It looks like you used the 0.47uf Wima caps for U6, U7, U13, U14 The BOM I have now shows 0.33uf in U6 and U13 now. I have V3 board. Do you have the same board and use 0.47uf in those four spots?
sbelyo
I used the original BOM. It has changed now. I am not sure if the new BOM is an upgrade for sound or due to shortages of the 0.47uf --5%-- Wima caps. I am curious about this myself.
I used the original BOM. It has changed now. I am not sure if the new BOM is an upgrade for sound or due to shortages of the 0.47uf --5%-- Wima caps. I am curious about this myself.
Gaby said it was ok to use either the 0.33 or 0.47 in those spots. I had the 0.47 so that's what I used. The newer BOM has 2 extra 0.33 and 2 less 0.47 so that's what made me question it
I added some fuses to the power rails. I finished populating the DAC PCB so I should be able to test tonight
I'm also re-working the relays that switch the power on and off. I can reduce them down to two if I use latching so I need to work on that and I'm going to add a display. This is as far as I got being a total newb in Arduino IDE.
I'd like to show the relay status or state and a timer that starts at power on state. Not sure how to do that so if anyone can take a look at the sketch that would be helpful
I'm also re-working the relays that switch the power on and off. I can reduce them down to two if I use latching so I need to work on that and I'm going to add a display. This is as far as I got being a total newb in Arduino IDE.
I'd like to show the relay status or state and a timer that starts at power on state. Not sure how to do that so if anyone can take a look at the sketch that would be helpful
Will do! I am going to watch Gaby's video where he goes over the first time power up. I fused the +15V, +5, and -5 volt lines. It took 20 minutes and cost $5 so I figure it's cheap insurance.
So there's many ways you can feed this chip with a signal that it will accept. In a nutshell you're taking an I2S signal and converting it to Simultaneous PCM. Technically it doesn't matter how you get there I guess. @ryanj makes a glue logic board, there's another solution out there with a CLPD chip I think as well. I chose to use a PC based I2S bridge (HDMI), then that goes to an IanCanada I2S receiver (HDMI). The I2S receiver will feed the IanCanada PCM board. The output of that board is configured for PCM Simultaneous and that's what the TDA1541A is expecting.
I chose to do it this way to eliminate USB and the need for a streamer like the Raspberry Pi. With USB you're converting again, and with the PI you're needing to provide a good power supply and the re-clocking of the FIFO Q7. Plus I didn't want another streamer, I like using my PC. Cost wise it's probably the same as the streamer/Pi/FIFO Q7 route I just didn't want two sources.
I could put a FIFO Q7 in there after the receiver but the I2S bridge I'm using has a really good clock and the ability to upgrade it as well as feed it with a good power supply. I thought I would try that route as I have what I need to do that and don't have to spend the $.
We'll see what happens tonight as this is my first time using I2S direct from the PC. I've built a few Twisted Pear Buffalo DACs so this is my third DAC build but my first with this chip.
It sings! Sounds excellent for a test setup. I'll clean it up a bit tomorrow
Sounds great after about 12 hours of break in. It seems to draw 50 ma for all three power rails. Are yours the same?
The mid range and voices are amazing! It's a very clean and tight sound. It's not muddled or colored. Honestly, I've never heard 44.1Khz like this. Those old CD players from the 80's had it right. I don't know if it's because I'm using batteries or what? I've got long leads on the power and generic 22 AWG wire, the stereo output is just wired to a 3.5mm jack. Its just a test setup and it warrants a permanent setup for sure.
I'll try balanced next week to see if there's an improvement, gabby says not enough to go the extra mile per se. In the end I'll use Salas V regs and some R-Core transformers. I'll order custom transformers on Monday so it should be 2-3 weeks before I start that part but we'll see what balanced sounds like before that.
I'll try balanced next week to see if there's an improvement, gabby says not enough to go the extra mile per se. In the end I'll use Salas V regs and some R-Core transformers. I'll order custom transformers on Monday so it should be 2-3 weeks before I start that part but we'll see what balanced sounds like before that.
Thank you for the update. I think the Gabster TD1 / Ian Canada is an amazing dac. I am new to all this and very interested in your planned upgrades.
Its a very very good sounding DAC! I chose Gaby's board first because it was through hole mostly and had good support. He was so enthusiastic about it, I was like I gotta roll the dice. I've wasted 3x that money in projects that never amounted to anything so the risk to me was low. The upside was huge because I could sell everything and get my money back if I hated it
I didn't go the streamer route as I wanted to use my PC as the only source. I feed I2s direct from the PCIe bridge in the PC to an Ian Canada HDIM receiver. That connects to Ian's I2s to PCM board flawlessly.
I had initially planned to start a full Ian Canada supercap dual mono ess build with Lundahl transformers on the output. I have all the parts and will start that build shortly but I just had to go down this TDA1541A rabbit hole. I've got another board I want to try as well but I can tell you I will keep a dedicated 44.1 Khz DAC in the stack for sure