块，应该出得快。

莳云人CT · 发表于 2010-3-17 10:28

本帖最后由莳云人CT 于 2010-3-17 11:17 编辑

法国资深烧友对纯笛DAC A-1的评测：

原址：http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/review-purepiper-dac-1-excellent-24-96-budget-dac-476557/

Review of the Purepiper DAC A-1
( p. E; W, p- s6 N% o& q
Preamble:

I was asked by a fellow head-fier (on behalf of Purepiper) if I were interested in reviewing a DAC from a Chinese company I have never heard of before.
After accepting, Purepiper sent me pretty quickly their DAC A-1 and I received it about 2 weeks ago.

Packaging and Build Quality:

The Purepiper DAC A-1 came in a nice and professional package. In my case, Purepiper sent along with the DAC their usb to spdif converter (usually sold separately).

However, before even powering it up, I was curious to see the insides of this DAC. After opening it up, I was very impressed with the quality inside. It looked very tidy and well organized inside (pictures at the end of the review).

The first interesting thing for a DAC that is going to be selling for $170 (as I was told) is that it has 2 separate transformers inside: one for the digital section and another for the analogue section. This is a nice touch for an entry level DAC.

For the digital section, it uses the DIR9001 digital receiver. It is limited to 24/96 but it is has a lower jitter than the CS8416 commonly used in other DACs (40ps for the DIR9001 vs. 200ps for the CS8416). By the way, I have had the opportunity to try both digital receivers in the same DAC and I can attest that the DIR9001 is sonically definitely superior to the CS8416.
Anyway, while 24/96 (hi-rez) can provide an improvement over 16/44 (cd quality), it is mainly because it makes filtering easier. Anything beyond 24/96 is just marketing. So it is nice to see that Purepiper has not chosen the easy way (24/192) and preferred to offer a 24/96 that actually sounds better than the 24/192 one.

As for the DAC section, the DAC A-1 uses the CS4398. It is the top of the line Cirrus dac chip. It also uses the OPA2604 for the digital filtering. It is an audio grade opamp that is supposed to be better than the well known OPA2134.

As for the output stage, the DAC A-1 uses a discrete output stage with what seems to be 4 big output capacitors.

Overall, the choice of components is quite impressive for a unit sold at this price. I cannot but help to compare the insides of some commercial and well known DACs. The insides of the much more expensive PS Audio DLIII looks empty (and cheap) in comparison with the Purepiper. So even if the components used by themselves do not mean much, it is nice to see that a company is not cutting costs everywhere.

Setting-up the DAC:

Inputs/Outputs:

The DAC A-1 has only 2 digital inputs: a coaxial and optical input. It doesn’t have a usb input which is a good thing in my opinion and here is why: In most DACs I have tried, the usb input was an afterthought and its performance level never approached that of the coaxial input. Even by using very cheap external usb to spdif converters, the performance is usually better than using the internal built-in. The reason behind that is because most built-in usb do not offer galvanic isolation from the computer. However, by using an external device and using the spdif inputs, you are providing the DAC with galvanic isolation (if the DAC or the usb to spdif converter are using transformers which they do most of the time). Also most built-in usb inputs are limited to 16/48. Only a few high end companies offer good usb solutions built-in into their DAC (Ayre, Wavelength, DCS...) but they never come cheap.
To cut it short, the DAC A-1 doesn’t have a usb input but it shouldn’t be discarded for that reason. Purepiper offers a usb to spdif converter that sells for $22 but it is limited to 16/48. For those who want to have 24/96 capability, they can probably go towards the Teralink-X2.

Tweaks:

The Purepiper DAC A-1 was not extremely sensitive to tweaks (change in transport, digital cables, power cord). This is a good thing for an entry level product because it means that it should work pretty much near its full potential in most cases. This is contrary to the experience I had with the Audio-gd DACs which require a lot of care/tweaks before they sound their best. However, for the sake of consistency and fairness, I used the same source, digital cable, power cord, platform support... when I was comparing the DACs.

