ES9038Q2M Board

[squinones]

Hi, this is my first post in this forum. I have a short question: Do any of you have any experience with this ES9038Q2M board?

ES9038 Q2M DAC DSD Decoder Support IIS DSD 384KHz Coaxial Fiber DOP | eBay

 

[DRONE7]

Yes, the last few pages of this thread detail it...

Chinese ES9018K2M I2S DAC

from about post #191 onwards....

 

[squinones]

Thank you Drone7! Interesting review, sounds like you like it, thank you very much.

 

[squinones]

Drone7: What kind of powser supply are you using with this board?

 

[TioFrancotirador]

It is great board!
I got it. Rpi-> hifiberry digi+ pro -> es9038q2m board. Powered by Salas Reflector D 5V, -/+15V. Works great!

 

[squinones]

You have an interesting setup. I am planning to use the board connected to the Toslink on the sound card of my PC. What do you have after the ES9038Q2M (amp, speaker and/or headphones)? Have you tested other DACs with your system?

I have not decided on the power supply yet, maybe I will start with this for 15 USD:

JDS Labs - 15VAC Power Adapter

or something like this for 35 USD:

STUDER900 15W Regulated PSU DC Linear power supply 5V 6V 7V 9V 12V 15V 18V 24V | eBay

The DAC output will go to directly to my speakers:

LSR305 Products | JBL Professional

I building my own chassi, it will be similar to this design but in aluminum:

M-Audio

 

[DRONE7]

@squinones

The board arrives set up for dual rail supply +15 0 -15 volts and the supplies you have linked are single rail. +15 0 volts

It can be run on single rail but you will have to do some soldering and desoldering on the board at J8 through J10.

From the sellers description...

Power supply: regulated DC voltage double 15V

* It is recommended to use dual 15V power supply to play board best results

Note that "o" = connection and "x" = no connexion... see attachment ...very confusing as this is back to front from usual

Power supply instructions: board shipping silent dual 15V power supply,
change the power supply need to set the corresponding jumper:
Jumper setting Description: (O = connection; X = off)

Also, it will not perform or sound as good on a single rail.

@TioFrancotirador you are using dual rail too ?
I see you posted in the Volumio forums...did you get i2s working with Raspberry pi and what settings did you use ?

 

[TioFrancotirador]

Regardless of DAC powering is everything. At least you should use dual rail -/+15V. Then if you want to go further desolder onboard 8V reg and power it from separate offboard regulator.
I am using Salas Reflector Ds (-/+15V and 8V) for powering since I consider them as best regs!
I am using Rpi3 with hifiberry digi+ pro. Although Es9038q2m works in asynch mode, it does not do the all job well. Its final quality still depends on I2S signal quality and it works much better with hifiberry digi+ pro than without it.
Also onboard opamp is so, so and might be replaced with better one.

 

[DRONE7]

Yes, I am building dedicated supplies too but interim using some dual switching with buck step-down and a lot of C for smoothing..😉

you say...

Although Es9038q2m works in asynch mode, it does not do the all job well. Its final quality still depends on I2S signal quality

So you tried i2s ?
What o/s and which overlay/driver ??
I am still trying to get it to lock and produce sound with any driver/overlay... tried on MoOde and Volumio.
Any info appreciated.

However, usb to i2s works fine. 🙂
As does toslink and coax from other sources (cd player, tv box etc.)

 

[TioFrancotirador]

I am using Volumio with chosen hifiberry digi+ pro as I2S dac in configuration. That's it. It works.

 

[DRONE7]

Ok thanks. You are doing i2s>toslink/coax>Es9038q2m

Seems no one has direct i2s pi>Es9038q2m working yet...

It will happen eventually...🙂

 

[TioFrancotirador]

No!
I do direct I2S from Hifiberry digi+ pro to es9038q2m (no coax, no toslink).

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

Toslink is connected to TV and currently playing from TV on the picture (J2 shorted). To play I2S J2 and J3 pins should be open.

 

[DRONE7]

Your image won't load so I can't see what you have set but...

The HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro is a high-quality S/PDIF output for the Raspberry Pi. It uses the I2S sound port that connects directly to the CPU without the need for an additional USB conversion.

This is not an i2s output device... it outputs spdif either toslink or coax so you must be sending one of those to the 9038q2m dac...
HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro | HiFiBerry

see attachments...
0=connection x=open...
so coax is J2 optical is J3 and i2s is both J2 and J3

You seem to have it reversed and are using x=connection o=open

If I could see your image I maybe could see if your board is different version.. Mine is VR-1.04

 

[TioFrancotirador]

Your image won't load so I can't see what you have set but...
see attachments...
0=connection x=open...
so coax is J2 optical is J3 and i2s is both J2 and J3

You seem to have it reversed and are using x=connection o=open

If I could see your image I maybe could see if your board is different version.. Mine is VR-1.04

Right click on image and try to open it in another tab. Should work.
I got same version as you and J2 shorted is for toslink and J3 shorted is for coax in my board. I2S is when J2 and J3 are opened or both shorted (I just tested it).
And BTW Hifiberry digi+ pro has also I2S out. You just need to solder 5 pins on the board.

 

[DRONE7]

And BTW Hifiberry digi+ pro has also I2S out. You just need to solder 5 pins on the board.

Ah,I see that now !
Hmm, the hifiberry site talks about patched kernel.
I might try some experiments tonight and see what I can make or break..

Thanks for your input..!

Ok, I think I see something...looking at your image you have the standard 3 wire +Gnd connection and checking the HiFiBerry connections..
DAC+ Pro - connect external I2S DACs – HiFiBerry
Assuming pass through on all but the unused pin2-sample rate then the difference is the bit clock which is output at 32/64*sample rate.
I will try upsampling with sox and see if this will get lock...

 

[TioFrancotirador]

Yes.
I am using newest Volumio build. It was updated with kernel to handle Hifiberry digi+ pro two or three months ago.

 

[freezebox]

one question to the analog output. Are there serial DC blocking caps in the signal path for the operation in single voltage mode (+15-0)? If so, can they be removed in case of using +15 - 0 - -15?
And@TrioFrancotirador: Do you feed the digital section with 5V or with 8V?

 

[TioFrancotirador]

I am actually using 5VDC. It is enough.
As for the serial caps in signal path it is very interesting note. I do not know ... yet, but I will try it, measure it and post results in the afternoon 🙂

 

[DRONE7]

Ah,I see that now !

Ok, I think I see something...looking at your image you have the standard 3 wire +Gnd connection and checking the HiFiBerry connections..
DAC+ Pro - connect external I2S DACs – HiFiBerry
Assuming pass through on all but the unused pin2-sample rate then the difference is the bit clock which is output at 32/64*sample rate.
I will try upsampling with sox and see if this will get lock...

Yes! It works...! Using Generic-2 I2S (rpi-dac) setting in MoOde Audio and upsampling to 32/96 or better with sox gives lock and playback commences... 😀

Guessing here that the internal processing of ES 90xx dacs is at 32bit and this dac is configured to expect 32 bit or better.
May have something to do with the onboard mcu (and it's implementation of filter options.)

Anyways...it works via i2s at upsampled to 32 bit ( or HiFiberry dac @TioFrancotirador ) or possibly Allo Kali reclocker ?? Anyone got one to try ?

 

[Blackfear]

Hi, i will try it with Kali Reclocker, but still waiting for this DAC from Ebay (hope this week i will test it), but i think that it should work, if kali lock it...
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