EZDAC is singing now!!!

[SimontY]

Originally posted by t.


A maxed out PCM1794 would give it a good fight

Based on Ray's comments in the CD63/7 mods list thread I'd expect it to better a CD63 by miles. But Ray hasn't heard a fully "tricked out" CD63, so it's not clear cut by any stretch. This is a project I must try, but first I have a holiday to pay for and one or two other high priorities. When I can afford it I want to do this!

My CD player gives me loads of grief, so I'd love to at least abandon the moving parts and just use a PC/squeezebox as the source.

[t.]

I've never owned one but I've heard three different souped up 63's, a standard 63KI and the Cd6000KI, the standard units sounded quite poor IMO, lookng at the circuit they are decent units but seem to need a lot of money and time spent on them, tbh if I had one I'd concentrate on just turning it into a decent transport.
You add some of those nice regs, clockcircuitry and a discrete output stage to the Ezdac it really sings!! only dac I've heard so far that rivals it is my Pedja dac using a double crown TDA1541A

Since buying a SB3, modding it to feed the dacs I've never looked back tbh I've messed about with enough CDP's now and none have come close to the sound I'm getting now

[SimontY]

That's excellent to hear t..

I do agree the Marantz units aren't great unmodded. They fall far short of more modern players.

You've definately convinced me I need this project.

[t.]

Well I'm sure your 63 sounds very good, its nice to start these projects just to see what you can squeeze out of a standard unit

At least the dac does not cost to much to build, you can try it as standard, if you like it just add various bits like better regs etc when you can, maybe even take some of the upgraded parts out of your Marantz output stage to save you a bit
I keep meaning to try out that discrete output stage you you guys use in the Marantz as soon as I can get the board etched, the thing I like about the current op-amp in there at the minute for the gainstage is that no coupling cap is needed

[SimontY]

It's always nice not to have a coupling cap, but Ray's stage sounds miles better than any op-amp I've heard even with a mediocre cap in the path! Especially nice now as it's fed from low noise regulators. I could hack this out (although that would feel sad!) and put it in a different DAC project if it was significantly better sounding than the CD63KI.

[t.]

It just depends what you want to spend, if possible you could try the modded SB3/Dac route and keep your modified CD63 as is, like you say seems a shame to hack it after all the work that’s gone into it, it'll still beat the crud out of a lot of other commercial CDP's costing much more

I'm looking forward to Rays output stage, I'll try it without the input filter and run it straight after the I/V resistors, it only needs the resistors feeding the THS4031 op-amps I use in the Ezdac removing

[6h5c]

Hi guys,

Did some serious listening to my new EzDAC last week, and I found it already outperforms the CD section of my SA8400 while it's not even finished yet! Very nice first listening results! Not finished yet, as I want to fit a Flea in there, and i'm still waiting for a few BG's to arrive, hopefully next week... I wonder if it's also going to beat my SA8400 SACD playback, it's already somewhere in between now...

Anyone happen to have a spare Flea PCB? Or two, as I have a CD63KI waiting also .

Regards,

Ray

[6h5c]

Originally posted by t.
I'm looking forward to Rays output stage, I'll try it without the input filter and run it straight after the I/V resistors, it only needs the resistors feeding the THS4031 op-amps I use in the Ezdac removing

Please let us know how that sounds .

Ray

[ezkcdude]

Originally posted by 6h5c
Hi guys,

Did some serious listening to my new EzDAC last week, and I found it already outperforms the CD section of my SA8400 while it's not even finished yet! Very nice first listening results! Not finished yet, as I want to fit a Flea in there, and i'm still waiting for a few BG's to arrive, hopefully next week... I wonder if it's also going to beat my SA8400 SACD playback, it's already somewhere in between now...

Anyone happen to have a spare Flea PCB? Or two, as I have a CD63KI waiting also .

Regards,

Ray

Ray, I'm very happy you are enjoying the DAC! I saw your positive comments in the Marantz thread, as well. Maybe if enough people get interested I can place a larger order of boards, and get them silkscreened/solder masked...without increasing the price at all.

Ray, one last thing...I always like to know whether people used 1% or 0.1% matched resistors for the output section. What did you do there?

[6h5c]

Me very happy too !

I think I would be interested in another two boards, especially if they have a solder mask. I know a few fellow-DIY'ers, who'd like to build the DAC, that would appreciate that very much, considering their soldering-skills .

I used 0,1% resistors in the output-section. I didn't match them any further, they should be nearly identical. I have very low offset at the output now, only one or two mV. Maybe if I build another one I'll match them even further, with a six-digit 4-wire ohmmeter I can use at work .

Regards,

Ray