Seems possible for TDA1541. For ESS, well, it might sound more appealing than opamps, but its probably not great hi-fi SQ.
Ah ESS, their best seems the simple chip with op amp embeded inside in the little cambridge if you read Stereophile !
SD I heard miss life for I but I didn't triy high ends, just my moded DAC killed an ESS relativly expensive Grand DAC chineese stuff... I remember the owner wanted to throw his DAC trough one of my window cause he was disgusted, lol, was a funny moment! At the time there were two fanatics whom moded it to death (Audial AYA post 2014) I and @sumotan
SD I heard miss life for I but I didn't triy high ends, just my moded DAC killed an ESS relativly expensive Grand DAC chineese stuff... I remember the owner wanted to throw his DAC trough one of my window cause he was disgusted, lol, was a funny moment! At the time there were two fanatics whom moded it to death (Audial AYA post 2014) I and @sumotan
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Indeed! Sounds is wonderful, a very satisfying project.
I will absolutely get this a better chassis, though it does sounds great on the breadboard.
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I wonder about that little stick USB DAC with last ESS 9039 and Cyrus I posted from links on HeadHifi forum : guys seems happy with 100 bucks Chi-F when they can drive their headphones. I linked after a member here posted about his own (few posts before) !
Did you like that one better than your R2R AD1862 ?
btw : cute little usb to I2S board !
The specialist here of cheap-Ch-FI is Abraxalito member that liked to try few (but is making his very better owns DAC as with the TDA1387 as well)
Did you like that one better than your R2R AD1862 ?
btw : cute little usb to I2S board !
The specialist here of cheap-Ch-FI is Abraxalito member that liked to try few (but is making his very better owns DAC as with the TDA1387 as well)
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I'm not one for comparisons, but I will say that I have been glued in the lab, merrily puttering away at projects, absolutely loving the music that this is putting out. I'll drag it into the big system here over the weekend, I bet it's going to be a lot of fun.
The USB I2S is built around the PCM2706 and seems to just work and sounds great. USB in, 3 wires out. Good enough for me! Is so ridiculously cheap (less than five bucks on Ali) that there's no good excuse for not trying it. Will I try other input cards, yes, of course, but this thing is neat.
The USB I2S is built around the PCM2706 and seems to just work and sounds great. USB in, 3 wires out. Good enough for me! Is so ridiculously cheap (less than five bucks on Ali) that there's no good excuse for not trying it. Will I try other input cards, yes, of course, but this thing is neat.
those little Philips dac chips are nice... this one certainly the best after the TDA1541A (and 1540 14 bits)
TDA1543/5 were fun too. A bargain for the price.
Benchmark became rude when you see those little <100 usd dac sticks though !
TDA1543/5 were fun too. A bargain for the price.
Benchmark became rude when you see those little <100 usd dac sticks though !
There is no reason why you can't do that, as Pedja did for the 1541.
With 8x 1387, you need to sink ~10mA.
But because you need to sink current, you will need an additional negative supply.
Probably easiest to use a TL7660 for that from the existing+5V.
And because you have then only 5V headroom for the current sink, a simple JFET is not necessarily the ideal choice.
I would use a current mirror with something like the Room QSX8, which has low Vcesat, and little Early effect.
The reference leg goes across both rails, and the reference current can be set with something like a J112 and a source resistor.
Patrick
To verify this quickly, you can do it on breadboard with through hole devices.
The TL7660 is available in DIP8.
You can use 2x BC549 thermally coupled, each with 100 Ohm emitter resistor, for the current mirror.
I think the J112 is well known.
That allows you to see if the DC is stable over time and temperature.
Before you invest in a new PCB.
Patrick
The TL7660 is available in DIP8.
You can use 2x BC549 thermally coupled, each with 100 Ohm emitter resistor, for the current mirror.
I think the J112 is well known.
That allows you to see if the DC is stable over time and temperature.
Before you invest in a new PCB.
Patrick
I use it with XMOS and TPS7A4701, this TDA1387 x8 DAC is very audible-sensitive to all capacitors in power supply, not only capacitance near DAC positive rail. Now testing with ELNA RJH in rectifier + FG with FR near DAC.
I consider this DAC to be the discovery of the year for myself for its sound, cheapness and ease of production and at least it was interesting to know what is NOS DAC.
Excellent observation. I use two paralleled 1000uF Panasonic FR-A EEU-FR1A102L (41 mOhms ESR) for DAC decoupling. When the ESR is too low, the sound character becomes too dry and sterile. Too high and the soundstage collapses. Too low a capacitance, there is a large soundstage, but a loss of bass and dynamics. Too large and the soundstage collapses in depth, and there is a loss of dynamic range.
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I’m using some Epcos B41505 6,800uf 40v in a DAC, really like them. The local decoupling seems to have a stronger effect however.
Sounds like it might be worth putting a snubber circuit on the rectifiers if you have a linear supply and haven’t already done that.
Sounds like it might be worth putting a snubber circuit on the rectifiers if you have a linear supply and haven’t already done that.
I prefer not to use decoupling capacitors at all (except in tube amplifiers, but there are high-voltage ones, there are no problems with them) and also large-capacity capacitors in other signal circuits, but sometimes I used 1-20 µF 16-25 V Rubicon acrylic.
But not cheap, so it might be not compatible with chinese dacs.
Alex.
