You can find many brands on Audiophonics, an e-commerce website well-known by our readers. But it also distributes products under its own name: accessories, components, kits and modules, as well as a few electronical devices. Several of them have been tested in the Qobuz Hi-Res magazine, in particular an impressive little digital amplifier, the BT60W, and the excellent Class A headphone amplifier awarded by a Qobuzism, as well as the PCM1794 XMOS DAC.
Regarding the U-Sabre ES9023 TCXO DAC, also reviewed in our columns, it’s a close relative—as implied by its name—of the U-Sabre Desktop K2M, which will be the focus of this testing ground. But the latter differs clearly by its size and presentation, as it is designed to sit on a desktop and can be used easily. Indeed, in addition to a Line Out, it has a Headphone Out whose volume can be adjusted thanks to a big knob located on the top of the box.
From a technical standpoint, the differences between the two DACs are also plentiful, especially since the newcomer uses a digital-to-analog chip, the ES9018K2M referenced by the name of the U-Sabre Desktop K2M, which performs better than the ES9023 chip. You can find out why, and many other things, in the following paragraphs.
Presentation
The Audiophonics U-Sabre DAC displays both originality and seriousness in its presentation. It is well-designed for desktop use, with its sturdy aluminum box offering great stability, as well as the location of the standard 3.5 mm headphone Jack, right in the middle of its rounded façade, with easy access to the big volume knob.
In the rear, the wiring is reduced to a bare minimum, with a USB B plug to link the device to a computer (or a smartphone, or an Android tablet) and an RCA Audio Out to connect it to a pair of speakers.
Manufacturing
On the lower side of the Audiophonics U-Sabre DAC’s circuit board, you’ll find a USB processor, a Savi Audio Bravo SA9023 compatible with digital signals up to 24 bits at 96 kHz, running in adaptive mode and requiring no Windows driver. Also present is an AZ1117C 3.3V voltage regulator manufactured by Diodes Incorporated.
The digital-to-analog conversion circuit is located on the other side of the board. It is an ES9018K2M from the American manufacturer ESS, which uses the Hyperstream, a proprietary technology involving a 32 bits recalculation at high frequency of each and every digital signal, as well as the Time Domain Jitter Eliminator process. You can also find near this chip a 100 MHz oscillator.
The signals are then run through an active filter built around an AD823 dual operational amplifier and directed on one hand to the RCA output in order to be available at a fixed level to be sent to a Hi-Fi system, and on the other hand to the flexible volume control which will help pace them out before the headphone amplifier takes over. This headphone amplifier relies on an AD823 dual operational amplifier on each stereo track. Both channels on each AD823 are used simultaneously and their outputs are added through 47 Ω resistors in order to get double the current, but these two resistors will in theory influence the damping factor. On an additional note, with these amplifiers running in single voltage, coupling capacitors are used on both input and output, but the manufacturer made sure they used high quality electrochemical models from Elna Silmic.
Sound
Connected to our Sony UDA-1 powering our Triangle Antal Anniversary speakers, the Audiophonics U-Sabre Desktop K2M DAC has provided us with a beautiful listening session with the l'Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante from the album Chopin: Works For Piano & Orchestra, by the pianist Jan Lisiecki and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester conducted by Krzysztof Urbanski. It reproduces all the finesse and fragility of the l'Andante Spianato without exaggerating the treble from the piano, which lets us forget there is sampling rate conversion at play, while the attacks on the brass instruments and the orchestral crescendo introducing the Grande Polonaise Brillante seduce by their composition and controlled brilliance and the rest of the work follows with the same musical enjoyment.
Listening to extracts from Carl Orff’s album Carmina Burana by the London Philharmonic Choir and the London Philharmonic conducted by Hans Graf, the DAC demonstrates its ability to reproduce the various moods of this work, finely restitute the colors of the rich orchestration, with slight staccato treble, while the softer variations of dynamics are subtle and the wider variations are expressed effortlessly.
Listening to our deep bass classics North Star and Silent Space from Tale of Us’s album on our Oppo PM-3 headphones plugged into the U-Sabre Desktop DAC’s Headphones Out, all goes according to plan with the device, which can hit loud and clear while maintaining a coherent sound message, with aeration to a certain extent. This is not bad for these operational amplifiers which were not designed for this, but are used with a double amplifier on each channel.
Quieter but not without rhythm, the hit song Radio Ga Ga from Queen’s album The Platinum Collection is reproduced with good foundations, nice brightness and a fulfillment that gladly emphasize the high emotional potential of this track full of nostalgia, felt as much by the people listening today than by the band who composed it then.
To conclude, this Audiophonics U-Sabre Desktop K2M deserves some attention if you like to type on your keyboard in rhythm (or even if you don’t), given its design well-tailored to desktop use, its sturdiness and good musical performance, as well as its compelling price.
Playback capabilities
Audiophonics U-Sabre Desktop K2M
We give our thanks to Audiophonics for lending us the U-Sabre Desktop K2M DAC.
If you are a manufacturer, importer, retailer or key player in the digital music industry and wish to contact us, you can do it through the following email address:newstech@qobuz.com
If you’re enthusiastic about the Hi-Fi Guide column and wish to contact us, you can do it through the following email address: rubriquehifi@qobuz.com
