Yulong Sabre D18 Reference 32bit DAC

komoyuki

Super Member
Hello guys. So what is the difference between the other DAC you actually selling. Look to me a contender of the tubedac-11. Honnestly i am suprise to see such a DAC in this price range that sit between your own brand and the Consonance one.
I am not that familiar with 16-32 bits and how to set your music to get the full potential but, like i said, what is the difference between those 3 DAC you selling. :)
 
Our TubeDAC-11 ( http://shop.grantfidelity.com/Grant-Fidelity-TubeDAC-11-D-A-Converter.html ) is for feature+function+sound; among all three things there have to be some tradeoff to accommodate all at our desired price range.

Consonance D-Linear 8 ( http://shop.grantfidelity.com/Consonance-D-Linear8-Wireless-HD-D-A-Converter.html) uses the designer's own unique linear circuitry design (which is on a few of Consonance award winning CD players) and offer a wireless USB connection for un-matched convenience. If you use exact same signal, same type of digital input and exact same play back equipment, I think Consonance D-Linear 8 will win over TubeDAC-11. It is also a very high end headphone amp. Sound quality - Consonance has its own signature - less digital and very smooth. The designer also design very high end tube amps and enjoy vinyl immensely. These will all influence his tuning of sound on his products.

Yulong Sabre D18 ( http://shop.grantfidelity.com/Yulong-Sabre-D18-Reference-32bit-DAC.html ) is built on a completely different level of DAC chip - the final sound difference is very much related to what the chip can do, rather than what the circuit can do. The circuit is designed for the chip - but this is a straight DAC with no extra other features. There will be a matching headphone amp coming up from Yulong to match the D18, but the pair price will be around $1500. This will be well over Consonance D-Linear 8 price which will do both. But Consonance cannot decode 32 bit.

Choosing which one among the three is up to your listening habit and your budget. We all have what we want and what we can spend :) For features, if you want to stay absolutely ahead of the curve on hi-tech DAC decoding, go with Yulong Sabre D18. If you choose a balance of high quality sound and feature and have $1k to spend, go with Consonance. If you like fool around with tubes and want to keep some leftover money for your loved ones, go with TubeDAC-11 for lots of fun.

The law of diminishing return on investment is obvious on these three products. DAC-11 runs at less than 1/2 price of Consonance D-Linear 8 and close to 1/2 of Yulong D18 (this is a very new brand - price is set to draw attention so mark-up is very minimal), but in no way the price difference should be interpreted as sound quality difference in a linear way.

Hope this helps.

Last but not least, you have to love the look of the equipment you own and have new comers blend well with existing setup. 3 products, 3 looks. Your choice :)

Inside China, Consonance D-Linear 8 has large following group across all age groups and both tube / solid state lovers. Yulong Sabre D-18 has younger following group - more reputation among head-fi'ers and mostly solid state users. Grant Fidelity TubeDAC-11 is not available in China (yet) :)

Rachel @ Grant Fdielity
 
Great answer Ian thank you about it. I own the Opera Consonance for more than a year now and i am totally please with the unit and how it sound. I maintly use it with the wireless mode via iTunes, and my blu ray player (Panasonic dmp-bd55) is also connected into the dac for the concert.
There is no way i will get bored of it. :thmbsp:
 
Really!!! for the extra 20 bucks you get peace of mind and almost concierge grade service fron Grant from sale to support. Why in the world would you buy it from Ebay for a mere 20 bucks less? Not to mention that Grant Fidelity supports this site to begin with! Buy your product from the bay but dont come here and expect kudos.
 
Really!!! for the extra 20 bucks you get peace of mind and almost concierge grade service fron Grant from sale to support. Why in the world would you buy it from Ebay for a mere 20 bucks less? Not to mention that Grant Fidelity supports this site to begin with! Buy your product from the bay but dont come here and expect kudos.

And ours is free shipping too, not the $40+ more from the eBay listing mentioned, so we are better priced. Of course if something goes wrong with an eBay purchase from Honk Kong or China, the shipping charges and time involved to try and get it resolved will drive you nuts.

