Hi Chanh,
All practical advise is welcome 🙂
I have uprated the fuse to a ceramic 3A, increased the heat sink size and was going to replace the filter resistors with Lundahl chokes if they fit ….
I was thinking about building a shunt regulated power supply for it. I did put a circuit request in the "Power supply" section but due to my lack of knowledge had limited replies.
Must study harder …..
I still cannot get over how well this Dac sounds in standard spec 🙂
Hi there, are you saying that shunts full stop are a waste of time on the digital side or are you saying salas shunts are better than tent shunts?
Thanks!
for me, on the few experiments I did, the Tents does improve sound when used at the analog side. I could not really hear specific improvements on the digital side of things. So my point, why not just START with the analog side? If you do all at once, hard to tell what the correlation between tweak and perceived sound is?
The fuse is designed in the wrong position. If you mount a fuse on the primary side of the transformer and remove the current one you will gain in sound quality. Next step is of course the unregulated PS with chokes 🙄
Many thanks Stefan!
This is where I called competent and it is precisely what I did with my ps. A fuse is placed at AC input to Primary side of traffo.
If I may added, Doede works as designer were very thorough and straight forward. Therefore, I would not call it is a competent mistake but rather complacently negligence!
Parts availibilty in UK
Hi Everyone
I have a basic one board build, with an unregulated power supply. The PS is basic, as in only elna caps filtering the DC after the diode brdge. Standard and basic as the build is, i love it. I have tried to use shunt power supply from Twisted Pear and it really sounded awful. I go straight out in pre amp, without any cap, but has a old Sony ES Coupling transformer installed if i want to listen to the Dac in system whith no input cap on pre. The sound between direct and this transformer coupled output is different, certainly not day and night, but the direct out is definitly the best.
I am in South Africa and parts availibilty is a problem. Postal services are useless, waiting sometimes as long as 3 months and often goods never shows up. Using coriior services is great when importing high value stuff.
My wife wil be in the Uk for a few days, returning on the 26th of May, and was wondering if i would be availible to source some parts in London and get it delivered to where she stay.
I think the Lundhals chokes, the best IV resitors, and maybe some oscons and elna caps would be great to have in hand. The tentlabs regulators would possible too much to ask given the lead times. Even a new dac-board will not considered if that is floating around in London
Any ideas from you your side, what would be possible and what best way to go about it.
Thanks in advance
Stefan
Hi Everyone
I have a basic one board build, with an unregulated power supply. The PS is basic, as in only elna caps filtering the DC after the diode brdge. Standard and basic as the build is, i love it. I have tried to use shunt power supply from Twisted Pear and it really sounded awful. I go straight out in pre amp, without any cap, but has a old Sony ES Coupling transformer installed if i want to listen to the Dac in system whith no input cap on pre. The sound between direct and this transformer coupled output is different, certainly not day and night, but the direct out is definitly the best.
I am in South Africa and parts availibilty is a problem. Postal services are useless, waiting sometimes as long as 3 months and often goods never shows up. Using coriior services is great when importing high value stuff.
My wife wil be in the Uk for a few days, returning on the 26th of May, and was wondering if i would be availible to source some parts in London and get it delivered to where she stay.
I think the Lundhals chokes, the best IV resitors, and maybe some oscons and elna caps would be great to have in hand. The tentlabs regulators would possible too much to ask given the lead times. Even a new dac-board will not considered if that is floating around in London
Any ideas from you your side, what would be possible and what best way to go about it.
Thanks in advance
Stefan
2+2 side by side, would be a first as far as I know, but I don't think it is sensible, as the propagation delay is going to increase the signal off-set between the boards. If the U2 formfactor is a hard constraint, building a good 2 board system would be the better option.
As you rightly say, this was by " design " What experts does with the kit, we know in the meantime, so no need to design for those in detail, as everyone like to experiment further. But..... The majority of DAC builders ( I know, as I communicate with many ) just build the basic kit, are extremely happy with it. This is also the limit for most, as you do not need high skills to build the kit and make it work. Still things can go wrong and I wanted to make sure that in case of shortcuts etc. current will reall be limited to 1A and burn quickly, so severe damage is avoided to the DAC. This has helped already few days to survive 🙂 ...
A primary fuse will also blow at some point, but might take longer and only after higher secondary currents done more damage as a fuse at the secondary. So I decided to have it secondary. This is for sure NOt a black and white or good or wrong thing IMHO... I know from other experience, that the experienced DIY any way alters the design on many places. Which is exactly the idea of the kits. Build and enjoy or use as a accessible platform for endless experiments and fun 😛
Thanks for your input Stijn. If propagation delay might be an issue I could turn the +2 round and upside down so the inputs are next to each other - length of wire could be the same as a 4 stack then (like having a 4 stack and folding the top 2 boards over). Don't think there's an issue with the output side being a bit longer as that's analogue. Quite keen on keeping this in a 2U case, but also want to build a 'good' system. Will be making some more posts to build up ideas on what 'good' looks like 🙂.
Happy to send components to your wife, where in the uk will she be, and where in SA are you, as we have friends and relatives out there who travel back and forth, unfortunately aware of the postal system out there, such a shame
http://www.hifisentralen.no/forumet...1430646385-stemningsrapport-med-bilde-mc1.jpg
Dddac is the king in my setup. ( and the cheapest too)
Dddac is the king in my setup. ( and the cheapest too)
No, this is my listening room in the second floor. I am the boss here. Livingroom is in the 1st floor.
Last edited:
oh my dear, nice mono bloc, good match to the horn...
whats the rest, there is vinyl in there?
whats a WAF?
Martin Gagnon
whats the rest, there is vinyl in there?
whats a WAF?
Martin Gagnon
Hi Doede,
I always have ONE goal; that is sound quality. If I break parts than it is my own fault and I will have to pay 🙄
You are of course right; the secondary fuse will blow faster 😀 but I prefer not to blow a fuse at all; so maybe even better to use no fuse 😱
I have experimented with different fuse types and they do have an impact on sound (as with everything in an audio design).
At this stage I would like to add that everybode that uses my ideas is on his own; I give no guarantees. That is the difference with Doedes design..............
Regards,
Gents,
With many weeks waiting, I finally able to have a taste of TP Hermes/Cronus in my setup. The whole process was straight forward and done in 30mins.
@Stefan- I plan to use the raw ps into Cronus but concerning might fried it. The raw ps voltage is from 9.5 to 10.5V. Would that be too much for this little built in regulator on Cronus? At current configuration is pleasing already. 🙂
Many thanks,
Chanh
With many weeks waiting, I finally able to have a taste of TP Hermes/Cronus in my setup. The whole process was straight forward and done in 30mins.
@Stefan- I plan to use the raw ps into Cronus but concerning might fried it. The raw ps voltage is from 9.5 to 10.5V. Would that be too much for this little built in regulator on Cronus? At current configuration is pleasing already. 🙂
Many thanks,
Chanh
Last edited: