Any good TDA1541A DAC kit?

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s3tup said:
Joshua_G, i haven't heard his designs …
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To my view, an opinion which isn't based on listening has no validity.
More than once I encountered people praising a designer and a product, when upon my own listening evaluation I found those praises to be baseless.
I'm privileged to own one of Thorsten's designs, the AMR CD-777. From listening to it I learned to respect Thorsten and his designs.
 
peter daniel 1543 / chinese dac - Google Fight : make this fight with googlefight !

😀


By the way, back syncing isn't that problematic now-days - there is nicely priced Infrasonic Quartet sound card, which could act as LR/master clock source or receiver, comes with BNC connectors, and accepts 256Fs masterclock format 🙂

Slave USB cards are available too.

VIA Tremor (Envy based chip) could be synced back, and costs next to nothing, including drivers and PCI PCB it sits on.

Squeezeboxes have audio frequency XTALS on their boards, which could be hacked.



WM8804/5s, as previously mentioned, ain't that bad on jitter polishing down to 400Hz (datasheet's spec).
No one said you won't need a descent SPDIF source if you get a good DAC.

Joshua_G,
I agree on your point. I see it happening all the time over Internet and in real life.
Sound is all about taste - some love warmth, some don't, some just have a bad taste or are brainwashed... 🙂
 
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s3tup said:
Joshua_G,
I agree on your point. I see it happening all the time over Internet and in real life.
Sound is all about taste - some love warmth, some don't, some just have a bad taste or are brainwashed... 🙂
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Which is why I shun any opinion which isn’t based on actual listening.
Even those opinions based on listening I take with a pile of grains of salt, because personal tastes vary widey.
 
If I wasn't clear enough, I'm looking for a DAC which is KNOWN first hand (and ears) to be of EXCELLENT sound quality.
I'm interested neither in blind (or deaf) praises nor in links raised up by searching the word TDA1541A.
 
Hi T,

Yes I notice. It uses Hardware mode.

This means it is not possible to use a number of optimisations the WM880X makes available, plus there is no 176.4 KHz support, which Sux as a lot of excellent reference recordings stuff comes in 176.4/24...

If you take a look at the Twisted Pear WM8804 manual:

http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/docs/digital/wm8804_2.0_manual.pdf

It says that "software mode is supported by the PCB" and that "advanced users will find an I/O header with access to all the I/O pins. This allows for external control over those pins as well as the use of a microcontroller."

This gave me a wacky idea ... could we plug Raindrop's microcontroller into the more properly laid-out Pear WM8804?


Another crazy idea ... Raindrop's Digital Input Selector (I have one too) uses an 11.2896 MHz clock. Could we just connect the clock (also 11.2896 MHz) from John's (ECDesign's) 1541 board to the Input Selector? Since everything's getting reclocked on the 1541 board, the crappy 8804 layout won't matter as much ...

Holy FrankenDACs Batman!

:hypno1:

Cheers,
Jeff

PS Have you been able to get Raindrop's selector to work with an ASIO driver? I've tried ASIO4ALL but can't get it working?!?

PSS I eagerly await your veroboard/foil layout advice as well...
 
Joshua_G said:
If I wasn't clear enough, I'm looking for a DAC which is KNOWN first hand (and ears) to be of EXCELLENT sound quality.
I'm interested neither in blind (or deaf) praises nor in links raised up by searching the word TDA1541A.
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Excellent compared to what? What is your reference?

AYA DAC is not in the production any more. Those kits were all based on AD844 that exhibit close to 1% distortion when used the way Pedja had used them - something I find unlistenable. Later, his finished products incorporated much better implementations of all stages, not only analog ones -> that no doubt sound exceptional. Maybe you can get one of his finished DAC's and be done with it?


By the way, if you find excellent sounding COMPLETE DAC kit in CURRENT production that uses 1541, pls let me know -> I'd like to get one myself to play....


Boky
 
Hi,

AudioLapDance said:
It says that "software mode is supported by the PCB" and that "advanced users will find an I/O header with access to all the I/O pins. This allows for external control over those pins as well as the use of a microcontroller."
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Sure, so you need to program a MCU. I guess Arduino could do it. You will loose many hairs as a result of WM's documentation and wide application of undocumented features.

