Experience with this DIY DAC ?

What kind of board did you buy? Spdif input or I2S?

Do you like it's SQ?

I bought this board

AK4495SEQ Dual Parallel Soft Control Board Assembled Support DOP DSD-in Amplifier from Consumer Electronics on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

and have just upgraded to a rasberrypie3 running Piecoreplayer to Hi-Fi Berry DIGI + to Tubleab SSE amp

so using SPDIF for the moment will be goin to I2S later
I started with the LME49720 it was a good upgrade...but I just love the sound of the UTC A20's connected to any DAC I don't now why maybe it suits my tube amp:)

Still more work to be done, boxing Rasberry3 etc
 

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I bought this board

AK4495SEQ Dual Parallel Soft Control Board Assembled Support DOP DSD-in Amplifier from Consumer Electronics on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

and have just upgraded to a rasberrypie3 running Piecoreplayer to Hi-Fi Berry DIGI + to Tubleab SSE amp

so using SPDIF for the moment will be goin to I2S later
I started with the LME49720 it was a good upgrade...but I just love the sound of the UTC A20's connected to any DAC I don't now why maybe it suits my tube amp:)

Still more work to be done, boxing Rasberry3 etc


I know this board, but didn't own or listen to it. Doesn't have I2S input, so you have to create it yourself.

There's something with those boards (and 99% of other AK4495 based boards, even very expensice AK449x based dac's,,,,) you can change to get a much better SQ, especially in low freq.

Article at Hifiduino:
https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/akm-verita-4490-dac/

You have to put bigger caps (in Parallel) between VREFHL/VREFLL and VREFHR/VREFLR Try at least 2200uF, or, if you can, 4700uF.
This really makes a big difference. Probably your design has 100uF only......

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ivzpgUT3UYQlI4ODdDcHBTYkE/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ivzpgUT3UYRmVnbUZmNDBsOFU/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ivzpgUT3UYek93T2dqeXNEWms/view?usp=sharing

I based my MonsterDAC on AK4495SEQ too.
Here's the original version, with isolated XMOS USB input:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ivzpgUT3UYU0tMLVdnQ0NodFk/view?usp=sharing

And this is final version:
With RPI3(PiCoreplayer) + Modified HifiBerry DAC+Pro(I2S) + Discrete Chinese Class-A FET output stage (all in 3M AB5100S+Copper shield)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ivzpgUT3UYVkdBd3UtT1lwQmc/view?usp=sharing

How it sounds? Not to describe with words, it's just R E A L.
Next and final step would be to use FIFO reclock (from Ian Canada).
But product (HAT) is still in development.

Cheers :)

Alex

P.s. Sorry for the picture links, tried to put them straight on the site, but that didn't work, probably too big.....
 
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I am sure that everyone is tired of talking about this but....I bought the Lampucera DAC from Lawrence on ebay. I am really enjoying it so far. I didn't buy the tube stage for it but I am running it to my Fisher 400CX-2.

I have been emailing with Lawrence about this and he suggests the opamp upgrade to a dual channel HDAM which he sells. He said that it is highly suggested and will make a big difference.

Has anyone used this opamp upgrade? Is it noticeable?

Is there anything else that I need to do in the meantime? Maybe change the power supply to a toroidal?

Thanks in advance.
Wendell
 
Hello together,

its been quite a while since people got the Gigaworks DAC from ebay, I hope I still can find help here:
I was using the coax ouput now for many years but now I need to switch to USB. Connecting the DAC via USB with my computer works fine and the DAC gets recognized. So far everything is fine, but somehow I have no sound output.

I know that I have to use jumpers, now my question is, which configuration is correct. Can someone maybe confirm the connection like shown in the attached picture?
And: Are any other changes required to use the USB input?
 

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