@voxxonline The can was already leaky, the worms are everywhere now mate.
Possibly Miro is one of the few that have listened to most or all the NOS chips? He likes the 20bit 1862, a few prefer the 18bit 1865. I can tell you the PCM63 sounds excellent. Others say the PCM1704 is king. You need to try them all in the same system to find out. They will all sound different to your AKM.
The TDA1541 has a cult of it's own.
The 1865 would be a great place to start, it's apparently one of the best. Start small. get it working with op-amps first.
Possibly Miro is one of the few that have listened to most or all the NOS chips? He likes the 20bit 1862, a few prefer the 18bit 1865. I can tell you the PCM63 sounds excellent. Others say the PCM1704 is king. You need to try them all in the same system to find out. They will all sound different to your AKM.
The TDA1541 has a cult of it's own.
The 1865 would be a great place to start, it's apparently one of the best. Start small. get it working with op-amps first.
I'm very interested how the ad 1865 works out for you. I recently hooked up an inexpensive NOS ad1865 Chinese pcm board that I had laying around which I had picked up several years ago for a garage system. Sounds surprising nice. Not same level as Miro ad1862, but still surprising.
@PJN me too, it will undoubtedly benefit more from a good I/V stage, the little CEN boards are truly remarkable with the PCM63. The Dark I/V may be better.
The 1865 might suit a tube stage like Grunfs design. I also read here that it likes close decoupling so included this on the adapter.
The SOIC 1865R is very easy to get at reasonable prices and it is a dream to power, like the PCM it only needs 5V rails.
The 1865 might suit a tube stage like Grunfs design. I also read here that it likes close decoupling so included this on the adapter.
The SOIC 1865R is very easy to get at reasonable prices and it is a dream to power, like the PCM it only needs 5V rails.
I am testing every R-2R DAC on the same setup, == the same power supplies (78xx/79xx onsemi brand), I/V (LM6171/2), headphone amplifier (TPA6120) and headphones (AKG K701), usb input is PCM2706 - just to stay consistent with my results 😎 .... I can tell you, that PCM63 is slightly better than the PCM1704. I was one of the lucky ones who bought a brand new PCM1704 from official store. Today almost every (heat degraded) PCM1704 on ebay is trash, it is very fragile - the most fragile DAC I ever have seen. PCM1704 is officially dead 🙁
Got the TDA1541 dac up an running with waveio board. Many thanks to all here pointing me in the right direction, to Vunce from whom I got the built dac and psu and tips on transformers to match the psu, miro for the design, Tan for the PM's back and forth to troubleshoot my build. Initial impressions are very good! In a temp chassis now, have put in a order for a set of pesante cases for this build and the AD1862 build.
If you deep through old service manuals of best CD players with best DACs, you can figure out, that 78xx/79xx regulators were used very often (why? 😎). You can also find discrete designs there, but mostly it is a classic zener-transistor stabilizer. Look at into service manual of very pricey CD player, Pioneer PD-93 with PCM63 DACs. Here you can see, that DACs are powered from NJM7805/NJM7905 regulators (prestabilized with opamp based power supply) and opamps are powered from this stabilizator based on opamp. It can be cloned and created as power supply stage for our DACs 
1/4 watt resistors?PSU 2 not only for AD1862
PSU 2 is based on LT1963A/LT3015 LDO regulators.
Why I chose these regulators? Letting DIY people only on 78/79 regulators would not be fair, so I was searching and found an inspiration in this test:
A-comparative-overview-of-power-supply-regulator-designs-with-listening-tests
In the basic configuration, components are set to output the +/-5VD and +/-12VA for AD1862 DAC.
These regulators are adjustable and are set via resistors and fine tuned using a trimmer.
Again, the output power and heatsink is a DIY question, but since the AD1862 DAC consumption is small, it should go without heatsink
PCB size is 75x150mm and is universal - you can solder components for any other DAC voltages.
It can be cheaply ordered from jlcpcb or any other PCB manufacturer.
(it was not tested at the time of writing this post)
Example list of components (copied from BOM picture, except resistors)
mouser:
603-FMP300FRF73-1R
505-MKP20.01/400/5
R79IC3100Z340J, 505-MKP2D031001FJO00
667-EEU-FR1E101
667-EEU-FR1V271L
647-LKG1V682MESYAK
72-T93YB-2K
72-T93YB-100K, 594-64Y503
72-T93YB-100K
72-T93YB-200K
604-L483GDT
511-1N5822
863-1N4007G
584-LT1963AET#PBF
584-LT3015ET#PBF
534-4628
576-0216001.MXR20SPP
651-1729128
651-1729131
ebay: 233823483402, 233670142926
Unless you can get brand new, unused ones from reliable sources.
If you have high resolution material, 1704 is the only R2R to play 24 bit.
And of course there are ESS's and AKM's.
But they are not R2R.
😉
Cheers,
Patrick
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it is a rabbit hole. I spent an evening browsing various options, commercial implementations (MHDT), DIY, and chip versions (chip manufacture date, country, type etc). OMG 🙂 I am not sure I have time to read it all to make an informed decision.
Life is easier with delta-sigma 😀
But the itch...
Life is easier with delta-sigma 😀
But the itch...
@voxxonline Just build the AD1862. After that delta-sigma becomes harder to listen 
@miro1360, look at MV Audio the diodes mesurements. Possible to make a simple speedy emitter follower with a BJT with gain enough that could swap the Darlington that has always that fastness subjectiviness (the Darlington-not pehaps hasn't) but needs the double voltage ? No servo and possibly a try with no feedback at the output of the emitter to test what sounds the best. Could be easy to make a quiet enough circa 5V and try 12V by quiet zener in serie? Or TL431 based à la Thorsten. ?
Will be hard to do betterthan the PSU2 or cheaper than the PSU1...
Will be hard to do betterthan the PSU2 or cheaper than the PSU1...
@voxxonline Just build the AD1862. After that delta-sigma becomes harder to listen
If's a little The Delta Sigma vs the Alpha & Omega !
