Anyone tried this Ebay dac?

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hehe Thats the First thing i thought of! So its not that! But should it go in theory? from coax out to USB in?

I did not understand your question. The Tenor board is used to convert USB to coaxal. Consequently you must the Tenor board by USB cable to PC and coaxial output of that board to coaxial input of the DAC board. PC must automatically recognize it as USB audio device. Perhaps you will need to set this audio device as default audio device.
 
So i tried every output on that Tenor board, and could not get sound from it through the USB input on the board!

BUT since im gonna use this tenor board i soldered it to the Coaxial input on the DAC. Its the only Solution i can come up with right now, and it works!
So im gonna use the dac for a day know, and then i will comment on how it sounds :D
 
Th idea what was presented by someone in the start of this thread was that i remove the Coaxial on the Tenor board, and then remove the old 2706 usb card from the dac and where that was connected, connect the Coaxial to the USB in on the dac board!

OK, I understood that idea. It might work. If for any reason it doesn't then you can continue to use the Tenor board via coaxial input of the DAC board.

I am very much interested in your report of sound quality via this Tenor board. Can you compare sound of FLAC files with different resolution (16bit/41.4kHz with FLAC 24/96kHz)?
I can provide to you some files for that comparison in case if you don't have it.
 
I do have Some tracks, but im very interested in the files you have! :D

Hi Solviken. I have many SACDs digitally ripped, but due to very limited upload bandwidth I can share only a few tracks. I uploaded here The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.rar ??????? ? ?????@Mail.Ru 2 tracks of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing Bond themes. In the archive file there are 2 tracks in CD quality and the same tracks in 24bit/96kHz. Would you please compare sound quality?

By the way I have tried to play 24bit/192kHz tracks and surprisingly this DAC played them without any problem although DIR9001 reciever can accept up to 96kHz. I don't have explanation of that, but it is good.

I have tried this DAC with UTC A-20 transformers connected via 220R to WM8741 outputs, but I like more sound coming from its LPF equipped with LME49720 OPAs

How do you like sound of this DAC? I love it:)!
 
Hi Solviken. I have many SACDs digitally ripped, but due to very limited upload bandwidth I can share only a few tracks. I uploaded here The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.rar ??????? ? ?????@Mail.Ru 2 tracks of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing Bond themes. In the archive file there are 2 tracks in CD quality and the same tracks in 24bit/96kHz. Would you please compare sound quality?

By the way I have tried to play 24bit/192kHz tracks and surprisingly this DAC played them without any problem although DIR9001 reciever can accept up to 96kHz. I don't have explanation of that, but it is good.

I have tried this DAC with UTC A-20 transformers connected via 220R to WM8741 outputs, but I like more sound coming from its LPF equipped with LME49720 OPAs

How do you like sound of this DAC? I love it:)!

Perhaps your sound card or player software downsampled the 24/192 materials into 24/96 ? So it can be accepted by DIR9001.

I have Tenor chip on other DAC and I use Jplay as my music player software with Win 7. In my opinion the USB input with Tenor sounds better than the spdif input (with DIR9001) on the same DAC. Perhaps it is not because the hardware but because with USB, Jplay uses kernel streaming mode versus Wasapi with spdif. I'll try to compare your standard vs hi-res file.

What I want to say is that in PC based music system not only the chips matters, the way the music player software communicates with the interface is also very important.
 
Perhaps your sound card or player software downsampled the 24/192 materials into 24/96 ? So it can be accepted by DIR9001.

Thanks for the replay. I use Western Digital Player with option "Digital Pass through via Optical output". In my opinion it must Not do any downsampling with this option, but who knows what it really does? I have to check it somehow. Do you know a method to check it out? Perhaps with oscilloscope connected to a pin of DIR9001

I'll try to compare your standard vs hi-res file.

Thank you very much in advance.
 
HI AGAin :D

So ive been away on vacation for some weeks now! Sorry for not answering sooner! Im done with the dac a long time ago! and Yes i LOVE how it sound on my B&W 683. I will take som HIGH res pictures of the end result. And i am downloading Valeri100 rar file now! so i will compare the tracks!

Right now my friend has borrowd the dac and is using it on his BWM CM9 and he just loves the sound. And dosnt wanna give it back to me :) hehe. I will report back soon with pictures and other details :)
 
I like how mine sounds- even with stock USB card!

I do like how mine sounds(alot)- even with stock USB card. It connects nicely with my PC-no problems(Windows detected it and music played without delay).

I've replaced the rather pedestrian OP275 with a pair of Brown-Dog mounted OPA627AU. I'm currently comparing the JRC Muses 8820 and 8920 OPA's(so far, before break-in, the sound is slightly more forward than the OP627).

Am also in the process of replacing the 1nf film caps around the OPA with Wima MKP10's.

Why are some recommending the Tenor boards again?

The sound quality easily rivals my $3k CS4398 based Pre-Pro, and maybe even better(extended listening will tell).

-Chas
 

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I added some heatsinks to get the temps down on the voltage regulators, which were running mighty toasty indeed.

Now everything runs cooler, which, hopefully, should extend the lives of everything on the board.

Overall a very good value in a multi-purpose DAC.

Mighty fine.

-Chas
 

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