Borbely DAC board

[Prune]

Anyone try this?
http://www.borbelyaudio.com/allfetdac.asp

Is this supposed to be the best to use for I/V, filter, and buffer? It's a bit expensive, the whole kit without case ending up at around $1000 with current exchange rates. Assuming I went for this, price-no-object-but-still-DIY, what would be the best for the digital section (for ASRC type setup), in terms of chips (as I've yet to see a successful DIY DSP implementation).

[emw]

Hi,
I have buildt this DAC with the BurrBrown TI Demoboard (1704-K) and the Borbely Balanced Outputstage.
Result = Outstanding !!!!
But the quality is very much depending on the powersupply.
I did use 2 separate external R-core trafos (1 x digi, 1x Analog) with a Borbely powersupply pbc but all Panansonic FC ´C´s and after the regulator all Blackgate Caps.
On the Borbely Dac pbc I used all Blackgate as well.

Best....emw

[Telstar]

wow
the search gave me only one result.

anybody else built this dac or a similar circuit based on 4 or more 1704?

[Zen Mod]

Originally posted by Telstar
wow
the search gave me only one result.

anybody else built this dac or a similar circuit based on 4 or more 1704?

dunno - is that what you asking -
Primare CD31 is made with two 1704 per channel .

nice , but with mediocre multiple OP output stage

[Telstar]

Originally posted by Zen Mod


dunno - is that what you asking -
Primare CD31 is made with two 1704 per channel .

nice , but with mediocre multiple OP output stage

No, i meant the borbely in this thread or other diy projects based on the pcm1704.

I know of (better) commercial dacs.

[ticknpop]

I have Borbely's 435 DAC - embedded into the Assembelage 3.1 DAC with 1704 Balanced DAC chips - built with N and FK Blackgates and Vishay Bulk foil resistors and Jung updated Super regulators ( couldn't fit Borbely's shunt regulators into the chassis. I feed the 1704's with dual mono Dexa 5.0 volt discrete regulators ( highly recommended) with Blackgate N grade which replaces the LM 7805./7905 regulators -

It isn't just competitive with good commercial DACSs out there - it is far better, much greater lower level resolution, better dynamics , and an extremely smooth and non fatiguing sound. I frankly never knew what my tweeters ( Raven ribbons and Dynaudio Esotars sounded like in terms of their resolving power until I built the Borbely DAC. Bass dynamics and detail are also extraordinary.
( I also use Borbely's 320 Phono stage with 4 x 2sk147 GR and 4 x 2sjJ72GR for each input stage).

The original Dac 3.1 was updated with OP 627 IV converters and Caddock MK 132 resistors which was an improvement over stock - but it is not in the same league as the Borbely discrete All FET designs. The 435 really benefits from the best passive components and power supplies. It's a shame more North American's aren't exposed to how good his products are - price is an issue as they not inexpensive, but why as DIY nuts would we waste our time building mediocrity -

[Telstar]

Originally posted by ticknpop
I have Borbely's 435 DAC - embedded into the Assembelage 3.1 DAC with 1704 Balanced DAC chips - built with N and FK Blackgates and Vishay Bulk foil resistors and Jung updated Super regulators ( couldn't fit Borbely's shunt regulators into the chassis. I feed the 1704's with dual mono Dexa 5.0 volt discrete regulators ( highly recommended) with Blackgate N grade which replaces the LM 7805./7905 regulators -

What is the Assemblage DAC?
An older version of the DAC Age?

It isn't just competitive with good commercial DACSs out there - it is far better, much greater lower level resolution, better dynamics , and an extremely smooth and non fatiguing sound. I frankly never knew what my tweeters ( Raven ribbons and Dynaudio Esotars sounded like in terms of their resolving power until I built the Borbely DAC. Bass dynamics and detail are also extraordinary.

Well, I'm looking for 24bit SOTA
If you have the NOS switch, did you try both ways? I'm not a fan of digital filters and ASRC, while i like gentle analog filters to remove the noise in the hf.

The original Dac 3.1 was updated with OP 627 IV converters and Caddock MK 132 resistors which was an improvement over stock - but it is not in the same league as the Borbely discrete All FET designs. The 435 really benefits from the best passive components and power supplies.

For sure i'm going with a discrete all-JFET output stage. I wonder if Borbely has a single-ended version. Twisted pair is coming up with something along these lines.

It's a shame more North American's aren't exposed to how good his products are - price is an issue as they not inexpensive, but why as DIY nuts would we waste our time building mediocrity -

I absolutely agree with this. If something that correspond with what I have in mind has already been done well and debugged, it is pointless to start over from scratch. I prefer to spend x euros more than waste x months.

Price in euroland is not cheap but not prohibitive. The few persons that uses it like it very very much.

[tritosine]

THE point is to upsample to 24 / 192 khz when inside PC using a top quality 64bit upsampler ( http://src.infinitewave.ca/ ) ... then pass it down to the asrc with its own hardware anti alias filter turned off, so that wont add its own phase warping. You can have your "analog" style , "after the transient" phase warping and impulse response characteristics.

A 44khz non oversampling dac requires 9-13th order "brickwall" analog low pass to reconstruct(!!!) analow waveform, that s a no go, steer away from designs like that.

[limono]

I built his starter Kits DAC and Phono. After that I took RIAA eq out of phono and used it as a analog output stage for TDA 1541 based CD Player with 5 Ohm passive I/V conversion >better yet.
I replaced phono with Hagerman Cornet II which I found better sounding than Borbely phono unit. Both jfet kits were built stock with decent dual psu but nothing humongus. These are really good kits but not cheap for US customers.

[Telstar]

Originally posted by tritosine
THE point is to upsample to 24 / 192 khz when inside PC using a top quality 64bit upsampler ( http://src.infinitewave.ca/ ) ... then pass it down to the asrc with its own hardware anti alias filter turned off, so that wont add its own phase warping. You can have your "analog" style , "after the transient" phase warping and impulse response characteristics.

Yes! i was thinking something along these lines. Real-time upsamplers (i.e. foobar SRC) are not my cup of cake, but didnt try only on the studio pc.
But the software upsampling has to be by integer, while the hardware ASRC to 192 disabled.

Therefore the all dac diltering should be off.

My idea is of direct-interpolation like ec-desing did with the tda1541, but with 4 or 8 1704 per channel. the 24/176,4 (NOT 192) data feeded to the dac would be upsampled ideally to 705,6k.

Another interesting project is this one:
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1342