Durio Sound vs. Audiophonics ES9023 TCXO

Hello everyone,

had anyone of you the opportunity to compare both DACs? I´am very interested in a opinion.

I had never the chance to hear any of the devices but I think about buying one of this … but which?

Thanks, Tom

Hey Tom - sorry I can’t compare the two - I have a duirsound dual mono and am very happy with the sound - you couldn’t go wrong with it but I can’t speak to the audio difference.

However in looking at a picture of the Audiophonics I notice that it doesn’t have a headphone output - that might or might not be important to you. I use the headphone out on the Duriosound to send an identical signal to a different input / output on my amp so that I can run the outdoor speakers at the same time - but run through an eq first.

Thank you for your reply.

The missing headphone output is not a problem. The RPi will get connected to my Luxman L-81 amplifier only.

What speaks against the Durio is the missing documentation. I have read so many unanswered questions here and in the Durio Sound forum that I don´t know if I will do eveything right. For example I don´t know if the Durio will wirk with volumio and the RPi 2.

It’s seems that the latest one has got and HP output

Upper right corner ?

i don’t think it’s a real headphone output, i don’t see any specific HP-amplifier section,
but “only” the same line-out routed into a 3.5 jack…
i received this board last week, and tried both outputs, they “sounds” the same :wink:

Hi yes indeed it’s the same output without any headphone amp.

Hi there, everybody. I received my ES9023 TCXO this afternoon, the new V2 model with the RCA outputs right on top of the USB ports, connected it (only one way…) powered the whole thing up (just the Pi 2, via the usual socket) and have spent a good hour trying all VOLUMIO playback setup, with no success.

The Audio output recognizes the DAC once I spec the Hifiberry (not +) as the I2S driver to activate. However, no further lack. I am connecting a Naim Headline straight out of the RCA outputs (anyway I get no sound from the little jack output on the side, either). Selecting ALSA and using the standard jack output of the Pi works normally.

At the moment Mixer and resampling are both disabled. I am trying to stream webradio stuff (via ethernet cable). It all worked very well with a USB DAC.

Has anyone managed to get this DAC work on a Pi 2 using Volumio? With waht settings?

(I have run a sudo apt-get update, but didn’t try to modify any system files yet, am not really an expert, was hoping these things could simply be plugged and would work, but I suspect I am missing something here…).

Thanks for any help,
Sandro

Dear All,

   forget my last post - after barking up every possible wrong tree, I realised it was a false contact. The TCXO unit works well now - great actually. 

In fact, the upon initial listening, the TXCO v2 unit (same as in the picture above in this page) sounds like a Dragonfly slayer (with which I mean, a Dragonfly version 1, not 1.2, which I do not own. The above appears to be true however fed the bit: the difference feels massive if I drive the Dragonfly with RPi through a USB port, but still clearly there if the Dragonfly gets the bits through a SOTM tX-USB-exp using Jplay on CAPS-specced win8.1 pro PC).

I’ll have to do quite some more critical listening, but it seems that VOLUMIO with I2S on the pI2 is doing very, very well with just a Sabre9023 and a good clock - honestly, I didn’t think any source in this total price range could drive my HD800 this well. Wow - a big thank you to Michelangelo…

S.

Hi sandevit,

thank you very much for your evaluation.

I still have ordered the ES9023 TCXO and expect him this wekk :slight_smile:

I have the same DAC on my Raspi2, and sounds good with Volumio 2 - even i can’t chose this DAC from the list…
(i choosed HifiBerry )
Will this DAC support in the future?

I tried out the config with Moodeaudio 3.8, because there can you choose out the right DAC, and it’s sounds better as the hifiberry option.

But I want use only volumio! :sunglasses:

OK, old thread, but I thought I would add my two cents worth. I bought a Durio Sound Pro V5.0 “a while back”. Never a complaint, loved the detailed sound. I accidentally dropped it moving equipment, and damaged the DC power jack. Swapped it out with “whatever” I had lying around on the bench. An Asian, unbranded, “ES9018K2M”. I had previously upgraded the budget supplied Op-Amp to a OPA1692. Seemed “OK” sounding, nothing great. Vinyl sounded much better than the Asian DAC. Once again re-configuring my system, I saw the the unused Durio Sound Pro, and remembered it could be powered with an AC transformer instead of a DC supply, because it had a high grade power supply circuit built into the Pro version. I outfitted it with a 9 Volt 1.1 Amp AC transformer. I hooked it up again to test, and it “blew my socks off.” High Def. Audio Files are so detailed and dynamic, I am once again enjoying critical listening. My guess is the inter-modulation distortion has dropped quite a lot, because all of the instruments are very well defined again. This is not the comparison you asked for, but it is a vote for Durio Sound as a great DAC.