DAC AD1862: Almost THT, I2S input, NOS, R-2R

@NIXIE62 ,

Yup, I think this is exactly the point : to master the colorations of a chain of devices as we listen to a unique output througth the loudspeaker and the room. Add the bias of the listener, the reccoring... an ever ending story, lol !

If we had two inches of seriousness we will go with audio pro and room correction to cope the closer of what the reccording engineer did !

It is a precious tool what made @miro1360 here to let us compare dac ics at close layout thanks his pcbs ! We can adapt better the DAC to the rest of our likings. Getting older I personnaly more and more like the no coloration way the less I can, the drawback is bad reccordings sounds bad 😆
 
Using tubes requires some form of dc blocking: a capacitor, a transformer, or less commonly - a dc servo. All stuff i would rather avoid. And even worse, not possible to use my favourite miniature dc blockers BG-N due to the high voltage.

Apart from coupling, making a good sounding tube supply is a lot more demanding than a low voltage supply. Not sure if low psrr is partially to blame, but parts in a tube PS are somehow more inclined to contribute a strong sonic flavour. Which transformer, rectifier, choke, caps... hours, no -days of agonising decisions. And yes, same applies to the heater supply too.

Always been envious of people who just drop a random ECC tube, a random tiny transformer, some 1N4007s, a couple of caps from their junk boxes and immediately attain tube nirvana.
 
Using tubes requires some form of dc blocking: a capacitor, a transformer, or less commonly - a dc servo. All stuff i would rather avoid. And even worse, not possible to use my favourite miniature dc blockers BG-N due to the high voltage.

Apart from coupling, making a good sounding tube supply is a lot more demanding than a low voltage supply. Not sure if low psrr is partially to blame, but parts in a tube PS are somehow more inclined to contribute a strong sonic flavour. Which transformer, rectifier, choke, caps... hours, no -days of agonising decisions. And yes, same applies to the heater supply too.

Always been envious of people who just drop a random ECC tube, a random tiny transformer, some 1N4007s, a couple of caps from their junk boxes and immediately attain tube nirvana.

self bias cathod maybe, lol !

I agree with DC blocking caps. After having experienced then here more than 20 years it was a revelation when I tried a good enough circuitry to avoid them.

For me it was the Aya 2 2014. The BG N (the red were tried, also in super E serie conf ; the recommended caps of the designer, SII in reversed serie, all the others known bipolar from Rubycon, Nichicon, Elna again, manyyyyyyy....yyyy film caps ! The BG N perform very well and is confortable but no way as good here than no caps ! 🙂 . I just have tubes too because I can and am a collector virused like said @miro1360.

I think they often come as a compensation when a too clear pre/amp/speakers/cables/hard reflecting room (concrete on soil) etc ! Always trade offs must be chosen....
 
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Should we do a D3a with gyrator and mu follower with a tatasutki 300b output and coleman filament reg, all with iso tango or murata transformer to listen to ad1862?

No but you could do a TDA1541A Loesch new circuitry with an E188cc or 7023 then a 5687 followed by a Tamura, or better amorph core from Tribute and with the monney left rent Magico's for a week ! 🤣

The cheap way could be to swap the OT by silver copper up to the uF needed by Duelund capacitor and crash the smartphone if the mortgage people phone you.
 
1. Since you mentioned you are new, I really recommend you build a board with onboard IV. play with the various op amps available easily , be it IC or discrete ones. you can bring it further after you have successfully built a working DAC and playing with various op amps by bringing the output to an off-board IV stage. eg. tube stage.... or discrete transistors UV etc, if you are planning to go this far.

2. Higher end caps? You mean more expensive caps than Elna/Nichicon? Maybe some experts on parts selection can answer this better.

3. Maybe you can get some answers in Ian Canada's thread since there are many users there, to feedback on their implementation on their dac and its effects.

4. Miro's PSU2 for a start. It is good. Get it working first and then play with your batteries. You may not even bother with batteries after your DAC is built.
Thank you so much for clearing my queries. I'll start planning the build soon. Hope everything works!
 
and where can I find " a TDA1541A Loesch new circuitry with an E188cc or 7023 then a 5687 followed by a Tamura" ? In that thread they're all arguing and it is impossible to find something constructive
That s your judgment. Free ro you to ask and I never said Loesh talked of Tribute or Duelund, etc. He talked about tubes noone has the idea here and know more than you and me and anyone here. Ask to you to ask in this thread. It could be a good one to make his core circuitry then choose your tubes or else...
 

I did search before posting. Not a single link in the search results explains how to check a true "silver wire mid-70 voskhod" tube. The only description I found is a single wire getter. It will qualify tons of tubes. I cannot trust stamps on the tubes, especially since they all look like new on ebay. The stamps on most Russian tubes that I have are barely readable. If you know how to check a true "silver wire mid-70 voskhod" tube, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
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Never listened to anything with 12AT7 or 12AY7. Quick research shows that they both have significantly lower gain and produce less colored sound than 12AX7.

To put it in most simple terms it is very high output impedance tube, very low current - hence without CCS not good choice for output....

It can be good choice for phono stage, regardless the modern trends toward High GM / high current set up pentodes in triode connection ( depending on what Cart is used ) - but again even in if done as cathode follower ( no Gain ) at output.... doesn't make lot of sense to do it simply because there are different / better choices.

As to being used in high quality preamp / amps - it was plentiful, cheap, high gain and good enough for input stages ( hi-fi & guitar worlds both ) - almost anyone used it until mid 90's when it fell out of favor ( DAC's with 1-2 Vrms outputs so no need for preamps with a lot of gain, MM cartridges with need for low capacitance at the input of phono pre - the opposite is true in guitar world and probably the main reason why any tube is still manufactured today - speaking of "common" audio tubes ).

As to coloration - it depends how it is done etc., personnally i don't like "coloration" in tube gain stages - it is more of a marketing how some tube have a "sound". For me obvious coloration is just bad design on purpose and nothing more, best to avoid it.

True synonym for tubes should be clean sound - tonally rich does not mean coloration.

Just my 2 cents or opinion if You like.