A NOS 192/24 DAC with the PCM1794 (and WaveIO USB input)

Bjarne,

Now playing since a week with Audio Note tantalum 2w non magnetic resistors. Before this I tried the standard supply and Allen Bradley.
These tantalums are in my opinion the very best resistors in this spot, try them, you will be amazed of the detail, clarity and energy boost they add.

Regards,

Have you also tried the TX2575 Texas Components?
Pretty expensive but might be worth a try.

Color graphs for Jack Walton's regulator article in linear audio Vol 4

Linear Audio Volume 4 has a long-awaited article by Jack Walton, comparing a large number of low power supply regulators. Comparison includes measurements and controlled listening tests by the New Jersey Audio Club.

The article has a several rather busy graphs with curves in various shades of grey. The readability could be better, so I regenerated those graphs in color and posted them here on-line.

Fig 5, positive regulators Line Rejection: http://www.linearaudio.net/images/letters.pdf/V4%20JW%20F5.pdf
Fig 6, negative regulators Line Rejection: http://www.linearaudio.net/images/letters.pdf/V4%20JW%20F6.pdf
Fig 7, positive regulators Output Noise: http://www.linearaudio.net/images/letters.pdf/V4%20JW%20F7.pdf
Fig 8, positive regulators Output Impedance: http://www.linearaudio.net/images/letters.pdf/V4%20JW%20F8.pdf
Fig 9, negative regulator Output Impedance: http://www.linearaudio.net/images/letters.pdf/V4%20JW%20F9.pdf


Regards,
Rudy
copy and paste from linear audio website ;)
 

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Hi Rudy,

Pretty interesting power supply test. A bit strange conclusion however, Salas regs are very good in line rejection and output noise. The overall conclusion however is worse than a simple LM317.
As I have used LM 317 a lot and noted they are really bad in audio, I have my doubts about the conclusions!

Have some AD797 lying around so I maybe will build the jung regulator to try, or I might not........... I am very happy with the Salas regs now ;)

Regarding the TI resistors; I expect they are good resistors, as doing the resistor job in an exact an stable way.
But; metal film resistors never exited me sonically. I prefer good carbon films and tantalum overall, and some types of wire wound ( even self builds) for kathode reisistor in tube amps.

Everyone his onwn taste :p

Regards,
 
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OK I've removed the capacitors from the output and connected the 3 pins on each side straight to the XLR sockets.

I am getting 130mV at the speaker outputs, and am assuming that this is not a good thing.

according to UCD, you should be able to leave out pin 1. so only connect pos and neg terminal to pin 2 and pin 3.

you can trim the DC offset back to zero to add a multi turn trimmer of say 10kparallel over one of the Rloads ( trial and error, which one to pick !!)

by creating a bit lower r load at one side, you can trim the whole DC offset back to almost zero.

worth trying ....
 
Pretty interesting power supply test. A bit strange conclusion however, Salas regs are very good in line rejection and output noise. The overall conclusion however is worse than a simple LM317.
As I have used LM 317 a lot and noted they are really bad in audio, I have my doubts about the conclusions!

LM317...... Yes, wouldn't touch it for audio. But a few pennies more.... LD1085... same circuit, night and day difference.

I compared Salas shunt to series reg in a post much earlier in this thread, (probably a year ago now), and stuck with the cheap, (relatively speaking), LT1764 reg boards I bought on eBay, which I'm still using. I meant to buy a pair of Doede's power supply kits when he made them available, but never got around to it, and now just think, if it ain't broke what am I trying to fix. ;)

A couple of months ago, I tried a Twisted Pear Placid HD shunt supply for the 12V rail powering the DDAC. The eBay LT1764 reg went back into the circuit. Can't justify the cost of the Placid for zero audible improvement. YMMV.
 
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Hi

I've ordered a pair of Cinemag transformers and was wondering if the Rload resistor across the rca connectors at the output need changing to different value as the Tx's are best when seeing 15K.

Thanks, si
the 100k are generic bleeders for the output capacitors. if using transformers it is advicable to use the right load. in this case 15k. but feel free to experiment. it is not critical nor "one value fits every ones rest of audio chain sound print" ;)
 
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Hi,
I have a sugestion for Foobar users.
Doede's strongly advises to use the Wasapi plugin. You could try the KS as well instead. Sounds rather different. Maybe you like it!
Have fun,

Ed

Good you mention this. In the meantime I play preferably with my Mac Mini and Amarra, Audirvana and Jriver19. Still hard to decide which I like best but still all better than my PC with Foobar (although that is cheaper )
 
Just out of interest and on my list of "things to do", but I'm unlikely to get around to it anytime soon..... Has anyone tried using Ian's I2StoPCM converter with DDAC1794? ie. don't use the shift registers on Doede's mainboard to output 24 bit right justified, the PCM1704 config documented in Ian's manual should work just as well for the PCM1794 in mono mode with DF disabled. (Might need to run with continuous clock enabled as we are using BCK for SCK input.... Might need to drop R7 from 1k to 100R, that Doede increased to compensate for the "lost" 1/2 clock delay.....)

I2StoPCMconvertorBoardV1.1.pdf
 
Good you mention this. In the meantime I play preferably with my Mac Mini and Amarra, Audirvana and Jriver19. Still hard to decide which I like best but still all better than my PC with Foobar (although that is cheaper )

For the cheap skates: Alix board with MPDpup.
This is a completely fannless, silent, simple design with no unnessesary processes running on the CPU that will disturb the audio stream.
I still have to compare this to Mac (anyone in for a test?) but it sure does smoke PC with Foobar!

Also: because it is a diy design you are able to use nice linear power supplies that will outperform switching power supplies in your computer. And it is nice to put it in the same box as your dac and control with your smartphone or tablet.

All this will cost you about eur150,- to eur200,- for the alix and power supply.

Just my 2 cents.........
 
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This dangerous mess of wires, feeding Hypex nCores and some huge 3 way speakers all connected by pure silver litz cable (DIY) sounds amazing and competes well with systems costing upwards of £10,000

Another deck on the DDDAC and some shunt regulators for both boards should push the sound into the stratosphere. My hifi adventure is nearly over, looking forward to the day it's built in cases and having an amazing system which will bring me joy for many years.
 
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I also used the Pi but it has a problem with the bandwith of the USB/ethernet interface. You cannot play hi res files without hickups.
I read that it is a problem that in due time could be solved by using a real time kernel, I did not wait for that and tried the Alix. Other advantige of the Alix is that it is much faster in building/updating the database and responds faster to your ipad control.

The Pi has a nice function now as xbmc player. I will buy a second Pi for streaming audio in other rooms of my house.
With eur35,- you can never get enough Pi's do do all those nice tricks:D

Looking at your photo: You might try a self build short USB cable, this can improve your sound!