The new Rohm dac chip is said to sound really good with DSD. Don't know if there is a Topping or SMSL dac out with that chip yet.
Mouser has a Canadian website that offers pretty much everything the do in the US. Don't where they ship from however.
Only thing I would buy from Iancanada would be his scPure clocks. Those are pretty good, and excellent for the price.
If you went with the MarcelvdG dsd dac with good clocks, etc., I can assure you it would not be bright or fatiguing. It sounds great. Only problem besides the SMD soldering is some of us are still looking for the best output stage we can find. I am told a passive filter version sounds better than an OPA1632 version, but haven't heard that for myself as of yet. There is also a Jensen transformer I am interested in trying but they are out of stock until mid-March.
However, it seems like your budget and your lack of interest in doing a lot of soldering kind of dominate what you are looking for. IOW, SQ is not the only consideration. SQ doesn't have to be great, just good enough?
Mouser has a Canadian website that offers pretty much everything the do in the US. Don't where they ship from however.
Only thing I would buy from Iancanada would be his scPure clocks. Those are pretty good, and excellent for the price.
If you went with the MarcelvdG dsd dac with good clocks, etc., I can assure you it would not be bright or fatiguing. It sounds great. Only problem besides the SMD soldering is some of us are still looking for the best output stage we can find. I am told a passive filter version sounds better than an OPA1632 version, but haven't heard that for myself as of yet. There is also a Jensen transformer I am interested in trying but they are out of stock until mid-March.
However, it seems like your budget and your lack of interest in doing a lot of soldering kind of dominate what you are looking for. IOW, SQ is not the only consideration. SQ doesn't have to be great, just good enough?
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i want a decent upgrade from modded d10s that does not cost more than around 200$ CAD. if it is a commercial product, i can go higher to say 300 CAD . I don't want to solder too much especially on the same board, because it's risky like i said, and my budget is limited and the result could be underwhelming, you never know. the ak4499 board for DIYINHK looks about perfect in that regard and it is not expensive. I guess the ideal project would be one that can be upgraded along the years.
maybe i'll give the pcm1794 another shot with opamps as i/v filters to see if i can get it to todas's standard in terms of ''detail''. That one is pretty easy to build.
if you want to try something i personally would consider «high end», for an opamp, i would try salas dcg3 as a cell. i still have to build it yet, but i expect stellar sound. it's just not made for unity gain. it's is basically just a big opamp circuit.
maybe i'll give the pcm1794 another shot with opamps as i/v filters to see if i can get it to todas's standard in terms of ''detail''. That one is pretty easy to build.
if you want to try something i personally would consider «high end», for an opamp, i would try salas dcg3 as a cell. i still have to build it yet, but i expect stellar sound. it's just not made for unity gain. it's is basically just a big opamp circuit.
MarcelvdG DSD dac can be upgraded over the years. However, in its lowest cost form I couldn't stand the sound myself.
Regarding risk soldering boards with lots of parts, I always solder the hardest parts first. Usually they are the SMD components with a large number of very small pins (say, .5mm pitch). Often not too much invested in parts after installing those few parts (although some chips can be costly). If I destroy the board and part then its not a great loss. If I succeed installing the hardest parts, then everything after that just gets easier and easier as the easiest parts are usually added near the end.
The above having been said, if doing something like that is still unappealing then I would usually recommend just buying best, say, Topping or maybe SMSL dac you can afford and live with that. The problem with boards from China is that they usually have a real dac chip on them, but other parts are often cheap fakes, and the boards are usually only two layers, with less that stellar layout. IOW, the way they get the prices so low and still make any money is because they are mostly selling you junk that you can then try to fix. IME, even with the most heroic efforts to fix everything that can be fixed, it will still never be as good as a better designed dac built with good parts.
That's why I suggest that if someone wants a dac board in a box project that's easy to build and pretty good, just go for a Miro 1862 dac or one of the Abraxalito dacs. They sound good and a lot of people like them. Also, at least you know what you are getting before you buy. You can look at schematics, gerbers, BOMs, read about the design in threads, etc.
Anyway, to each his own. Whatever you decide to do, here's hoping you enjoy the dac you choose.
Mark
Regarding risk soldering boards with lots of parts, I always solder the hardest parts first. Usually they are the SMD components with a large number of very small pins (say, .5mm pitch). Often not too much invested in parts after installing those few parts (although some chips can be costly). If I destroy the board and part then its not a great loss. If I succeed installing the hardest parts, then everything after that just gets easier and easier as the easiest parts are usually added near the end.
