Thanks, your dac is one of the kits thats on my list. Im just not so sure about the NOS dacs as ive heard they are bit lacking in detail and frequency extension compared to upsampling and oversampling designs that im used to? What kinda of power supply do you reccomend with your Dac?
thanks
Frank
thanks
Frank
imperfectcircle,
I'm starting to build the OS USB DAC-201 from audiodiylab.com. Decent price for what it can do - headphone amp, USB-to-SPDIF, line out, balanced/unbalanced output. Power is supplied from batteries or a wallwart.
If you're hesitant about soldering SMD components, you can order the PCB with the SMD parts installed. And, for $35 (USD) that ain't bad.
Here's the link: http://www.audiodiylab.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=72
I know most everyone here seems to be in the Non-OS DAC camp. This will be my first DAC, so I'll have to build both types to see which one I like best.
Let us know which one you decide on.
-Ken
I'm starting to build the OS USB DAC-201 from audiodiylab.com. Decent price for what it can do - headphone amp, USB-to-SPDIF, line out, balanced/unbalanced output. Power is supplied from batteries or a wallwart.
If you're hesitant about soldering SMD components, you can order the PCB with the SMD parts installed. And, for $35 (USD) that ain't bad.
Here's the link: http://www.audiodiylab.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=72
I know most everyone here seems to be in the Non-OS DAC camp. This will be my first DAC, so I'll have to build both types to see which one I like best.
Let us know which one you decide on.
-Ken
Attachments
imperfectcircle said:
Lets not fill your thread with millions of reactions of pro-contra-nos
....If that would be true, I would not be using nos dacs. I use lead-acid batteries for power supply. Works very nice. With high cost mains power supplies can be built who top that possibly, but than there is no relation between both ....
you can read what others oppionions are Here
doede
I have been doing a bit of research about what is the best way to get the digital data from my computer to the DAC. The two options I have are Spdif output from my soundcard or USB output from the PC. Ive read alot about both methods and there seems to be no cut and dry answer about which is better. I would think a good pro soundcard like RME or E-mu would have a very high quality clock and Spdif output since it is made for audio?? USB wasnt really design specifically for audio so im not sure it would be as good???
I am very interested in you DDDAC, but now im not sure if I should build the Spdif version or USB version?? Which do you prefer if you had to choose between Spdif and USB???
I am very interested in you DDDAC, but now im not sure if I should build the Spdif version or USB version?? Which do you prefer if you had to choose between Spdif and USB???
i'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this, but something has me a little confused.
with 'normal' transports, I2S signals are the default output. jitter is decided by the quality and implementation of the master clock that times both the transport's data output and the DAC's input.
how does a master clock fit in with a USB convertor? when the USB signal is converted to I2S, will the master clock work there? how would i hook up a master clock to sync both a USB convertor, and, say, -ecdesigns-'s octal TDA1541A dac?
Also, is there a correlation between frequency of master clock and quality? In other words, does a higher clock frequency mean less jitter?
with 'normal' transports, I2S signals are the default output. jitter is decided by the quality and implementation of the master clock that times both the transport's data output and the DAC's input.
how does a master clock fit in with a USB convertor? when the USB signal is converted to I2S, will the master clock work there? how would i hook up a master clock to sync both a USB convertor, and, say, -ecdesigns-'s octal TDA1541A dac?
Also, is there a correlation between frequency of master clock and quality? In other words, does a higher clock frequency mean less jitter?
imperfectcircle said:
Why can't the PC be the DAC? Would something like a Lynx or RME card be about as good as a sub-$1000 DAC, eg. the Benchmark DAC1.
adhoc said:
I'm interested in this as well. An idea I had was this...
If your music is already on your PC, why not have a sound player that reads an entire song into memory at a time. Loads the song into a memory controller attached directly to the DAC. Then the song plays entirely out of memory clocked by the internal clock associated with the DAC. The transport method I2s, SPDIF, etc. ceases to be an issue and you are left with only the quality of the master clock on the DAC to contend with.
imperfectcircle said:
Daveis said:
Basically, the USB DAC has a FIFo (first in first out) buffer for the music data. The DAC's clock is the master, when the FIFO is getting low, the DAC tells the computer to deliver a burst of more data that fills the FIFO, and this repeats again and again as the song plays. No reclocking jitter issues.
Ulas said:
Hello Ulas,
Had a read of the specs - isn't what wa2ise described a more or less summary of the asynchronous mode of isochronous transfer?
EDIT: do note however that there is no mention of
1. jitter reduction
and that
2. windows does not yet support asynchronous mode.
I have seen some very alarming USB jitter measurements over at diyhifi.org - for now at least, USB is not imo a high quality solution wrt to low jitter. I have yet to see an implementation here that has jitter readings in the 100s of ps.
adhoc said:
Not really. Read it again.
The USB audio receiver, the DAC, may be capable of any or all the isochronous modes but its up to the host to choose which transfer method to use. If you really read the spec you would know isochronous transfer guarantees timely delivery of the data. When the host negotiates the connection it reserves the necessary bus bandwidth. If there is insufficient bandwidth available, the connection fails. While the DAC can negotiate certain aspects of the transfer timing, it’s up to the host send the correct amount of data at the correct time. The DAC can’t arbitrarily call in and say “I want 1000 samples and I want them NOW.”
With regard to jitter: USB phase jitter is limited to plus or minus one audio sample. In general, that means plus or minus one audio sample every millisecond. If the DAC has a large enough buffer and uses adaptive sample rate control, that shouldn’t be a problem unless the host changes the sample rate in mid-stream, which it’s allowed to do. Barring that, the jitter in the D/A process is determined by the inherent jitter in the PLL/VCO and the logic that makes up the converter proper. In that regard, USB DACs are little different from S/PDIF DACs as they both rely on a VCO to generate the critical timing.
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