Nvarcher ES9038Q2m Raspberry Pi DAC hat

[romain]

Hello,

has anyone already tried this board please ? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004432757743.html

Thanks in advance,
Romain

[CallMeMike]

I cannot help you directly with your question but you may find some reference on DIYAUDIO.com or simply post your question):

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...rd.314935/

[romain]

Thanks

[Tim Curtis]

Hello,

has anyone already tried this board please ? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004432757743.html

Thanks in advance,
Romain

1. Looks like everything but the kitchen sink is on that board :-0 That usually means compromises for any individual feature.
2. One of the comments indicates the generic rpi-dac driver is to be used. This driver does not provide access to the ESS chip oversampling filters or any other chip/board options.
3. Since the manufacturer does not provvide a custom driver for the board all the input / output selection has to be done by manually pressing buttons or switches on the board.

[TheOldPresbyope]

One commenter posted that he figured out he could use the HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro driver. There’s no indication of how many features he could actually use via the driver.

Another said his board failed after 2 months. That’s not unheard of but there’s only 8 comments and most are a bald “works fine, 5 *****” variety.


The only “detailed” description provided looks to be machine-translated from the board-designers’ technical notes and mostly parrots features of the chips chosen for the design. Seems to me the presence of buttons and (tiny) on-board display suggests the designers wanted a board they could play with on the bench. Where was the product manager who could set buyer-oriented goals?

All in all, if one fell in my lap I’d play around with it ‘cuz that’s what I do, but I wouldn’t buy one hoping for the best.

As previously suggested, diyaudio.com should be your next stop.

Good luck in your hunt.

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

Here are the chip options for ES9038Q2M on the Audiophonics ES9038 DAC.

       

In order to access them the DAC has to have two things:

1. Microcontroller chip that interfaces a custom device driver to the options registers on the ESS9038 chip
2. Custom device driver that exposes the chip options

The only I2S DAC's that I know of that have meet these two requirements are the Audiophonics ES9028/9038 DAC and the Allo Katana DAC.

[romain]

Thanks for all these wise remarks Tim and Kent, I don't want to risk 70 EUR+ in a such board, I'll pass on it then

[CallMeMike]

...or maybe you can hold on to the decision of buying any generic a.k.a. Chinese ES9038Q2M I2S board for the time being and spend some time checking out IanCanada's wonderful offerings (designs) on DIYAUDIO.com:

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...ts.335881/

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...uy.207438/

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...er.192465/

[romain]

...or maybe you can hold on to the decision of buying any generic a.k.a. Chinese ES9038Q2M I2S board for the time being and spend some time checking out IanCanada's wonderful offerings (designs) on DIYAUDIO.com:

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...ts.335881/

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...uy.207438/

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...er.192465/

Thanks CallMeMike, unfortunately I couldn't find what I need on DIYAUDIO.com.

Actually I use an Abacus Aroio DAC powered separately from the rpi by an Allo Nirvana SMPS. This setup gives me entire satisfaction but misses an headphone output. I could purchase an IQaudIO DAC Pro or an HifIBerry DAC2 Pro for this purpose but I don't want to "lose" in sound quality.

Romain

[romain]

...or maybe you can hold on to the decision of buying any generic a.k.a. Chinese ES9038Q2M I2S board for the time being and spend some time checking out IanCanada's wonderful offerings (designs) on DIYAUDIO.com:

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...ts.335881/

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...uy.207438/

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threa...er.192465/

Hello, I would rather go for this DAC hat: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B2DJZTSF

The question is: how shall I connect the output of this DAC to the RCA inputs of my active speakers ? Balanced 3.5mm jack to XLR cable -> XLR to RCA cable ?

Thanks in advance for your advice,
Romain