Top Flight DAC - very High End audio

[b_online]

Hi everybody,

I am trying to decide among a few dac kits I have seen online:
- Guido Tent and friends DAC http://members.chello.nl/~m.heijligers/DAChtml/dactop.htm
- http://www.diyaudio.de/
- www.ddac.de


As a reference for you, I like very much the Audio Note DAC 5 signature DAC. It is the most musical and detailed/dynamic/soundstage/AIRy dac I have listened so far...
True, there are some DACs around that maybe have better timing, a more precise soudnstage etc, but none of the ones I have listened so far have such such a big dose of all of these and the incredibly musical performance of the AN DAC 5Signature...

I know that all of the DAC kits i mention will probably not reach the level of performance of the DAC5, but I still want to know which one would you advice me to build based on your experience...

Thanks a lot to all of you for your help!

B Lopez

PD- I know there are some other designs around, but I need to build something I can easily get the PCBs, mounting instructions and some kind of feedback or help should anything go wrong, since this wll be my first ever project besides the Crossover from my speakers.....
Thanks again

 

[Vinnie R.]

I HIGHLY recommend you try out this one:

http://ack.dhs.org

is it brand new, and I just built the kit two weeks ago and am still stunned by it's extremely good sound. Nothing touches it for the price.
There is a free demo that can be mailed to you, so you can't go wrong.

Regards,

Vinnie

 

[Christer]

- www.ddac.de

Hm, the german ladies automobile club???? Can't seem to find
any DACs there, but maybe you end up finding something
more interesting than a DAC if you contact them.

 

[pinkmouse]

I HIGHLY recommend you try out this one:

http://ack.dhs.org

That has to be one of the best examples of graphic design getting in the way of content I have ever seen. It is painful to read the front page.

Also a bit naughty not to link to the forum where they say they designed this thing, or at least had help doing so.

 

[Leeuwarden]

Re: Re: Top Flight DAC - very High End audio

Hm, the german ladies automobile club???? Can't seem to find
any DACs there, but maybe you end up finding something
more interesting than a DAC if you contact them.

www.dddac.de

 

[Vinnie R.]

That has to be one of the best examples of graphic design getting in the way of content I have ever seen. It is painful to read the front page.

Also a bit naughty not to link to the forum where they say they designed this thing, or at least had help doing so.

Are you sure you are referring to the ack!DAC webpage? There are only three small pictures, so how does this get in the way of content

I was only trying to share information on a product that I bought, built the kit, and found to be fantastic. I don't know where your comment about being "naughty not to link the forum" comes from? The link I provided mentions a free demo to try, and I just wanted to share this information, not talk about how it was designed, etc.

-Vinnie

 

[pinkmouse]

Ok, so you like the six or seven vertical columns of text, one or two words wide, stretching way down the page then

I'm sure their product is fine, but the web page is appalling.

They also mention, in one of the above mentioned columns, that the design comes from a gainclone discussion forum, and I feel personally it would have been polite to link to it...

 

[Christer]

Pinkmouse,

are you sure you are referring to the page you linked to (that is
http://ack.dhs.org/ )? It doesn't even remotely resemble your
description of it.

Perhaps it badly coded so it appers very different in different
browsers?? I had a brief look at the source code and it looked
little bit strange, but it is many years since I last hacked HTML
code, so I can't say it that could be the cause.

 

[Variac]

On my browser it is a very clean layout, one wide column- quite attractive. Now the ladies driving club site-what's with that?

 

[Peter Daniel]

I also like the layout and the product seems to be good, although it could be improved further

 

[Christer]

Now the ladies driving club site-what's with that?

Just that Vinnie R. accidentally linked to www.ddac.de instead
of www.dddac.de

 

[pinkmouse]

Hmm, this is what I see...

 

[Christer]

That's definitely not what I see. However, they have, for
whatever reason, coded the whole text as a table with every
sentence or so as a table entry (I think, though I don't
remember how tables work in HTML).

What browser are you using??

 

[jean-paul]

That must be a very old version of Internet Explorer ( Mac/pc ? ) !

 

[b_online]

http://ack.dhs.org DAC Project

Hi,

I have emailed the people behind the http://ack.dhs.org project.
They tell me the dac unit they produce compares favourably to the Naim 5 and to the Meridian 507 in terms of timing and dynamic range, but has a smaller soundstage to both of them.

I am afraid this DAC will not fulfill my needs, since my actual cd player is very probably better than that.

What I am looking for is something that easily beats the Chord Dac64 and similar dacs... : something in a similar league to the Audio Note 4 and 5 dacs would be ideal for me....

I hope I can find something around,....

Thanks again to all of you for your help and support!!

B

 

[b_online]

I would also consider other projects I didn't list above...

I am also open to other projects I maybe didn't list on the first thread....!

If you know of any other mind blowing DAC around, please let me know....

Thanks again!


B

 

[Peter Daniel]

If you like AN DAC 5, how about this one? http://www.geocities.com/yury_g/dac.htm

It's using similar components and with additional improvements might come out as a worthwile project. I might try it myself.

What CD player are you using?

 

[b_online]

Retro Dac

Hi Peter Daniel!

To tell you the truth, I have very little kknowledge on electronics myself, but if you say this can be a serious contender to the AN DAC 5, I will take your word...

I will try to find out more about it: cost, pcbs availability, etc etc

If I decide to go for it instead of the Guido Tent and friends DAC (which seems to be fairly straight forward because of the PDF instructions and PCBs availability) I will let you know what I think about it in the context of my system.

At the moment I have a Sugden cd21 cd player: quite musical but with terrible detail, very little air, small and not very well defined and layered soundstage, terrible dynamics, and unexistent mycrodynamic detail - at least for my standards....

Thanks for your help!

Borja L


PD- If any of you are selling an old dac project in order to fund a next project, please let me know about it, since I might be interested in it too...
(Maybe this is another option I never considered...)

And thanks again, Peter Daniel!!

 

[Peter Daniel]

Dac 5 from AN uses lots of custom parts, especially those silver wired transformers http://www.jcaudio.com/product/AudioNote/daccomparison.html

 

[b_online]

AN DACs

AN Level 3 is quite respectable.
The 4 is really good.
And the 5 is the best I have never listened so far...

Budgetwise, all of them 3 are out of my reach, so this is a no brainer for me: I have to go DIY, with all the painfull and gratefull moments this implies.

As long as I end up having something in between the 3 and the 5 I will be quite happy....
I know DAC5 performace is probably out of the question in the DIY world at the moment since it costs the same as fancy sports car, but what about the level 3 or 4?


Thanks again for the help!!

B

PD- Do you think I should ask somebody to build the DAC for me since it is my first DIY project because of the difficulty of the project? (This will probably add a few hundred euros to the cost of the unit...)