I was looking at this new version dual mono dac has anyone had experience of this dac please.
Aliexpress.com : Buy YJ dual AC12V 0 12V AK4495SEQ + AK4118+NE5534 Double soft control board decoder board support DOP DSD USB Fiber Coax input from Reliable input pen suppliers on Best Partner Mall | Alibaba Group
Would it be much improvement over the dual AK4399 dac ?
Aliexpress.com : Buy YJ dual AC12V 0 12V AK4495SEQ + AK4118+NE5534 Double soft control board decoder board support DOP DSD USB Fiber Coax input from Reliable input pen suppliers on Best Partner Mall | Alibaba Group
Would it be much improvement over the dual AK4399 dac ?
Hi Nino have you seen this I noticed it has mounting holes for 7 pin xmos USB & 10 pin said it does DSD & it's dual mono.
Any opinion please ?
This board is available for a quite amount of time but it seems that interest on this item is quite limited on this site. This board is probably from YJ, not from Weiliang. Board incorporates 74HC157 a four channel multiplexer chip to switch between external usb i2s and spdif receiver (AK4118) side i2s signals. But this doesn't guarantee the board's capability of DSD. Whatever you use native DSD or DoP, MCU must be triggered by some event to put dacs into DSD mode. I checked the usb module pinout of YJ boards then I saw that there isn't a specific pin to sense DSD signal. You can check the pinout of usb module from this link. If the board MCU is really capable of to switch DSD mode, they must have found out some other way to sense DSD signal. But if you are planning to alter MCU controller with Arduino or something else, sensing DSD would be easy in case of using Amanero, I2SoverUSB or similar modules with DSD sensing pins.
Btw, if I was thinking about a dual mono dac for now, probably AK4495SEQ board would be my first choice. If format compatibility and functionality were first priorities, WM8741 + Xmos board (red one) from YJ seems very affordable for its price. It incorporates onboard Xmos with DSD64, two stage analog stage and a good loaking neat layout: Link. If you are planning a AKM dac board particularly, you can check other AK4495 and AK4490 boards from taobao too.
Btw, I personally don't recommend to buy Weiliang dacs due to design faults we encountered on his dual AK4399 board. If you are eager on do some modifications and fix layout problems, so feel free about it.
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Thank you for your reply & help I already have the dual AK4399 weiliang dac.
I am using tube output stage I have done the 3.3v to 5v & some other mods caps ect.
I was going to purchase xmos usb pcb for my dac but see the AK4495 version when looking.
At moment im only using spdif input from my converted 02 joggler spdif output with squeezplay.
I do like the look of the controller option but programming goes over my head.
I was also hoping the layout & problems have been sorted on the newer pcb as pointed out by others.
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Sunsun22 *
diyAudio Member
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Hong Kong
I have been using dual AK4399 and did some heavy modification on it. Just by the time I think I have the best DAC on hand, I purchased a AK4495 single chip stock DAC (AUNE S16) that blows away my heavily modified dual AK4399 in terms of musicality, dynamic and quietness. I used to post a number of my findings in modifying dual AK4399 in diyaudio but I kept my mouth shut after using AK4495. It may be my modifications are not appropriate or the AK4495 is really better than AK4399. I have two ideas:
1. Buy a AK4495 (single chip) DAC from Weiliang and did similar modification as what I've been done on dual AK4399
2. Jump to Soekris R2R DAC and have a taste of discrete DAC that I've never done before.
Last edited by Sunsun22; 24th April 2015 at 10:42 PM.
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Dave murrey I got same conclusion about single AK4495 versus heavily modified dual AK4399, it might be caused by really bad design of original dual AK4399 and its kopies or just fact that AK4495 is way better but my untouched AK4495 already sound better and I didn't even have to invested such money like Sunsun with his Aune S16
Could you share a link to the AK4495 kit you bought. I'm in the same boat with the 4399 I bought and want something the simply works without a lot of redesign. Thx.
I was also looking at this
http://m.aliexpress.com/item/324462...2K-192KHz&tracelog=wwwdetail2mobilesitedetail
Its saying official board so didnt no if this is better laid out.
My only problem is im not that experienced in diy electronics so wasnt sure about conecting my display or another display.
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http://m.aliexpress.com/item/324462...2K-192KHz&tracelog=wwwdetail2mobilesitedetail
Its saying official board so didnt no if this is better laid out.
My only problem is im not that experienced in diy electronics so wasnt sure about conecting my display or another display.
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Both the boards you linked look very cheap to me. I don't think they could substantially sound better than our fully (and properly) modified dual AK4399 dac - that with the right mods and a good XMOS interface is not bad at all (thanks to NinoSimona and the other guys!). But if you plan using Weiliang own XMOS, than SQ will die.
