| ezkcdude |
| I gotta run, but just wanted to give an update. I finished building my DAC today, and it works. I have it hooked up to my SqueezeBox. I'll give more details later. But here's some pics. |
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| ezkcdude |
| Here's another pic. |
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| chengtaw |
Great to hear the news!
Congrulation!!! |
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| ezkcdude |
| Thanks! It is very gratifying work. Here's another pic from the side view. |
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| ezkcdude |
| Took some better pics. I know people like pics. |
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| ezkcdude |
| Last one for tonight, I promise. |
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| guglielmope |
Very interesting work,I'visited your website!
And how about the sound?
Ciao
Guglielmo |
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| ezkcdude |
| Thanks! The sound is promising. The setup is not ideal, as the negative rail was not working, so I had to connect a second power supply. I think I must have burned the LM337. For my next build, which will be intended as a reference, I will use AD1896 and PCM1794, and also AD8610 for the op amps. But, so far, even this prototype sounds good to me. It's more "crisp" than my previous DAC, a TDA1543 NOS DAC made by Derek Shek, but I expected this to be the case. I liked the Shek DAC a lot. I need to listen to my DAC for several weeks to determine whether I will make a permanent change. If the perceived increase in detail becomes fatiguing, then I may switch back. Still, it was great fun to do this project. |
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| ezkcdude |
| Well, I said I'd give some more details, so I posted a bunch of pics and more technical details of the DAC design on my website. |
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| morpheus82 |
| great ez, it's a lot of time i follow this project, and the only thing i don't like are those smd resistors...:D i think i will keep most of your project, just change the dac and opamp and see what will come out...otherwise, great job mate! |
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| roender |
Hello ezkcdude,
Your project is very good looking and I like to build one and made some minor changes.
Do you have any PCB boards for sale or you can share gerber and exelon files for your project?
Thank You,
Mihai |
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| ezkcdude |
I don't have those files. I'm doing this using ExpressPCB. I am going to make some minor modifications to the prototype, as well. Then I'd like to do another run. If you'd like to suggest some changes, I'm willing to listen. However, if you take a look at the BOM (and now the "Fancy BOM" that I made), building the current board is not exactly cheap. I don't want to add too much more to the cost or the complexity, or else, I fear losing the "EZ" in EZDAC. That said, the board has plenty of flexibility. For example, you can use external PSU for the op amps, and bypass the I/V section entirely to run your own, if that's desired.
I will admit that now I'd like to learn how to use Eagle, so I can make these Gerber files I keep hearing about ;) . |
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| Z33 |
Would now be a good time to mention channel select jumpers?
;)
RandyB |
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| ezkcdude |
| Is your idea to have one board for each channel and run the DAC in mono mode? |
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| Z33 |
That's the idea. The eventual target is an active 3-way, using a pair of AF4 boards per channel. Running your DAC in mono would provide a separate output for each XO, and keep the other channel far, far away. It helps that your DAC runs on the same +-15vdc that the XO boards already use, too.
Best channel-separation obtainable, I'd guess, having a decent dedicated DAC for each.
:D |
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| ezkcdude |
| It doesn't look easy to put jumpers on pins 1-2. The other problem with that is that it makes the board a little harder for people who don't need that capability. If you want, I can try to do jumpers, and then make a mini-board run specifically for you. You'd get three boards, and I guess you could use the extra for a "normal" 2-channel version. Let me know if you're interested. |
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| Z33 |
If you're willing to try it, I can certainly pony up for the 3 boards. Offhand, I can't think of another diy DAC that can go mono; yours may be the first, and a pair ought to be just about affordable.
At least in context. Besides 2 DACs, my project needs 2 ladder attenuators, 4 crossover boards, 6 power amplifiers and 3-4 power supplies. Since I'm buying, building and integrating stepwise, it's still do-able on a hobby budget. :cannotbe:
RandyB |
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| ezkcdude |
| I played around with this last night. It seems to be possible, just needed to move the 3.3V rail around a little bit, and remove some ground plane near those pins. By the way, do you need power supplies? If so, I can do another run of my DIY EZDUAL PSU :D. It's very cheap and easy to build. |
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| Z33 |
Cool! I'm using a couple of the 'scalable PSU' boards from the ActiveFilter4 GB a while back, so I'm OK for power, I think. Are you contemplating other changes for the re-spin, or is the current design pretty much complete?
