Hi.
Nearly Three month with my DAC9, and yesterday was the first day where I really
could enjoy it, due to it was made with wrong components.
As You can see from the original Picture of mine, it has 100nF Caps between the
opAmps which should have been 1000pF.
It has a huge impact on the gain, which over time, makes it a complete
uninteresting DAC.
So my advice to weiliang and special minishow0328, Check your products , which you
don't do, before you ship them to "us" the customers.
It's complete unserious that my DAC9 and my neighbours DAC9 bought within 3 weeks
used complete different components, If you don't have the "right" components on stock
don't list your "pre builds" items on Ebay.
Unreliable, untested products always need to be sold to CHINESE prices.
If I haven't got a rework unsoldering station, I couldn't fix the huge bug in Mine, and I
could feet it to my garbage cane.
My Advice is, put a little more effort in you products like for instance "audio-gd, yulong", It really doesn't matter if your price is a little higher.
/Michael
Nearly Three month with my DAC9, and yesterday was the first day where I really
could enjoy it, due to it was made with wrong components.
As You can see from the original Picture of mine, it has 100nF Caps between the
opAmps which should have been 1000pF.
It has a huge impact on the gain, which over time, makes it a complete
uninteresting DAC.
So my advice to weiliang and special minishow0328, Check your products , which you
don't do, before you ship them to "us" the customers.
It's complete unserious that my DAC9 and my neighbours DAC9 bought within 3 weeks
used complete different components, If you don't have the "right" components on stock
don't list your "pre builds" items on Ebay.
Unreliable, untested products always need to be sold to CHINESE prices.
If I haven't got a rework unsoldering station, I couldn't fix the huge bug in Mine, and I
could feet it to my garbage cane.
My Advice is, put a little more effort in you products like for instance "audio-gd, yulong", It really doesn't matter if your price is a little higher.
/Michael
It took me two years to get mine the way I want, enjoyed nearly all of it as well!
It did occur to me that maybe they should have been made with better components however, even at a higher price, it likely would have been(much)cheaper and much easier than the way I did it.
It did occur to me that maybe they should have been made with better components however, even at a higher price, it likely would have been(much)cheaper and much easier than the way I did it.
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Hi, I am setting the gain of a O2 preamp that Imwill use mainly with this dac, can someone please tell me if the output of dac9 is 2.5v... orbwhat else?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
Hi.
As You can see from the original Picture of mine, it has 100nF Caps between the
opAmps which should have been 1000pF.
What are those opamps on the DAC ?
Thanks.
I found it hard to see what opamps were on it . It was a smd version on a pcb carrier and later I found that I had mentioned in an earlier post it was an OPA627 ! Well it sounds VERY good. But it has some clicks while the disc player is switched on and setting itself up ! No problem while playing music. Compared it to my OPPO93 internal DAC. No complaints. Sounds practically the same. Maybe I prefer the DAC9 . However the OPPO93 doesn't have any clicks and pops. But this doesn't happen with music and so it's no problem on the DAC 9.
A very nice DAC. Now I've decided to make a chassis and make it's own transformer.
It's funny that after initial testing it was just lying in the corner ( for a LONG time !) and I used to keep thinking that I should pull it out and 'compare' it with some other DAC. I kept forgetting or not getting time to do it. This question of how much the out voltage was ,triggered me to set it up again and check it . That's when I discovered that it sounds as nice ( or slightly more preferable) than my OPPO 93's internal DAC !
Of course now I'll make an attempt to test other opamps in place of the OPA627 , though many like the 627 ! I'd like to hear the differences myself ! 😉
A very nice DAC. Now I've decided to make a chassis and make it's own transformer.
It's funny that after initial testing it was just lying in the corner ( for a LONG time !) and I used to keep thinking that I should pull it out and 'compare' it with some other DAC. I kept forgetting or not getting time to do it. This question of how much the out voltage was ,triggered me to set it up again and check it . That's when I discovered that it sounds as nice ( or slightly more preferable) than my OPPO 93's internal DAC !
