New low cost soekris dac1221

How?

Does setting the volume "fixed" mean setting it to a fixed volume or setting it to 0 dB? That latter is what the manual says.

 

Just set the volume to whatever works with your gear. 0dB, - 5, 0.5 V, its arbitrary and doesn't matter. The oversampling, excess abundance of bits in the ladder, and nature of the sign/magnitude design mean attenuation with little to no penalty.

 

Got it! Was trying that out. I found the volume that didn't clip on the 1221 and then made it fixed volume.

Thanks!

 

Got a good amount of listening in last week with a warmed up Phonitor Mini, Sendy Aiva, roon (with headphone EQ), Linn Akurate streamer and the Soekris.

From memory, the soundstage seems a lot bigger than with what I was listening to before; those components broke so can't do a direct comparison. (MJ3 broke and DAC of Linn broke).

Really nice listening experience, I think very musical. When the MJ3 is back from Schiit I'll need to see if the greyness I hear is the Phonitor or the Soekris.

 

MJ3 still at Schiit.

After about a month this is probably at peak?
Sounds very very good. I do feel like wood block instruments are not coming through as I expect. Everything else has been very nice.

 

Sort of for convenience and out of curiosity I made these changes.

Replaced Akurate BNC/coax source with 7th gen iPad through cheap dock ($16) into Soekris via USB. Roon as playback software in both cases.

First impressions: sounds better than BNC, notes seem temporal-ly more delineated. Cymbals are clearer, less hashy. Soundstage somewhat wider. Bass deeper, more abundant.

 

More changes.

Swapped out the iPad/USB for OPPO 203/coax.

Wow! Best blackground yet and most listenable presentation. I've not been listening much with the previous setup (maybe still mourning my Akurate...)

 

I like it very much, it is smooth, natural, detailed, holographic, big and very clear sounding with a distinct blackground.
A big step up from my Modi+ and Modi Multibit 2 with my Vali 3. The 1221 is technically on Bifrost 2/64 level with a similar sized soundstage.

But where the Soekris became my favorite is overall coherence in frequency response, everything sounds like it belongs together, where you sometimes get the feeling of disconnect in between lows, mids and highs with the Bifrost, the 1221 presents everything as a coherent whole, getting out of the way and presenting the music naturally as is - without anything sticking out or separating.

Where I see the biggest difference tho is in the highs, where the BF2 OG's highs where to subdued, the BF2/64 and MM2 highs where to strong and often times piercing. This is where the Soekris shines and towers above the Schiit competition -
it's highs are perfect, always present, perfectly integrated, smooth and crystal clear - a standout feature.

Don't get me wrong I love the Schiit DAC's (especially the Modi+ & BF2 OG) but when I had to choose a partner for my Vali 3 on my desktop, I did. I chose you Soekris 1221!

P.s.: If you are in Europe I believe it to be a no-brainer.

Edit: Was using it with an iFi iPowerX, which was a good step up form the stock adapter. Will be buying a 300€ Linear PSU for it and get back to you guys.

 

How are macrodynamics compared to the Schiit DACs? Especially curious about how the bass compares.

 

Not as brutal as Yggi A1/A2, Gungnir Multibit A2, BF2 OG, more neutral, but as with LiM it surprises you with speed and detail when it explodes out of the blackground. Definitely sufficient, well integrated and extended, not lacking in any way. Will be testing more extensively with my HE500 and speaker rig tho, especially comparisons to my Audial S5b and ANK 3.1.

On first listen it sounds suprisingly good with my PAP Quintet 15 Horn1's out of pimped out J.L. Hood 1969(resistor ladder poti, caps, resistors etc.). Big, clear, detailed. Not lagging behind my big guns much at all, and to be honest the first "small" DAC that actually sounded good (enough) out of my PAP's, BF2 OG was to dark but BF2/64 fit well too.

What I noticed when trying out the iFi iPower MKII and X is that it started clipping sooner from the smaller MKII (I could turn the poti higher in passive mode before it blinked red when listening to techno), it seems to like the extra power besides the clarity too, so I suspect that dynamics should be influenced by the power it gets. have to compare to the stock adapter to be sure tho.

 

@Empyah I have this 9v LPS that I got ages ago, probably for a SMS-200 I no longer own.
Would it work on the 1221? Will the 9V fry it?
ZEROZONE 30VA LT1038cp mini linear Power supply 9V
https://www.ebay.com/itm/111981557417

 

The manual says 5V, on the case it says 5V, do not try to apply higher voltage....

 

Don't mind it, you will love it as is, if I did not have the iFI's laying around I would not have bothered, it is just a nice option to have, to be able to improve on something that is already great, somewhere later down the line.

 

Thank you!

 

We auditioned the dac1221 too. Speakers are Sound Lab large panel electrostatics. Amplifiers are Marantz MA9S2 mono blocks. My writeup follows:

We recently received a dac1221 from Soekris Audio for listening evaluation. The dac arrived on a Friday afternoon, so we hooked it up to get a quick listen, and to get it started warming up. The plan was to let it run overnight until the sound settled into its most stable form. Next morning the sound still seemed to be changing a little so it was decided to get the dac some some more running time. Ended up the listening session didn't occur until the following Friday.

By then the dac sound appeared to be fully stabilized, and probably at its best. We liked the sound pretty well considering the bargain price of $450 for a dac of this quality. Instruments and vocal sounds were all clear and distinct from each other, not like some dacs where there almost some blurring together of sounds. There was also some sense of depth between and behind the speakers. Ability to reproduce a sense of depth is necessary in order to produce a good virtual sound stage stereo illusion.
Regarding the sound itself, to this listener this is the most listenable discrete resistor multibit dac I have heard so far. Most of them have caused fatigue for me, but once well warmed up this one was enjoyable for long periods of time.