I've been using OPA2134s for everything, and got curious about that AD8610; I put an AD8620 on a BrownDog adapter in my CD5000 last night just to see. Sounds nice. ;)
RandyB |
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| ezkcdude |
| Have you though about how to split the SPDIF signal? Will it need to be buffered? |
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| Z33 |
| quote: | Originally posted by ezkcdude
Have you though about how to split the SPDIF signal? Will it need to be buffered? |
It may, but I was going to start with a simple 2-way splitter transformer to replace the pulse transformer that's in the CDP. I found a couple of possibly useful ideas at:
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/audio/spdif.html
I've also got a couple of commercial 75-ohm dist-amps that I could use, but I'd rather a simple approach, and winding toroids is easy.
RandyB |
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| metalman |
| quote: | Originally posted by ezkcdude:
I will admit that now I'd like to learn how to use Eagle, so I can make these Gerber files I keep hearing about. |
Take the initiative and dive in. Eagle has a very good user manual and tutorial in pdf format that are a great help in getting you started. I highly recommend giving it a try! |
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| ezkcdude |
It's been a while since I've updated this thread (or visited the forum really), so I thought I'd say "hi". :D I just wanted to post a couple of pics from two builders who have finished the ezdac in the last couple of months. The first guy used his own PSU for the DAC (not shown in the pic), and the second guy used my PCB's for both the PSU and DAC.
Ted K's DAC
JR's DAC
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| metalman |
Hey ezkcdude,
Remember a couple of posts back when I recommended diving into Eagle? I take it back. On a recommendation from a friend I tried out the DipTrace software package, and I like it well enough that I layed out hard cash and bought a copy. Like Eagle there is a limited function freeware version and if your needs are greater there is also a DIY'er license available at a discount for non-commercial use. I find it a lot easier and faster to use than Eagle.
Cheers, Terry |
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| ezkcdude |
| quote: | Originally posted by metalman
Hey ezkcdude,
Remember a couple of posts back when I recommended diving into Eagle? I take it back. On a recommendation from a friend I tried out the DipTrace software package, and I like it well enough that I layed out hard cash and bought a copy. Like Eagle there is a limited function freeware version and if your needs are greater there is also a DIY'er license available at a discount for non-commercial use. I find it a lot easier and faster to use than Eagle.
Cheers, Terry |
Thanks! I haven't yet moved away from ExpressPCB, since it meets my needs. But I will look into that DipTrace if/when I need to. |
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| t. |
Hi ezkcdude,
Heres the psu I use with the Ezdac:)
Its one of Jens Rasmussens psu's
Cheers,
Leo, not Ted;) |
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| ezkcdude |
| Cool! Sorry about the name mixup, not sure what I was thinking. :whazzat: |
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| t. |
No problem:)
I would have thought more people would have built the dac by now, come on chaps lets see some piccies:D |
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| TedS |
Hi guys,
I'm getting close to pulling the trigger and ordering the PCB's for this project. I've been reading up on the datasheets and studying Evan's schematics. I have a couple questions to ask, though.
I'd like to use the DAC with multiple (2) sources. Is it hard to make that work with this kit? It appears that the CS8416 can handle up to 4 single ended (SPDIF) inputs.
Ted |
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| ezkcdude |
| quote: | Originally posted by TedS
Hi guys,
I'm getting close to pulling the trigger and ordering the PCB's for this project. I've been reading up on the datasheets and studying Evan's schematics. I have a couple questions to ask, though.
I'd like to use the DAC with multiple (2) sources. Is it hard to make that work with this kit? It appears that the CS8416 can handle up to 4 single ended (SPDIF) inputs.
Ted |
Ted, I believe that JR, who built the DAC in the second pic above, connected a switch that allows him to switch between two different sources (you can actually see it in the picture). Maybe you could post this question on the EZDAC user group, and see if he can help you out with that. I think it would be difficult to tap into the other CS8416 inputs directly, otherwise. |
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| TedS |
Thanks; I'll post over there, too. I'd like to find out what kind of switch he used. I've been thinking about this for awhile, and have read about source selection switches on SPDIF lines causing reflections and other bad things due to messing up the 75 ohm characteristic impedance. But maybe it's ok to use a switch at the end of the line?
