A real DAC Philips TDA1541A "Double Crown"?

[dbhh]

Hello to all.

Nice to find people with the same interrests. ;-)

I have a question about the TDA1541A. I odered one
"Double Crown" about a distributor of replacement parts
of MARANTZ. The DAC was integrated in the audio-CD-player
CD-7.

Today the DAC was deliverd. It is labeled like this:
<philipslogo> ..... S1
10968 ........... <crown>
HSH8812 2 Y . <crown>

I'm wondering about the S1. Was i expected was: S2.

Is this a real "Double Crown" ?
Thanx to all.

abcdefghijklm

[jean-paul]

You got a S1 "single crown".

[Bernhard]

Originally posted by jean-paul
You got a S1 "single crown".

He got two crowns, look at his posts.

But he got 2Y.

All 1541A S1 I have seen yet have 2 without Y.

FAKE ?

[jean-paul]

Oops, I missed the second <crown> in post #1. So it is an S2 ( especially if you bought it from the distributor ). I misread the post so that it had S1 on it and one crown, unmistakenly an S1.

I've heard of S1 stamped with 2 crowns before. Early S2 chips were selected highest grade S1 chips, later stamped with 2 crowns. I haven't seen S2 chips in reality until I bought the ones I have now. My 1997 Taiwan made S2 chips have S2 and "2" ( but without Y ) written on them and 2 crowns. My absolutely genuine S1 chips are also without Y and with the "2".

Fact is that the 1997 chips sound the best of all. My 1989 Holland S1 chips do sound quite different from the 1997 Taiwan S2 chips.

Don't worry about genuinity of the chip, sorry that I misread your post. Enjoy the sound !

[Bernhard]

Originally posted by jean-paul
My 1997 Taiwan made S2 chips have S2 and "2" ( but without Y ) written on them and 2 crowns. My absolutely genuine S1 chips are also without Y and with the "2".

Don't worry about genuinity of the chip, sorry that I misread your post. Enjoy the sound !

I would worry about the Y because I have not seen any S1 chips with Y yet.

Originally posted by jean-paul
My absolutely genuine S1 chips

How do you know ???

[jean-paul]

If you buy from the official distributor you get originals I would think. The chip he received is an older one so maybe they stamped Y on it those days. None of my chips, be it A-S1 or A-S2 have Y on them. I avoid pre 1989 versions in all cases.

Bernhard, I know you like to make a fool of me but you are the one now with the FAKE hype. I am very sure I have originals, I know the source and I know how to recognize the chips. The chips were known to me long before the hype began and I've stocked A and A-S1 for years. Just as various PCM types, NPC types and others.

I thought you first doubted that there were remarked chips around but now you doubt every chip. That's OK, go on with this and prices may go down

Just a question dbhh: why did you buy them from the distributor ?

[Bernhard]

The safest thing cc fakes IMHO is to desolder a chip from a board...

I have a constantly growing collection of 1541 and what I have seen so far, 1541 all have 5Y, also S1.

But 1541A have 2Y unless they are stamped.
Never saw a S1 with Y.

So it c o u l d be a fake.


I can not understand why you are afraid of old chips.

My experience is that old chipset sounds best with os.
Also measurement looks best.

With non os, 1541A is best.


By the way, I once plugged a 1541 into the socket the wrong way round, there came smoke from a resistor on the board which means a huge amount of current was flowing somewhere, but the 1541 survived and still sounds and measures the same.

[jean-paul]

I can not understand why you are afraid of old chips.

Not afraid. As I said before they fail more than normal, especially the non A type. One channel dead or distorting. It is luxury to be able to discard chips from a certain date if you have enough of the newer ones

BTW if a distributor would sell fakes ( your words, I call them remarked/rebranded ) we can't trust Philips either

[Bernhard]

Originally posted by jean-paul
we can't trust Philips either

How true. Maybe they are taking the mickey out of us.

I got a R1 today. From the datasheet this one has poor linearity of 2LSB for comparison A got 1 LSB.

This chippy got the same performance like my S1 from the CD880, with SAA7220 and OS.

Also I can not see any relationship between measured performance of chips and selection grades.

Maybe that changes after some time because of burn in ???

I just found a 1541A without Y.

Batch 11107
HSH8844 2

[TDA1540]

a LSB is very small.
Is your gear so sensitive?