Hello all.
I am looking for a sanity check. I already have built a few different r2r dacs for my listening room, but I would like to build something for my desk.
I am debating between harvesting an old CS4328 chip out of a broken CD player or to use two AK4137EQ chips to convert 16 bit 44.1 to dSD256 and then use a low pass filter afterwards.
On paper, the AK4137EQ approach should be better, but I have seen a lot of comments saying that people aren't a huge fan. Im wondering if there is some issue with the AKM chips and I should go with the CS chip, or what the deal might be.
I am looking for a sanity check. I already have built a few different r2r dacs for my listening room, but I would like to build something for my desk.
I am debating between harvesting an old CS4328 chip out of a broken CD player or to use two AK4137EQ chips to convert 16 bit 44.1 to dSD256 and then use a low pass filter afterwards.
On paper, the AK4137EQ approach should be better, but I have seen a lot of comments saying that people aren't a huge fan. Im wondering if there is some issue with the AKM chips and I should go with the CS chip, or what the deal might be.
Two AK4137 used in series can work pretty well. They do need a good master clock for reference. Otherwise the can sound pretty bad if relying on a PLL reference. They also have to be programmed in two different ways. Some of it is by I2C bus, and some of it is by hardware pins while in a partial power down state. As they are ASRC chips, they will attenuate some incoming jitter, but they may add some of their own jitter too, especially if their power is noisy or their reference clock is jittery.
OTOH, there are better solutions out there, such as the FPGA-based synchronous converter project thread, and or using HQ Player software.
Also, reclocking at certain points in the processing may have some beneficial effect.
OTOH, there are better solutions out there, such as the FPGA-based synchronous converter project thread, and or using HQ Player software.
Also, reclocking at certain points in the processing may have some beneficial effect.