Ted |
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| Nameless1 |
| Hi guys, can this DAC drive standard phones like Porta Pros directly? :confused: Because I had to postpone my plans for headphone amp :) |
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| claudio |
Hi EZDAC builders,
would be nice if you post the sonic results obtained with you new DAC. |
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| t. |
Mine currently sounds very good, I'm using a Burson buffer on the output, discrete regs and a PF flea for the XO now:)
No listening fatigue at all!
Notice how the pcb is going discolored in the corners
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| ezkcdude |
| quote: | Originally posted by t.
Mine currently sounds very good, I'm using a Burson buffer on the output, discrete regs and a PF flea for the XO now:)
No listening fatigue at all!
Notice how the pcb is going discolored in the corners
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That's great! How long have you had it running?
Oh, as for the browning, it's due to the old ExpressPCB lead-free process. They have since switched (back?) to using lead, and the boards don't do this anymore (thankfully). |
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| t. |
| quote: | Originally posted by ezkcdude
That's great! How long have you had it running? [/B] |
It was fitted last night and left to burn in, I was listening to it this morning, infact I'm still listening to it;)
I would like to try the Pass D1 I/V next but I'm not sure if it can do balanced to line out, My UCD has balanced inputs but my passive pre is only line in and out
| quote: | [i]
Oh, as for the browning, it's due to the old ExpressPCB lead-free process. They have since switched (back?) to using lead, and the boards don't do this anymore (thankfully). [/B] |
Thats not much good for me though:bawling: Only joking:clown: :D |
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| ezkcdude |
| quote: | Originally posted by t.
Thats not much good for me though:bawling: Only joking:clown: :D [/B] |
Of course, back then, you got the board for free :D . |
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| t. |
| quote: | Originally posted by ezkcdude
Of course, back then, you got the board for free :D . |
Yes, this is the first pcb I brought that changes colour, you should sell the lead free ones for twice the cost:devilr: |
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| ezkcdude |
| quote: | Originally posted by t.
Mine currently sounds very good, I'm using a Burson buffer on the output, discrete regs and a PF flea for the XO now:)
No listening fatigue at all!
Notice how the pcb is going discolored in the corners
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BTW, what is the PF flea? Do you have a link? |
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| t. |
Look at the left here just click on PFM flea:) http://www.acoustica.org.uk/ I had to modify the one for the XO to output 3,3v instead of 5v
I'm about to fit another to power the 5v section of the dac if I can squeeze it in |
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| ezkcdude |
| quote: | Originally posted by t.
Look at the left here just click on PFM flea:) http://www.acoustica.org.uk/ I had to modify the one for the XO to output 3,3v instead of 5v
I'm about to fit another to power the 5v section of the dac if I can squeeze it in |
Thanks, just gave it a quick glance. It seems the current should be less than 100 mA or so, is that right? I wasn't sure exactly how much current is drawn by the various sections, but maybe that is o.k. in each case. |
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| claudio |
Hi,
one question about the EZDAC power supply: instead of using one PSU, is it possible to use one pre-regulated power supply for the the analog (AD8610) components and another pre-regulated power supply for the digital ones, continuing using the on board LM317-337 chips? All this to keep the digital and analogue circuits well separeted. |
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| t. |
Heres the other Flea now running the 5v, only one left is the 3.3v, I need something thats more current
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| macgyver |
| Where are the measurements of this dac? |
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| t. |
Another piccy using the Burson buffer with the Ezdac, I'm currently using the Aksa N+ and UCD180 amps, so far I'm very pleased with the sound:)
Cheers,
Leo |
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| 6h5c |
Hi guys,
Here are a couple of pics of my EzDAC, still 'under construction'. The PCB is finished and tested, and my first impression is that it sounds very good. I used the 'fancy' chipset: AD1896A and PCM1794A with AD8610 opamps. I'm using three separate regulated PSUs for +/-12V and 3.3/5V; I cut the track between the 12V and 3.3/5V. The clock is going to be generated by a PFM Flea eventually and i'm planning to use a few Black Gates instead of the ZA's that are on the board now.