System Used:

Main Chain used for this review:
Foobar v1.0 --> Kernel Streaming --> M2Tech hiFace BNC --> Oyaide DB-510 --> Purepiper DAC A-1 --> Artisan Cables "Ultimate Silver Dream" (or Kimber PBJ) --> Audio-GD C-2C (or Little Dot MkIII) --> Artisan Silver Cables --> Sennheiser HD-650

Power related accessories:
Hi-Fi Cables & Cie PowertransPlus Power Cords (x2)
Hi-Fi Cables & Cie SimplePower
Bada LB-5600 Power Filter Plant
Essential Audio Tools Noise Eater Parallel Filter

Vibration Control:
E&T Spider Rack, Maple platforms, Sandboxes, Brass cones, Acrylic and Fiber carbon sheets, Yamamoto footers, Herbie's Audio Lab Tenderfoot, SuperSonic Component Stabilizer

Some of the reference tracks used for this review:

Mozart Violin Concertos - Marianne Thorsen - 2L - 24/96
Sol Gabetta - Schostakowitsch Cellokonzert Nr. 2/Cello
Vivaldi - Concerto for 2 violins - Carmignola/Mullova
Keith Jarrett - Paris / London - Testament - 24/96
Glenn Gould - The Goldberg Variations 1981
Hans Zimmer - Gladiator Soundtrack
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five
The World's Greatest Audiophile Vocal Recordings - Chesky - 24/96
Diana Krall - Live in Paris
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Patricia Barber - Companion
Soundrama - "The Pulse" Test CD
Head-fi/Chesky Sampler - Open Your Ears - 24/96

The review:

4 ?% W1 Z4 L$ w/ H1 \% c1 M; w6 c) @0 H+ i' y6 g- e
Timbre & Tonal Balance:

Before getting into the description of the sound, I have to note that the Purepiper DAC A-1 is voiced a little differently than the audio-gd DACs I have been using these last months. It has a more upfront presentation that took me a little while to get adapted to.

Straight out of the box (before burn-in) the sound was thick, warm and soft (not very extended on top). After 200 hours+ of burn-in (mainly using the Isotek Burn-in CD and some 24/96 files during that time), the sound became a lot clearer and more extended on top (those big output coupling capacitors probably need a lot of running before to settle-in). By the way, I only listened for a few minutes at a time during the burn-in process, so it was the component and not my ears that burned-in.

莳云人CT · 发表于 2010-3-17 10:29

Overall, the sound balance is rather on neutral side: it is neither bass heavy nor it is treble lifted. But it has a slight upper mid/lower treble brightness.
The extension at both frequency extremes is pretty good (better than the EMU 0404 usb, audio-gd DAC A-100/Compass DAC). It is only when directly compared to a better DAC such as the DAC A-19mk3, that you feel that it is missing that last bit of extension in the deep lows and deep bass.

However, I have one (small) complaint about the tonal quality of the DAC that I didn’t realize until I listened for a few hours. While I first thought that it was more detailed and extended than the twice more expensive Audio-gd FUN, I kept feeling that something was missing.
That missing thing hit me when I played the “Use Me” from Patricia’s Barber “Companion” Live album. The Bass playing at the beginning of the track sounded wrong. I listened to the same track with the DAC A-19mk3 and FUN, and I realized that it was much drier through the Purepiper DAC A-1. Once I put my hand on that lack of richness of tone, it became quickly apparent on other tracks as well.
However, that relative dryness can be quickly overcome: when using the warmer Kimber PBJ interconnects (instead of my reference interconnects) or when using the Little Dot MKIII headphone amp (instead of the C2C headphone amp), the missing warmth reappears but at the expense of other qualities (soundstage, low level details...).
That relative dryness of tone was small enough that I still did most of my listening with the Artisan Silver Cables and C2C amp (the Purepiper is a tonally richer sounding DAC than the EMU 0404 usb for example). But it would be probably a bad idea to pair the Purepiper DAC A-1 with bright/sterile equipment as it could become quickly fatiguing.

