New to DACs; After Some Research, is Texas Instruments PCM1794 the best DAC?

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Hi,
I'm an old timer when it comes to audio and DIY (that's why I'm here). However, as far as DACs go, I don't know the best units. I've been doing some hunting around for the best DAC chip (including reading many threads on these forums), and it seems that the highest performing 24bit DAC is the Texas Instruments PCM1794 DAC. Is this an accurate statement?
 
Recently I had a DAC vendor over to my home with several HiFi enthusiasts. This DAC had interchangeable daughter cards for TDA-1543A, CS4398, and PCM1798. The 98 is very similar to the 92/94 chip from TI.

By far the best chip was the TI 1798. Why anyone would ever bother with a TDA-1543 is a mystery. It's a low end chip and it sounded like it as compared to the CS4398 and the PCM1798.

The TDA1543A was thin, lacked detail, and had a non existent sound stage.

CS4398 was an excellent chip, it's just the 1798 was a little bit better in every dimension, especially noteworthy was the improvement in the 1798's bass response.

BTW, we also compared the DAC's to my current ADCOM GDA750 DAC with a pair of BB1702's, non-over sampling, non-delta sigma, 20 bit chip.

Personally I liked the 1798 overall by a small margin, the 1702 and the 4398 were a toss-up. One was slightly better than the other in small ways with different strengths.

The 1543A was a clear hands down looser when compared to these other chips. I know a lot of DIYer's like them because they are cheap and easy to DIY, and are better than what they are listening to now if the DIY build quality is high.

Picking the TI/BB 179x chips is a good choice. There maybe other trade-offs other people would prefer, but overall the TI has a great product. It demonstrated strength across the board in our camparison. It's more expensive than the others, but a great chip.

Good luck,

-David
 
elg2001 said:
and it seems that the highest performing 24bit DAC is the Texas Instruments PCM1794 DAC. Is this an accurate statement?

I came to the same conclusion, when I built my DAC. It also is very easy to configure/setup, especially if used with an ASRC, such as AD1896 (which is how I'm using it). PCM1794 has about double the output current, which I would think is the main advantage over PCM1798.
 
Re: Re: New to DACs; After Some Research, is Texas Instruments PCM1794 the best DAC?

ezkcdude said:


PCM1794 has about double the output current, which I would think is the main advantage over PCM1798.


The extra current is needed for some passive I/V designs and for Transformer based I/V designs.

Personally, I'm looking at building a 179x design with a choice of a Pass Labs I/V design or a transformer for experimentation in the near future.

-David
 
ACTIVA said:
Hi Elq2001,

Many others still consider the BB/TI R-2R type PCM1704 one of the best sounding DAC avaliable, also the most expensive.
PCM1794 - USD 9.95 @ 1KU from TI
PCM1704 - USD24.10 @ 1KU from TI

Regards
Max


As Max said the 1704 is a great chip. The 20 bit version I own (1702) compared very favorably to the 1798. I still liked the 1798 better I thought it had more punch and better clarity.

In my post above, the 1702 was my preference over the CS4398, TDA1543, and only slightly behind the 1798.

-David
 
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