TDA1541A "piggybacking" on analog metric pcb?

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Mayday

Mayday

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Joined 2004
Here I am again asking about my new friend, the TDA1541A :)
I have seen this dac piggybacked on this pcb on a blog.
I've linked to that blog in my own blog, it's been a while since I read it though.

Anyhow, has any forum members tried piggybacking the TDA1541A? I guess you need to keep some pins unconnected between the IC's, like DEM.

If any of you have done it, what was the results? Any improvements in SQ?

If not piggybacking, then how about parallelling two or more tda's and summing the outputs? Possible to do without abandoning the base of my build, the pcb?

I was thinking(maybe not with much luck) maybe a small piece of veroboard that could be connected to the pcb via the tda-socket?

Thoughts, ideas, hints and general ridicuel is appreciated :)
 
ide2003

ide2003

Member
Joined 2008
hi mayday, I have tried piggy backing tda1541a on my diy dac pcb, true you'll get more kick of the sound but imho less transparent than single tda. If you have more than 1 pair, you can match them, output level wise and sound signature wise and make a balanced version which is much better than single tda, I admit you don't need that analog metric board anymore though. Here and here are my version
 
Mayday

Mayday

Member
Joined 2004
ide2003 said:
hi mayday, I have tried piggy backing tda1541a on my diy dac pcb, true you'll get more kick of the sound but imho less transparent than single tda. If you have more than 1 pair, you can match them, output level wise and sound signature wise and make a balanced version which is much better than single tda, I admit you don't need that analog metric board anymore though. Here and here are my version
Click to expand...

Hi,
So unless I can match them, whitch I can't, it's better to stick with one?
I think I've got a total of 6 tda's counting the one in my current DAC.
I'll look at those links, always interesting to read about this, in my opinion, amazing d/a-converter IC.
 
ide2003

ide2003

Member
Joined 2008
hi mayday, matching dac gain DIY way is quite easy, get a cd with sinusoidal wave test signal at 0dB level, simply measure the voltage out of the dac RCA, usually gives 2Vrms. Finding similar sound signature is bit difficult, but if it can be done by ears, or better by using Audio Diff maker

nice blog you have & hopes to read more of your projects :)
 
Mayday

Mayday

Member
Joined 2004
At the moment I'm stuck on how to create my own parts in my own eagle library, I managed to make a TDA1541A with dimensions according to datasheet, but I can't seem to make it "net" with anything. I'll google to see if anyone has done the work already.

Grateful for links to libraries containing TDA1541A, DIR9001, SAA7220 and other IC's that might be useful/better.
 
Mayday

Mayday

Member
Joined 2004
If a moderator would change the topic to "Parallell TDA1541A's/Balanced+parallell TDA1541A's" I would be grateful. I'm no longer trying to piggyback the TDA's but rather trying to design a PCB with either 4xTDA1541A in parallell or in balanced(differntial)/paralllell(2+2).
 
wlowes

wlowes

Member
Joined 2007
Meanwhile I hope you are still enjoying your 1541a masterpiece. Some of the areas that are worth consideration coverd by ecdesigns include:
DEM reclock is a winner.
Of course low noise discrete reg for each power consumer.
His bypass cap made of a double sided pcb. (brilliant) I cheated and used a silver mica to bypass Russian MGBO2 POI for coupling cap. Another winner that some claim beat a VCap for pennies.
SMT decoupling caps soldered direct to 1541a pins. Awesome.
My next thing is to build his double helix resistor for the passive I/V. No end to 1541a fun.
 
Mayday

Mayday

Member
Joined 2004
wlowes said:
Meanwhile I hope you are still enjoying your 1541a masterpiece. Some of the areas that are worth consideration coverd by ecdesigns include:
DEM reclock is a winner.
Of course low noise discrete reg for each power consumer.
His bypass cap made of a double sided pcb. (brilliant) I cheated and used a silver mica to bypass Russian MGBO2 POI for coupling cap. Another winner that some claim beat a VCap for pennies.
SMT decoupling caps soldered direct to 1541a pins. Awesome.
My next thing is to build his double helix resistor for the passive I/V. No end to 1541a fun.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I'd call it a masterpiece ;)
But I did put alot of thought into that build and used the best parts I could reasonably afford. I do enjoy it, the MayDac(as I call it) will stay for a very long time as my main D/A converter.
The project I'm tinkering on now is very long term, it's fun working in eagle and hopefully I'll get a nice design and layout in the end :)
I think a differential design with two TDA/channel, one for +out and one for -out might be a good way to use multiple TDA's?
1541A's are fun, and it's easy to get bitten by that bug since they are so grateful for mods/upgrades....you hear results when giving them better working conditions.

It would be difficult and expensive, but one dream of mine is to use 4 tda's as above and then after I/V connect the differential outputs of each channel to a signaltransformer for single ended outputs.
 
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