Cheapest top dac?

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
The squeezebox duet (or the others SB) are overkill dac and they are streamer, numeric preamp and internet radio. I can't understand why Logitech give up it (not too much money to win?)

I tried IE trafo (60 VA) with linear technology regulator and panasonic FM caps and many others caps after the reg chip with high ESR for lowering the impedance curve of the supply, but the original was better and I win elsewhere with good combo of caps with the xilink chip and wolfson dac chip. I use the genuine filter after the wolfson dac chip, I tried here silmic 2 : not better than the original config of caps, self and resistors of Logitech developper. With the silmic the more clearer add glitchy noise that the little smd self avoid. The speakers was transparent Boston 400 Lynfield and a Chord amp with good enoug wires to hear the difference.

I don't want to hijack this symphatic thread with the squeezebox, but I begann with Lampizator advices and after realise that some was discutable, a nice fellow of DIYA advise me to googling for John swentson or a name like that, try into DIYA too. But remember you can kill your little SB... IMHO, Salas could be conect after the aluminium cap and self/resistor/smd caps filter after it just at the enter of powersupply. Try old purple sanyo OS CON, benchmark it with new spec Os con but avoid sprague os con (dryer) : it just an opinion...

german semi DIY DDDAC with pcm1794 seems to have sucess !
 
Last edited:
Hi

I would be glad to read your "audio review" for this DAC after living with it for one month... and what are the nearest DACs according to you in term of quality/price ?

have good music sessions.:)

I have only tried one other dac so I can not say which is the "nearest dac", but I can guess that the Mytec is one of them.
The MA-1 sounds wonderfully dense and complete from bottom to top, I do not miss much really. But I have a rather boring USB cable right now (I compared it with one more giving much better room feeling) which puts a slight veil on things, I will try with a top quality USB cable later, have one from my dealer in a few weeks. With DSD classical you hear the quality taking a big leap up, really fascinating. I so hope DSD is the future standard because it can maybe even compete with the best analog vinyl. Maybe not 100% same but so much more practical in use compared to a turn table. Comparing with my cd-player everything is better: detail, extension, dynamics, you name it.
If you find a good used MA-1 it is worth considering, a new unit is too much money for me and most of us.
 
Last edited:
I'm going to try mayb far under the MA-1, the subbu DAC (If I sucess with smd soldering) that a grup of good fellow of DIYA design carrefuly.

Now i just have some old tweaked cdplayers (mainly Philips) , two squeezebox duet, and a raindrop'hui 1865 DAC chip slighty tuned.

Thanks for the review, the word "dense" is interresing because I don't like many products of today because they are too clear : speakers, cdplayers, amp... Just to illustrate : An Hansen the Prince V2 speaker is better for me than a B&W 800D.
 
What about the DDDAC ? I am constantly amazed by it`s sound quality.

A 4 stack with power supplies and Sowter output transformers will be about €1400.00.

Hi Almeg69,

Which Dac and dac chips did you compare beore buying the DDDAC ?

Mc Gyver, Abrax, Jay,

did you try stacke pcm 179x to avoid SS output ? Some say that current DAC without output stage even after passive conversion are borring to listen ? Is it true ? An another side, some guys like John (ultimate thread about TDA1541) says that stacking is the friend of jitter !

Without stacks, what are the most musical SS output stage according to you ? There are a lot, already made like burson audio GD or DIY like Nelson or others ?

For ready made units, many print and web newletters talk about the good Q/P for Fostex AH 08 (ak4399) and the Burson Conductor (ES Sabre): 1800 euros each...too much money for me ! (even if they are preamp)

Why not an audiophonics pcm 1798 (but CS input chip, not Wolfson!) with diy SS output with passive i/V before !
Abraxalito : i think the tda1545A has an incredible treble !
 
I currently have one of my DACs set up with AD8129s (differential pair per chan) with gain of 34dB post passive filter. These then drive some homemade trafos (ferrite cored). Sound is immensely satisfying. Perhaps on the treble, you've gotten used to the colourations of PCM179X and hence TDA15XX will sound positively pristine in comparison.
 
Look at this:

AD1865.jpg


I don't suppose it has any better grounding than that in Audio Note DAC 1.1x.
The power supply is also very primitive, only three ugly regulators 7805/7905.
With this simple PCB I achieved very good sound with passive I/V conversion and simple tube gain stage, no analogue filtering at all. Hardly played with this PCB. The signal capacitors at the output of tube stage makes HUGE difference in sound quality. Also the resistors in I/V conversion makes big difference. The type of regulators and capacitors in power supply makes very little difference, or even no difference at all. The rectifier type makes significant difference and SBYV27 I found best.