Regards,
Ray |
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| 6h5c |
Yes, me too used a Hammond box :D
Ray |
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| 6h5c |
| Some room left for The Flea and a 'Flea PSU'... |
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| t. |
| Looking great ray;) keep us updated, I still have not tried your discrete output stage yet with the Ezdac |
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| claudio |
| quote: | Originally posted by 6h5c
I'm using three separate regulated PSUs for +/-12V and 3.3/5V; I cut the track between the 12V and 3.3/5V.
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Looking great, Ray.
In the pic the LM317 are mounted, so you are using 3 PSU (+/-12V and 3.3/5V), that feeds the on board LM317/337, right?
What about grounds? Please put some pic of the connections, when finished. I am willing to go the same way, with different PSU for each voltage, but bypassing on board LM3xx. |
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| ezkcdude |
Hey, nice surprise to see another built! I'm sorry I didn't see the thread earlier. Ray, you should definitely put some pics over in the gallery section of my forum.
Also, I should let you guys know I only have a couple of boards left, so I'm thinking about what do for the next batch. From what I see, my design really should focus more on being a true modder's board. So, rather than focusing on improving the onboard regulation or output, I want to make it easier for people to mod those things. With that in mind, I think the only modifications to the design I will do is add jumpers, so you don't have to cut tracks, and add larger vias for directly connecting external regulated psu's. I will also make the pads for the I/V resistors larger, so you could easily tap them, if you want to do your own I/V (balanced). The core of the design (SPDIF->ASRC->PCM179X) will not change, as I think it should be viewed as a basic building block. And since you guys have already proven everything else can be modded, I think the board is already quite a success from that standpoint. There should be some DIY left in DIY, right?
Finally, if I knew there was enough demand, I would think about increasing the size of the board (which would create more space for terminal blocks), and adding silkscreen/soldermask. However, I would need to order at least 50 boards, to make that possible, without substantially increasing the price of each board. |
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| ezkcdude |
| Ray, I visited your website tonight. I love the fact that you use my disclaimer! I must disclose (or disclaim) my own disclaimer, which is to say I am not a lawyer, so I'm not sure it will keep you or I out of real legal problems, if they ever were to occur :D. |
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| 6h5c |
| quote: | Originally posted by t.
Looking great ray;) keep us updated, I still have not tried your discrete output stage yet with the Ezdac |
Thanks guys. The outputstage was something that came to my mind too, when I saw the EzDAC project :D. I had a quick listen to it for the first time this week and used my modded SA8400 as a source (which has the output stage on-board). I had those analog outputs plugged in too, so I did a nice A-B comparison with my amp's selector switch. The EzDAC was temporarily soldered together with lots of loose wires and PSU PCBs. But it already sounds very good, and is definately of the same level of quality as the 8400 (it uses the CS4397 'Super DAC'). I'm curious what the end result will be, and how it will compare to SACD playback through the 8400's outputstage.
I wonder if a discrete stage with the EzDAC will contribute a lot. There's clearly some HF residue present on the scope, but it's way outside the audioband and doesn't seem to affect performance. So more filtering may not improve things much. It has a nice differential input though, maybe if you use it without the passive filter, or use a simplified 2nd order version of it. The signal should come out cleaner and the circuit is very simple, so that may be an advantage to the opamps.
Ray |
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| 6h5c |
| quote: | Originally posted by claudio
Looking great, Ray.
In the pic the LM317 are mounted, so you are using 3 PSU (+/-12V and 3.3/5V), that feeds the on board LM317/337, right?
What about grounds? Please put some pic of the connections, when finished. I am willing to go the same way, with different PSU for each voltage, but bypassing on board LM3xx. |
Yep, the three PSUs put out 9V and 2x 15V and feed the on-board regs. I used a simple 78xx circuit and two 7815's for the +/-12V section. I just wired one 15V output to GND to generate -15V. I used the local ground-plane to connect the PSU to ground, so it's closer to the on-board input capacitors. Here's a few pics.
