The Aventage Yamaha ess dac in a newer model then the akm 4458 and akm 4490 used in the newest d/m products.
Since you touch on the topic, I would like to make a few points on DAC ICs:
People seem to have been led to believe ESS DACs are better/best for whatever reason, perhaps Oppo has something to do with the origin of such perception
. I have the feeling that the ES9007 Yamaha has been using in the RX-AX080 models are actually the same as ES9006, just a re-numbering scheme for whatever reason. I can't prove this but if you do a deep search you will not find any info sheet on this model (9007), not even on ESS website, but you could find it mentioned in a Dec 2007 technical paper posted by a third party. It doesn't matter anyway as it is the specs that matter not the part# that could be different for a variety of non technical reasons.
The specs of the ES9006/7 and the AK4458 are very comparable. One is 5 dB better in THD+N (AK4458), and the ES9006 5 dB better in DNR. I actually would prefer the AKM because:
- based on ASR's measurements, the Sabre DACs have a what has been known as the ESS bump, a rise in IMD in a certain range of input level, and
- between 5 dB lower THD+N and 5 dB lower in DNR, in this case I would like the lower THD+N.
In most cases the differences would unlikely be audible, so take this as fyi/btw sort of comments.
One unknown remains, would that factory fire result in supply issue of the AKM chip? If so, D+M may join the ES club, but I hope they would switch to something else such as Cirrus Logic's, and TI if they can find an equivalent one that has could support all the features, and if for no other reason, it would just be change.
Half of my DACs are based on the Sabre chips, I like them, but I like the others too just the same.