The powersupply of the opus dac is actualy reasonable wel, vldo regulatos with good decoupling.
No outputbuffer, the opus is voltage out there is no big need for an output buffer. But if you need it, you can put whatever buffer you like after the Opus dac.
It is a simple dac and I agree no Ultra High End (whatever that may be).
But to my ears it does the job.
Gr Gert-Jan
No outputbuffer, the opus is voltage out there is no big need for an output buffer. But if you need it, you can put whatever buffer you like after the Opus dac.
It is a simple dac and I agree no Ultra High End (whatever that may be).
But to my ears it does the job.
Gr Gert-Jan
I see some folks throwing in some tube output stage DAC's... Ik don't think anyone having an ExtremeA amplifier would want something like that. If I had to guess, steaxauce is probably looking with the best specs to be found, so the best THD+N, great ripple and stopband, and great noise figures... At least, I would look for that if I had one of those amps..
Why would that be?
You mentioned Wadia? What do they offer that DIY could not do? So what if they have some crazy upsampling ******** in their stuff. Since any commercially available upsampler will have better specs than any DAC out there (even those Wadia uses), so it really doesn't matter... And obviously there is loads of more marketing stuff out there for very simple principles that DIY'ers have done already in some way. Give it a fancy name and make sure no-one opens the box to look at it -> great concept
So i guess, with the stuff available to all DIY'ers, you can make a very good DAC, that will actually rival anything commercially available, specially for the price you pay for it.
analog_sa said:
Why would that be?
You mentioned Wadia? What do they offer that DIY could not do? So what if they have some crazy upsampling ******** in their stuff. Since any commercially available upsampler will have better specs than any DAC out there (even those Wadia uses), so it really doesn't matter... And obviously there is loads of more marketing stuff out there for very simple principles that DIY'ers have done already in some way. Give it a fancy name and make sure no-one opens the box to look at it -> great concept
So i guess, with the stuff available to all DIY'ers, you can make a very good DAC, that will actually rival anything commercially available, specially for the price you pay for it.
4real said:
I agree for the most part. There are some notable exceptions that unless you have extremely "deep pockets" to buy the design and test equipment you could not rival. I do not think anybody will be programming Xilinx FPGA chips at home to make a custom DAC that works similar to, and rivals, the Chord DAC64 or something from EMM Labs or DCS.
However, if you are looking at something like Musical Fidelity's KW DM25 DAC - then that is something you can do on a DIY basis without shelling out retail $$$. Of course, as mentioned earlier, the new DAC by ESS called the Sabre Reference Audio DAC (chip ES9008) is the cutting edge, and putting a good circuit around that will probably surpass nearly everything esoteric on the market.
InfiniteGain said:
The press release for the Sabre DAC said it is $29 in lots of 1000. Can you imagine how expensive it would be in single/small quantities? And to achieve the 134 dB spec (which is for mono), you would need two chips. Otherwise the DNR goes down to 128 dB. Not only that but it's 64LQFP. Most people shy away from SSOP. Even if the Sabre DAC isn't vaporware, I don't see it having any impact on the DIY market.
I also wouldn't describe my design as "ultra high-end", but thought some people here might be interested.
It uses the WM8805 SPDIF receiver (which is a multiplexed version of the WM8804) to receive 2 optical inputs, one coaxial and one USB. This then goes to two WM8740s in dual mono configuration. It is also designed to work with the WM8741 once it is properly available. There are also output filters on the same board, as well as a microprocessor to control the WM8805 from switch inputs and headers for LEDs to show the current input source.
As I said, not "ultra high-end", but feel free to have a look:
Jambo DAC
I hope to have kits available soon - prototype PCBs arriving Monday.
It uses the WM8805 SPDIF receiver (which is a multiplexed version of the WM8804) to receive 2 optical inputs, one coaxial and one USB. This then goes to two WM8740s in dual mono configuration. It is also designed to work with the WM8741 once it is properly available. There are also output filters on the same board, as well as a microprocessor to control the WM8805 from switch inputs and headers for LEDs to show the current input source.
As I said, not "ultra high-end", but feel free to have a look:
Jambo DAC
I hope to have kits available soon - prototype PCBs arriving Monday.
Well.. in my one, as analog_sa hinted, I2S to SPDIF conversion and then back to I2S again isn't as ideal as it could be. Also, many people prefer current out DACs with an external I/V stage.
Price also pays a big part of it, when the O/P stated his budget at $2000 (IIRC) it suggests that he's looking for something a bit mindblowing. I also said it first to avoid being flamed, tho I see analog_sa tried his best anyway
Price also pays a big part of it, when the O/P stated his budget at $2000 (IIRC) it suggests that he's looking for something a bit mindblowing. I also said it first to avoid being flamed, tho I see analog_sa tried his best anyway
ezkcdude said:
From the whitepaper:
http://www.esstech.com/techsupp/sabrewp.pdf
Abstract—The Sabre DAC is an octal audio digital to analog
converter each individual channel of which performs with a DNR
of >127dB. If used as a Stereo DAC the performance exceeds
130dB. The THD of each of the eight DACs is less than 0.0001%
(120dB). This technical note outlines the critical components of
the Sabre DAC that contribute to these performance levels.
Stereo is 130db DNR. More importantly, the THD is much lower than anything out there if the numbers hold up.
Also note, the DNR/THD limitations seemed to be at the I/V stage... And I think I have an answer for that.
Cheers!
Russ
Spartacus said:
Only 3dB?...That 3dB is on a logarithmic scale! Are we really realizing how much 3db is? A 6dB volume change is DOUBLING the volume, the 3dB in paralleling DAC chips in mono is a 50% improvement in whatever aspect the dB measurement is in (SNR, DNR, THD or anything else measured in dB) so 3dB is a significant difference.
It comes down to whether you can hear it, and that always comes down to how good the next bit of your sound reproduction system is (amp and speakers).
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