dCS are world leaders in digital audio conversion technology

peranders · 2002-09-27 2:19 pm

Does anybody know anything about the Ring DAC? I have asked dCS about it but their lips are sealed. I asked them and they replied: Top Secret!

BTW: ABBA used digital equipment very early in the 80's. The Album "The Vistor" from 1981 is recorded digitally! My CD is pressed 1983!! The sound engineer Micheal B Tretow was "pryltokig" (gadget freak) and he was responsible for the high techonoly of the Polar studio in Stockholm. ABBA had lots of money to spend those days. I have also read the they use dCS' products.

http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/

peranders · 2002-09-29 12:12 pm

Is dCS totally unknown outside the UK?

peranders · 2002-09-29 12:36 pm

Re: Is dCS totally unknown outside the UK?

GGrand said:
Bloody shame actually.... how did you ever hear of them?

By pure accident, through a normal search!

khush · 2002-09-29 12:43 pm

Is dCS totally unknown outside the UK?

No. I think you will find they have sold more of their dacs and upsamplers outside of uk than within. It was dcs who started the fashion of upsamplers with the Purcell. Are you aware that Arcam have used their ring dac technology in the Alpha9, CD92 and FMJ 23 players for some years now. You may find some technical details of the ring dac in reviews of these.
cheers
khush

ezmeralda11 · 2002-09-29 2:52 pm

audio

"the magazines there puposely ignor and downplay Brith audio products due to thier superiorty to American products" :bawling:

I wouldn't entirely agree with that. 1) the magazines over here are quite stupid-some are recommending $10k speaker cables w/ $12k speakers (but no one this forum or who knows anything about gear cares too heavily what they print-so it shouldn't affect the sale of a good product regardless of where it was made for educated consumers) 2)we got more than enough crap sounding gear over here to keep up with we can't listen to everyone's 3) propinquity does have some leverage in the issue 4)there are alot of british brands we do listen to and Americans tend to like as a whole like B&W (gets more than enough press), Epos, Creek, NAD, Mission/Mordount-Short, TDL (before they went under), Rotel (ignoring a recent thread here), Cambridge Audio, Musical Fidelity, etc. (I believe those are all British, or at least once were)

Not to mention there's the Canadians, Australians, French, Germans and many other countries we have to keep up with. I think one speaker ad years ago read: there are more loudspeaker manufacturer's in North America alone than members of Congress: 100 in senate and is it 435 in the house of representatives?=535. It may not be that high but its still alot.

tvi · 2002-09-29 4:26 pm

I think this is the patent:

<a href="http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5138317.WKU.&OS=PN/5138317&RS=PN/5138317">US Patent 5,138,317
Digital to analogue converter adapted to select input sources based on a preselected algorithm once per cycle of a sampling signal</a>
Inventors: Story; Michael J. (Whittlesford, GB2)
Assignee: Data Conversion Systems Limited (Cambridge, GB2)

Abstract
An n-bit DAC of the kind having at least 2n-1 sources, typically current sources, especially for use in oversampling ADC's enables a resolution accuracy in excess of 18 bits by selecting the sources in a dynamic manner. A source selection circuit typically an at least 2n-1 to 2n-1 multiplexer, connected between the digital input lines and the DAC switches selects the sources based on a predetermined cyclic algorithm which converts DAC errors into noise and shifts the noise energy into unwanted parts of the spectrum.

Regards
James

peranders · 2002-09-29 5:04 pm

Re: Give me a break.......

Jocko Homo said:
Superior? To what? In terms of using op-amps and three-terminal regulators out the wazoo, maybe. And really cheap caps.

My ex-business partner was friends with the late president of Naim (sorry for his loss......as I almost suffered the same fate......). I was able to hear that $60K .......shall we say...... "signature" system of theirs.

As you would say...."Bloody awful."

As I would say......"A load of crap. Sounded so bad I had to leave the room after 2 minutes."

It came with, shall we say.......an extreme power supply for the phono stage. Yeah, really extreme. A transformer, two filter caps, and two LM317s......in T0-3 cases.

Yeah.......really extreme.

Jocko

Jocko, what is the matter with you? Have you anything positive to say. Is dCS aslo crap?

