Experience with this DIY DAC ?

[hoverdonkey]

I have Tamura trannies on this DAC which sound great... but I am reading here more and more good things about those UTC A-20s.

Has anyone tried both? Can you tempt me to spend the £££? Are they good enough that my cat should go hungry?

[brianco]

Originally posted by hoverdonkey
I have Tamura trannies on this DAC which sound great... but I am reading here more and more good things about those UTC A-20s.

Has anyone tried both? Can you tempt me to spend the ���? Are they good enough that my cat should go hungry?

NO - they are not that good! Unless your cat is confined to your home, in which case I would borrow some budgies and or goldfish, he should be able to scavenge a meal here and there.....ours lives in the country and is rather partial to rabbit; and our neighbour's cat's food which he steals. They have a cat flap! He also likes music!

The Tamuras come in all sorts of quality and configurations. Their best stuff is as good as any. They make stuff right across the price/technical quality scale: I have a 30 year old retired Sony Tuner - it has a Tamura mains Tx. If your Tamuras have been pulled from old studio gear they may be either very good or not so good or anywhere between. Unless you are feeling that they are not that good I would leave them be and let your cat get fat! But unless you know the exact equipment they came from no one can tell without hearing/fully measuring them whether they are (technically) better than the A-20s .

The A-20 UTC Txs are well documented and made to a very high quality. They have a wide bandwidth and and no one here has bad mouthed them for the present purpose. Unless you risk about £100 you wont know either way so be lucky

[Mush]

Line level transformers are rarely found in mass market gear. I would assume that your Tamuras are from studio equipment. That puts them at the top of the game.

Cat bless you. Dog bless you too.

[brianco]

Originally posted by Mush
Line level transformers are rarely found in mass market gear. I would assume that your Tamuras are from studio equipment. That puts them at the top of the game.

Cat bless you. Dog bless you too.

They did also make lower than top quality stuff for economy boards. Their absolute best stuff is too expensive other than for the absolute highest quality desks. Hence my last remarks.

Now dogs are a different proposition to cats. Unless they are street dogs or have been dumped in the wild they will always choose to eat at home!


(only dog smilie I could find)

[legarem]

Originally posted by hoverdonkey
I have Tamura trannies on this DAC which sound great... but I am reading here more and more good things about those UTC A-20s.

Has anyone tried both? Can you tempt me to spend the £££? Are they good enough that my cat should go hungry?

I have Tamuras Yamaha GA80080 and UTC HA-108 which are bigger and have a special core better than A-20

Tamura

High definition sound, lot of details, little light in the bass which is well controlled

UTC

Lot of bass, goes lower (bigger core ?) lush mids, deeper soundstage. Soft treble less detailed than the Tam

The UTC shows 20khz square waves that doesn't goes as high as the Tam. By listening, this means that the UTC is mellower in the treble and has a predominence in the mid -bass mid which gives it romantic sound.

[piero7]

Hi legarem thanks for the infos, and a comparation A-20 HA-108? More basses due big core, and the rest?

[Bill Fuss]

Originally posted by hoverdonkey
I have Tamura trannies on this DAC which sound great... but I am reading here more and more good things about those UTC A-20s.

Has anyone tried both? Can you tempt me to spend the £££? Are they good enough that my cat should go hungry?

I think you should buy a pair, and if you don't like them you can send them to me for disposal, free of charge.

[hoverdonkey]

Originally posted by legarem


I have Tamuras Yamaha GA80080 and UTC HA-108 which are bigger and have a special core better than A-20

Tamura

High definition sound, lot of details, little light in the bass which is well controlled

UTC

Lot of bass, goes lower (bigger core ?) lush mids, deeper soundstage. Soft treble less detailed than the Tam

The UTC shows 20khz square waves that doesn't goes as high as the Tam. By listening, this means that the UTC is mellower in the treble and has a predominence in the mid -bass mid which gives it romantic sound.

Thanks guys

I too have the Tamura GA80080s (from a Yamaha PM-1000 mixing desk apparently) - I wholly agree with legarem's description of them.

I have only two itches with my system at the moment - 1) it's a bit bright and 2) there is a hole in the lower mid/upper bass. From legarem's description, it could just be that some UTC 108s help with both...

Excuse me while I put some bird seed by the cat flap...


PS Bill - Thanks for your kind offer!

[johnm]

Hi folks!

My pair of UTC A-20 have just arrived (woohoo no customs duty to pay for once!) and I want to double-check the wiring, this might also help others here as a reference:


For use with this DAC then we need the 500 ohm primary/secondary taps.

Primary connections:

Signal enters at pin 1, which is joined to pin 6.

Pins 3, 4 and earth (CT) are connected together.

Secondary connections:

Signal exits pin 7, which is joined to pin 12.

Pins 9, 10 and earth (CT) are connected together.


Is this correct? I'd appreciate it if someone could correct any mistakes.

Many thanks,

- John

[Bill Fuss]

Originally posted by johnm
Hi folks!

My pair of UTC A-20 have just arrived (woohoo no customs duty to pay for once!) and I want to double-check the wiring, this might also help others here as a reference:


For use with this DAC then we need the 500 ohm primary/secondary taps.

Primary connections:

Signal enters at pin 1, which is joined to pin 6.

Pins 3, 4 and earth (CT) are connected together.

Secondary connections:

Signal exits pin 7, which is joined to pin 12.

Pins 9, 10 and earth (CT) are connected together.


Is this correct? I'd appreciate it if someone could correct any mistakes.

Many thanks,

- John

Hi John,

Both the DAC chip and the transformers are differential devices, no grounds are needed or wanted. Tie 3 and 4 together and 1 and 6 go to the dac chip, likewise on the secondary, tie 9 and 10 together and use 7 and 12 for the output to an RCA jack or XLR. Just keep the phasing consistent channel to channel. That's it, enjoy.

Bill