I've used mine 15 years , many other dacs have come and gone the AYA2 with some of your recommended mods was my reference . Only other dac I've tried recently I prefer is Marcels FIRDAC with external reclocking
I was making the new gen pcb with the guidance of T Loesch then I was banned of the TDA1541A thread becausse I reacted strongly to a countryfellow that was insulting towards him and I. So I stopped the dev !
Btw some of my mods I gave to where listed in the Aya2 & 4 manual by Pedja Rogic and his blog, very open minded Pedja is. He liked it with different arrengment about the -15V rail last cap relative to his whole system (BBC monitor and ESL bigger system).
I hope another serious member about pcb layout took the relay for the communauty in the long thread! I spent almost 5 months and many exchange with Thorsten for nothing to the communauty to offer ! At least I have the informations but due to the respect to Thorsten, my time involved and proto and monney, it will stay private due to thee mods reactions I alerted against the behavior of that guy (we were banned both from the thread and I was lonely sinbinned whatever I had alerted already, but he contributed for nothing whatever the patience of T. Loesch with the personal attacks... Ia m not after 6 months of critics based on blah and bad knowledge of that guy)
About Gabster pcb: it has a bad layout of the idea of AYA2 if I understood correctly what I seen (not in detail) and retook his I/V stage w/o the fine setups I believe, but with the front end of IanCanada, I still don't understand people pay for that, okay marketing is good, Youtube video, etc... Everyone is free to choose and propose) 🙂
Thanks LTK for the nice words, I am happy soe of my modst helped you. Your TDA1541A S2 chip desearve it 🙂 ! I still have to try MarcelVdg very sota work and involvment for the communautuy.
Btw some of my mods I gave to where listed in the Aya2 & 4 manual by Pedja Rogic and his blog, very open minded Pedja is. He liked it with different arrengment about the -15V rail last cap relative to his whole system (BBC monitor and ESL bigger system).
I hope another serious member about pcb layout took the relay for the communauty in the long thread! I spent almost 5 months and many exchange with Thorsten for nothing to the communauty to offer ! At least I have the informations but due to the respect to Thorsten, my time involved and proto and monney, it will stay private due to thee mods reactions I alerted against the behavior of that guy (we were banned both from the thread and I was lonely sinbinned whatever I had alerted already, but he contributed for nothing whatever the patience of T. Loesch with the personal attacks... Ia m not after 6 months of critics based on blah and bad knowledge of that guy)
About Gabster pcb: it has a bad layout of the idea of AYA2 if I understood correctly what I seen (not in detail) and retook his I/V stage w/o the fine setups I believe, but with the front end of IanCanada, I still don't understand people pay for that, okay marketing is good, Youtube video, etc... Everyone is free to choose and propose) 🙂
Thanks LTK for the nice words, I am happy soe of my modst helped you. Your TDA1541A S2 chip desearve it 🙂 ! I still have to try MarcelVdg very sota work and involvment for the communautuy.
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Hi LTK,
Not too many people so far have heard Marcel's RTZ FIRDAC at its finest. SOA clocks and the best sounding output stage found so far can make for significantly better listening than with Crystek clocks (even with diyiggy's very good MU bypass caps) and with the opamp-based output stages I have tried so far. Over time, seems like there is a pretty good chance this new dac will end up showing what worked to give SOA SQ for 15-years probably won't stay in the lead forever. That's not really a criticism, after all 15-years is a pretty good run 🙂
Mark
You're winning me over Mark 😉 I honestly think I'll be adding the Ian Canda XO at some stage . First we need to be sure the reclocking board is optimal and I'd like a better output stage too tbh . For now I'm still using Marcels active filter with your recommended mods including SE input . I tried simple passive with coupling cap too which I like but would like a little extra drive , we are struggling to find suitable transformers so may have to use active for now .
Yes. The decoupling caps are needed, due to passive I/V. Inverse relationship: the lower the I/V resistance, the greater the decoupling capacitance.
Didn't read the whole thread so I don't know if the Playback Designs was mentioned but I think it was very good .Very expensive as well . This compared to AMR CD77.1 dual double crown TDA1541 on Soundlab Majestic panels , Vendetta pre and Boulder amp -a system I , and frankly most of the local audio gang is not fond of. I had SundlaB Millennium panels with JC1 and VTL 700 (700W tube monos) for some time to check if a private experience will be better but no. It's just not the sound I can live with.
Now , granted it was a CD playback not streaming but Playback player was an older design (still $11k used) and their recent dacs are supposedly better according to the owner. What's there that makes them tick? The most obvious difference with old R2R was that the sound simply escaped the big panels instead of bubbling from the panels surface or being trapped in them. It was such a pronounced effect that I was not able to focus on anything else during a couple hours demo. I now have Theta VIII Gen III Moby- Dick . It's a fine dac and still expensive but "nimbleness" is not its forte.
Now , granted it was a CD playback not streaming but Playback player was an older design (still $11k used) and their recent dacs are supposedly better according to the owner. What's there that makes them tick? The most obvious difference with old R2R was that the sound simply escaped the big panels instead of bubbling from the panels surface or being trapped in them. It was such a pronounced effect that I was not able to focus on anything else during a couple hours demo. I now have Theta VIII Gen III Moby- Dick . It's a fine dac and still expensive but "nimbleness" is not its forte.
could be fun to try a 100 USD headphone stick DAC on such system to look at the gap between 1000 euros DAC or sota Tambaqui at 10 grands !
When I think they can use an ESS9039 on such stick as in the thread from HEADHIFI above...We are definitly not in the XX° century anymore !
When I think they can use an ESS9039 on such stick as in the thread from HEADHIFI above...We are definitly not in the XX° century anymore !