In my former quite large stock of TDA chips I also had a 2004 chip which apparently was not a fake. I already concluded the chip might have been produced again. Otherwise i can not explain why so much chips were produced. That seems not logical. I can imagine that several thousands were produced extra as warranty replacements etc but why would so many have been made while the market switched to cheaper chips ?
Taiwan made 1997 S2 and Taiwan made 1998 standard/N2 versions are very good. Better than the older versions from the eighties anyway despite S1 etc. Too bad I don't have a single one anymore
Taiwan made 1997 S2 and Taiwan made 1998 standard/N2 versions are very good. Better than the older versions from the eighties anyway despite S1 etc. Too bad I don't have a single one anymore
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It seems they are a continued run from the Taiwanese plant .
I was offered TDA1541A S2 versions as you can see in the attached photo's which I have not purchased due to being worried that they are fakes .
Attachments
Hi,
Never came across any, sorry.
It is possible Philips did more runs. There seems to have been quite a bit of "funky" stuff going on when it was still Philips Semi.
Ciao T
Never came across any, sorry.
It is possible Philips did more runs. There seems to have been quite a bit of "funky" stuff going on when it was still Philips Semi.
Ciao T
These are Funky ones as Thorsten puts it
made in 2006 so there is nothing normal about these things .But yes original 1997 ones do have two crowns .
The 1541 chip is like a 1957 Chevy or a pre 1964 Winchester. People like it for nostalgic reasons. The question should be, can the ES9018 be beat. It will be beat some day but it is presently the most advanced chip available of which I am aware.
After hearing DEM reclocking I think personally the TDA1541A can beat the ES9018
I only like it becuse it sounds good. People indeed may feel nostalgic about many things like cars, or the old family home, but really, if I found a DAC that averall sounded "better" in every way, the TDA1541 would be dropped like a hot potato, the ES9018 is a very good chip, but I have not heard the ES9018 do "subtlety" or "naturalness" as well as TDA1541.
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In my former quite large stock of TDA chips I also had a 2004 chip which apparently was not a fake. I already concluded the chip might have been produced again. Otherwise i can not explain why so much chips were produced. That seems not logical. I can imagine that several thousands were produced extra as warranty replacements etc but why would so many have been made while the market switched to cheaper chips ?
Taiwan made 1997 S2 and Taiwan made 1998 standard/N2 versions are very good. Better than the older versions from the eighties anyway despite S1 etc. Too bad I don't have a single one anymore
It's actually very interesting that the whole community seems to be talking about the same bunch of chips all the time:
- 1998 Normal 'A' (N2)
- 1988 S1
- 1997 S2
I personally also have some of each of the above, but I have never seen any talk about, say, 1995 S2's or 1993 S1's. You always only see the above types and years in the diy community.... coincidence?
Were there at all 1995 S1's made?
Or have all chips for batch 9713 been named S2?
Hi,
If the TDA1541A where a car, it would be a '66 Shelby Cobra... I'll have one, thank you very much. It can still beat many out there on the track.
I don't know about the winchesters, but the russian AK-47 is a mid 1940's re-interpretation of an early 1940's design from Germany, including the shortened full caliber rifle round and I'd think the parallels to the TDA1541 are better to this weapon, if we must draw such parallels.
Most AK-47 users in this day and age (be they in Subsaharan Africa, Libya or in the USA) emphatically do NOT use it because of nostalgia. They rather trust their lives to that old piece of near unkaputtable 1940's russo-german engineering than these modern high tech sub .22 caliber plastic popguns (not that I would like to be shot with any of those either, mind you). Not for nothing the US Army in 'than and 'aq has been bringing the M-14 carabine back in force!
I do not debate that the ESS Sabre is among the best out there now. And I suspect with good design one can make VERY NICE DAC's with it (if one can put up with the way the company does business) but the same can be said for others as well.
For example the TDA1541 cannot beat it on SNR or THD & N.
So we need to define what we mean with "beat".
It is the same with the AK-47. Many will tell you they get much tighter grouping with more modern rifles and can carry more ammo, more modern designs have a better technical kill capability and so on.
But once you are in the field many of these advantages quickly disappear.
Similar story to my ears between ESS and Philips.
I rather listen with a TDA1541A (Double Crown) at home, where I can listen to pretty much anything I like...
