Thanks quantran - that is a great suggestion and a really useful thread.
It's much appreciated 🙂
I do not have any experience with this board; it just appeals to my 'DIY' sense and my very limited budget. I am attempting to 'upgrade' my Philips CDR775 CD player/recorder. The D-to-A in it uses a UDA 1341 chip, described in their datasheet as an "ECONOMY Audio Codec", and I thought the AK4396 would sound better??
This DAC is discussed at length here http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...2496-ak4393-dac-kit-cs8416-ak4393-5532-a.html
You can't do better for that kind of money. However beware of the cheap components used. This is the reason that I bought only the pcb with smd parts mounted and choose other parts myself.
Some general comments. With any ebay DAC, you are going to have to do significant work with it to get "high end" performance out of it. Much more than just hanging some transformers on the output, or whatever. I say this because I don't think there is much difference between most of them - they will sound OK, even quite good with some work.
To get something to sound very good requires skill, experience, patience and investment of time and money. This isn't to put you off, it's just good to be realistic with expectations. It's quite possible that you'll end up building several DACS, and with each carrying over the experience from the last one.
So I wouldn't sweat over the particular version too much. Having said that, if going the delta sigma route, I'd go with one as modern as possible, as the technology is still being refined.
Have fun!
Hi Spartacus,
Yes - I take your point and appreciate it - it's what I'm here for though - to learn, to be challenged and to smile during progress (I hope).
Let's hope there are not too many tears.... 😉
I have two boards on order now already - the bug has hit 🙂
Any links to posts / blogs that you have read and found to be useful / would consider recommending would be great!
Thanks
Yes - I take your point and appreciate it - it's what I'm here for though - to learn, to be challenged and to smile during progress (I hope).
Let's hope there are not too many tears.... 😉
I have two boards on order now already - the bug has hit 🙂
Any links to posts / blogs that you have read and found to be useful / would consider recommending would be great!
Thanks
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Well there's loads here on this forum. Use the search feature, and don't just stick to the DAC you are using as the techniques are mostly universal.
I didn't mention it, but I'm currently using an ebay AK4495 based DAC. I've done a lot of work on it, with more planned, and it really is very good. The main categories for work are 1) clean power, 2) low jitter and 3) good output stage. Get these basics right and you'll have a good DAC.
I didn't mention it, but I'm currently using an ebay AK4495 based DAC. I've done a lot of work on it, with more planned, and it really is very good. The main categories for work are 1) clean power, 2) low jitter and 3) good output stage. Get these basics right and you'll have a good DAC.
Great - thanks Spartacus.
I'm thinking of getting this to experiment on now:
AK4495SEQ dac decoder! official standard circuit! I2S/dsd input! comes with soft control!-Universal Taobao
Any post(s) in particular (as I am new and the site is a bit daunting / too many posts just now for a newbie..!) that you think would help me get started tinkering / improving the AK4495 DAC would be appreciated.
If too many - no problems - I'll keep searcing/reading until something starts to unravel and make sense!
Thanks 🙂
I'm thinking of getting this to experiment on now:
AK4495SEQ dac decoder! official standard circuit! I2S/dsd input! comes with soft control!-Universal Taobao
Any post(s) in particular (as I am new and the site is a bit daunting / too many posts just now for a newbie..!) that you think would help me get started tinkering / improving the AK4495 DAC would be appreciated.
If too many - no problems - I'll keep searcing/reading until something starts to unravel and make sense!
Thanks 🙂
Thanks for the link--lots o' information there!! I have waded through about 100 pages of it so far. Still have some questions:
The AK4396 datasheet shows the digital supply to be 3.3 to 5.35v, but 'normal' at +5v, yet it seems all the boards use +3.3v----????
Someone mentioned that performance was better with the +5v supply.
The schematic shows 7815/7915; the board pix show 7812/7912. ???? The analog output, if used, would have more headroom with the 15s.
It appears that most boards shipped with an AK4396 have an error in their analog output filter---still using the values from the previous AK4393 datasheet as opposed to the ones on the AK4396 datasheet.
It does seem, that with all the modifications recommended, that an external supply with robust, large, quality capacitors is called for. I am wondering if I can use +5v analog and a (separate) + 5v digital supplies for both the CS8416 AND the AK4396.....
I have several weeks to wait for delivery of my board, so I'm gathering the needed 'upgrade' parts......
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Yes, the board i got used the ams1117-3.3 for digital section. I use a pair of transformers for the analog section so I don't care about the filter using opamp. I am not sure about 5v supply for cs8416. I think it's not specified for 5v.
However I have now upgraded the receiver to src4392 (separate module).
However I have now upgraded the receiver to src4392 (separate module).
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