Need DAC Recommendations

[Kurt von Kubik]

There are many projects available out there, but the majority of them seems to be NOS DACs based upon old Philips chips.
This maybe because there are not really many commercial NOS DACs available.
Actually these projects are a puzzle to me. I´ve heard nos DACs with both tube and SS output and the performance is IMHO neither smooth nor natural.
Worst of all though is the aliasing problems and as a result of that, the need for brickwall filtering above 1/2 fS. The filter can hardly be made at all without cutting of lower than 20KHz, and on top of that, a lot of phaseshift @ much lower frequencies occurs.
This can IMHO not be overheard at all. Imaging suffers severely and the sound seems some kind of rough, undetailed and grumsy and also often woolly.

So stay by newer projects, eventually some of those with adjustment features.

[gorko1]

Originally Posted by Kurt von Kubik

So stay by newer projects, eventually some of those with adjustment features.

Any recommendations ?

[Kurt von Kubik]

Originally Posted by gorko1

Any recommendations ?

Well I do have some favourites, but my absolute favourite is a project where I´m involved myself, so that would look like an advert.
So if you are going for god solid engineering and a reasonably easy building proces, you could look at Dave´s project here DAC PCBs for sale. The PCM 1794 has actually adjustable digital filters, so that could be an apropriate project, and even so you can make experiments with the choice of op-amps. So this a pretty open project, where you can personalize it in some sense.

If you are a very skilled solderer and you do know about electronic circuits, this project of ours could be a possible solution to your needs DAC project completed .
But be aware that the project is not yet completely closed, which could lead to some minor adjustments later on.
What complicates it is the large number of components and the very compact PCB layout.
This project is a lot more closed as all important choises are already taken. You actually just need to assemble it and get it going, it is not a subject to modification at all as Dave´s project could be.

you´ll therefor have to consider both how difficult the projects are, and the upsides and downsides of them, but both of these are at least modern, and they won´t pollute your stereo chain with supersonic signals @ very high levels causing clipping of even well engineered amplifiers.

If your system is very bandwith limited, NOS DAC´s might go anyway, but normally this calls for transformercoupled tube endstages, in other set-ups you shouldn´t introduce problems like that.

[mtl777]

Hi Kurt, would you be able to sell a completed, ready to use unit of your DAC? I'm planning to use it with my PC using coax S/PDIF connection from my M-Audio Delta 1010 sound card. Will it work fine this way?

[Kurt von Kubik]

Originally Posted by mtl777

Hi Kurt, would you be able to sell a completed, ready to use unit of your DAC? I'm planning to use it with my PC using coax S/PDIF connection from my M-Audio Delta 1010 sound card. Will it work fine this way?

Well it will work together with a PC if properly isolated i.e. with a pulsetransformer, which might already be present in you SPDIF output or eventually optically isolated by Toslink, but presumeably with lower quality as a result (Toslink does not have as wide bandwith as RCA.
But I think that would be overkill. It is a no compromise design, build for the most critical hypernerds. But if you want one anyway you can have one, either as the completed PCB´s or as a complete DAC with enclosure, and set-up for the mains required.
Give me a hint if it is any interest to you, because I´ve only got one enclosure left over, and from there on it can only be done in series of 5.

[mtl777]

Originally Posted by Kurt von Kubik

Well it will work together with a PC if properly isolated i.e. with a pulsetransformer, which might already be present in you SPDIF output or eventually optically isolated by Toslink, but presumeably with lower quality as a result (Toslink does not have as wide bandwith as RCA.
But I think that would be overkill. It is a no compromise design, build for the most critical hypernerds. But if you want one anyway you can have one, either as the completed PCB´s or as a complete DAC with enclosure, and set-up for the mains required.
Give me a hint if it is any interest to you, because I´ve only got one enclosure left over, and from there on it can only be done in series of 5.

How much would a complete DAC with enclosure cost in USD? And how much for shipping from Denmark to US?

[mtl777]

Originally Posted by planet10

This new one is very good value for the dollar ... http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=70947

dave

For budget reasons, and due to time constraints (have no time to build from parts as I'm in a hurry to get my home recording studio going), I finally decided to pull the trigger and ordered the TubeDAC-09. I hope it goes well!

Dave, Ian Grant said you had one for a week. I'm curious to know what your impressions were. Care to share how you think it compares with other DACs that you've heard in the past? I'm particularly interested in comparisons with the Beresford TC-7520 or 7510 or even the Benchmark DAC1 -- hope you've heard one of those. Thanks!

[planet10]

It was actually longer than that. We were quite pleased with it, especially now that we know the price point. We will be getting another for more thorough evaluation (& dissection). We just know there is room for greening...

We haven't compared it to big buck ones (unless you include that part of the Linn CD12), but it was in the same league as the DAC in Chris' Jolida (which got choosen over that same CD12), out did Chris' CityPulse >$500. It was neck & neck with the Edirol FireWire ADC/DAC we got primarily for doing measures.

One of our buddies has a Benchmark, and another has his only Brick, so at some point in time...

dave

dave

[mtl777]

Thanks! Do you think it has good potential for modding? I might look into modding it to improve it further when I have the time. Looks like it could use a better opamp than LF353N.

[planet10]

Originally Posted by mtl777

Thanks! Do you think it has good potential for modding? I might look into modding it to improve it further when I have the time. Looks like it could use a better opamp than LF353N.

Yes...As a cheap DAC there aresome cheap parts... it does have a substantial R-Core trafo which makes it a good base to work from.

dave