Of course now I'll make an attempt to test other opamps in place of the OPA627 , though many like the 627 ! I'd like to hear the differences myself ! 😉
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You may want to give those opa627s a fair shake by using a bias resistor with them, if you haven't already that is.
You mean from -Vcc to the DAC chip output , to bias it into class A ? About 3 to 4 mA from what I remember seeing on some post ? About 4K resistor with 12 V supply. Might need a small heat sink ?
I just popped in a OPA134 . Sounds very good . I like the voice particularly. It sounds really nice. But of course I should compare with the 627 which I didn't. Can't go by 'memory' ! Maybe it sounds a bit more 'meaty' with the 134 ? 🙂
Next will be NE5534 and then of course the TL071 to see how bad (?) it could be. I will also be trying the LME49710 when I get them.
I just popped in a OPA134 . Sounds very good . I like the voice particularly. It sounds really nice. But of course I should compare with the 627 which I didn't. Can't go by 'memory' ! Maybe it sounds a bit more 'meaty' with the 134 ? 🙂
Next will be NE5534 and then of course the TL071 to see how bad (?) it could be. I will also be trying the LME49710 when I get them.
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Playing the NE5534 now.
Wow, this sounds VERY nice ! I didn't expect it. I thought I might get a slighter softer reproduction ...possibly veiled ! Far from it. It sounds 'meaty' and dynamic ! I'll keep it this way a few days before making any other comparisons. I am not sure if level differences are causing this impression but it sounds better than all other opamps I have tried so far . I'm out of town a few days. Will do some comparisons later.
Wow, this sounds VERY nice ! I didn't expect it. I thought I might get a slighter softer reproduction ...possibly veiled ! Far from it. It sounds 'meaty' and dynamic ! I'll keep it this way a few days before making any other comparisons. I am not sure if level differences are causing this impression but it sounds better than all other opamps I have tried so far . I'm out of town a few days. Will do some comparisons later.
The NE5534 produces a 'foot tapping' sound. That's because the bass notes have an intact transient edge which is very clear. On the OPA134 and OPA627 it almost isn't there ! That could be due to phase shift (?), but nothing was changed except the opamp and so what is responsible for the change ? I really don't know why . But I do remember on various other DAC threads where guys have tried different op-amps, several had preferred the NE5534 ! The frequencies being so low it should have nothing to do with the bandwidth of the opamps.
I plan to try the NE 5534 in my other DAC's and see what happens.
I plan to try the NE 5534 in my other DAC's and see what happens.
It is strange because I have the opposite experience with the NE5534 opamp. Maybe there are differences between the newer ones and the old ones or between manufacturers as someone else mentioned since mines are very old (> 15 years)....
If you like bass presence I suggest you try the OPA1611.
Fab
Both opamps are good to my ears but they are different in sound reproduction even though the only difference being the 2 input transistors of the differential input stage. The opa1611 has more bass Slam... The opa1641 has also good bass and also the rest of the audio frequency is even more refined...
This is quite a revealing experience to compare the effect on sound of BJT and Jfet input transistors while the rest is the same. From my experience , this sound difference also applies to other amp designs as well....there are probably even better opamps but everybody should try the comparison experience with these opamps...
Fab
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I don't know if it has been discussed here, but separate snubber circuits on each (winding)input really helped to clean things up, wish I would have done it sooner than later really.
A simple CRC arrangement using some 18 ohm, non-inductive resistors, in series with a .1uf, and a .01uf in common mode. I used some Russian polystyrenes, and nos wima fkp4 .01.
My apologies if I'm repeating what has already been mentioned...
A simple CRC arrangement using some 18 ohm, non-inductive resistors, in series with a .1uf, and a .01uf in common mode. I used some Russian polystyrenes, and nos wima fkp4 .01.
My apologies if I'm repeating what has already been mentioned...
Shock...horror....the TLO71
I just got back from an out of town trip carrying some Signetics NE5534's and Ti TLO71's !After finishing work today I sat down to relax and roll some opamps ! I played the current Ti NE5534 in the DAC 9 for some time.Then switched to Signetics NE5534 . I find it hard to make out an immediate difference. It appears to sound just like the Ti version.
