DIY DAC Kit

[b-square]

Hi All,

What would people make of the following kitset?

http://www.diyfidelity.com.au/index.php?cPath=_35&osCsid=721a19c1ab925b908acbc9f50fb89452

Has anyone seen/bought/heard one of these?

almost certainly a DAC AH. see review here: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1205/dacah.htm



bb

 

[Alfetta87]

Re: Re: Website down?

mime issue - either your browser misinterprets it or the server is misconfigured. However, if everyone else can go there, I'd say it's your browser config.

Ey, today it works! At least the homepage.
Actaully, all the links look again like yesterday... anybody got an idea what's going on with my browser?
Somebody understands Bill's way of developping programs ? One day they work, another they don't...

 

[demogorgon]

Re: Re: Re: Website down?

Ey, today it works! At least the homepage.
Actaully, all the links look again like yesterday... anybody got an idea what's going on with my browser?
Somebody understands Bill's way of developping programs ? One day they work, another they don't...

try firefox or opera

www.getfirefox.com or www.opera.no
two great browsers, not made of bill.


gonna try my hand on one of those tda1543 designs for shure
been looking for some well designed dacs to try out.

-Marius

 

[maxlorenz]

Dear Peter:
You wrote...

For coupling, I went from 0.47 to 2.0 and now 5.0uF. Maybe you're on to something...

Yes, that's what I had on hand. For my DDDAC I used first BG N 22uF parallel Wima 0,47uF, wich sounded very warm and inviting but lacked HF and detail.
I swaped for 2xBG N 4.7uF in "super E-cap" configuration: very transparent and detailed with much HF but less midrange warmth. More neutral perhaps?
They take eons to burn-in, I'm affraid.
I haven't tried your kind of caps (too expensive for me )

Anyone who claims to hear any reduced dynamics even with a fat sheet of that stuff over the ICs is smoking something that may not be legal in all countries.

Touché

No, I do really hear changes with ERS cloth. The secret is putting just the right amount and avoid analog output sections. Specially good results I had covering some trafo's and swithching PS's. I did try a small amount over CS8414 and over my new "pulse Tx" and it made a pleasant improvement

here's a good answer I saw on the Bottlehead forum way back when I built by tube preamp - same thing there (a 470k resistor on the output jacks). I am using 1M ohm on the DDDAC, not sure if there's any difference in sound if you vary them to lower values.

Don't you have another answer?

Seriously, thanks. I will try to digest it.
You're probably right about R being 1M.

if you mean directly from a transport? no

I asked about I2S to nonos because now I can compare "16bit-nonos" to "24/96", that is my DDDAC and my CDPRO+nonos DAC v/s upsampled superDAC. Not very fair due to price difference and PS implementation

Nonos: very stable soundstage and pinpointing; charming instrument tone (warm midrange); very dynamic sound with punchy bass-midbass; rather limited on HF, transparency and detail; a "continuity" or "fluidity" to sound that is captivating.

"24/96": larger and deeper soundstage, more involving, with wider performer separation; more transparency and inner detail; maybe more neutral; better bass articulation and control.

Ah! if I knew how to build an upsampling DAC!

Best wishes
Mauricio

 

[Peter Daniel]

I'm comparing my upgraded NOS TDA1543 based DAC to Levinson ML360S DAC and presently, there is hardly any area where Levinson is better: involvement, transparency, inner detail, bass articulation are all better with NOS DAC. Levinson may be better in soundstaging, but I was never much concerned with that. And involvement is definitley much better with NOS DAC (that the main reason I'm still using it, while I keep Levinson disconnected for almost a year now).

I'm currently using an output buffer right after the DAC (same buffer as in Levinson DAC) and it brings an improvement: no active preamp needed anymore.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

 

[phn]

Ah! if I knew how to build an upsampling DAC!

What do you need upsampling for? The 24-bit upsampling DAC is just a marketing stunt. A CD usually doesn't even have 14 bits. And that's basically true for the DVD-A as well. Regardless if it's vinyl, CD or DVD-A, they were all culled from the same lo-rez analogue master tape. There's been no fundamental change in the recording studios the last four decades. Everything else is just smokescreens and mirrors and marketing.

 

[pburke]

Ah! if I knew how to build an upsampling DAC!

Best wishes
Mauricio

why bother? I upsampled in foobar and ran my new DDDAC at 96kHz, at 88.2, etc bit padded to 24 or 32 bit - it all sounds absolutely the same as 44.1 (except when you do less than 100% volume, but taht is due the bit depth differences, not the sampling rate).