Regards,
Ray |
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| 6h5c |
| And the back-side... |
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| t. |
Excellent news Ray:)
As you can see my Ezdac further up http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/show...743#post1180743 I've added a few bits and pieces to mine, PFM flea for the 5v, Burson disrete regs for the +/-12v, PFM Flea for the XO, THS4031 op-amps, linked out the input Spdif 10nf cap on the positive in (my transport and modded SB3 already have coupling and pulse transormer)
Funny thing is I compared a few different type of caps including ZA's, few BG NX Hi-Q's, tants for the decoupling, for some reason I liked tants the best, if you can try comparing the 2 x 47uf types for the VCOM pins, I compared a few here, in my system these two caps had quite an effect on the sound, I now have temporary little sockets fitted on the VCOM pins to allow quick comparing
So far the sound is extremely good since doing the few mods, other thing I need is a discrete reg for the 3.3v, I wanted to use a modded flea but I think the current will be too high. |
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| 6h5c |
| quote: | Originally posted by ezkcdude
Ray, I visited your website tonight. I love the fact that you use my disclaimer! I must disclose (or disclaim) my own disclaimer, which is to say I am not a lawyer, so I'm not sure it will keep you or I out of real legal problems, if they ever were to occur :D. |
Hope you don't mind :D. When I visited your website I realized it would be a good thing to add a disclaimer to mine too. I like the lawyer part, made me think it would cover all legal issues in case somebody blew up their cd-player, so I simply copied your's (lazy @ss...) :D.
I'm planning to add an 'EzDAC' section to my website, do you mind if I link to your website there?
| quote: | Originally posted by ezkcdude
Hey, nice surprise to see another built! I'm sorry I didn't see the thread earlier. Ray, you should definitely put some pics over in the gallery section of my forum. |
Cool, i'll send you some hi-rez pics soon, for now I just took a few quick shots to post here, but you may have those too if you like.
Regards,
Ray |
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| t. |
| quote: | Originally posted by 6h5c
I wonder if a discrete stage with the EzDAC will contribute a lot. There's clearly some HF residue present on the scope, but it's way outside the audioband and doesn't seem to affect performance. So more filtering may not improve things much. It has a nice differential input though, maybe if you use it without the passive filter, or use a simplified 2nd order version of it. The signal should come out cleaner and the circuit is very simple, so that may be an advantage to the opamps.
Ray |
Its worth a try Ray, if you have one of your discrete stages already built up maybe you could just remove resistors on the Ezdac feeding the op-amps and run the outputs of the dac after the I/V resistors direct into the discrete output stage |
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| ezkcdude |
| quote: | Originally posted by 6h5c
I'm planning to add an 'EzDAC' section to my website, do you mind if I link to your website there?
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Of course. :cool: Ray, you have another board, right? Are you going to build another in the same way, or change some things? BTW, keep the pics coming. You are doing some nice macro shots (if I may inquire, what camera/lens combination do you use?). |
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| 6h5c |
| quote: | Originally posted by ezkcdude
Of course. :cool: Ray, you have another board, right? Are you going to build another in the same way, or change some things? BTW, keep the pics coming. You are doing some nice macro shots (if I may inquire, what camera/lens combination do you use?). |
Yep, I have a second board. When i'm finished with this DAC, i'm thinking about building the PCB without the input receiver and experimenting a bit with the ASRC directly connected to the I2S lines in my SA8400 and see what that does. It avoids the transportation of the S/P-DIF signal through a coax cable and the digital-out circuitry in the player. I'll probably hook it up to the discrete output stage as well while i'm at it :yes:.
I don't have much comment on your design, it looks very neat as it is! A silkscreen would be nice though :D, and separate connections for the analog +12V, but those are minor issues. I agree with you: it should be a modders board, with lots of possible ways to connect it to various PSUs or output arrangements. Maybe it's an idea to do the I/V conversion with a transimpedance-amp and use a dual opamp for that, and leave the dif-to-single-ended part outside the board (or make the board a bit bigger...)? But I don't know if the benefit of a virtual GND at the DACs output will beat the passive way of the 25R resistor. Or make the filter just a tad bit more flexible and use something like this: AN048Rev2.pdf.
Or something that supports DSD would be nice too :D.
The camera I use is just a compact Canon A520 4MP. But I use good lighting so I can work without flash at 50 or 100 ISO, that works pretty neat and the noise is still within limits this way. It's a very nice camera. Only a bit of fish-eye distortion sometimes, when I get too close.