AudioLapDance said:
This gave me a wacky idea ... could we plug Raindrop's microcontroller into the more properly laid-out Pear WM8804?
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Probably not. Likely the device address is different for 04 and 05, so an MCU for 05 will not talk to a 04...


AudioLapDance said:
Another crazy idea ... Raindrop's Digital Input Selector (I have one too) uses an 11.2896 MHz clock. Could we just connect the clock (also 11.2896 MHz) from John's (ECDesign's) 1541 board to the Input Selector? Since everything's getting reclocked on the 1541 board, the crappy 8804 layout won't matter as much ...
Click to expand...

You could do that, however this would not produce a system that works well as the reclocking would remain asynchronous, with the usual continuous clicks....

AudioLapDance said:
Holy FrankenDACs Batman!
Click to expand...

Indeed.

AudioLapDance said:
PS Have you been able to get Raindrop's selector to work with an ASIO driver? I've tried ASIO4ALL but can't get it working?!?
Click to expand...

The USB on there is C-Media. I am unaware of anything that is worse in terms of jitter. Don't bother using it and replace it with a decent 192KHz capable Async. USB.

When I have time again, I had to finish other stuff yesterday...

Ciao T
 
Extreme_Boky said:
Excellent compared to what? What is your reference?
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Excellent in the ears of the responding.


Extreme_Boky said:
AYA DAC is not in the production any more. Those kits were all based on AD844 that exhibit close to 1% distortion when used the way Pedja had used them - something I find unlistenable. Later, his finished products incorporated much better implementations of all stages, not only analog ones -> that no doubt sound exceptional. Maybe you can get one of his finished DAC's and be done with it?
Click to expand...

Have you heard Pedja's finished DACs?
I'm not going to spend any money on "maybe" or "no doubt" in a way of conjecture.
 
I have built John Brown's dac (mk7). Although I have made my own PCB based on his schematics, and used different power supplies and output stage, this sounds excellent.

He sells kits/boards.
 
studiostevus said:
I have built John Brown's dac (mk7). Although I have made my own PCB based on his schematics, and used different power supplies and output stage, this sounds excellent.

He sells kits/boards.
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AFAIK, John do not sell anymore DAC kits or boards, only finished Memory Card Reader, which he don't have any at the moment, he is developing the next generation of it.
 
Dunno, i prefer looking at schematics rather than reading praises from unknown people.
I've been there once, reading reviews.
It ended, when i started removing the covers from these highly regarded devices.

I'm on DIY route, as i don't want to swallow all that commercial bullsh*t available from broad range of information sources - company claims, product sheets, review magazines, salesmans, various independent people over forums/real life.

DIY has less of that bullsh*t, yet it has some.

I can't tell which equipment i've heared, as i don't remember the badges. Last d-town show? I've checked everything there, nothing good for my ears. Nola viper had nice tweeters, cabasse had nice solid sound, but sounded digitallish and pretty far from my understanding of highend. Kinda PA system.
If you call it highend.
 
s3tup said:
You've asked for it, in a forum. Yes.
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I asked in the forum, but I didn't ask for opinions which aren't based on actual hearing.

s3tup said:
Yes, i've posted a pic of it. TDA1541 all the way. Not that reference tho. Pretty much playground prior to making own PCBs.
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I'm interested only in "reference", or superb sound quality, I have no interest in playgrounds.

If I wasn't clear enough, I'll try to make myself as clear as I possibly can.
I have a superb CDP which can serve also as a standalone DAC – the AMR CD-777 designed by Thorsten. It has a superb sound quality and I enjoy it enormously, I can happily spend the rest of my life with it.
Yet:
1. I assume even better sound quality can be obtained. From what I heard, the AMR CD-77 has a better sound quality (it is based on TDA1541A DAC chip), but I cannot afford it and I will not be able to afford it, unless I'll win the lottery.
2. My financial means are meager. Hence, my only hope for better sound quality, within my budget, is a superb sound quality DIY DAC. Most probably based on TDA1541A DAC chip.

From the information given here so far, there is no such available DIY DAC. There is a development by John Brown (ecdesigns), but it is a Memory Card Reader, not a standalone DAC, and it is still in development, no finished product is available right now.

So, if anyone know (from first hand listening experience) of a superb sound quality DIY DAC based on TDA1541A, please let me know.

Again, I'm interested neither in rumors nor in playgrounds, only in available options of superb sound quality.

I hope that now I'm clear enough.
 
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