I have got an old sony CD-ROM up and working in my home hifi, currently using a remote SMPS and it sounds surprisingly good, much better than I expected, and way better than the other CD and DVD players I have here, not as good as my TT but at least I can listen to it without wanting to put an LP on.
So now I turn to the concept of the external DAC and I need some help.
I assume the digital output from the back of the ROM would would need some sort of convertor to make it work with an external DAC.
DIY paradise have a USB to SPDIF module, I assume this would be fine, but how would it need to be hooked up considering there is no usb to start with.
DIY Paradise also have the monica DAC which looks cheap enough and should be OK I think.
Does anyone have any ideas on external DACs for CD-ROMs and what works best, any help would be appreciated
An additional issue I would like to address is noise, my whole system is Battery powered so noise levels are zero, but of course ROM drives make a fair mechanical racket so it distrubs the peace, any ideas on silencing the drive?
Thanks in advance
Zero One
So now I turn to the concept of the external DAC and I need some help.
I assume the digital output from the back of the ROM would would need some sort of convertor to make it work with an external DAC.
DIY paradise have a USB to SPDIF module, I assume this would be fine, but how would it need to be hooked up considering there is no usb to start with.
DIY Paradise also have the monica DAC which looks cheap enough and should be OK I think.
Does anyone have any ideas on external DACs for CD-ROMs and what works best, any help would be appreciated
An additional issue I would like to address is noise, my whole system is Battery powered so noise levels are zero, but of course ROM drives make a fair mechanical racket so it distrubs the peace, any ideas on silencing the drive?
Thanks in advance
Zero One
If you must use spdif you only need to get the TTL level out of the cdrom to match the spdif specs. A buffer+resistor divider+transformer would be my preferred solution. Most DACs would probably work with a TTL signal anyway.
Forget about the usb converter. It's completely irrelevant.
Btw, if the cdrom sounds better than your other cd players, they suck big time. And so does your tt. 🙂
Forget about the usb converter. It's completely irrelevant.
Btw, if the cdrom sounds better than your other cd players, they suck big time. And so does your tt. 🙂
Thanks Analog, that helps, any idea where I can get a circuit diagram for that.
No doubt a couple of the CD players I have more than suck, but at least 2 of them are supposed to be not bad at all, so I am rather surprised by the ROM.......but its no Turntable, maybe one day I will hear a digital front end that really rocks, but I won't hold my breath.
No doubt a couple of the CD players I have more than suck, but at least 2 of them are supposed to be not bad at all, so I am rather surprised by the ROM.......but its no Turntable, maybe one day I will hear a digital front end that really rocks, but I won't hold my breath.
Hi Zero One
This has been covered here many times if you only have the patience to search.
What is your dac? You may wish to examine the existing DAC in the cdrom and consider using the input signals already present instead of spdif.
The TTL levels are not really a problem with most receivers. If anything the CS8412/14 are happier with TTL input. The lack of 75ohm output seems more detrimental. The attached circuit will do the job and will work better with an isolated output. Spencer is still selling extremely cheap Midcom transformers suitable for the job.
This has been covered here many times if you only have the patience to search.
What is your dac? You may wish to examine the existing DAC in the cdrom and consider using the input signals already present instead of spdif.
The TTL levels are not really a problem with most receivers. If anything the CS8412/14 are happier with TTL input. The lack of 75ohm output seems more detrimental. The attached circuit will do the job and will work better with an isolated output. Spencer is still selling extremely cheap Midcom transformers suitable for the job.
Attachments
About the DAC... some possibilities:
use an AV receiver that accepts digital inputs and let the internal DACs do the job.
salvage the digital filter and DAC section from a dead CD player, add a digital receiver chip to turn the S/PDIF into what the filter expects.
buy a bare-boards DAC kit from eBay or someone
some people say good things about the Behringer SRC-2496 as a DAC. It also operates as an ADC, which makes it a good companion to a PC that has S/PDIF I/O.
use an AV receiver that accepts digital inputs and let the internal DACs do the job.
salvage the digital filter and DAC section from a dead CD player, add a digital receiver chip to turn the S/PDIF into what the filter expects.
buy a bare-boards DAC kit from eBay or someone
some people say good things about the Behringer SRC-2496 as a DAC. It also operates as an ADC, which makes it a good companion to a PC that has S/PDIF I/O.
Zero One said:
If the cd-rom is old enought (not one chip solution), then EIAJ lines can be found on decoder chip (CXDxxx), and contected to TDA1543A without receiver (CS8412/4). Better than SPDIF, pure and simple.
Thanks for that josiphal, about how old is old, this one is a Sony CDU 4811 and has no indication of speed, most do so I guess it is an early one?
As said it sounds surprisingly good, I had a quick look inside a couple of nights ago, it seems well made, lots of shielding on important chips, heavy, thick circuit board, very solid metal mechanism. Actually quite a bit better built than other drives I have looked under the covers on.
I compared it to the sound from a windows multi media computer I have, and my i-Mac it eats both and especially the PC....frankly the PC is virtually unlistenable, hooking it to the hi-fi just makes the whole thing sound even more horrible!
It is not a single chip job so I guess things are looking good. I will have a look for that chip during the week.
As said it sounds surprisingly good, I had a quick look inside a couple of nights ago, it seems well made, lots of shielding on important chips, heavy, thick circuit board, very solid metal mechanism. Actually quite a bit better built than other drives I have looked under the covers on.
I compared it to the sound from a windows multi media computer I have, and my i-Mac it eats both and especially the PC....frankly the PC is virtually unlistenable, hooking it to the hi-fi just makes the whole thing sound even more horrible!
It is not a single chip job so I guess things are looking good. I will have a look for that chip during the week.
Zero One said:
On internet CDU4811 is "Sony CDU 4811 Internal 48x CD-ROM Drive". So if it is true, direct CXD TDA connection is not possible, also device is not so good because the audio cd plays at higher then 1x speed.
If this info is false, and the cd is very old, then everything is possible, and you can check this thread for begining.
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