Regards,
Ray |
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| 6h5c |
| quote: | Originally posted by t.
Excellent news Ray:)
As you can see my Ezdac further up http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/show...743#post1180743 I've added a few bits and pieces to mine, PFM flea for the 5v, Burson disrete regs for the +/-12v, PFM Flea for the XO, THS4031 op-amps, linked out the input Spdif 10nf cap on the positive in (my transport and modded SB3 already have coupling and pulse transormer)
Funny thing is I compared a few different type of caps including ZA's, few BG NX Hi-Q's, tants for the decoupling, for some reason I liked tants the best, if you can try comparing the 2 x 47uf types for the VCOM pins, I compared a few here, in my system these two caps had quite an effect on the sound, I now have temporary little sockets fitted on the VCOM pins to allow quick comparing |
Hi t.,
Looks very nice! I'm going to use The Flea for the XO too, but i'm waiting for Martin to do another board-run...
Maybe i'm going to make a few boards myself, i've already transferred the design into Eagle, i'm getting impatient :D. I have two more players waiting for a Flea-transplant :clown:. You know The Flea's current can be boosted with an external transistor?
I'm going to try BG NX Hi-Q for the VCOM and after the +/-12V regs. Dunno if that will improve things much, but the ZA's are in there now because i'm waiting for my BG order to be processed. It's those holidays that keep us DIY'ers from DIY'ing in our holiday...
Regards,
Ray |
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| t. |
| quote: | Originally posted by 6h5c
Hi t.,
Looks very nice! I'm going to use The Flea for the XO too, but i'm waiting for Martin to do another board-run...
Maybe i'm going to make a few boards myself, i've already transferred the design into Eagle, i'm getting impatient :D. I have two more players waiting for a Flea-transplant :clown:. You know The Flea's current can be boosted with an external transistor? |
Yes, I could do with a few more of them to, if Martins reading, please hurry with those flea pcbs :D
I have a modded flea with the current boost transistor in my TDA1541 dac but I think it still can only do 100mA, I don't know the exact current of the 3.3v on the Ezdac but all IC's 3.3v are run from that reg, I'd imagine its much higher than 100mA
| quote: | [i]Originally posted by 6h5c [/B]
I'm going to try BG NX Hi-Q for the VCOM and after the +/-12V regs. Dunno if that will improve things much, but the ZA's are in there now because i'm waiting for my BG order to be processed. It's those holidays that keep us DIY'ers from DIY'ing in our holiday...
Regards,
Ray [/B] |
The 47uf ZA's I tried gave a slight etched tone to the highs, BG NX-Hi Q was a little better.
Anyway keep us updated Ray, its great to have another member who's built one of these, theres always plenty of projects to keep us busy;) |
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| ezkcdude |
| You could potentially regulate each section with an external power source, and simply not use the LM317/37's. Just plug the line in where the Vout pin would go. The positive rail is connected along the regulator input pins, not output. Of course, you could still populate the output caps. And don't worry, it won't offend me, if none of the onboard regulators are used ;). |
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| 6h5c |
Ok, i'll keep you updated :cool:. If I have some more pics i'll post them here. Maybe I can find some time tomorrow to assemble it further. And I have to update my website too. And listen to a new cable I aquired recently (Nordost Red Dawn). Oh, and some new (SA)CD's. Busy, busy...
I like the on-board regulators by the way. It seems a good thing to have the power regulated close to the IC's, that's why I still use them. IIRC the 3.3V current is under 100mA. Maybe i'm going to put in some nice shunt-regulators if I like this DAC enough. And raise my Tentlabs stock a bit :D. I saw there is a 24.576MHz XO on the website by the way :yes:. Time for another order soon I think...
Ray |
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| SimontY |
Fantastic thread guys. I'd love to do a project like this and compare it to my very modified Marantz CD63KI. Ultimately feeding this DAC from the computer would be a lovely solution.
I'll be watching :D |
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| t. |
| quote: | Originally posted by SimontY
Fantastic thread guys. I'd love to do a project like this and compare it to my very modified Marantz CD63KI. Ultimately feeding this DAC from the computer would be a lovely solution.