Right now I run it at 44.1kHz and bit-padded to 32 bit, since that's the way the ASIO driver likes it

Peter

 

[maxlorenz]

Dear Peter D. wrote:

involvement is definitely much better with NOS DAC

I absolutely agree!

I'm hearing right now my humble CDPRO->I2S->nonos DAC that is sounding way better than yesterday , Mozart's violin concertos with Arthur Grumiaux playing. Here in Chile we have a fruit called "lúcuma", free-translated to "eggfruit", wich I was told is not very common appart a few countries. Well, listening to my nonos DAC reminds me the taste of "eggfuit" icecream

What do you need upsampling for? The 24-bit upsampling DAC is just a marketing stunt. A CD usually doesn't even have 14 bits. And that's basically true for the DVD-A as well. Regardless if it's vinyl, CD or DVD-A, they were all culled from the same lo-rez analogue master tape. There's been no fundamental change in the recording studios the last four decades. Everything
else is just smokescreens and mirrors and marketing.

and...

why bother? I upsampled in foobar and ran my new DDDAC at 96kHz, at 88.2, etc bit padded to 24 or 32 bit - it all sounds absolutely the same as 44.1 (except when you do less than 100% volume, but taht is due the bit depth differences, not the sampling rate).

Ok, ok, I got it!
Here I have to disagree, but I won't go further...
The experience is not transferable, and this statement is useful in every area of human activity.

"e pur si muove"

I will try in the future to connect directly I2S output from Monarchy DIP's CS8420 to AK4393 from superDAC. We'll see.

Kind regards.
Mauricio.

PS: public thanks to P.Daniel for inspiring me (and perhaps hundreds more ) to build the CDPRO.

PS2: has anybody tried "super E-cap" as output coupling cap??

 

[rabbitz]

Re: Re: DIY DAC Kit

almost certainly a DAC AH. see review here: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1205/dacah.htm

bb

Great.... thanks for the link. Looks worthwhile to play with.

 

[werkhoven]

DIY 8*TDA1543 parallel kit

Hi,

I am selling DIY kits for building a NOS DAC with 8 parallell TDA1543's as well. No opamps used in the output. The TDA's will give you an output of more than 4.5 Volts peak-peak at 0 dB.
The kit comes with excellent parts like black gate NX capacitors in super E-cap mode, a low-jitter (tent) clock, OSCON capacitors for the digital part, etc. Also a very clear (english) building instruction.

The power input for the analog ans digital part of the circuit are separate for optimum performance. Sorry, no toslink input, only SP-DIFF.

The attached picture shows one of the DAC's almost finished. You can clearly see the cooling tower to cool the TDA's as they can run on 7 or 8 Volt and become quite hot without cooling...

This kit will cost USD 240, shipping costs excluded.

 

[maxlorenz]

Hello Erwin:

Nice cooling system.

In what position do you use superE-cap?

I use it on output coupling as I find them very transparent, but no one seems to believe in them nor are willing to measure them to demonstrate the false statement made by the inventor.

I recently swaped one BG NX for a pair of them in super E-cap, per channel, on my little DIY nonos (4*tower) , direct I2S from CDPRO, and the sound presentation is completelly different: much more open and expanded soundstage, cleaner and with more inner detail and instrument definition. Also bass and dynamics improved.
It lost some nonos warmth, though.
They usually take some time to burn-in but the change was immediate, so I expect further improvement

Regards
Mauricio

 

[dddac]

nice to see some more 8 1543 dacs
although the fashion is already to use multiples of 12.

can you publish your circuit please?

I see no cooling on the regulator for the tda1543 tower, must be getting prety hot?

 

[maxlorenz]

Don't worry, Doede:

Yo'daman

Regards
M

PS: anybody knows some cheap I2S capable transport. I'm searching the forum but the threads are enormous and nothing solid yet.
The truth is I want to avoid receiver chips at all (low) cost

 

[Skorpio]

I'm comparing my upgraded NOS TDA1543 based DAC to Levinson ML360S DAC and presently, there is hardly any area where Levinson is better: involvement, transparency, inner detail, bass articulation are all better with NOS DAC. Levinson may be better in soundstaging, but I was never much concerned with that. And involvement is definitley much better with NOS DAC (that the main reason I'm still using it, while I keep Levinson disconnected for almost a year now).

I'm currently using an output buffer right after the DAC (same buffer as in Levinson DAC) and it brings an improvement: no active preamp needed anymore.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

What kind of output buffer do you use, do you have more details?
I suspect that the better performance from multiple dac chips stagged is output driving capabilities more the increased linearity...?