Those are the positives. Are there any negatives? In our experience for $450 its not possible to have everything. Main thing we noticed was some lack of a well developed sound stage. The sound seemed to come out of the two speakers and or somewhere vaguely in between them. No sound beyond the width of the speakers. Lateral localization of sound sources vague. Depth cues were also vague.
In our experience, the sound stage reproduction limitations likely arise from timing jitter effects and from some missing low level volume dynamics details.

That said, many systems are not that good at reproducing a good sound stage virtual image from stereo speakers. Thus, having a dac which is much better than the rest of the system, including the listening room acoustics, may not be worth the extra cost involved.

As this is an entry level dac in the Soekris lineup, it seems well suited for use in what might be termed the entry level of mid-to-higher end systems. That said, for people who like to listen with especially good headphones, such as planars, then maybe the a higher level dac could be a better fit.

 

Initial impressions - not bad with a Piety and JAR600, HD6xx, original Auteur so far. JAR600 is my favorite of these 3 so far.

Will probably post a bit more in a few days from now.

Info:
I have the loaner unit right now for a quick initial evaluation while the official loaner tour is still being setup. Previously owned a 1421 and liked the 2541 loaner a lot. I still want a 2541, but given that it would be a 4th DAC, I just haven't been in a huge rush to spend $1k+ on one (and hence I still haven't gotten one yet). Decided to give this a try given the lower cost.

Setup:
PC USB > USB in > Piety > various transducers. Will try with the Vali 2+, SW51, and Stellaris later. 12ish hours of warmup before any listening. The DACs continues to improve slightly after 24-36 hours of warm up. USB because this would be the most convenient input for the intended chain and use cases.

Also - I still have the same issues as before with the 2541 where you have to go -1 to -4dB to not have clipping. Similar to the 2541 and 1421, the sound quality is a little bit better at 0dB - but only when there is no clipping. But the difference in SQ here is not as pronounced between -1 and 0 dB as on the 2541 and the 1421. Clipping seems to happen more on the minimum phase filter (green light).

I prefer the no light filter on this one, maybe the red on a few tracks but on others it felt kind of like the notes lost some of their "structure". The green light filter is more "sharp" sounding here - preferred green on 2541 and 1421 given the "flatter" and "fuller notes" of the sound signature of those two - but here it's a little distracting. Didn't like the orange very much.

Stream of consciousness on the sound:
- So the "gen 1 (1421 and 1541)" and "gen 2 (2541)" Soekris DACs that I've heard have 2 general directions of sound to me. This is has a sound that's sort of in between the two. It is also more energetic sounding that either of the bigger Soekris DACs I've had before. However, if I use a well known reference - this is much more similar to other Soekris DACs than say the various Schiit DACs are to each other.
- Faster more energetic sound vs the other Soekris DACs I've heard.
- I think the strength of this DAC is how it does highs. It does lack a tiny bit of air or sparkle at the top but is otherwise solid.
- Separation of bass could be better (mids and highs have OK separation).
- Staging or presentation of spatial information - it's a bit weird for me. Instead . No "row 5" presentation of the Yggdrasil A2 or "row 15-20 presentation of the Holo Spring 2 I have. Instead, it feels like it doesn't create the illusion of a sound stage out of a headphone. It just kind of shows you all the layers of the recording as constructed by the recording studio. Spatial positioning is still fine though - I played some test tracks I use for this and first person games for 15-20 min and could tell where things were pretty easily.
- Also, while this has the R-2R fullness of sound and prescence, the notes don't feel "grounded" I guess. Almost like they're just floating on top of a table or surface instead of "present and there". They also don't feel full bodied and filled out completely (this was not a problem in the 1421 or 2541 for me).
- R-2R sound - has most of the other benefits you expect of R-2R, which I won't go on about here.

Auteur - Sounds a little disjointed. This amp / DAC combo does not highlight the strengths of the original Auteur for me. Sort of amplifies the "random instruments in the studio" sound that the amp/dac combo already has for me.
HD6xx - fine overall but this DAC reveals the weakness of the HD6xx more than many others.
JAR600 - much more cohesive overall. The strengths of the 2 play off of each other.
Utopia - still don't like listening to this on most amps and the 1221 doesn't change this (which is expected).
IEMS - haven't tried, will probably try later.
Desktop speakers - haven't tried, may try later.

Personal verdict:
I think I would still prefer a 2541, even if it means I'm not buying one soon. This is not saying this new 1221 is bad or not worth buying - just that the price difference of the 2541 to me would be worth it to me. It's good enough though that I'm exploring it further with the other gear mentioned above which falls outside of the intended use case (people here who know me know I usually don't bother with unintended use cases now days unless I really like something).

 

See this post (might solve your price issue) and call @Mr.Sneis .

Edit: oops, sorry, too late! Carry on.

 

I'd love to hear your impressions via another input. I found that the USB was a bit grainy and unpleasant. From my OPPO 203's coax it's lovely. Black and smooth and energetic like a great cup of coffee! ;-)

 

Just to wrap up - I didn't get to try in other setups given that I only had it for a few days during Thanksgiving time. All of the above stands with a few minor changes.

Sound continued to get slightly better up to about 48 hours.
Faster and more energetic sound went down by about 0.5-1/10.
Sound was about 0.5/10 more "grounded".

I still prefer the 2541 with price also being considered - it has a magic that the other Soekris DACs don't quite have for me. Overall the 1221 was still good for what it is. Can't think of anything else I've heard in the $500ish MSRP price range to use as a comparative reference - but it is better than DACs (R-2R and DS) I can think of in the $100-300 range, but it's not replacing a $800-1k DAC.

Also, just for reference - about the same width and height as a magni, maybe 1" deeper total, so great for smaller desktop setups.