So, in general, I dissagree the grounding issue could do so big havoc in sound of AN DAC1.1x and I persist in that the poor analogue filtering was a cause.

I stumbled across this thread and wanted to add something regarding digital grounding issues. After more than 10 years of fighting this problem in my DIY DACs (15 different DACs) I realized that digital and analog grounding is most important in these circuits. Proper layout is at the second place. Parts used are at 3rd.
Luckily I grabbed a chance and bought myself Audio Note DAC digital board as they use in DAC 4.1 and DAC 5. That is some serious PCB engineering with two ground planes (analog and digital) on each side of the board connected only with a thin piece of wire. All other things (I/V transformers, analog line stage, wires, tubes...) aside this is the best sounding DA converter board ever made. I experimented a lot and compared this one to a lots of others and any other design can't beat it.
Hope this helps in your future designs...
 

Attachments

  • DAC digital.jpg
    DAC digital.jpg
    614.5 KB · Views: 1,519
I stumbled across this thread and wanted to add something regarding digital grounding issues. After more than 10 years of fighting this problem in my DIY DACs (15 different DACs) I realized that digital and analog grounding is most important in these circuits. Proper layout is at the second place. Parts used are at 3rd.
Luckily I grabbed a chance and bought myself Audio Note DAC digital board as they use in DAC 4.1 and DAC 5. That is some serious PCB engineering with two ground planes (analog and digital) on each side of the board connected only with a thin piece of wire. All other things (I/V transformers, analog line stage, wires, tubes...) aside this is the best sounding DA converter board ever made. I experimented a lot and compared this one to a lots of others and any other design can't beat it.
Hope this helps in your future designs...

anyway what kind of DAC chip are you use ?? what your opinion about DAC chip ? I mean which one the best for you regarding there you told you already done a lot experiment
 
Audio Note DAC?

I stumbled across this thread and wanted to add something regarding digital grounding issues. After more than 10 years of fighting this problem in my DIY DACs (15 different DACs) I realized that digital and analog grounding is most important in these circuits. Proper layout is at the second place. Parts used are at 3rd.
Luckily I grabbed a chance and bought myself Audio Note DAC digital board as they use in DAC 4.1 and DAC 5. That is some serious PCB engineering with two ground planes (analog and digital) on each side of the board connected only with a thin piece of wire. All other things (I/V transformers, analog line stage, wires, tubes...) aside this is the best sounding DA converter board ever made. I experimented a lot and compared this one to a lots of others and any other design can't beat it.
Hope this helps in your future designs...


Where can I get an "Audio Note DAC digital board "?
 
The best one I've heard is AD1865. Second one is TDA1541. All the new D/A chips are artificial sounding.

After extensive experiments with many different DAC chips I firmly consider that almost all current output DACs are good, and DAC chip in itself is not an issue. The main issue is implementation. And my favourite DAC chips are PCM1792/4/5/6/8, AD1865, PCM63, AD1862, PCM58, TDA1541A, PCM1701, PCM1704, AD1864, PCM1702, PCM1738.
Also I consider as a rule that voltage output DACs (no matter new or old) are inferior to current output ones (no matter new or old).
 
After extensive experiments with many different DAC chips I firmly consider that almost all current output DACs are good, and DAC chip in itself is not an issue. The main issue is implementation. And my favourite DAC chips are PCM1792/4/5/6/8, AD1865, PCM63, AD1862, PCM58, TDA1541A, PCM1701, PCM1704, AD1864, PCM1702, PCM1738.
Also I consider as a rule that voltage output DACs (no matter new or old) are inferior to current output ones (no matter new or old).

I saw in your blog that you have a DAC with CS4397. are you didn't satisfied with it performance ?
 
I choose build over ready made. It is fun, it makes you think, it makes you prepared and do things you have never had done before.

I'm a rank beginner at this, but wanted to chime in so that you can get something up and running as a starting point very quickly and with little cost and then build another DAC as a comparison.

I chose the new Pidac board which piggybacks onto a Raspberry Pi. I have no previous knowledge of Dac listening except for listening to a standard Squeezebox Duet into my amp. The little PiDac sounds superb and it's so cheap, costs $38 USD and a Rpi is about £30.

My plans were to add a lampizator SRPP tube stage to the SB Duet but I am now building up the tube stage to add it to the Pidac.

There is a thread on HifiWigwam about Pidac if you are interested. No doubt some will laugh at the thought of a Rpi music player but it's cheap, uses little power and with the excellent Picoreplayer software or Squeezeplug it is providing me with a very nice sounding system.
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.