good simple DAC kit?

[cowanrg]

i am in need of a good DAC. mine is alright, but now that all my sources come from a single source with a good digital out, i would like to improve my sound.

i have a lot of other projects going on and dont need to be a pioneer and reinvent the wheel. basically, im looking for a kit that i can just assemble and go. i know its not very DIY, but ive got all the DIY i can handle right now, i just dont feel like spending $1k+ on a good DAC.

i have been looking on ebay, and "diy gene" has a nice looking kit, but i know you guys dont like him because of stolen designs and such. any other suggestions out there?

here is what i would be dealing with:

i use a media center PC for all my sources (best thing since sliced bread!). it outputs 24-bit through an RCA digital out. its pretty clean, ive compared it to some very nice transports and it does a fantastic job (beating out most of them). i am currently using the DAC in my processor (rotel sp-1098). its not slouch, its one of the reasons why i bought this processor. the manual says: "24-bit/128x oversampling d-a converters from AKM and crystal semiconductors 24-bit/192khz"

it does HDCD, and i assume i will lose that going with a custom built DAC. thats fine with me. i only have a few HDCD's anyways. any help would be great, and if anyone knows of any really decent commercial units for cheap, that would be great too! i dont have a ton of cash to spend on this, i just want to get a better DAC than what i have.

 

[theAnonymous1]

Have you looked at the DAC's from this site?

http://www.diykits.com.hk/dac.html

And also the "Extreme TDA1543" kit from this site.

http://us.hifidiy.net/

I was actually going to buy three of these, but my funds were low so I just bought three Entech 203.2 DAC's instead. I managed to get the Entech's for only a little more than one of those kits.

The above site even sells a chassis for that kit at a very reasonable price and it looks pretty nice.

 

[lineup]

i am in need of a good DAC. mine is alright, but now that all my sources come from a single source with a good digital out, i would like to improve my sound.

Hello, cowanrg

I dont know if this DAC designed some years ago match all your requirements.
But this sensible and good DAC
by Sheldon Stokes ( think he is member here at www.diyaudio.com )
is in my opinion a Good simple DAC kit

He also has got his Tube Dac:

The output of the I/V stage
feeds the grids of a pair of tubes (6DJ8's or 12AT7's)
in an SRPP (shunt regulated push pull) configuration.
The total analog signal path consists of
a resistor, a tube gain stage, and a capacitor.

Sheldon's Projects are well documented and popular.
Guess you will find some topics in this forum about them.
http://www.quadesl.com/dac.html


Regards
lineup
http://lineup.awardspace.com/

 

[cowanrg]

Have you looked at the DAC's from this site?

http://www.diykits.com.hk/dac.html

And also the "Extreme TDA1543" kit from this site.

http://us.hifidiy.net/

I was actually going to buy three of these, but my funds were low so I just bought three Entech 203.2 DAC's instead. I managed to get the Entech's for only a little more than one of those kits.

The above site even sells a chassis for that kit at a very reasonable price and it looks pretty nice.

the extreme TDA1543 kit looks nice. the price is right, under $100 for the kit isnt bad at all. im not sure if they still make it though, it doesnt look like they offer it for sale, i guess ill have to email them. and there isnt much documentation at all...

the kits from diykits.com.hk look alright, but they have NO documentation as to what they are. the prices look great, but who knows that they really are?! maybe someone else has bought from them? here is one of them on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NICE-24-BIT-196...68QQihZ019QQcategoryZ3280QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

it looks the same. they seem to be decent, but i dont know much about DAC's, so i cant tell if any of these will sound decent or not. what should i be looking for?

 

[cowanrg]

Re: Re: good simple DAC kit?

Hello, cowanrg

I dont know if this DAC designed some years ago match all your requirements.
But this sensible and good DAC
by Sheldon Stokes ( think he is member here at www.diyaudio.com )
is in my opinion a Good simple DAC kit

He also has got his Tube Dac:

Sheldon's Projects are well documented and popular.
Guess you will find some topics in this forum about them.
http://www.quadesl.com/dac.html


Regards
lineup
http://lineup.awardspace.com/

hum, i dont know if i want a design thats from "some years ago". also, he doesnt seem to offer a kit, just the bare PCB. i dont mind buying parts, but i would rather just have a box of parts that i put together, or a finished PCB that i add a PSU and case to.

 

[theAnonymous1]

I know the Etreme DAC kits are still available because he had some on ebay not too long ago when I was interested in buying them. Right now he only has a sinlge TDA1543 kit that would require a preamp.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-TDA1543-DA...ryZ14978QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The first site sells on ebay also but doesn't have any DAC's for sale at the moment.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZwww.diykits.com.hkQQhtZ-1

I don't know if you saw this on the site, but here's the schematic for the Extreme DAC.

http://us.hifidiy.net/Article.asp?ArticleId=175

 

[cowanrg]

ok, thanks. that helps a bit. i can watch the ebay auctions and see if anything pops up.

really, im ignorant about DAC's, or at least DIY ones... my favorite real world DAC's are the musical fidelity ones (any of them, but mainly the tri-vista tube dac and the A3.24 one) and the esoteric stuff. if i could come close (or better) than the A3.24, i would be happy. i dont expect to compare or beat the tri-vista or the esoteric (both around $5K+, the esoterics are high as $10k+).

i mean, can i get good sound from a kit, or am i asking too much? and when i say good sound, i mean something that will compete with ~$1500 commercial DAC's?

