Help me decide which of these 2 TDA1541 based DAC kits to buy.

marchel · 19th April 2010, 12:58 AM

I'm looking forward to upgrade the sound of my sony player, But I dont have the time to build a DAC from scratch or buy a board and source the parts separately, I can only buy a kit , may it be assembled or not , as long as the parts are complete, Been searching alot, And it came down to this two different TDa1541 dac implementations.

My question is , Which of these two have better implementation, From board layout to power regulation count and to the analog stage design, based on what can be seen from the pictures provided by the seller.

The first one is from hifidiy.net , A single TDA1541 chip dac with tube output stage amd no opamp on the signal path. TDA1541 DAC - $265.00 : hifidiy.net

The second one is from raindrop_hui of Ebay, DAC Kit DIR9001+TDA1541A 2.0B OS/NOS with HDAM - eBay (item 320517099516 end time Apr-23-10 23:56:44 PDT)

Note, I provided this pic from raindrop_hui of Ebay without his permission, For the Purpose that this can be seen for a longer time possible , than Ebay auction would allow. The Pictures of the Diyhifi.net dac can be seen on the link.

SoNic_real_one · 05:08 PM

Raindrop_hui's one looks really nice, dual DAC, HDAM I/V conversion, nice OpAmps, nice caps, DIR9001 receiver.
I was looking into that one too...
Also, I am not found of NOS sound and I am glad that the raindrop_hui one it is switchable.

paul_peraic · 6th November 2010, 04:27 PM

Some people have reported noise and voltage problems with their Hui Raindrop dual TDA1514A DAC's

But I guess this could be a few isolated cases ?

paul_peraic · 4th December 2010, 04:06 AM

After Buying the Raindrop Dual Td1514A DAC I can say there are no problems
with the quality of the product my only negative would be that the when replacing better quality components is that they are very hard to remove without damaging the double sided layer track so it seems the 2mm thick track stated is not thick enough as you have to be extremely careful when removing components (or a magician).

qusp · 4th December 2010, 05:22 AM

its 2mm wide, not thick, sounds like they used only 1/2oz or less copper thickness. you are desoldering everything as much as possible first, or just heating and pulling? do you have a set of hot tweezers? also adding flux when you do this helps

19th April 2010, 12:58 AM	#1
marchel diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2007	Help me decide which of these 2 TDA1541 based DAC kits to buy. I'm looking forward to upgrade the sound of my sony player, But I dont have the time to build a DAC from scratch or buy a board and source the parts separately, I can only buy a kit , may it be assembled or not , as long as the parts are complete, Been searching alot, And it came down to this two different TDa1541 dac implementations. My question is , Which of these two have better implementation, From board layout to power regulation count and to the analog stage design, based on what can be seen from the pictures provided by the seller. The first one is from hifidiy.net , A single TDA1541 chip dac with tube output stage amd no opamp on the signal path. TDA1541 DAC - $265.00 : hifidiy.net The second one is from raindrop_hui of Ebay, DAC Kit DIR9001+TDA1541A 2.0B OS/NOS with HDAM - eBay (item 320517099516 end time Apr-23-10 23:56:44 PDT) Note, I provided this pic from raindrop_hui of Ebay without his permission, For the Purpose that this can be seen for a longer time possible , than Ebay auction would allow. The Pictures of the Diyhifi.net dac can be seen on the link.

19th April 2010, 05:05 PM	#2
SoNic_real_one diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Virginia	Raindrop_hui's one looks really nice, dual DAC, HDAM I/V conversion, nice OpAmps, nice caps, DIR9001 receiver. I was looking into that one too... Also, I am not found of NOS sound and I am glad that the raindrop_hui one it is switchable. Last edited by SoNic_real_one; 19th April 2010 at 05:08 PM.

6th November 2010, 04:27 PM	#3
paul_peraic diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2008	Hui Raindrop dual TDA1514A DAC Some people have reported noise and voltage problems with their Hui Raindrop dual TDA1514A DAC's But I guess this could be a few isolated cases ?

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4th December 2010, 04:06 AM	#4
paul_peraic diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2008	After Buying the Raindrop Dual Td1514A DAC I can say there are no problems with the quality of the product my only negative would be that the when replacing better quality components is that they are very hard to remove without damaging the double sided layer track so it seems the 2mm thick track stated is not thick enough as you have to be extremely careful when removing components (or a magician).

4th December 2010, 05:22 AM	#5
qusp Sometimes a square peg fits a round hole just fine diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Brisbane, Australia	its 2mm wide, not thick, sounds like they used only 1/2oz or less copper thickness. you are desoldering everything as much as possible first, or just heating and pulling? do you have a set of hot tweezers? also adding flux when you do this helps

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