I'll be watching :D |
A maxed out PCM1794 would give it a good fight ;) |
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| SimontY |
| quote: | 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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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. :D |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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 :D.
Regards,
Ray |
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| 6h5c |
| quote: | 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 :D.
Ray |
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| ezkcdude |
| quote: | 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 :D.
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? |
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| 6h5c |
Me very happy too :yes:!
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 :D.
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 :D.
Regards,
Ray |
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| avr300 |
| Just a quick question. What's the price of the board? |
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| ezkcdude |
| Well, for example, if I ordered 50 boards, I could sell them for, let's say, $15 each (plus shipping/paypal), and they would have soldermask/silkscreen. However, that would require me to put up front quite a bit of cash to order the boards. If I knew there was enough demand...it would be no problem. To give you guys a rough estimate, since I first built the ezdac, I've sold roughly 40-50 boards over the last 10 months or so. Are there enough other DIYers interested in this project? I don't know. |
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| avr300 |
| What's the price of the current bord? |
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| ezkcdude |
| quote: | Originally posted by avr300
What's the price of the current bord? |
I've been selling them for $20 USD - but I only have one board left! (And it will be taken very soon.) |
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| 6h5c |
| quote: | Originally posted by ezkcdude
If I knew there was enough demand... |
Maybe start a group-buy wiki? Count me in for two boards :-)
Ray |
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| ezkcdude |
I started an Interest Check thread over at my forum. If anyone is interested in getting boards from me, please go there, so I can get a good estimate of the demand. If there is enough demand for boards, I will place another order within a couple of months. Here's the thread (you will need to register, but it's completely free, of course):
http://ezdiyaudio.informe.com/viewtopic.php?t=32
Thanks! |
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| ezkcdude |
Just a quick update - I'm very close to ordering a new batch of boards which will have silkscreen/soldermask. Thought some of you would be interested.
BOM v.1.5
Top Layer
Bottom Layer
Top+Bot+Silk
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| avr300 |
Very interested!
Ray, can you give a quick update of the sonic performance with the Flea mounted in the ezDAC ?
And btw, great job with the PCB. |
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| 6h5c |
| quote: | Originally posted by avr300
Very interested!
Ray, can you give a quick update of the sonic performance with the Flea mounted in the ezDAC ?
And btw, great job with the PCB. |
I used The Flea with the standard Abracon fitted first, and now I have a Tentlabs XO on it. The difference between the on-board oscillator and a Flea is the same as can be observed with many cd players: more relaxed soundstage e.g. more quiet background and less fatigue, more defined highs and sound opening up, less sticking to the speakers.
As far as my judgement goed, the difference between the Tentlabs XO and the standard can are not that big, maybe the Abracon already has very decent specs? It's hard to do an A-B comparison when you have to unsolder the oscillator :D.
Regards,
Ray |
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| ezkcdude |
I got the new boards today! Very nice...
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| 6h5c |
| :cheers: :joker: :cool: :yummy: :worship: :spin: !!! |
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| t. |
Those look great Evan:cool:
Cheers,
Leo |
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| SimontY |
The boards look great. This is a project that interests me a lot...
Simon |
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| Thomo |
Me too. How long before they're on sale?
Lee. |
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| Luke |
| yeah me too, only those surface mount parts look scary. |
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| SimontY |
| quote: | Originally posted by Luke
only those surface mount parts look scary. |
There's no way I'm soldering SMD. Will boards be available for sale with the SMD parts (at least the ICs) already soldered on? It'd be well worth paying the extra for those of us with sketchy soldering skillz! |
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| Thomo |
Lol. What's wrong Simon, do you have Sausage-fingers?
I don't mind smd tbh, a pair of tweezers, small iron tip and loads of patience. I actually use smt when I build lm317 regs.
Lee. |
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| SimontY |
| quote: | Originally posted by Thomo
Lol. What's wrong Simon, do you have Sausage-fingers?
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I can break larger components, so the bigger the better! I do need a new iron tip, as my one broke and is more of a blunt stub now... |
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| Thomo |
I wouldn't mind putting the smt parts on for you Simon.
After reading good things about this dac, I really want to try one. A friend of mine has shown interest too.
Lee. |
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