Lots of eBay purchasers just don't seem to understand we can't provide support for their purchase from eBay. Not sure what planet they live on but they keep trying. I understand their frustration with new toys that don't work, they gambled, they lost, plain and simple.

Our partner AudioforLess on eBay ( http://myworld.ebay.com/audio_for_less/?_trksid=p4340.l2559 ) is the only way to get support from GF for an eBay purchase.

Thanks for jumping in SD :)

Cheers,
Ian
 
There is only one Yulong D18 in NA at the moment as the product was just launched, we have them in stock in Hong Kong.

Yes that was Rachel's post above. As most know by now, we represent the companies that make our gear. Yulong (his name) is a young engineer that has been doing digital and amps for quite a while in China and is the go to guy for Chinese manufacturers looking to add Digital etc to their product line-ups.

I heard this on our last trip to China going thru the matching headphone amp and Senn 800's, quite something to hear, it is very musical while being very accurate. This a guy to watch and check out, he has a good team with him, great tech skills and did a great job on his first OEM project, the TubeDAC-11.

We have a lot more DAC's than the 3 mentioned so far, the very cool Wireless 1.0 from Opera, plus Opera's two new tube DAC's that just happen to have CD Transports built in, and the W-30 DAC that has a whole integrated amp built in :)

Cheers,
Ian
 
Haha! Integrated amp built in, that's hilarious!

I almost bought that, but my budget shrank!

Call me a happy guy still.
 
Just add the Wireless 1.0 to any of the Opera HD CDP's and you have a wireless DAC, The Wireless 1.0 besides having a built in DAC with analog outs can transfer D-Linear Digital to the HD Opera CDP's. Very nice !

Good idea, I think there is an issue with the laser circuits and wireless that makes that kind of technology ok for consumer use, but no so good for high-end.

Cheers,
Ian
 
I am using the DAC-09 before a M-901 Virtue Amp. Will I be able to do this with the Sabre D18 or will I have to get a pre-amp?

Regards
Dave
 
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I am using the DAC-09 before a M-901 Virtue Amp. Will I be able to do this with the Sabre D18 or will I have to get a pre-amp?

Regards
Dave

Your Virtue amp is an integrated amp, so it does not require a pre-amp. Should be able to plug in the analog outputs from the Sabre D18 into the Virtue amp with no problems.
 
Hi all,

The Yulong D-18 has caught my attention and it sounds like exactly what I'm after; a smooth, detailed, slightly warm, non-fatiguing, non-oversampling DAC.

My question is: Is this a true balanced design or does it just have XLR outputs? I'm not an audio engineer, so I can't tell by looking at the pics of the innards, and can't find it mentioned in the specs and product description. Or maybe I didn't pay close enough attention due to my ADHD (Audio Drooling Headcase Disorder).

:D
 
Hi all,

The Yulong D-18 has caught my attention and it sounds like exactly what I'm after; a smooth, detailed, slightly warm, non-fatiguing, non-oversampling DAC.

My question is: Is this a true balanced design or does it just have XLR outputs? I'm not an audio engineer, so I can't tell by looking at the pics of the innards, and can't find it mentioned in the specs and product description. Or maybe I didn't pay close enough attention due to my ADHD (Audio Drooling Headcase Disorder).

:D

We will confirm with Yulong, but based on my listening so far it is a fully balanced design, I can usually tell by the sonic differences after level matching. I have been wrong before on this though :)

Cheers,
Ian
 
I have both the Yulong D18 and the Grant Fidelity (GF) TubeDac 11 on trial from Grant Fidelity and have had them both up and running for about 1 week. I have been reading the reviews as they have trickled in on head-fi.org and I am in general agreement with what others have been saying about the Yulong D18. For the record I currently have B&W 802DI speakers and Cambridge 840 amp and preamp along with a Squeezebox Touch. I have only used as a source with my system my Squeezebox Touch and a 6 year old Denon CD player and both of these dac’s sounded pretty similar to each other with no major significant differences in sound from either dac.