 

[rfbrw]

You could build something like the A3.24. There is a schematic in the forum.

 

[cowanrg]

You could build something like the A3.24. There is a schematic in the forum.

hum. but is someone making boards for it? plus, in the newest one, they use chokes and such, it might be a little harder to make than i would want to do.

 

[mourip]

I have built two of Scott Nixons NOS DACs and find them to be excellent and very cheap. He makes SPDIF and USB DACs, tubed and non-tube.

http://www.scott-nixon.com/

Best,

Paul

 

[rfbrw]

hum. but is someone making boards for it?

Not that I am aware of.

plus, in the newest one, they use chokes and such, it might be a little harder to make than i would want to do.

The choke regulated psu is the easiest part to build. Chokes, though probably expensive, are at least available with relative ease. Far easier than buying parts from NPC.

 

[danny_66]

There's the new Opus DAC from Twisted Pear Audio that will be available soon:
http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/

 

[lineup]

There's the new Opus DAC from Twisted Pear Audio that will be available soon:
http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/

danny_66
True!
very good dac, that Opus DAC

Already in 12 May 2006
the constructor and webmaster of http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/
Russ White started a topic here about it:
Mr White's “Opus”, designing a simple balanced DAC

It has got some good chip from http://www.wolfson.co.uk/
WM8740

117dB SNR ('A' weighted, stereo @ 48kHz)
Sampling frequency : 8kHz - 192kHz
Input data word : 16 to 24 bit

Product info: http://www.wolfson.co.uk/products/WM8740/

Hard to find a better DAC, right now, I would say
and still keep it on a DIY audio construction level in simplicity!


lineup
http://lineup.awardspace.com/

 

[cowanrg]

hum, the opus looks like it could work. seems like a lot of people like the design. im not a circuits guy, so i can look at it and know anything about it, but it just looks very simple. all the expensive commercial dacs seem to have a LOT of parts, these all look very basic. i know a lot of parts doesnt necessarily mean its better, it just seems odd.

im curious what pricing will be. the extreme dac kit from hifidiy is like $90, which isnt too bad, i would just need a case, transformer, and some little bits to make it work. i have a feeling the twisted pear opus will be quite a bit more. will it sound that much better?

im just confused. there seem to be so many and i have no idea how each will sound, which sounds better, etc. i understand there is a bit of subjective opinion, but it would still be nice to somehow rate them...

 

[Spasticteapot]

Anyone else seen this DAC?

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

USB tube DAC for under 90$!

http://www.diykits.com.hk/dac.html

They've also got another USB DAC (using a Burr Brown op-amp and a PCM2704).

Furthermore, they've got a decent-looking USB - to - S/PDIF converter. (Then again, I don't know a thing about 'em.)

http://www.diykits.com.hk/pclink.html


I'm not opposed to bodging together a simple DAC (or ripping one out of a dead CD player), and this looks like a nice way to get audio out of a laptop. (Of course, I'd use a seperate 5v power supply. Just in case.)

 

[cowanrg]

it sure does look good for $90! i wonder what shipping is...

im not looking for a usb dac or a usb > spdif converter. it doesnt work as well as they would have you think. im bypassing all internal windows sound processing stuff via the soundcard. you cant do all that with just a usb audio out. maybe im wrong, but i checked into it pretty thoroughly. windows resamples (poorly) to 48khz and then adds its volume control which messes up the sound. using an internal sound card you can bypass all that, but not with usb.

 

[theAnonymous1]

The twistedpear Opus DAC has balanced outputs. If I'm not mistaken, your looking for ubalanced.

I don't know if they provide a mod for unbalanced, but I think doing so would throw away half of that DAC's intended purpose.

The diykits site has excellent prices, though I'm weary of what he charges for shipping. I'm sure its probably close to half the cost.

 

[yangsmm]

Thanks for good information..

 

[mlihl]

Deal of the century!

I'd like to suggest the Rockna RD-2 DAC. I haven't heard it yet but it comes with some of today's best chips (PCM1796 DAC, AD1896 upsampler...). Board layout seems fantastic, too. You even get a discrete analog output stage...for less than $200

I don't think you'll find a better deal...

http://www.audiokit.ro/dac_rd2.html

Regards,

Mike

 

[cowanrg]

yeah, im looking for single-ended, i cant use balanced. so the twisted pair is probably out. there's probably a way to get it single-ended, but why modify it?

well, thats good, it narrows down the choices. right now its between one of the scott nixon kit, the rockna RD-3 (ive heard good things about it), and the hifikit extreme dac kit.

i emailed them and asked how much shipping will be. it will probably be $300 to ship

i still cant believe that diyeden dac. $90 for a case with some electronics and some tubes? sheesh, how do these people make money?! im curious how good it is.