Are R2R DACs inherently better?

The EVM uses an asynchronous USB-to-SPI controller that would not work well for audio. Instead, we bring our digital signals out to a header so that you can connect it an FPGA or your controller of choice. The issue is that it is not trivial to convert I2S to SPI.
Developing a properly working USB-to-SPI controller for asynchronous USB Audio Class 2 should be much easier task than converting I2S to SPI. Just use a proper MCU instead of FT4222.
 
Is "plain old PWM" limited to 10 bits by design ?
Not of course, but depend of a required bandwidth (i.e.- main PWM frequency).
You can do a simple calculation - what should be the frequency resolution (master clock frequency) depending on the number of bits and the main PWM frequency (Fpwm), it's a simple multiplication.

10 bit is 1024, for Fpwm=100kHz you need the clock just 102.4MHz, but 16 bit is 65535....

Alex.
 
  • Thank You
Reactions: diyiggy
Some of our latest R2R precision DACs, like the DAC82002 or the DAC11001B are great for audio, but that was not the intention when designed. Now the biggest issue when using an R-2R precision DAC is solving the digital headaches for I2S to SPI 🙂
Yes... As in most cases of earlier m=non audio DAC chips.
Someone should make the input format standard fo these dacs more clear, and then maybe we have chance to adopt I2S or other standard digital format to these dacs?
.
Could You maybe give a help on that?
Cheers 🙂
 
You miss my point. Connecting to SPI is a doddle but it is not about that. It is about sticking a relatively crude I2S interface on a precision industrial dac used in the vastly greater area of electronics that isn't audio. No one is going to do that.
 
Last edited:
This has been a fun read!

I just wanted to make a couple comments - IC manufacturers (like TI) still make R-2R DACs, just not really specialized for audio. Most audio products also have significant digital content (digital filters, for example) and make more sense to be manufactured on a process node that has smaller digital capability. We make our R-2R DACs on precision analog process nodes that offer great matching. These enable very precise resistors, but not necessarily accurate resistors. We dont do a lot of laser trim anymore, but we have lots of e-trim capability. We use a mix of segmentation and R-2R ladders to acheive or highest resolution device. Our process nodes have improved so much, that we are now able to produce 16-bit string DACs as well.

Some of our latest R2R precision DACs, like the DAC82002 or the DAC11001B are great for audio, but that was not the intention when designed. Now the biggest issue when using an R-2R precision DAC is solving the digital headaches for I2S to SPI 🙂

PS I work for TI for our Precision DAC product line in Tucson.
Nice job, look like DAC11001B do a fine job in Yggdrasil MIB.....
https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/MIB more better.png
 
You miss my point. Connecting to SPI is a doddle but it is not about that. It is about sticking a relatively crude I2S interface on a precision industrial dac used in the vastly greater area of electronics that isn't audio. No one is going to do that.

No, no, I'm exactly about I2S->SPI for DAC82002 or DAC11001B.
To do or not to do is another question, but DAC8803 and DAC8814 I did few years ago.

Alex.
 
Not of course, but depend of a required bandwidth (i.e.- main PWM frequency).
You can do a simple calculation - what should be the frequency resolution (master clock frequency) depending on the number of bits and the main PWM frequency (Fpwm), it's a simple multiplication.

10 bit is 1024, for Fpwm=100kHz you need the clock just 102.4MHz, but 16 bit is 65535....

Alex.

I understand more now. Indeed going with higher clock speed it a mess clock side and pcb layout wise ! It already asks great cares with only 100 Mhz XOs so I suspect to be hard design task !
 
Nice job, look like DAC11001B do a fine job in Yggdrasil MIB.....
https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/MIB more better.png
The same chip is also used for the More is Less (MIL) boards.


"The DAC11001B is typically not used for audio, but Schiit is experienced at using its custom DSP-based digital filter to interface with ICs usually used in medical and defense applications. The implementation in Yggdrasil+ uses 4 DAC11001Bs, one for each phase, in a hardware-balanced, differential application."
 
https://github.com/iitzex/dac82002x4

With FPGA, it is really easy to convert i2s to spi,
all R2R dac for industrial will be available for audio.
But the code did not implement dithering, maybe someday.
Nowday i2s usually use 24bit data,
and dac82002 only use 16bit, dac11001b up to 20bit.
Truncating bits is working good for me,
but maybe dithering will be better, not sure, thx.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PaulFrost
The same chip is also used for the More is Less (MIL) boards.


"The DAC11001B is typically not used for audio, but Schiit is experienced at using its custom DSP-based digital filter to interface with ICs usually used in medical and defense applications. The implementation in Yggdrasil+ uses 4 DAC11001Bs, one for each phase, in a hardware-balanced, differential application."
MIL - featured the DAC11001A
MIB - features the DAC11001B, which has improved THD due to improved glitch filtering.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...lds-most-improbable-start-up.701900/page-8646