Experience with this DIY DAC ?

In posting #398 http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1812547#post1812547 I showed you my small 707 DAC with Digitecs trannies in a small enclosure.

I lent this DAC to a friend to compare it to TDA based CD players.

His first feedback is this (translated freely by me from german language):

I tested your DAC and compared it to my Philips CD880 (TDA1541A-S1)
Not bad at all!
I cannot hear any difference listening from the analog out of the Philips or via SPDIF and your DAC.
I made the same comparison with my Marantz CD10: same result!
Soon, I will compare the Marantz/SPDIF out to the Philips/analog out and vice versa.
I remember, when we compared a Studer D731 with the Philips CD880, I could not hear any difference. But the D731 compared to the Marantz: I could recognize a difference.

He will be surprized, when he can listen to the better solution, the upsampling DAC we are talking about here...

So for me this is the best prove, we are on the very good way:

With this DAC's and output trannies, we are able to reach the good sound of the best "old" 16 bit DAC solutions.

But we are also open for higher sample rates up to 24 bits.

Isn't this nice?

Recently, I downloaded some Beethoven recordings from lynnaudio, 96kHz/24 bit.

Mmmmh, very very nice!

And I am also changing my nearfield setup, as I converted my desk into a subwoofer baffle:

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


This picture is shot during construction, not finished. I am using an active lowpass filter and a bridged LM3886 amp to drive the sub.

Franz
 
12ohm resistors added and phase inverted on left channel. Argh! :eek:

It is not good at all Franz! Peter Gabriel is disappeared with the phase inverted! Before to switch phase on left channel the wall was singing and not the lodspeakers. With the phase inverted are the loadspeakers to singing. No, it's not good for me, so I'm gonna switch back the left channel. :)
 
Piero

Use the testfile and burn it on a CD. Easy to test: "My voice is now in phase positioned in the center between the speakers. My voice is now out of phase...".

I am sure, you have another phase error in your audio chain! If not, your DAC PCB must have a different layout.

Franz
 
Franz Gysi said:
(...)
I lent this DAC to a friend to compare it to TDA based CD players.

His first feedback is this (translated freely by me from german language):

"I tested your DAC and compared it to my Philips CD880 (TDA1541A-S1)
Not bad at all!
I cannot hear any difference listening from the analog out of the Philips or via SPDIF and your DAC.
I made the same comparison with my Marantz CD10: same result!
Soon, I will compare the Marantz/SPDIF out to the Philips/analog out and vice versa.
I remember, when we compared a Studer D731 with the Philips CD880, I could not hear any difference. But the D731 compared to the Marantz: I could recognize a difference."

Why this DAC with trannies sounded so damn weak? I borrowed from my friend Marantz CD10 and CD16, and later CD14. My DAC with Sowters mopped the floor with all of them. I'm very, very surprised that someone can't hear any difference between old and mediocre CD880 and this DAC.
Marantz CD10 is far better than Philips CD880, and why he heard no difference? Very, very strange:bigeyes: :bigeyes: :bigeyes:
 
Something I don't think that's been discussed yet - and apologies if it has - is 24/192 operation.

Has anyone managed to actually get this function to work yet? It's advertised as being a 24/192 DAC. Is it a 24/192 capable board / design though?

I've had success with 24/96 files, but haven't as-yet got a source capable of putting out a 24/192 signal - was wondering if anybody had done this?

Cheers,

- John
 
LL1690 diagram and capacitor

legarem said:


Yes, it is connected on the analog ground

In my diagram, I forgot a 0 on the cap value. The good value is: .00047 uF not .0047 uF. Sorry.

If you keep the ,0047 uF, you can also change the 1K for 100 ohms and you'll get a lot more gain with the right cut off frequency.

The capacitor can be polypropylene, polystyrene, mica.



Same "0" missing in the LL1690 diagram I guess (or ajust with 100R)?

Maybe that's why Franz Gysi didn't like the sound with the wrong resistor/capacitor combination at the primary...

And for the capacitors:

I always choose carefully what I put in the signal path. But I'm not familiar with polystyrene and polypropylene of such small value. The RELCAP RTE caps are the only ones I heard from in that area.

Do someone have something to suggest? I'll probably get my LL1690 next week!


:)
 
Hello

For my calculations, twice 1k in series with the trannie and 470pF (0.00047) is resulting in a LP corner frequency of about 680kHz.

I just calculated a simple low pass filter (1k/235pF), without the influence of the following impedance, the trannie itself. Does it shift the corner frequency?

Franz
 
Re: LL1690 diagram and capacitor

crazyfrog said:



Same "0" missing in the LL1690 diagram I guess (or ajust with 100R)?

Maybe that's why Franz Gysi didn't like the sound with the wrong resistor/capacitor combination at the primary...

And for the capacitors:

I always choose carefully what I put in the signal path. But I'm not familiar with polystyrene and polypropylene of such small value. The RELCAP RTE caps are the only ones I heard from in that area.

Do someone have something to suggest? I'll probably get my LL1690 next week!


:)

Cirrus use a 50 khz low pass filter on their own evaluation board so I tried this low pass filter with my dac and loved it. The tonal balance is better with the 50khz low pass frequency

Simply use two 100 ohms and a .015 uF cap and it gives a 53 khz low pass frequency.