Any info on DAC960 from Philips, or your experience with POOGE-5?

[Peter Daniel]

I just bought yesterday DAC960, from Philips, for $30. It's using TDA1541 chip and as far as parts quality goes (almost all caps are Cerafines) and construction it's pretty well built unit. I have 2 POOGE-5 articles from AA, but in the light of recent "developments" with non-oversampling I don't think this route is worth pursuing.

Has anybody tried that mods (POOGE) and has any experience to share? My other option, and this is what I'm tempted to do, is just use DAC board, add CS8412 receiver without oversampling and modify the output stage, maybe use some existing PS parts.

[jean-paul]

If you insist on using it non os you can remove SAA7220PB and connect 3 jumper wires and it will be a non os DAC. No need for CS8412 although it is better jitterwise. Don't forget to recalculate filter stages !!!!!

I don't think non os is the de facto means to good sound. Maybe it is wise to compare it to your non os TDA1543 DAC and do some POOGE mods. You can always change it to non os afterwards.

Very nice piece of equipment !

[jean-paul]

A Silver Crown chip will do wonders in your DAC960 ( if you can find one ).From what I know the DAC960 is equipped with the standard version. Never had a DAC960 because they were too expensive

[Peter Daniel]

It has standard version and I remember reading all that articles in 1992 and was also very excited about those mods, but didn't have DAC960 at that time. Here's what Gary Galo writes about Crown version:

[tbla]

hi,
i have 4 of the s1 crown dacs lying arround....and yes, compared to the "standard" 1541a - the sound gets more "refined" so i guess its worth it....!

troels

[jean-paul]

Peter, do you have scans of the POOGE articles ?

[Peter Daniel]

I have hard copies (2 issues from '92 AA). If you really interested I might scan them for you, it's about 20 pages.

[Peter Daniel]

Originally posted by tbla
hi,
i have 4 of the s1 crown dacs lying arround....and yes, compared to the "standard" 1541a - the sound gets more "refined" so i guess its worth it....!

troels

Would you be interested in geting rid of them?

[Elso Kwak]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel
I just bought yesterday DAC960, from Philips, for $30. It's using TDA1541 chip and as far as parts quality goes (almost all caps are Cerafines) and construction it's pretty well built unit. I have 2 POOGE-5 articles from AA, but in the light of recent "developments" with non-oversampling I don't think this route is worth pursuing.

Has anybody tried that mods (POOGE) and has any experience to share? My other option, and this is what I'm tempted to do, is just use DAC board, add CS8412 receiver without oversampling and modify the output stage, maybe use some existing PS parts.

Hi Peter,
I have not gone that route but have studied the Pooge articles thoroughly.
The hint to use the AD811 as a IV-converter I followed. Tried all kinds of current-feedback opamps like OPA603, LT 1206 and AD844.
I liked AD811 better for a DAC with digital filter and the OPA603 more for NON-OS DAC. This was with (CXD1244)/AD1865.
I tried the AD811/OPA603 also a very short time with TDA1541AS1 NON-OS.
Eventually I totally quit using opamps for IV-conversion as I went "discrete".
Some of the Pooge ideas came back in the high speed diode thread. And the Jung regulators have been discussed extensively on this forum.

[ThorstenL]

Koinichiwa,

Originally posted by Peter Daniel
I just bought yesterday DAC960, from Philips, for $30. It's using TDA1541 chip and as far as parts quality goes (almost all caps are Cerafines) and construction it's pretty well built unit. I have 2 POOGE-5 articles from AA, but in the light of recent "developments" with non-oversampling I don't think this route is worth pursuing.

Has anybody tried that mods (POOGE) and has any experience to share? My other option, and this is what I'm tempted to do, is just use DAC board, add CS8412 receiver without oversampling and modify the output stage, maybe use some existing PS parts.

First congratualtions are on order.

You got an incredible bargain. In most things the 960 is identical to the LHH-1000 (the LHH-1000 has a heavier chassis, copperplating and acres of copper shielding, plus better Mainstransformers and components (including S1 grade DAC's) and the LHH-1000 is in turn really just a badgejob of Marantz DA-12.

This unit has a seperate secondary discrete PLL, reclocking of the signals going into the DAC, opto-coupling of critical signals, a simple, all of which should give outstanding jitter performance (and taht was designed before "Jitter" became aknowlegded as an issue in the High End. The digital filter is quite primitive and hence quite good sounding. The DAC has many other interesting features, such as discrete regulators for the analogue stage and a set of transformer coupled balanced outputs which sound MUCH better than the SE ones, to my ears at least.

Given the age of the unit the first order of business is to replace ALL electrolytic capacitors. I used Elna Silmic instead of the Cerafines, loads of Sanyo Os-Con in the digital section (including that heavily shielded board on the lefthand side) and Panasonic FC series units for the actual power supplies. Total capacitor bill exceeded $ 200 IIRC.

The next stop is to replace the Op-Amp's. I used OPA627/637 throughout the Unit (8pcs in total and included J-Fet CCS "class A biasing. As the output buffer of the SE Output Stage I used the BUF634.

The resulting DAC sounds stunningly good, if not QUITE as good as my Non Oversampling TDA1541 (also S1) based DAC with Tube outputs.

The 960 (like the LHH-1000) is such a nice piece of engineering and illustrates what sonic potential CD had even in the mid 1980's that I felt it pretty much sacreligeous butcher the unit and make it non oversampling and tube output (it has enough space, simply remove the Balanced Output Amp card). So I did not do so and I'm very happy with my "only restored" LHH-1000.

Your choice may differ from mine of course.

Sayonara