TDA1543 PCB design quest

[12 Cents]

Ok, just a first version, I will get back to it. Have a look at my new TDA 1543 badly etched PCB:

[12 Cents]

Output opamp is OPA2604

[12 Cents]

I made upper screen plane, but kept star-like grounding at solder side.

[brianuk]

Well how does it sound, compared it to anything.

Looks well made!

[12 Cents]

I listened only to a crocodile clip-style setup, but I was pleased to hear non-aggressive highs, not exactly smooth, but exact and neutral, I could tell grainy sounds from clean sounds on pop recordings. I think it's all there, maybe not 100%, but 90?? 80?? don't know. I changed the ground connection from TDA1543 to CS8412 to the dgnd pin already.

[dddac]

Hi 12 Cents,

If you are in to play around a bit with your DAC:

have you tried listening without the opamp? so with passive I/V?

you might want to stack a few 1543 and try that....

and what about some real good capacitors?

doede

[12 Cents]

Hello Doede,

Originally posted by dddac
Hi 12 Cents,

If you are in to play around a bit with your DAC:

have you tried listening without the opamp? so with passive I/V?

that's what I had til now. While sounding tonally good, I always found them lacking some definition, especially in the highs. So I wanted to try this one out.

you might want to stack a few 1543 and try that....

I had 8 of them side by side, I am still thinking back of it, sounded good, but had no soundstaging and lacked definition (your design but on my own P2P board and the board matters I think now...)

and what about some real good capacitors?

doede

like BG's? I have decided to not wait 300 hours to judge a capacitor. But a few small ones aren't that expensive and maybe I will try them, but judge quicker

Optimally, I want to get the design right first with standard caps, but the published curves of those Oscons have advantages in high frequency that's why I used them without additional bypassing to decouple the opamp and TDA here.

Regards,
Lukas

[maxlorenz]

Lukas:

I had 8 of them side by side,

Why don't you build a tower with 8 (or 16 ) DACs, in Doede's way? That will limit signal path length to a minimum and probably improve the faults you noticed.

I use Doede's excelent DAC with a 16* tower with some Elna Starget caps and Riken-Ohm load R and it really sounds very good (appart a small HF distorion that is completelly my fault as it wasn't there when I build it ). Appart that, output coupling caps are critical!

Dear Doede:
Any news about your 60*DAC?

Best of luck.
Mauricio

[dddac]

Originally posted by maxlorenz
Lukas:

Dear Doede:
Any news about your 60*DAC?

sure: prototypes work superb, testing shows increased stage and definition when switched from 24 to 60 dacs

With a USB to I2S converter (next prototype which is ready) a next big step is made (SPDIF clearly is a limitation !)
This converter works with a 12MHz Tent clock by the way and on board low noise power supply (from the DAC battery)

Hope to publish end of december (time... time...)

doede

[maxlorenz]

Doede:
I'm glad to hear (read) that
I'm building a CD-PRO2M based transport and would love to use your new DAC directly fed by its I2S output, inside the box.

Also, in the next future I plan to feed the DDDAC with ALW Super Regulators, and try get rid of the battery (my dad has a 1934 Mercedes Benz wich could use it )

Best wishes.
Mauricio.