DAC-OFF: Soncoz SGD1 vs. Geshelli JNOG

Thank you for the answer
I can't enjoy my J2 this morning, neighbour is playing jackhammer in the wall :-(((

 

I wrote to Geshelli yesterday asking about the choice of power adapter, and if a slightly upgraded one might make any difference. Like an iFi or Meanwell. The stock one looks pretty cheap. Sherri responded that the reason they went with that one was because they were failing CE certification with others and the costs were piling up with additional cert tries. This adapter passes every time and so they use it on all their products. Gino is supposed to email me back regarding using a different PS but hasnt yet.

 

Good idea to contact him on the subject, thanks !

 

J2 v2 has now about 80 hours running-in… First impressions of thinness in the highs and shortness in the lows have almost vanished What a detailed DAC ! Cleanness, purity are the words that come… Its ability to separate and focus instruments make music very easy to follow… Don't know if tone is that natural ?
Yet again, my only comparison point is the Metrum Musette. J2 is much more transparent, refined than Musette. Musette is more about general atmosphere, mood of the music, while J2 is about music itself… Maybe tone of the Musette is more natural ? So far, I can easily imagine J2 replacing the Musette in my setup

 

To follow up on the Geshelli power supply conversation, Geno responded with a more complete explanation. He said I could post his response:


"So there are 2 sides to a DAC’s power supply, the analog and the digital.



We’ll talk about the Analog because that’s the MUCH more important side that will benefit from clean power, the digital side doesn’t really care – it just needs a decent 3.3V to survive.



On our DAC we use a switching DC supply that plugs into the wall. (I know, it looks cheap, but in the scheme of things, it really isn’t).



Switching supplies do not need to be giant wall worts that weight 2 pounds and hang off the wall, mainly because they are pretty simple circuits that don’t require giant transformers or other components like that.



Our analog side will take the 12V input from the small supply and convert it to +/-15V using a DC-DC switcher which then feeds two low noise regulators, which then feed the crazy low noise opamps <- this is where you drop your noise floor. Also there is a really low noise regulator that feeds the dac reference voltages.



The above is important because you can put the quietest supply around, and it still will feed a DC-DC switcher which will generate it’s own noise.



To prove this, the Erish uses a similar setup and has record breaking low noise numbers with the same [~cheap~] power supply included. <-I’m not being cheeky I promise!



Now understand the above only pertains to OUR design. There are other manufacturers that may handle their power supplies different where they take advantage of the wall supplies noise characteristics, but our circuits do not.

Lastly, we test everything using high quality lab grade supplies then compare them to the included wall switcher, and there is no difference measurement wise (and there shouldn’t be, which is by design)."

Geno and Sherri have gone above and beyond with my simple question. This is certainly a more in depth explanation than I ever expected considering they have better things to do.

 

Thank you for reporting this complete answer… J2 sounds so well as it is !
On my side, initial impressions were done using RCA outputs. In the meantime I swapped the RCA cables for the XLR that I use between preamp & amp and I noticed an improvement Still more separation and more 'easy' extension on both highs and lows. I think J2 will definitely replace the Metrum.