Then I switched to the TLO71 ! Shock ...horror,....it sounds VERY nice ! Clean deep bass and nice HF !Why would I ever spend $$ on expensive opamps when the inexpensive NE5534 and TLO71 are freely available ?....... I don't know !
Maybe in some other applications the expensive opamps might really be 'worth' it but not in the DAC 9 where it does the job of filtering the DAC output.
I generally feel that in most of the 'nice ' sounding systems , the sound is about 95% similar .Only the last 5% could vary a bit which you discern by "careful" controlled listening tests with specially selected audio tracks !The possibility of the mind playing tricks is also quite great !
But I was expecting to hear something quite 'substandard' with the TLO71 . Well, was I wrong.I was conditioned to think that the TLO71 was really very crappy and far far inferior to the new gen opamps. Paper specs seem to say so . I did always avoid using it for any audio circuit. This time I decided to try it and see what would happen. While I have a lot of other ( expensive !) opamps for experimentation I didn't have the TLO71 ( at least I couldn't find my old stock !) so I bought some when I was out of town !
So for all the guys who don't want to buy expensive opamps, you can very well live happily with the NE5534 and TLO71 ! While there are subtle differences with the new gen opamps, these old ones are still quite good. You CAN live with them happily and enjoy "your music" ! Just use them sensibly and you should get great results. Used within their boundary of performance they should be enough for a lot of guys. No wonder these chips are still doing well in the market in spite of being so old ! 😉
I just got back from an out of town trip carrying some Signetics NE5534's and Ti TLO71's !After finishing work today I sat down to relax and roll some opamps ! I played the current Ti NE5534 in the DAC 9 for some time.Then switched to Signetics NE5534 . I find it hard to make out an immediate difference. It appears to sound just like the Ti version.
Then I switched to the TLO71 ! Shock ...horror,....it sounds VERY nice ! Clean deep bass and nice HF !Why would I ever spend $$ on expensive opamps when the inexpensive NE5534 and TLO71 are freely available ?....... I don't know !
Maybe in some other applications the expensive opamps might really be 'worth' it but not in the DAC 9 where it does the job of filtering the DAC output.
I generally feel that in most of the 'nice ' sounding systems , the sound is about 95% similar .Only the last 5% could vary a bit which you discern by "careful" controlled listening tests with specially selected audio tracks !The possibility of the mind playing tricks is also quite great !
But I was expecting to hear something quite 'substandard' with the TLO71 . Well, was I wrong.I was conditioned to think that the TLO71 was really very crappy and far far inferior to the new gen opamps. Paper specs seem to say so . I did always avoid using it for any audio circuit. This time I decided to try it and see what would happen. While I have a lot of other ( expensive !) opamps for experimentation I didn't have the TLO71 ( at least I couldn't find my old stock !) so I bought some when I was out of town !
So for all the guys who don't want to buy expensive opamps, you can very well live happily with the NE5534 and TLO71 ! While there are subtle differences with the new gen opamps, these old ones are still quite good. You CAN live with them happily and enjoy "your music" ! Just use them sensibly and you should get great results. Used within their boundary of performance they should be enough for a lot of guys. No wonder these chips are still doing well in the market in spite of being so old ! 😉
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Cheap DAC / Weilang
Hi,
. See DAC decoder AK4399 WM8805 ..coax and Optical input | eBay
It is the Weilang design with a few upgrades.. gives you a cheap way of experimenting
I found it sounded better than the 16-bit chip used in the PS1. Also, able to be used as a general DAC for all my digital sources, not just the CD playback.
Hi,
. See DAC decoder AK4399 WM8805 ..coax and Optical input | eBay
It is the Weilang design with a few upgrades.. gives you a cheap way of experimenting
I found it sounded better than the 16-bit chip used in the PS1. Also, able to be used as a general DAC for all my digital sources, not just the CD playback.
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