Hi everyone,
I'm looking for a DAC IC that is easy to integrate into a new USB DSP board design.
I would choose the IC based on the following criteria:
Best Fabian
I'm looking for a DAC IC that is easy to integrate into a new USB DSP board design.
I would choose the IC based on the following criteria:
- Easy to integrate: keeping the external components at a minimum.
- If possible include Opamps and Filter in the package
- preferably SOP or QFP package
- Robust design
- I2S and/or SPI interface
- 2 or 4 channel design. planned is 2xBTL input at the Amp.
- moderate price: I don't want to spend more than 30 € for the DAC including external components.
- It should support 16-bit 44.1 Khz minimum.
Best Fabian
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I would think that AK4493 would fit your bill. You have to fill out the form to get the DS though : https://www.akm.com/eu/en/products/audio/audio-dac/ak4493seq/
@abraxalito Ty for the hint, the AK4452 looks good to me and it is available... a pretty important detail nowadays :/
30 Euro maximum all together is a tight budget and should it be cream of the crop or just a DAC for testing/evaluating the complete design? Design criterium 1.1 is a tough cookie as most of the recent better/best category balanced output DAC chips by ESS and AKM need external opamps or similar solutions. 2 x OPA1612 is already 15...20 Euro. Design criterium 1.1 more or less discards balanced output DAC chips so this leaves budget solutions.
I'd say if it needs to be cheap and good ES9023P still is OK if only for testing/evaluating. You won't need opamps either but ... no balanced outputs. A handful of external components. Just a few LDO regs contrary to the datasheet single PSU, a real good 50 MHz XO and you're done. ES9023P itself costs 1,60 Euro at mouser. It performs way better than it should. PCM5102 is a comparable competitor but I never found it to be on par with ES9023.
ES9023P:
I'd say if it needs to be cheap and good ES9023P still is OK if only for testing/evaluating. You won't need opamps either but ... no balanced outputs. A handful of external components. Just a few LDO regs contrary to the datasheet single PSU, a real good 50 MHz XO and you're done. ES9023P itself costs 1,60 Euro at mouser. It performs way better than it should. PCM5102 is a comparable competitor but I never found it to be on par with ES9023.
ES9023P:
- Easy to integrate: keeping the external components at a minimum. V
- If possible include Opamps and Filter in the package V
- preferably SOP or QFP package V
- Robust design V
- I2S and/or SPI interface V
- 2 or 4 channel design. planned is 2xBTL input (please explain that...) at the Amp. V
- moderate price: I don't want to spend more than 30 € for the DAC including external components. V
- It should support 16-bit 44.1 Khz minimum. V 24/192
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No thanks. Just make sure to use good 3.3 and 3.6V local LDO regs for the XO and DAC chip and use ferrite beads in the power lines.
Good thing, that nowadays most ICs run on a single supply with 3.3 V, which makes integration much easier. PSU design is a big topic I have to look into in the future
Not the same opinion, separate supply pins give often better performance (if one is after the best possible performance). One supply pin is convenience. ES9023P is an exception in the budget class but you'll notice. The cap for the negative voltage as generated with an internal charge pump is quite sensitive. It seems everyone is a big fan of both cheap and ceramic but a film cap as small as possible like Wima in 2.5 mm pitch really is better. With such a low component count one can use the best parts and it'll only make a slight difference in costs. One can fool many an audiophile with well executed ES9023 DACs (in blind tests) and of course this causes flak as cheap and good can't be true.
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True, could not hurt placing good external components, the price for the IC is low, and a few € for quality caps should be well within budget.
Searching the Digikey catalog I found this one:
cirrus Logic CS4392
Reasonable priced, and well in spec. Have to read the datasheet properly though
IIRC, the PCM56 requires a right-justified data input, and will not directly accept I2S. Performance wise, this seems to be a very well regarded DAC. For lots of measurement and usage info., search the site for PCM56 posts by member, 'bernhard'.
Yeah it is 16 bit and 32 euro a piece. Almost exactly the complete budget. It needs multiple power supplies. It needs an IV stage……opamps.
High res DAC chips are backwards compatible. It makes sense to design in the (and for the) now/present and not the past.
I suggest TDA1541A S2. Heard good stories about it 🙂
High res DAC chips are backwards compatible. It makes sense to design in the (and for the) now/present and not the past.
I suggest TDA1541A S2. Heard good stories about it 🙂
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Yeah, jean-paul, but I very recently saw an eBay auction for a single NOS S2 being offered for $550 US! 😵 Unless, you know of a much more affordable source, if so, please PM me. 😉
Of course I would not seriously advise old stuff sold for absurd prices but it would help to keep to the own criteria.
What is expected from the design? A nice pastime or should it surpass ready made stuff?
What is expected from the design? A nice pastime or should it surpass ready made stuff?
Well, this stuff is pretty new to me after all, and as usual, a lot to learn and read. But I agree that using older components might not be the best choice when designing something new.
As I said above, I have already settled and accepted that certain designs require specific components, I rather go with a well-documented design that is state of the art than reinventing an old wheel...
What do I expect? Actually not really anything in terms of sound quality, I don't have high-end speakers nor an acoustically treated room, and my electronics lab isn't suited for acoustic measurements.
I learned enough to avoid cheap components and materials in general, so why not build something nice instead of something that would not be used anyway when spending countless hours on building it? This is applicable for furniture, speakers and a DAC as well.
I work as an event technician and although I'm not a sound engineer I have been in enough studios in the past to know how good speakers sound. Talking to those whose job it is to make music sound good I usually get the same answer: Build something that you like, and if it sounds good to you then it's fine. Trying to beat a modern well-engineered speaker/amp is basically not possible in terms of price and performance. (without experience)
When designing my Amp, I basically read the Datasheet and build my amp according to it and I tend to believe those engineers that wrote the datasheet.
Everything else would be pretentious. And the good thing is it worked right away. So if someone has a good working design for a DAC that I can copy, happily do so.
And if this means that I have to change my criteria in part selection stated in the beginning, why not? It's only my second HIFI project so far and I'm learning a lot having this discussion 🙂
The DAC will be used in a USB-DSP for active speakers, probably build around an NXP i.MX MCU, and if someone is interested in joining the development, let me know!
Best Fabian