IMO, I think the biggest problem with Soekris is the power supply. I can't say I am happy with the sound of the un-tweak verison (3)
If you are still looking for a completed R2R dac, do a search for Denafrips ARES which is a commercial R2R dac at around similar price of a completed Soekris.
I have both the Soekris and Ares. IMO, the stock form Ares already sound better than my modded Soekris. And I think one reason is Ares does a much better job at the power supplies. The large capacitor banks and I counted over 10 linear regulators (no switcher, thank god) in Aries, 5 is low noise lt1763 and some unknown one (don't know why they sand away the marking)
I believe it's a serious indication than the layout is more important than the standalone dac chip choice ! We were victim of bad audio press about the dac chip design factor mithology...
Imho, take the majority of old dac chip, even a simple TDA 1545A chip carefully implemented sounds better than any Soekris. As the Soekris can sounds good when people share experience...
Imho, take the majority of old dac chip, even a simple TDA 1545A chip carefully implemented sounds better than any Soekris. As the Soekris can sounds good when people share experience...
ChuckT, that stuff looks pretty interesting.
Wish they did not assume everyone wants to use a computer - I wish the USB card was an option. AND wish there was simple I2S input instead of the PSAudio HDMI scheme.
Other than that it is intriguing to me.
Thanks for the mention of them. Had never heard of them.
Wish they did not assume everyone wants to use a computer - I wish the USB card was an option. AND wish there was simple I2S input instead of the PSAudio HDMI scheme.
Other than that it is intriguing to me.
Thanks for the mention of them. Had never heard of them.
Funny, I am listening to a 8 x tda1387 dac on the Rasberry pi3 on headphone while typing this. I believe tda1387 is just the smd version of the tda1545. I agree those old dac can sound pretty good with the right implementation.
I think you are looking at the higher end r2r dac. I believe the Ares is a newer and cheaper product which uses the latest Xmos xu208 audio receiver. It also uses the very good ak4118 for spdif input (Ares has 2 coax and 2 optical input).
I have only use the USB input myself and uses Intel NUC with Ubuntu and HQplayer to output usb audio.
Anyways, I will start a thread on the Ares dac later as I plan to modded it a bit. Unlike the Soekris, I don't think the Ares need too much tweaking as the power supply is already very good. But maybe some extra cap or premium cap here or there can still help
Just a tweaker at heart.
There is some high res photo of inside in the homepage
ARES - DENAFRIPS
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A SMD version of TDA1545 exists, the TDA1387 is slightly different - for example in the output compliance range and current draw. To my ears it sounds better as the 1545s I've heard have low-level noise modulation effects in some instances.
Well there could be treasures out there which we were
not exposed too or wasn't adapted to commercial
audio applications. Too bad that Im not smart
enough to fiddle with digital stuff. Saw a thread
somewhere that another manufacturer had a
TDA 1541 dac which was a drop in replacement.
Who knows that chip could even sound better
then the double crown. Lol
Cheers
not exposed too or wasn't adapted to commercial
audio applications. Too bad that Im not smart
enough to fiddle with digital stuff. Saw a thread
somewhere that another manufacturer had a
TDA 1541 dac which was a drop in replacement.
Who knows that chip could even sound better
then the double crown. Lol
Cheers
... and good luck with the MSOP package for diy soldering : with the price of the microscope and the heatsink, better to buy directly an AMR DAC !
As for those R2R DAC, are there any precise power supply and reference voltage design for it ?
Have they all good clock designs, isolated signals not popluted by the noise of the sources ?
It looks good but does it sound good....
As for those R2R DAC, are there any precise power supply and reference voltage design for it ?
Have they all good clock designs, isolated signals not popluted by the noise of the sources ?
It looks good but does it sound good....
I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who has compared the Soekris and the DDDAC 1794
Get a version of the Soekris. I parted out my dual mono BuffaloIII pretty soon after getting my DAM1021 up and running. It digs deeper, it's more engaging and it responds more obviously to changes in the source/transport.
Right now I don't think there's a $4000 dac on the market that beats it for resolution and musical engagement.
I am using decent readily available power regs. I have the 1021 (.05) and the 1121 (.02), both current versions, no modding yet. They're terrific bang for buck.
Mark
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