I don't see the 1387 in the image. Is it on the other side of the left-most PCB?
Braxy sent none to me ... probably because I would not have given it a glowing review.
The 1387 is merely an OKAY dac. But pampered and tricked out, it can be made to output above-avg sonics.
I took a look at the schematics Braxy provided in this thread ... and the complexity and parts count re-affirm my assertion on "tricked out".
I got okay sonics with a 1387 in a Philips-based CDP. It's I/V was massively tricked out ... of course!!!
Magnavox CD2000 with TDA1387 (non-oversampling)
If you know of a DAC chip which gives out above average sonics in the absence of being tricked out, do let us all know please.
I recall Charles Hansen saying something along the lines that a DAC's sound is typically about 90% due to the output stage and power supplies.
Today I whipped up some open baffle speakers using an extra pair of Aura NS3 drivers and the dusty old leaves from my previous kitchen table. These things sound far better than I expected. Of course they are missing a lot of bass without a sub, and the high treble beams a bit. In spite of this, they cast a huge soundstage that is quite stunning. And of course they are very phase coherent.
My LingDAC 1.1 sounds awesome through this setup. Listening to Ebudae by Enya gave me goosebumps today for the first time in a while. There is something about the perfect time alignment of a full-range driver that really showcases the beauty of a DAC with no digital filter. Vivid focus, lifelike timbres, punchy dynamics, full body, and that big, open stage. Really having fun with this. Thanks, Richard.
My LingDAC 1.1 sounds awesome through this setup. Listening to Ebudae by Enya gave me goosebumps today for the first time in a while. There is something about the perfect time alignment of a full-range driver that really showcases the beauty of a DAC with no digital filter. Vivid focus, lifelike timbres, punchy dynamics, full body, and that big, open stage. Really having fun with this. Thanks, Richard.
Attachments
A/C
Are you sure the goosebumps weren't the result of that window A/C blasting out brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr?
Do you consider phase linearity essential to getting a more 'analog' sound? My impressions from reading what people say about SQ differences in digital filters, they usually prefer 'minimum phase' to 'linear phase'. Which to me says that phase linearity isn't that important - few speakers will manage it unless they're active, using DSP to correct for phase distortions in the tweeter.
I second this request - got an example of a well-designed NOS DAC @koldby (other than lingDAC of course
) ? I'd be very interested in a discussion about what makes it 'well designed'.
Any of the designs ecdesign have suggested, would be candidates. The Red Baron from dvb project. A very simple NOS DAC that demonstrates the NOS sound pretty good is a TDA1543 with i2s attenuator and a i/v converter like the one attached.
IMHO all of these sounds a lot more like the way live unamplified music sounds than dac´s using digital filters (more analog if you like)
I second this request - got an example of a well-designed NOS DAC @koldby (other than lingDAC of course
Well designed , was just to say that out there somewhere, you can probably find NOS DAC´S that does not show the strenghts that I hear in the (mostly TDA XXXX based) NOS DAC´s . Way back in the late 90´ I was part of a team responsible for the Bow ZZ-8 that used PCM 1702 dac with the PDM100 as digital filter. Very good sounding DAC, but when I later converted it to NOS, it began to sound like real music, not just a very good digital source. My comment here was just, that if you have not heard a NOS DAC, you miss the potential this design have. It is obvious that power supply , jitter control aso. are important if you want to maximize this potential...