I don't know what mods you did apply and how well you completed them, but even with basic mods, using a pair of inexpensive chinese HDAMs (Marantz copy) our dual AK4399 betters many reknown DACs of a similar price range, to my ears. Many that have tested new AKM chips report that the sound difference is not so wide in comparison to AK4399 chips.
If you really want something (a bit) better and you don't fear diy, just afford Jlsounds AK4490 board using its I2SoverUSB XMOS interface and build some very good PS to power them. And invest in a pair of serious opamps, or better a tube output stage. THAT would be better.
But that will cost much more than a dual AK4399 DAC, to be honest...
I don't know what mods you did apply and how well you completed them, but even with basic mods, using a pair of inexpensive chinese HDAMs (Marantz copy) our dual AK4399 betters many reknown DACs of a similar price range, to my ears. Many that have tested new AKM chips report that the sound difference is not so wide in comparison to AK4399 chips.
If you really want something (a bit) better and you don't fear diy, just afford Jlsounds AK4490 board using its I2SoverUSB XMOS interface and build some very good PS to power them. And invest in a pair of serious opamps, or better a tube output stage. THAT would be better.
But that will cost much more than a dual AK4399 DAC, to be honest...
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Better invest in a good analog output stage and a very good psu for it.
I don't mean digital isn't important, but all AKM DAC chips are dependent on good clocking (they are slaved to transport, which can sound damn good if low jitter i2s is provided for, so: better buy a good USB->I2S interface with low noise dedicated psu, as Luca72c suggested), good power supplies and proper decoupling.
WeiLiang design isn't well done, we know now. But at least the design is rather diy friendly, schematic is provided, which cannot be said about all alternatives. And because of diy, this is an important feature of a design too IMO.
Thanks Luka72c
I already use tube output on my dual AK4399 and it does sound great but was thinking of adding usb module to mine because I only use spdif input at moment.
I also read usb on dual AK4399 converts to spdif & not as good as true usb hence I started looking at new boards.
Then I started reading good things about AK4495 & see they do dual AK4495 but some people have said weiliang boards have a bad layout.
Hence asking the questions Ninosimon and the other guys have a lot more knowlede experience than myself & have done fantastic improvements to this dac.
Is the AK4490 better than AK4495 then.
I thought the small AK4495 board may be good because it was dicribed as official evaluation pcb & I noticed it looked well laid out small capacitors all close to AK4495 chip ect.
I was wondering about a pcb like this with say the controller module Ninosimon has used to control the usb & display or even two of these boards one per channel if thats posible and better.
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I already use tube output on my dual AK4399 and it does sound great but was thinking of adding usb module to mine because I only use spdif input at moment.
I also read usb on dual AK4399 converts to spdif & not as good as true usb hence I started looking at new boards.
Then I started reading good things about AK4495 & see they do dual AK4495 but some people have said weiliang boards have a bad layout.
Hence asking the questions Ninosimon and the other guys have a lot more knowlede experience than myself & have done fantastic improvements to this dac.
Is the AK4490 better than AK4495 then.
I thought the small AK4495 board may be good because it was dicribed as official evaluation pcb & I noticed it looked well laid out small capacitors all close to AK4495 chip ect.
I was wondering about a pcb like this with say the controller module Ninosimon has used to control the usb & display or even two of these boards one per channel if thats posible and better.
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Hi Dave
You can say that! But surely you knew what you were doing, truly diy, respect!
Proper USB input is a problem with this DAC indeed. AK4490 and AK4495 both need soft control, a micro controller is required. As terranigma explained, for using DSD the DAC must be prepared accordingly, this is done in software using a signal provided by the transport. This software side of the designs can limit your diy possibilities in the end (if you stick to the controller provided that is).
Nino
Hello Dave, in a setup like yours, i think this kind of boards is not really appropriate: they're made to build a simple, medium-low quality dac by enclosing them in a box and not much more. I suggest you to consider the offerings by Jlsounds, Diyinhk or Twisted Pear Audio (not necessarily in this order). For example, a good candidate could be Jlsounds' 2xAK4495 Hummingbird DAC (not yet released) or a well-implemented TPA Buffalo III.
SPDIF USB is not bad at all in this dual AK4399 DAC, if you use an high quality XMOS converter like Jlsounds' own: i think it's in accord to this DAC's quality and not much worse than I2S-connected XMOS.
About this DAC's design flaws, i think it's a matter of targeting. This is a very good low-end DAC, targeted to CD-player owners or the like, so the designers coosed to have AK4113/4118 as the king of input management, that leads to well-above-the-mass spdif quality. It is not meant to become an high end I2S DAC, it costs as low as 150 USD!
But with the right mods it's capable to step a level further, so becoming a good medium-level DAC. I think it's not credible to go another step further, so turning it in a high-end DAC... the modifications needed would cost more than implementing a TPA, Jlsounds or Diyinhk project and the results would not be as good...
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