DAC - Opinion needed

[Faust3D]

Hi,

Please take a look at these pics and let me know what do you think about this DAC's design. Thanks guys!

[oshifis]

A circuit diagram perhaps? BTW, are the output coupling capacitors PIO?

[QSerraTico_Tico]

After applying gamma correction with Irfanview to the pictures it appears to be a TDA1541 NON-OS DAC with tube outputs.

To me it seems been built extremely messy.

[borges]

It looks like the insides of my 1960's Tektronix 'scope. Except this design has chips in it.

Messyness isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as you keep track of good design practice. If you maintain good grounding (star or plane), small loop area between signal conductor and return, and minimize crosstalk between digital and analog signals, things should be working fine.

How does the DAC perform if you pause the music and turn up the amp? Any 50/60Hz problems with the lid off?


Regards,
Børge

[Faust3D]

Originally posted by oshifis
A circuit diagram perhaps? BTW, are the output coupling capacitors PIO?

Russian military PIO, yes. I need to look for it.

[Faust3D]

Originally posted by borges
It looks like the insides of my 1960's Tektronix 'scope. Except this design has chips in it.

Messyness isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as you keep track of good design practice. If you maintain good grounding (star or plane), small loop area between signal conductor and return, and minimize crosstalk between digital and analog signals, things should be working fine.

How does the DAC perform if you pause the music and turn up the amp? Any 50/60Hz problems with the lid off?


Regards,
Børge

Dead quite. I actually did not make this DAC, it's a my friends design. He is an old school designer, used to design tubes for USSR military. Worked with Vladimir Shushurin back in the day. It's interesting how all of his designs look very messy but sound great.

What surpriced me here is that he hard wired the the input chip CS8412. He basically soldered each leg with silver wire, crazy if you ask me.

Here are a few pics of the amp that he made for me.





Power supply:

[QSerraTico_Tico]

Originally posted by Faust3D

....

What surpriced me here is that he hard wired the the input chip CS8412. He basically soldered each leg with silver wire, crazy if you ask me.

....

SPDIF sucks...
http://www.diyhifi.org/forums/viewto...&hilit=#p30707

[Faust3D]

Originally posted by QSerraTico_Tico



SPDIF sucks...
http://www.diyhifi.org/forums/viewto...&hilit=#p30707

Thanks for letting me know.

[MJW]

Spdif sucks big time for sure but then so do many of our Brazilian bro's comments! Every time I read a thread he contributes to he's having a sarchastic pop.

I like it. It exhibits the business like craziness of some one who knows what they are doing and is just keen to pull it together so they can listen.

I thought most here had figured out that neat don't mean squat.

Similar to the notion that beautiful women often can't F*** worth a dam.

I once said to a sales person in a generic Hi-Fi shop.

"Look mate, I dont give a stuff what it looks like as long as it sounds fantastic. I don't think you can help me."

He looked back at me bewildered and offered up. "Yeah but everyone likes cool stuff, smart lookin Hi- Fi don't they?"

"Thats the problem" I said. "Somewhere you've forgotten about the music. This is about experiancing and enjoying music in the home, nothing else".

One of the last times I ventured into a shop. Lets face it mostly they sell garbage......

[QSerraTico_Tico]

Perhaps I should explain why SPDIF is a bad idea and also executed poorly....