Hi to everybody.
Some years ago I bought from AUDIAL the AYA II DS pcb, but I never had time to do the job.
Now it is really time to start (hopefully!). I already have the Dac chip, the CS814-CS and the transformer, but now I get a bit confused on the choice of all other components. Is there someone who still has a Mouser BOM of this old project?
Thank you
Renato
Some years ago I bought from AUDIAL the AYA II DS pcb, but I never had time to do the job.
Now it is really time to start (hopefully!). I already have the Dac chip, the CS814-CS and the transformer, but now I get a bit confused on the choice of all other components. Is there someone who still has a Mouser BOM of this old project?
Thank you
Renato
Hi,
You can contact the designer himself; Pedja Rogic, through his website: https://www.audialonline.com/
I am sure he is happy to help you.
John,
Of course the other option is to embrace the -ve offset of the 1541A and use it to bias the grid of a tube.
(Please dont start about this voltage compliance thing. Either listen for yourself or search google).
I think most have 'moved on' after 10 years, mostly with nothing changing. 'How to 1541A' is now well known, pick your flavour - and thats all it is.
If you gave up on 1541A, move on. Dont come back and talk about your subjective succession in your own interests.
Maybe 1541A listeners are all stupid, or misguided - or have not yet heard your latest v13 solution with wireless arm-band olivia newton-john wake up work-out message?.
No, let this thread remain about 1541A.
Of course the other option is to embrace the -ve offset of the 1541A and use it to bias the grid of a tube.
(Please dont start about this voltage compliance thing. Either listen for yourself or search google).
I think most have 'moved on' after 10 years, mostly with nothing changing. 'How to 1541A' is now well known, pick your flavour - and thats all it is.
If you gave up on 1541A, move on. Dont come back and talk about your subjective succession in your own interests.
Maybe 1541A listeners are all stupid, or misguided - or have not yet heard your latest v13 solution with wireless arm-band olivia newton-john wake up work-out message?.
No, let this thread remain about 1541A.
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Hi ISCMMS,
Quote from my post #7998
Here is my personal final solution for the ultimate NOS DAC, a quest that was started in 2006.
The solution replaces the entire conventional audio set, not just the DAC. The signal path is mainly digital (lossless) as indicated in the block diagram. The analogue signal is created using switches and resistors-only, just before the now analogue signal hits the speakers. No matter how you look at it, this -is- the shortest and least lossy signal path imaginable.
Some video's posted by a PowerDAC-S user, the open baffle speakers have no crossover (true full-range) and have 2 Ohm impedance (PowerDAC-S can drive any load between dead short and infinity):
Tascam recording PowerDAC-S:
https://storage.googleapis.com/cloudplayer/samples/Blues in Orbit.flac
iPhone vid of the PowerDAC-S:
Music reproduced by digital switches and resistors only .....
With digital audio there is no longer a need for any analogue circuits as these video's illustrate.
So this is it, end of project.
Quote from my post #7998
Here is my personal final solution for the ultimate NOS DAC, a quest that was started in 2006.
The solution replaces the entire conventional audio set, not just the DAC. The signal path is mainly digital (lossless) as indicated in the block diagram. The analogue signal is created using switches and resistors-only, just before the now analogue signal hits the speakers. No matter how you look at it, this -is- the shortest and least lossy signal path imaginable.
Some video's posted by a PowerDAC-S user, the open baffle speakers have no crossover (true full-range) and have 2 Ohm impedance (PowerDAC-S can drive any load between dead short and infinity):
Tascam recording PowerDAC-S:
https://storage.googleapis.com/cloudplayer/samples/Blues in Orbit.flac
iPhone vid of the PowerDAC-S:
Music reproduced by digital switches and resistors only .....
With digital audio there is no longer a need for any analogue circuits as these video's illustrate.
So this is it, end of project.
For John maybe. But there are still a lot of people that want to build the best possible dac with TDA1541A (I for one).Hi John,
I have to say, playing the linked .flac file through 1541A sounds great.
Close thread?.
Or maybe John can share his latest design with the community so we can all try it and save a lot of money building amplifiers 😉
Exactly that.
I'm not smart enough to know how it works, did think about buying one though.
John, how quiet would this thing be on >112dB /1W system?
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Check the offering of Ryanj with his D3 dac board elsewhere on this forum. He made a very good dac board incorporating a lot of the ideas from this thread. He has also made an I2S to Simultanous pcb where the signal is split into +R, -R, +L, -L for a balanced drive of 2 or 4 TDA1541A dacs.
This is my balanced version
The dddac is retired now😉
The TDA1541A sweeps the floor with the PCM1794 delta sigma dac; it displays more resolution, more dynamics and better musical flow.
I build both dacs in a similar manner as far as possible, both are differentially used and fed with an I2S signal from the same streamer with the same clocks. So I am pretty sure the difference is in the dac chip itself. I love the TDA1541A🥰
Any complete DAC offering? I gave up on my RP with Ian Canada Fifopi and Transport with LiFePO4 battery
Not that I know. And this one is also for advanced solderers with the tiny smd parts ☹️
But the reward after finishing the pcb is very big with a top performing dac design!👍🏻 It beats the hell out of a Metronome nos r2r dac of 7000euros😎
Maybe you can find somebody that wants to build it for you.
