Which dac?

[marcus7601]

Ive been searching a while now for a dac-project to begin with but i havent found the perfect one for me. Is there a dac out there with good documentation so i can do my own pcb and also has optical input? A fairly basic dac is ok for me. No ultrahighend needed.

[justblair]

I think that you need to give a little more detail on this one. For starters what kind of connection you looking for? I2s, Spidif, USB.

Budget would be good as well

Application probably would help.

I'm not that experianced with building DACs, but there are many here to answer questions

[marcus7601]

Well, i will put it between a digital musicplayer and my gainclone. So all i need is one koax and one toslink input. Thats it. I know there is some kits around but i havent found any pcb layouts.

[hifimaker]

I've been evaluating DAC chips and boards for my employer, and we tested everything! The blow away surprise was the Analog Devices AD1955 Eval board. Out of the box it blew away everyone else. The runner up was the AKM4396 eval board.

Both of these boards are relatively cheap and require an external +- 12VDC power supplies.

BTW, I modified the AKM board adding xlr outputs by placing connectors just after the onboard resistor before the summing opamps for single ended output. THe Analog Devices board has both XLR and RCA out.

Both boards have TOS and S/PDIF inputs.

The Analog Devices board is a monster in terms of sound.

-David

[marcus7601]

I think i have decided for the Extreme 1543 DAC from hifidiy.net us.hifidiy.net

Anyone has any experience from this?

[QSerraTico_Tico]

Originally posted by dw8083
I've been evaluating DAC chips and boards for my employer, and we tested everything! The blow away surprise was the Analog Devices AD1955 Eval board. Out of the box it blew away everyone else. The runner up was the AKM4396 eval board.

Both of these boards are relatively cheap and require an external +- 12VDC power supplies.

BTW, I modified the AKM board adding xlr outputs by placing connectors just after the onboard resistor before the summing opamps for single ended output. THe Analog Devices board has both XLR and RCA out.

Both boards have TOS and S/PDIF inputs.

The Analog Devices board is a monster in terms of sound.

-David

Weird, I could not find any link to the AD1955 evaluation board on the AD's website.

[hifimaker]

Originally posted by QSerraTico_Tico

Weird, I could not find any link to the AD1955 evaluation board on the AD's website.

You need to contact Analog Devices salesforce directly. The board is unbelievable. I was better than my Lavry DA-10 and other highend DAC's I've tested. It has the biggest soundstage and detailing I've ever heard.

One other cool aspect about their eval board is that all digital signals are available on header pins - DSS, PCM, I2S, etc. One of the more flexible boards I've evaluated, great for DIYers.

-David

[hifimaker]

Here's a pic of the DSD and PCM connectors.

[hifimaker]

Originally posted by marcus7601
I think i have decided for the Extreme 1543 DAC from hifidiy.net us.hifidiy.net

Anyone has any experience from this?

I know a lot of DIYers like this chip for it's simplicity, but it just sounds constrained, thin, and cannot hold a candle to the lastest crop of delta-sigma chips.

Before I get flamed, I know there is a lot of passion about on oversampling chips like this one. I just encourage you to try the AKM4396, or the AD1955 to the 1543. You will never look back after 2 minutes of listening.

-David

[tommak]

Originally posted by dw8083
I've been evaluating DAC chips and boards for my employer, and we tested everything! The blow away surprise was the Analog Devices AD1955 Eval board. Out of the box it blew away everyone else. The runner up was the AKM4396 eval board.



-David

Did you evaluate the Texas Instruments' PCM1792 or PCM1794 evaluation board? If so, what was your impression?

Tom