To sum up, I would say that the Purepiper DAC A-1 has a nice frequency extension at the extremes, it is relatively neutral (with the exception of that slight upper mids emphasis) and the best tonal balance is achieved when paired with neutral or slightly warm components and interconnects.
As a comparison, the Purepiper DAC A-1 is clearer sounding DAC than the Zero DAC but it is not thin sounding like the EMU 0404 usb for instance.

Soundstage & Imaging:

I was very impressed by the size of the soundstage and the quality of the imaging.

In my headphone set-up, the soundstage extends well beyond my head regardless of the transport used. Some DACs are very dependant on the quality of the transport (CD Players, usb to spdif converter, sound card...) and can sound constricted with a jittery source. This was not the case Purepiper DAC A-1 as it has a nice a big soundstage regardless of the source.

I also have to note that the size of the soundstage varied from one track to another. Some components can give you a big or small soundstage regardless of what is recorded. The Purepiper DAC A-1 is good enough to let you hear reliably if the recording venue was big or small or if the recorded event was in a studio or live event....

The imaging was also pretty good and better than expected from a unit of this price. I remember than when I compared the dac19mk3 against the

lifemild · 发表于 2010-3-17 11:45

呵呵莳云人CT 兄纯笛满意用户来支持近期也着手购入A30 和H501了就是喜欢纯笛自然舒服的声音更喜欢纯笛的售后和服务喜欢说枪手的随他去吧

dalao123 · 发表于 2010-3-17 14:01

看做工和pcb板,朝露D3好太多了.
6 E# R1 @% k5 y8 S# z7 C0 i$ k价格应该是朝露D3的一半差不多...... [* T4 V6 f; Z& D
恰骋发表于 2010-3-15 20:51

如果真是这样就杯具了，D3我上个月去听过，效果就不提了，连商家都建议我没米就不要玩PCHIFI，老老实实上CD＋刻盘，这商家还是某论坛一大商家，呵呵

酷风 · 发表于 2010-3-17 23:15

呵呵莳云人CT 兄纯笛满意用户来支持近期也着手购入A30 和H501了就是喜欢纯笛自然舒服的声音更喜欢纯 ...: {0 C7 E: F8 Y* Q2 b& u* o4 a. Y" ]/ T
lifemild 发表于 2010-3-17 11:45

只发过6个帖的来这里说这种话……嗬嗬，让人联想呀！

莳云人CT · 发表于 2010-3-18 10:40

谢谢lifemild兄帮顶。

如果让大家产生联想，那么请看看这个帖子，里面有lifemild兄的身影。不过名字有点变化。
http://bbs.dalaba.me/viewthread.php?tid=2931

酷风版主应该查得到lifemild兄的IP地址，看是不是纯笛的TUO。纯笛所在地址是宁波。：）

cloundy1982 · 发表于 2010-3-18 23:37

广告贴，鉴定完毕

莳云人CT · 发表于 2010-3-19 16:34

呵，推荐罢~

Grkbowb · 发表于 2010-3-20 20:20

这个价位的发现很多DAC都是用这个4398芯片。

莳云人CT · 发表于 2010-3-22 12:23

这个价位的发现很多DAC都是用这个4398芯片。
2 q7 X( W5 h- L+ b/ H$ w2 pGrkbowb 发表于 2010-3-20 20:20

芯片并不是关键，关键在于用好一块芯片。

莳云人CT · 发表于 2010-3-23 22:02

http://bbs.dalaba.me/viewthread.php?tid=1883&highlight=4398

音乐之旅 Electrocompaniet PC-1 CD机也用的这款芯片。

这是音乐之旅对CS4398这款芯片的介绍，可参考。

CS4398是CIRRUS LOGIC最新的旗舰级解码芯片，性能非常优异，在70000多元的CD机中也可见该芯片的踪迹。CS4398是一块24Bit/192K Hz规格的解码芯片，用于取代以前的旗舰CS43122，是一块很新的芯片，懂得欣赏它的仅限于少数HI-END厂家

fpsfans · 发表于 2010-3-23 22:18

解码器完全没了解过，进来看看

lph1216 · 发表于 2010-3-24 14:54

这个听说不错的哦。。

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推荐一款 HIFI入门级解码器 DAC A-1（後有評測）

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