The tda1541A board i made has been put in.
Has a capacitance multiplier feeding 2 Didden superregs, and simultaneous mode output from JLsounds board. 100nf film on all 14 DEM pins, and additional 100uf muse on LSB of each channel. Put in the case of the old Philips that donated the chip, risen from the ashes (sort of). Sorry for untidy eyesore.
Anyway long story short, i have some sort of flutter sound. Almost like a triangle wave on top of the sine, so i was expecting maybe a high 3rd? I went to measure it and we see the following.
Volume is only -50dbfs, but ok expected for 100R I/V (and even this is too much, should be <68R
Running at higher sample rate minimises the droop and pushes images up, also good to see.
But finally, we see the higher order harmonics, 5th in particular is way louder than 2nd, 7th is louder than 2nd. 3rd is somehow buried under the noise floor where it should be. I wont quote numbers because the overall volume should be louder for that, but you can see their relative arrangement.
I have 50HZ dem but only the non-A chip. Sheet recommends to not connect those ports but somewhere i read they're actually internally connected, so i did it anyway. So first thing i do is remove the 12k resistor connected to -15v, but we get the same thing except the low frequency oscillation (probably 50hz) of the THD is now lower in amplitude, but noisier. Its interesting to see because clearly the non-A has it internally connected then.
Finally i remove the 1uF capacitor that is across the pins.
Finally, higher order junk seems to go down. But interestingly, overall 2nd order and 3rd order seem to go a bit up, so maybe it was doing something good as well. 5th harmonic, despite going down is still about as loud as 2nd. Of course the big problem with all this is how low the volume is , i really need to either a preamp or a different I/V scheme or something. But still what do you think? How to interpret all this 3rd, 5th, 7th stuff that is so high?
Has a capacitance multiplier feeding 2 Didden superregs, and simultaneous mode output from JLsounds board. 100nf film on all 14 DEM pins, and additional 100uf muse on LSB of each channel. Put in the case of the old Philips that donated the chip, risen from the ashes (sort of). Sorry for untidy eyesore.
Anyway long story short, i have some sort of flutter sound. Almost like a triangle wave on top of the sine, so i was expecting maybe a high 3rd? I went to measure it and we see the following.
Volume is only -50dbfs, but ok expected for 100R I/V (and even this is too much, should be <68R
Running at higher sample rate minimises the droop and pushes images up, also good to see.
But finally, we see the higher order harmonics, 5th in particular is way louder than 2nd, 7th is louder than 2nd. 3rd is somehow buried under the noise floor where it should be. I wont quote numbers because the overall volume should be louder for that, but you can see their relative arrangement.
I have 50HZ dem but only the non-A chip. Sheet recommends to not connect those ports but somewhere i read they're actually internally connected, so i did it anyway. So first thing i do is remove the 12k resistor connected to -15v, but we get the same thing except the low frequency oscillation (probably 50hz) of the THD is now lower in amplitude, but noisier. Its interesting to see because clearly the non-A has it internally connected then.
Finally i remove the 1uF capacitor that is across the pins.
Finally, higher order junk seems to go down. But interestingly, overall 2nd order and 3rd order seem to go a bit up, so maybe it was doing something good as well. 5th harmonic, despite going down is still about as loud as 2nd. Of course the big problem with all this is how low the volume is , i really need to either a preamp or a different I/V scheme or something. But still what do you think? How to interpret all this 3rd, 5th, 7th stuff that is so high?
I think that the problem is not in PCM1794A itself, but in its implementation, PCM1794A is not designed to work in NOS and without any output stage, ie I/V conversion. As the PCM1794 is 192kHz, the absence of an HF filter in the output can be a problem, especially if it is pushed into NOS mode, which further highlights this problem.
My first d.i.y DAC was with TDA1541, passive I/V conversion and tube output and it sounded great ,just as you described. I also tried it with AD811 as I/V but the sound of the passive I/V and tube output was better. Now I have been using the PCM1702 with PMD100 for a long time but with tube I/V conversion which is much better than a simple I/V with resistor. Unfortunately I haven't tried the same with TDA1541 but my friend is now doing DAC with TDA1541 so we will try tube I/V conversion on it.
I am now working on a new DAC with TDA1547 where I gave up of NOS mode precisely because of the problem with HF interference which further complicates the output stage itself. One day I will give PCM1794 a chance (I already have a couple), but only when I design a good tube I/V for it.
Just to add that TDA1541 loves shunt regulators, the same can be said for all other dac i.c. which I tried.
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many thanks for your feedback. maybe sometime i will also build a new dac with 1541A, i still own two double crown 1541A
Hang onto the double crown. Some prefer S1. I have both and love the S2.many thanks for your feedback. maybe sometime i will also build a new dac with 1541A, i still own two double crown 1541A
One day you can enjoy listening to them of trade them for a Porsche.
I am interested in your S1 if you decided to let go. Any complete offering for a dual TDA1541 with tube or transformer output or DHT output
