Burr Brown PCM 1702

[Spirit84]

Question from a technically challenged member!!
I own a DAC circa 1998 that used the BB PCM1702. It has always served me well and sounds great. My question is:
From a purely sonic point of reference, is there a more modern DAC chip that I could replace the 1702 with that will give me superior, audible results?
If so, how easy is it to retrofit the suggested DAC chip into my unit?

[Nazar_lv]

modern - no
older - yes, AD1862, TDA1541(if accurately cooked), PCM58, PCM1701, PCM63.
But dac is a construction(PCB, schematic) not only the ICs...

[jotom750]

I would not worry to much about advances in CD playback, having just heard a lightly upgraded Kenwood 7090 (£180 with 8 x 1702) better 4 other players up to £5000 with a more musical and open sound.
I have a number of TDA1541 machines and while a bit different, (the TDA's having great liquid mids) the 1702 I think is a great chip. I like them both.

The Linn CD12 used 4 x 1702 :-

StereoTimes - The LINN CD-12 - part 2

Never heard a bad word said about it, other than cost!

One thing I did find interesting though, in our tests is that the mech seemed to play a much smaller part in final sound than I expected. The Kenwood uses a very cheap ksm213 mech.

If you were to read advice on these pages and spend less around £100 on bits, I think that you will probably end up with a great sound. (tweek the upgrade to suit the rest of your system) The late 1980's to mid 1990's seemed to be a great time for CD player design to me.

Just my 2p's worth.

[Bill Fuss]

The 1702s are good chips, it's the stuff after the chips that are the bottleneck. Get rid of the opamps and find a discrete I/V output circuit to use. Get a hold of Spencer, a forum member, he has some output kits you can try. There are others too, use the search.

Best, Bill

[Nazar_lv]

OFF

Kenwood 7090

very bad sounding player, 5843 brrr

[Eric Juaneda]

Hi Bill Fuss,

Originally Posted by Bill Fuss

The 1702s are good chips, it's the stuff after the chips that are the bottleneck. Get rid of the opamps and find a discrete I/V output circuit to use...

The quality of the power supply is important too.

The PCM1702 is a 20bit DAC. The CD are recorded with only 16bit, your PCM1702 never works at full potential.

I use PCM1702 in my personal non-oversampling DAC:Jundac One

[jotom750]

Originally Posted by Nazar_lv

OFFvery bad sounding player, 5843 brrr

I only say what I and six other people thought, when listening to
equipment costing many thousands of pounds.

You are entitled to your view, as we are ours.

Kenwood CD 7090 CD player lampizator

Look down the list of machines which use PCM1702, quite good company!

[MJL21193]

Originally Posted by Eric Juaneda

Hi Bill Fuss,
The quality of the power supply is important too.

Use a 24-0-24, 300VA transformer to obtain +/-5VDC???

[Eric Juaneda]

Hi MJL21193,

Originally Posted by MJL21193

Use a 24-0-24, 300VA transformer to obtain +/-5VDC???

You are speaking about Jundac One power supply. In this power supply, I use big inductor (10H) to slice current. This inductor 'eat' a lot of tension. The tension after the inductor is under 12V.

[Andrea:]

Hey, have you heard the CS4398?