Hi All,
I got mine working yesterday using a 10 va 2 x 12vac trafo. It's only cludged together haphazardly on a piece of scrap board, but so far the results are quite favorable. I'll let it burn in a bit and get working on a decent case so that I can compare it against my EZDAC(Brown Burr PCM 1794) and Twisted Pear Opus DAC (Wolfson 8741).
PJN
I got mine working yesterday using a 10 va 2 x 12vac trafo. It's only cludged together haphazardly on a piece of scrap board, but so far the results are quite favorable. I'll let it burn in a bit and get working on a decent case so that I can compare it against my EZDAC(Brown Burr PCM 1794) and Twisted Pear Opus DAC (Wolfson 8741).
PJN
It's 1.75VRMS, so guess I would say similar, 2V is normal line level. Ipod is less than 1V.
1) different opions
2) yes
3) there is a switch supplied
What is B1?
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Hi Pietjers,
You probably right, but it was laying around so it was fast and was basically free. I'll most probably upgrade the trafo and the output caps in the near future.
As for I2k92's question, compared to my CD player the DAC output is slightly lower. I need to increase the preamp volume with the DAC to have the same loudness as for the CD player.
PJN
You probably right, but it was laying around so it was fast and was basically free. I'll most probably upgrade the trafo and the output caps in the near future.
As for I2k92's question, compared to my CD player the DAC output is slightly lower. I need to increase the preamp volume with the DAC to have the same loudness as for the CD player.
PJN
It's a simple JFET buffer with volume control. (Circuit by Pass)
See here: http://www.passdiy.com/pdf/B1 Buffer Preamp.pdf
and here: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pass-labs/124889-b1-buffer-preamp.html
-Nelson
I just got finiched my case so I'll be able to do a fair comparision this week. But it is sounding very nice on the piece of plywood I have it set up on. It has improved after some burn in time. I replaced the 10 VA 12vac transformer with a 25 VA 9vac one, no real change in sound. Maybe better dynamics, but could also be from burning in for a few hours. I also picked up some sonicaps to try as coupling caps. I'll post my results soon.
PJN
PJN
Dac review :
Ok so I finished boxing up this DAC and had the chance to try it out on the same system against some others. Stock it sounds very good for the money, much better that a stock sony ES CD player that I have. Lots of detail, low noise floor, but maybe ever so slightly cupped sounding on some female vocals, but that might be an artifact that might go away after more burn in time. I changed the output capacitors out to sonicraft Gen 1 bypassed with 0.1 uF GenII. This yielded a nice improvement, no more cupped vocals, open, relaxed, realistic vocals. Auditioned it vs Brown Burr PCM 1794 in my EZDAC, EZDAC is very detailed but colder sounding I liked this DAC better, warmer yet still detailed, better more solid base. Against the Wolfson 8741 in my Twisted Pear Opus DAC it was hard to have a preference, they sounded very similar and that is high praise. Both are very natural and warm sounding. This DAC might have been ever so slightly more detailed, but hard to say in a short listen. The bottom line is that I am impressed and pleased with this DAC, and it gets even better when you upgrade the output capacitors.
PJN
Ok so I finished boxing up this DAC and had the chance to try it out on the same system against some others. Stock it sounds very good for the money, much better that a stock sony ES CD player that I have. Lots of detail, low noise floor, but maybe ever so slightly cupped sounding on some female vocals, but that might be an artifact that might go away after more burn in time. I changed the output capacitors out to sonicraft Gen 1 bypassed with 0.1 uF GenII. This yielded a nice improvement, no more cupped vocals, open, relaxed, realistic vocals. Auditioned it vs Brown Burr PCM 1794 in my EZDAC, EZDAC is very detailed but colder sounding I liked this DAC better, warmer yet still detailed, better more solid base. Against the Wolfson 8741 in my Twisted Pear Opus DAC it was hard to have a preference, they sounded very similar and that is high praise. Both are very natural and warm sounding. This DAC might have been ever so slightly more detailed, but hard to say in a short listen. The bottom line is that I am impressed and pleased with this DAC, and it gets even better when you upgrade the output capacitors.
PJN
Attachments
Nick, I looked through the thread for USB info.
What is the type of USB interface?
Is MAC OS 10.6.4 and on natively supported?
Is it iso-synchronous (the PC of MAC being the Master) or a-synchronus (The USB receiver being the Master)? Some prefer a-synchronous as better, but the TE chip does not support that.
You started in the thread with the comment on low cost.
Why not a version without the DAC's - as for instance I have a (TDA1541) DAC that I want to connect the USB to.
What is the type of USB interface?
Is MAC OS 10.6.4 and on natively supported?
Is it iso-synchronous (the PC of MAC being the Master) or a-synchronus (The USB receiver being the Master)? Some prefer a-synchronous as better, but the TE chip does not support that.
You started in the thread with the comment on low cost.
Why not a version without the DAC's - as for instance I have a (TDA1541) DAC that I want to connect the USB to.
Mac os is natively supported.
The tda1541 is a very different dac and would not be possible to use with this board. We might consider other (drop in replacement) dac chips later.
Thanks for this info (it would mean another I2S schema on the interface to the DAC of course).
albert
Hi, For JP2, It select the DAC supply voltage(digital part) at 3.3V/5V, that depend on the DAC chip, for example, CS4398 use 3.3V.
And JP1 use to bypass the CS8421(open=bypass), But we suggest a board without cs8421 if you really don't need a up-sampling.
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