ESS Sabre Reference DAC (8-channel)

[nagaesan]

kooda wrote;
>I sent you an email yesterday, with no reply. Did you get it?

Yes, but when I got your e-mail, JAPAN was midnight.
Sorry to reply.

[Russ White]

Originally posted by Muser
Russ/Brian

1) I guess that the existing Buffalo board designs are built to work with the Sabre DAC chip that's already out. So that if I were to purchase your currently "commercially available" Buffalo Board with the existing DAC, I'd have to purchase a new Board (once it's been designed, etc.) to go with the new iteration of Sabre DAC. Is that correct?

2) And, I would also wager that in the process of designing the new boards, you're in deep enough to have no time frame for when the new Buffalo (?) is going to be available.

In anticipation of your gracious reply, Thanks!

Larry

Hi Larry,

1) Correct.

2) We are aiming to get a new design out as soon as practical, but our schedule is dictated by some outside factors beyond our control, so the best we can do is keep our site updated with news about coming attractions.

Cheers!
Russ

[BrianDonegan]

Counterpoint boards have arrived, ready to start testing...

[sachi]

excellent news Brian...

Any chance we can get these boards for testing?

[BrianDonegan]

Originally posted by sachi
excellent news Brian...

Any chance we can get these boards for testing?

not until we test them first.

[EDIT]: I just realized I posted this in the wrong thread. Sorry about that.

[nagaesan]

Hello, may I ask a question?

Does the Counterpoint board have active type(OP-AMP) of I/V conversion stage?

[nagaesan]

I saw the close up photo, it seems like voltage out from ES9008S.
DIY people in this forum, do not like OP-AMP I/V stage?

[BrianDonegan]

No. It is discrete.

[nagaesan]

I am sorry, the Counter point DAC have discrete active I/V stage, and this is not ES9008S?

[Russ White]

Originally posted by nagaesan
I am sorry, the Counter point DAC have discrete active I/V stage, and this is not ES9008S?

The Counterpoint is indeed intended for the ESS9008/ES9018, but it would work equally well with any current output DAC. It is meant specifically our Buffalo DAC. I am not sure how you would make it work with the EVAL board as you would need to exclude the on-board I/V stage. Probably would require some board surgery.

There is a quad opamp on the board, but it is only used to set bias voltages and act as an integrator. It does not do the actual I/V conversion.

It could be called a type of fully symmetrical folded cascode current conveyor design, but not a classic current conveyor. I am really not sure how to classify it.

One cool feature is that the output can be balanced even if you use a single ended current source, but you can take only one end and use it single ended with almost no THD penalty.

I can't wait to fire it up and give it a rip outside the simulator. The earlier prototype worked very well. So hopefully the testing goes ok.

Cheers!
Russ