Aragon D2A upgrade path?

I have an ARragon D2A Dac, which has been upgraded to D2A2 with factory-supplied upgrade kit. Looking "under the hood" I see it has 2 Burr Brown PCM58 DAC chips and a Yamaha YM3623B. There are 14 other chips too, but I have no clue what they all do. I will list them if needed (All start with P and end with G, eg P8930G)
Is there a plug-in replacement for the PCM58 which would actually bring about a real improvement in this unit, or would I be fiddling about with swings and roundabouts if I tried to change them?
 
Hi Jim, I did a lot to my D2A, in spite of the arrogant reply I got from the techies at Aragon ("no, it is already optimum"). I got quite a lot more out of it, but in the end I got a Zero DAC and put my efforts into that instead. 16bit can't compete with 24bit, at least in this case. The Zero is OK standard, but only just. Once you start tweaking, it is a real giant killer. My Aragon is gathering dust and I have stripped out the dedicated regulators and fancy capacitors I worked so hard at inserting. Hope this helps.
 
Hello and thanks for the response.

So, I know this may be stretching your memory quite a bit, but do you have any recommendations on the D2A upgrades, or do you think I am better off with a 'stock' Zero?

I ask because I have very limited funds, and if I sold the D2A and got a Zero, I would have no ca$h for upgrading the Zero.

Maybe there is another path- another converter with as-low-as D2A upgrade cost, but ready to go out of the box? This stuff is cheaper every day, and it seems that a lot of guys are making these up themselves too.

So, back to square one it seems!
 
If you are capable of installing a circuit board in a case and some simple wiring you should be looking at the Chinese upsampling CS4398 dac boards on Ebay. They are true giant killers at around $100 plus whatever case you put it in. I had a D2A a couple yrs ago,among others. The Ebay dac is a huge improvement.

The thread (Experience with this DIY DAC) pertains to it and it's iterations.

I added output transformers, it is totally tweakable.

Best, Bill
 
Thanks Bill!

I can make a case easily enough (made one for the Preamp I never got working that is pretty nice) and certainly am capable of point-to-point wiring from my days making custom guitars.

Should I search "upsampling CS4398" on eBay then?

Back to the case, I've been thinking about it. Since I work in Thermal spray, I can easily do copper spray onto steel or aluminum case panels... Anyway just my ADD acting up again...:rolleyes:

Thanks again! I'm going to take a look now for that DAC kit. (and read through the thread assuming I can find it).
 
Yep, that's it. The trafo is new, I bought mine w/o trafo for $90+20shipping so that's 40 bucks for the trafo. Still, that's hard to beat. Swapping opamps could be fun, but I feed the chip output directly to output trafos. It's all covered in the thread that is in the digital line forum, where this thread should be.

Best, Bill
 
I'm reading through that other thread now, and it seems the output transformer 'mod' is the way to go.

I assume you did what was suggested ($250.00/transformer I believe?). That sounds like a great mod to me- simple- which is good for the sound (usually) and good for me too, because I'm not the best at these more involved mods.. Plus it sounds as if the board is not the most 'mod friendly' as it is difficult to remove components. (based on what I'm reading so far).

On thing that 'scares' me a bit is that it seems there are a few versions of the board and components. How do you know what you have, and therefore what to mod? Seems difficult to determine for a guy who fixes things with hammers more so than soldering irons...:eek:
 
:smash::rofl:

It's not quite that bad. A decent iron and a Radio Shack solder sucker do a fine job.

The trafos won't cost you much more than $100 if you buy new, if that's the way you want to go. Sure, you could spend as much as you want, but keep your perspective here. To add them it's just snip or remove 4 resistors, add 4 jumpers, and solder 4 wires. This is the safe way. If you are confident in your skills there are other ways.
All the boards are very,very similar and are marked which version they are, and I have the complete schematic for version 5.
No Worries.

Best, Bill
 
Gosh, you guys got far fast without my knowing. A friend ordered one of those boards (the most expensive one) and it didn't work, so be a little careful. I still say the Zero is excellent value for money and it is highly tweakable. You can add OPT's if you want, or as I have done, just bypass the output opamp.
 
Hi Hihopes,
The Zero probably is excellent for the money, but the upsampling on this board takes it to another level. I've listened to my dac without the upsampling and it sounds fine, but it sounds so much better with the upsampling. It's not a gimmick, it works, and the trafos take it close to the realm of analog reproduction.
I could go on and on about the different aspects, I'll just say it's the closest thing to vinyl I've heard, but much better in some ways, providing the rest of your system is up to the task.
I'm looking to get another for a project, if you buy one and don't like it I'll gladly buy it off you. Your friend's experience is unfortunate but we do not know the circumstances. I've talked to scores of people that are using this dac and generally all their problems have been either translation of the directions or lack of basic knowledge, both of which can be dealt with easily.

Oh, I thought I had read the D2A2 used the PCM63, guess I was misinformed.

Best regards, Bill
 
The Zero is an upsampling DAC too. The power supply is probably better than most DIYers would build for themselves. I have upgraded it nevertheless.
My D2A uses 2 x Pcm 58's and it has a factory supplied upgrade board on the output using 2sk145 and 2sj74 J-fets if memory serves correctly. It is not a D2A2, but a D2a mkII. Perhaps the D2A2 uses PCM 63's. Some people are of the opinion that the PCM 58 is quieter.
The Crystal board lights up, but gives no output, no matter how you configure the dip-switches. Any suggestions?
I suggest that anyone wishing to upgrade, modify or tweak their DAC's should consider implementing discrete regulators. The Teddyreg of Teddy Pardo at Pink Fish is nice. I also like shunt regs. Even a TL431 based reg was an improvement in my Aragon. Chip-based regs generally don't sound that great.
 
Last edited: