S9 internal DAC unveiled!

[DaremoS]

In an excellent post some ABI forum member (and a very brave one) have posted a pic of an open S9 which shows the DAC used by Cowon in the excellent player:


source (abbi>>forum) thanks!!

here is shown Wolfson WM8750S, which brings the excellent sound acclaimed in lots of reviews.

This is not a new DAC. In fact have been used in past year Chinese players with a great success, but it seems to be a new incarnation of this chip used in players like Onda VX858, some Oppo, Samsung YP and iRiver B20... including iPöd Nano 2G.

Older vesion is shown here:


taken from Onda VX858

To use proved chips shows a new trend in Cowon in order to not use the most expensive components to put in the market an affordable but enjoyable, appealing and desirable player.

This chip is of course less costly than the one used in Cowon D2... Wolfson WM8985... but according with lots of reviews: joined with BBE+ have bring a remarkable sound as it's usual in Cowon products...

Of course iPod dependants haven't waste time in claim that S9 is a "cheap build"

[Konechiwa]

Wolfson makes nice stuff.

Props to them.

[omjeremy]

Did you just say that the S9 sounds the same as an iPod nano?

[DaremoS]

Originally Posted by omjeremy

Did you just say that the S9 sounds the same as an iPod nano?

That iPod Nano 2G uses Wolfson WM8750 is a fact. There are lots of evidences of this searching in the net by googling "ipod nano" wm8750. In fact all iPod except Nano 4G have used Wolfson DAC different models. Here is a list.

How this DAC is integrated and customized to bring the final sound is another tale: I did had access to an iPod Nano for months and I never feel anything special listening the sound of such player. When I read that is dotted of a Wolfson WM8750 I was surprised.

I do have a Onda VX858 with such DAC and in it I did enjoyed a good sound (Onda VX858 have also a feature called Microsoft PlayFX that helps).
Is noticeable also better sound in Cowon D2 thanks to its Wolfson DAC.
Anyway my best sounding player is a Meizu M3 which has a Philips DAC, unfortunately this DAC have other problems and the device itself is of less features than Cowon's.

Finally there are lots of reviewers and users that feels that iPod players have "excellent" sound... demonstrating that sound quality is a very personal matter and that there is no instrument or rule to qualify this.

[tabv]

Somewhere I seen pics of more of the insides of the S9 and it showed some kind of an internal shielding plate...anyone have that link??

[omjeremy]

Haha, thanks for clearing that up DaremoS.

[tabv]

Ok I found more internal pics...one of the shielding to...

Link:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f15/ju...won-s9-393553/

[DaremoS]

Originally Posted by tabv

Ok I found more internal pics...one of the shielding to...

Link:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f15/ju...won-s9-393553/

MY source was ABI>>Forum here. Maybe are pics taken from other side which I really would like to find because the only doubt I've now is what chip are the used for processing: maybe some Telechips, RMI Alchemy... who knows?