My first impression is that both the Yulong and GF connected to the digital coaxial from the Squeezebox Touch to my preamplifier are sonically better than the Squeezebox Touch with the analog connection directly to my preamplifier but not a huge step up, but that is what I probably should have expected since my last big 2 foot leap 6 months ago from my B&W 804S and Denon 3805 AV receiver to the B&W 802DI speakers and Cambridge 840 amp and preamp. I have listened about 90% to the Yulong so far and switching back and forth from the Squeezebox Touch with it’s internal dac to the Yulong’s dac there is more warmth with some of the highs and midrange smoothed out and some of the fatiguing edginess of the music taken away with the Yulong. I agree with another comment that I read that you can listen for hours very comfortably with the Yulong because it is more laid back with the soundstage moved back a little. Bass is also a a little stronger,deeper, and punchier with the Yulong compared to the Squeezebox Touch. I agree with Slackman’s review on head-fi.org and if your system is already warm and you are after more highs then this is probably not the Dac for you. On my system however and with the music I listen to I rarely find that I am wanting more highs from my music because the diamond tweeters already showcase the high frequencies so clear and so upfront.

To my ears you can hear a distinct difference but the difference is subtle in most but not all music (by the way I had my ears tested last year and my ears are above average for a 45 year old). With the GF connected to the digital coaxial from the Squeezebox Touch to my preamplifier and the Squeezebox Touch with the analog connection directly to my preamplifier (with the volume matched) I had a harder time telling the difference between the Squeezebox dac and the GF dac but the GF dac again was warmer than the Squeezebox dac (perhaps this may improve with burn in as I have probably only 15 hours of burn in time on the GF Dac). This seems to tell me that to my ears the Squeezebox Touch dac is quite good and the GF dac is a little better than the Squeezebox and the Yulong is perhaps a little better than the GF or perhaps each dac is different and that the Yulong matches my system and my preference for more warmth and depth a little better. I think that once you get up to a system costing over $20,000 the law of diminishing returns becomes quite evident and improvement in sound comes at big dollars and small incremental improvements.

Some people have commented that the current generation B&W 802DI speakers are a little more forward and brighter as compared to the previous generation 802D speaker and are a little brighter than they like. I am thinking that perhaps the Yulong dac is a good fit for my 802DI speakers because they seem to take just a bit of the edge off of the current system with the Squeezebox Touch. I also know that with the combination that I have with the Yulong dac I can turn the music louder and enjoy the music more and longer than with the Squeezebox Touch Dac. My system with the 802DI speakers and Cambridge 840 amp and preamp and the Squeezebox Touch sounds very good and can shock me how good it sounds and with the Yulong dac it just notches up the enjoyment level of the music a few more notches. For the $400 difference between the GF and Yulong I will probably end up keeping the Yulong and listen to it 80% to 90% of the time and switch back to the Squeezebox dac 10% of the time when I want the music more upfront, more sharp, and more in my face (for example, I find Norah Jones has a deep lush voice and her recordings can be quite warm already so the Squeezebox’s dac may complement her music more than the Yulong but for 90% of the other music I listen to the Yulong will be the better choice).
 
We will confirm with Yulong, but based on my listening so far it is a fully balanced design, I can usually tell by the sonic differences after level matching. I have been wrong before on this though :)

Cheers,
Ian

Cool, thanks. I'm very interested in this DAC. Based on reviews so far it sounds like just what I'm after. But so does the Rega, which most definitely isn't balanced. That and your 30 day trial and customer service could prove to be the clincher.

Thanks for the reply and for making the inquiry.

Just curious, is the $699 pricing an introductory thing, or will it be around for a while?

Profit sharing is next month. :D
 
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The Yulong D-18 is confirmed fully balanced. I haven't heard anything about the pricing, but that is between Yulong and Rachel to decide for North America.

One customer feels that the TubeDAC-11 is on par with the Rega DAC at about 4 times the price and preferred in one system, where the Rega is preferred in another system. To my ears so far the Yulong is a better DAC than the TubeDAC-11 (ubalanced vs. unbalanced) until you do some tube rolling. Food for thought. Of course I'm a tube guy so my opinions are kind of biased.

Happy profit sharing :)

Ian
 
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