Why would you transfer money to Chinese scammers?
This IC batch 11335_HSH9628 was never used in a commercial product as far as I know. It was supposedly used in an upgrade by Candeias in a Marantz CDA94. One only has to look at the price for this item on eBay to conclude it is 'remarked'. If it were a genuine IC it would cost at least a few pennies more!
If I were to buy a TDA1541a with Taiwan marking, eBay and Aliexpress are not the markets where you will find a lot of genuine TDA1541s. Most of the time the TDAs are salvaged from broken CD players. The scammers then add stamps to make them look like an S1 or S2.
Look at the Philips Logo stamp because this is the hardest to reproduce for the scammers. Because it is small, it is very hard (almost impossible) to fake this stamp. You can simply compare it to a real one, soldered in place! Always ask the seller for a clear image of the TDA!
Also, be careful with upgrading CD players with selected ICs. The Marantz CD-94 is a good example. The Marantz CD-94 provided selected ICs back in the day. And just soldering them out and replacing them with genuine "Peoples Republic of China copies" might not yield the result you were aiming for.
https://cd94blog.wordpress.com/tda1541a-tales-from-the-world-of-make-believe/
This IC batch 11335_HSH9628 was never used in a commercial product as far as I know. It was supposedly used in an upgrade by Candeias in a Marantz CDA94. One only has to look at the price for this item on eBay to conclude it is 'remarked'. If it were a genuine IC it would cost at least a few pennies more!
If I were to buy a TDA1541a with Taiwan marking, eBay and Aliexpress are not the markets where you will find a lot of genuine TDA1541s. Most of the time the TDAs are salvaged from broken CD players. The scammers then add stamps to make them look like an S1 or S2.
Look at the Philips Logo stamp because this is the hardest to reproduce for the scammers. Because it is small, it is very hard (almost impossible) to fake this stamp. You can simply compare it to a real one, soldered in place! Always ask the seller for a clear image of the TDA!
Also, be careful with upgrading CD players with selected ICs. The Marantz CD-94 is a good example. The Marantz CD-94 provided selected ICs back in the day. And just soldering them out and replacing them with genuine "Peoples Republic of China copies" might not yield the result you were aiming for.
https://cd94blog.wordpress.com/tda1541a-tales-from-the-world-of-make-believe/
With computer graphics and Chinese tech surging along, faking any marking is just minutes of work. Its no longer credible to pick the forgeries from the poor graphics.
The profits and incentives are high. I cant even blame them for ripping off Westerners with wealth to spare.
Its worse then that. Highly credible reports are the available Taiwanese chips measure below the minimum standards. They are presumably upcycled rejects that never made it to the rubbish from the Taiwan factory reject bin. Again its understandable for workers on pathetic incomes to want to upcycle waste. Its almost justice that Westerners who have saved so much paying Asians a pittance then get ripped off.
This raises the question of how to buy a genuine TDA1541A. I think it comes down to if you can trust the seller. Of course even reputabe Western sellers are going to be on-selling the bad chips quite innocently.
Maybe its time to switch over to an AN1865 DAC with Rochester sourced chips? Still 14,645 of the N-J left 🙂
Pulled parts is almost the only way to get a genuine chip now, NOS sitting in a store got used up long ago.
The snag is that these Philips DACs seem to actually wear out, very unusual for an IC
Do you have any data on the deterioration over time?
I imagine a limited life expectancy will only make the prices go up even more. The people who buy WE tubes for thousands would look at a good TDA1541A as a relatively low cost score.
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Okay, back to the main topic of this thread.
Have look at this sample TDA1541A and please comment on "fakeness" issue.
Have look at this sample TDA1541A and please comment on "fakeness" issue.
Why still discussing issue of fake 1541A?
There's so many old CDPs out there, just go hunt for them & salvage the chip.
There's so many old CDPs out there, just go hunt for them & salvage the chip.
That one is in an old Magnavox CDP, stock OEM, I assume???? So, I posed the question. If you don't want to discuss, ignore the post and don't comment!
In general, I would like to ask: What does the buyer expect from this chip? Highest sound quality? But this chip is over 30 years old. Any modern DAC has 40dB less distortion and noise. So let the TDA1541A rest in peace.
You don't want to address the question or stay on topic. This thread is not for you.
Sorry Philip I don't mean it that way.
Just that fake issues were brought up long time ago. When I bought some S1 chips way back I too thought about them being fakes due to the way the crown was stamped.
Just that fake issues were brought up long time ago. When I bought some S1 chips way back I too thought about them being fakes due to the way the crown was stamped.
In old CD players they didnt use this kind of DIP socket. They use different one IF they are used the socket for the DAC chip at all.Okay, back to the main topic of this thread.
Have look at this sample TDA1541A and please comment on "fakeness" issue.
So my tip is that the socket added or changed to that PCB. That is not implicate that the DAC chip is fake.
Any thoughts on whether these are genuine? They were part of a job lot of parts acquired from a Audio/Video repair shop that closed down app 10 years ago, so I have no reason to doubt that they are not, but wanted to check?
Note: The close-up pic is taken with an iphone camera in HDR-mode, so the text looks a brighter white than IRL.
Note: The close-up pic is taken with an iphone camera in HDR-mode, so the text looks a brighter white than IRL.
Attachments
Thanks for the confirmation, and they are of course for sale 😎
Seriously, I might keep one for myself (just because) but I certainly don't need them all so if anyone's interested then send me a PM with a sensible offer on one or more.
Seriously, I might keep one for myself (just because) but I certainly don't need them all so if anyone's interested then send me a PM with a sensible offer on one or more.
I bought that Magnavox CDB-473 from eBay (2007/2008??). I also ebay purchased some others Philips CDPs and DAC chips at roughly the same time. I may have added that DIP and replaced the orig 1541 with a 1541A.
I also ordered this around the same time:
Some thoughts about the fake chips ... I doubt any of them are true fakes. I'm not aware of foundries churning out duped chips on a mass scale. It is very $$ to cast and manuf any ASIC.
Some chips may have been orig (TDA1541) that were sanded and re-labelled. But that's also quite a labor-intensive process. Not sure how much of a market there is for TDA1541As, other than diy projects and some Chinese ebay/Ali kits. Almost no commercial manuf is has been using 1541A since the early 2000. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, take a look at this image from my parts bin. Note 1541 chip with no "Philips" brand label.
Theis was de-soldered from a Magnavox player sold in the US. I run into weird no-manuf-label chips like this a lot in Magnavox CDPs. Like the SAA decoder chip which has a strange Motorola code.
Some chips may have been orig (TDA1541) that were sanded and re-labelled. But that's also quite a labor-intensive process. Not sure how much of a market there is for TDA1541As, other than diy projects and some Chinese ebay/Ali kits. Almost no commercial manuf is has been using 1541A since the early 2000. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, take a look at this image from my parts bin. Note 1541 chip with no "Philips" brand label.
Theis was de-soldered from a Magnavox player sold in the US. I run into weird no-manuf-label chips like this a lot in Magnavox CDPs. Like the SAA decoder chip which has a strange Motorola code.
This is not true. If the chip is running at the correct supply voltages and isn't subject to any out of range input ie static discharge, there won't be any "wear" on it based on the time its in operation. I've had numerous players with this dac and never had a single issue with deterioration performance. I've not seen a failure of a chip on its own when it was being run in its factory specified parameters. I only had one bad chip from a unit that was subject to a power surge.