Ciao T
If the TDA1541A where a car, it would be a '66 Shelby Cobra... I'll have one, thank you very much. It can still beat many out there on the track.
I don't know about the winchesters, but the russian AK-47 is a mid 1940's re-interpretation of an early 1940's design from Germany, including the shortened full caliber rifle round and I'd think the parallels to the TDA1541 are better to this weapon, if we must draw such parallels.
Most AK-47 users in this day and age (be they in Subsaharan Africa, Libya or in the USA) emphatically do NOT use it because of nostalgia. They rather trust their lives to that old piece of near unkaputtable 1940's russo-german engineering than these modern high tech sub .22 caliber plastic popguns (not that I would like to be shot with any of those either, mind you). Not for nothing the US Army in 'than and 'aq has been bringing the M-14 carabine back in force!
I do not debate that the ESS Sabre is among the best out there now. And I suspect with good design one can make VERY NICE DAC's with it (if one can put up with the way the company does business) but the same can be said for others as well.
For example the TDA1541 cannot beat it on SNR or THD & N.
So we need to define what we mean with "beat".
It is the same with the AK-47. Many will tell you they get much tighter grouping with more modern rifles and can carry more ammo, more modern designs have a better technical kill capability and so on.
But once you are in the field many of these advantages quickly disappear.
Similar story to my ears between ESS and Philips.
I rather listen with a TDA1541A (Double Crown) at home, where I can listen to pretty much anything I like...
Ciao T
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Probably the easiest way to hear how an ES9018 sounds implemented fairly well is to audition an Anedio D1 DAC. Lots of dynamics and detail rarely heard from older generation chips.Unfortunately, this chip is still fairly new and engineers are still in the process of implementing it properly which is 80 % of the battle. No doubt, more DACs with better sound at lower prices will be on their way. Will they catch a good turntable? I am still skeptical.
Hi all,
A good implemented TDA1541, like, for example, John Brown's latest DAC module with a double crown chip, gives all information that is available from the Redbook data in a clean background; the original analog samples in the exact time domain. I believe that's all there is!!
'Extra' information that is created out of mathematics is never exact due interpolation. There's no magic. My personal experience is that our ears are hypersensitive for these little faults. Tried the Buffalo dac and Wolffson dac with Lundhal trafo's in the past. Nothing could beat NOS in listening pleasure.
Therefore, i believe that a NON NOS dac, whatever how good it is, never can beat a NOS DAC like with the TDA1541. If you want to get as close a possible to the presentation of the master recording.
A good implemented TDA1541, like, for example, John Brown's latest DAC module with a double crown chip, gives all information that is available from the Redbook data in a clean background; the original analog samples in the exact time domain. I believe that's all there is!!
'Extra' information that is created out of mathematics is never exact due interpolation. There's no magic. My personal experience is that our ears are hypersensitive for these little faults. Tried the Buffalo dac and Wolffson dac with Lundhal trafo's in the past. Nothing could beat NOS in listening pleasure.
Therefore, i believe that a NON NOS dac, whatever how good it is, never can beat a NOS DAC like with the TDA1541. If you want to get as close a possible to the presentation of the master recording.
I contacted Mr Brown, what he has put together is not a DAC really. It can't accept Spdif AND it must slave the transport with its clock. So its basically a module to upgrade a CDP. A DAC has to stand on its own, no feed back of a high Mhz clock, sorry.
These days its just not practical (for me anyway) to use any thing but my computer with its 2TB of flacs. I would very much like to try the Brown module, but it needs a good asynch USB interface local to the clock. He has his flash memory transport but that would be a real hassle plus I just have never been a fan of cabling a masterclock, RFI transmittion and the resulting Jitter feeding a clock at those speed just isn't a jitter free solution IMHumble opinion. If Brown comes up with a USB solution I am all over it.
I admit to only hearing the ES9018 in the Wyred 4 Sound DAC.
As it only costs $1200 I have no doubt there are better implementations out there. Sparkly sounding, attention grabbing detail is one thing, but detail with naturalness is another.
But don't take me the wrong way. I like the ES9018. Depending which mood I am in I could listen to either.
I agree that a good turntable is hard to beat. With 44.1khz material, no matter how good the DAC is, I still notice the lack of HF information coming from the digital source.
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