The subject was copied and pasted from dCS' homepage. I don't really know a thing about dCS. Thats's why I ask. The last remark, had it something to do with this? Could you at least try to give useful info instead of criticism?

peranders · 2002-09-29 8:45 pm

tvi said:
I think this is the patent:

<a href="http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5138317.WKU.&OS=PN/5138317&RS=PN/5138317">US Patent 5,138,317
Digital to analogue converter adapted to select input sources based on a preselected algorithm once per cycle of a sampling signal</a>
Inventors: Story; Michael J. (Whittlesford, GB2)
Assignee: Data Conversion Systems Limited (Cambridge, GB2)

Anyone besides me who wants to take a closer look at the pdf-files? I can upload them if there is interest.

And thanks for the info, tvi.

jwb · 2002-09-29 9:34 pm

The info about dCS equipment exported to the U.S. is not quite right. The store right down the street from me in San Francisco has several of their pieces. Of course I cross the street to avoid that store, but still ...

peranders · 2002-09-29 9:42 pm

I don't have a point of view about dCS's pros and cons but the price is definitely a con. The price is "hair raising".

hifiZen · 2002-09-29 11:52 pm

You will find the dCS ring DAC inside the newer models from Arcam... widely available here in N. America. Models using the dCS DAC aren't exactly cheap, but the technology is definitely available here. And, for that matter, this British product seems to be well reviewed...

analog_sa · 2002-09-30 9:51 pm

hmmm. spoiled brats. it shows you've never seen a proudly south african audio mag. you'll have difficulty figuring where the paid ad ends and the review begins. in ten or so years of freebie reading in bookstores (takes an average of 45s to scan from cover to cover) i've never noticed an even mildly negative opinion about anything. there must be a simple explanation of course - they only review the best.
regarding the 3*7K mystery regs, i remain sceptical - there are way too many better regs (especially discrete) to pardon using this crap. Maybe Burmester also used to use 'mystery' 5534 opamps?

peter

Jocko Homo · 2002-10-01 2:02 am

Andy:

Whaddya say we move this '317 thing elsewhere? It may get more interesting. I do not want my new best friend PerAnders thinking that I deliberately dumping on his thread.

I say let him continue with where he had this going before you-know-who suckered us into starting a war.

Jokco

planet10 · 2002-10-01 6:00 am

Jocko Homo said:
Whaddya say we move this '317 thing elsewhere?

As you command...

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=66147

dave :cop:

(moderator hat on)

planet10 · 2002-10-01 6:06 am

peranders said:
Does anybody know anything about the Ring DAC?

I can't tell you much about that. But a friend who had a recording studio (and who's opinion i trust) got a dSC ADC & a DAC and he was very taken with them. Clearly better than anything he had heard before and IHO worth shelling out the big bucks for.

dave

peranders · 2002-10-01 10:34 am

Re: Re: dCS are world leaders in digital audio conversion technology

planet10 said:
I can't tell you much about that. But a friend who had a recording studio (and who's opinion i trust) got a dSC ADC & a DAC and he was very taken with them. Clearly better than anything he had heard before and IHO worth shelling out the big bucks for.

This was a very other point of view (than crap). I suspect that they are not bad at all, in fact, "Spitzenklasse", but the price tag is a little bit heavy. I have also a hunch of that integrated solutions can be better just because of the integration and the compactness. I wonder really how much dCS differs from a top optimized integrated solution? Is the answer "very little"?

Brett · 2002-10-01 12:18 pm

Re: Re: dCS are world leaders in digital audio conversion technology

planet10 said:
I can't tell you much about that. But a friend who had a recording studio (and who's opinion i trust) got a dSC ADC & a DAC and he was very taken with them. Clearly better than anything he had heard before and IHO worth shelling out the big bucks for.

dave

Dave,

Funny but I also have an aquaintance in the biz, very experienced and sharp operator, and when I asked about the dCS he gave a huge snort of derision and told me not to waste my money. Odd response from someone not normally very expressive. This guy has great ears and will use whatever works best to get the result needed. Good techo too.

I haven't heard them personally and can't afford them.
But everyone hears things in a different way, no?

dCS are world leaders in digital audio conversion technology

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

RIP

Administrator

Administrator

Member

Member