The above having been said, if doing something like that is still unappealing then I would usually recommend just buying best, say, Topping or maybe SMSL dac you can afford and live with that. The problem with boards from China is that they usually have a real dac chip on them, but other parts are often cheap fakes, and the boards are usually only two layers, with less that stellar layout. IOW, the way they get the prices so low and still make any money is because they are mostly selling you junk that you can then try to fix. IME, even with the most heroic efforts to fix everything that can be fixed, it will still never be as good as a better designed dac built with good parts.
That's why I suggest that if someone wants a dac board in a box project that's easy to build and pretty good, just go for a Miro 1862 dac or one of the Abraxalito dacs. They sound good and a lot of people like them. Also, at least you know what you are getting before you buy. You can look at schematics, gerbers, BOMs, read about the design in threads, etc.
Anyway, to each his own. Whatever you decide to do, here's hoping you enjoy the dac you choose.
Mark
thanks for the suggestions.
list of Abraxalito dacs is not easy to find. i found the abbado dac which is said to compete with multi-thousand dollar dacs, which would be interesting. i will look into that. Still lots of SMD soldering, but hopefully not too expensive.
for now i think i may just bring back my pcm1794 and my m2tech hiface, add a opamp stage and see how it compares to e50 in terms of detail, dynamism, bass,etc....things that should get better with newer more modern dacs. it's difficult to go back once you start hearing new stuff in recordings. one thing i'm pretty sure of, i recall the pcm1794 being easy to listen to for hours, and it measures well also, so hopefully i can uplift it.
i think it only accepts 22. and 24. mhz master clock max, so i am limited for usb to i2s solutions, would be nice to upgrade the hiface, if it still works. Also i ran into a problem where the chip stated to draw a lot of current at powerup and down and i fried a couple of them that way. i think analog supply has to come after digital, but i will have to see.
i can start with that and try the abbado 2 or something else afterwards whenever i'm not satisfied.
regarding parts, i only buy from authorized dealers, unless i can't, lots of sub-par parts out there for sure. For DSD, i pretty much only listened trough youtube....i know it's an heresy, but it's convenient for me.
list of Abraxalito dacs is not easy to find. i found the abbado dac which is said to compete with multi-thousand dollar dacs, which would be interesting. i will look into that. Still lots of SMD soldering, but hopefully not too expensive.
for now i think i may just bring back my pcm1794 and my m2tech hiface, add a opamp stage and see how it compares to e50 in terms of detail, dynamism, bass,etc....things that should get better with newer more modern dacs. it's difficult to go back once you start hearing new stuff in recordings. one thing i'm pretty sure of, i recall the pcm1794 being easy to listen to for hours, and it measures well also, so hopefully i can uplift it.
i think it only accepts 22. and 24. mhz master clock max, so i am limited for usb to i2s solutions, would be nice to upgrade the hiface, if it still works. Also i ran into a problem where the chip stated to draw a lot of current at powerup and down and i fried a couple of them that way. i think analog supply has to come after digital, but i will have to see.
i can start with that and try the abbado 2 or something else afterwards whenever i'm not satisfied.
regarding parts, i only buy from authorized dealers, unless i can't, lots of sub-par parts out there for sure. For DSD, i pretty much only listened trough youtube....i know it's an heresy, but it's convenient for me.
I think i will try a new more modern usb solution...i narrowed it down to jlsounds v3 isolated VS amanero combo768 with ndk clocks. they are roughly the same price. Not sure how much isolation makes adifference...i assume the clocks are the most important difference here...? Not sure if you or anyone has any info on that....
For the MarcelvdG RTZ DSD dac project we would recommend, it use a JL Sounds I2SoverUSB board. The thing about that is that I2SoverUSB can be used with one or two isolated 5v power supplies. Most people seem to find it sounds better with two. Otherwise the dirty side of the galvanic isolation (which is important to have) is powered by the USB bus, which can be very noisy.
Then we make I2SoverUSB sound even better by sending it a higher quality external clock signal, as compared to the stock clock circuitry on the board (NDK SDA clocks, but only with a simple power supply, buffering through jittery CPLD, etc.).
Then we make its output even better by reclocking the I2S output signals using the very high quality external clock.
Experiments tend to show there are audible improvements with the various additional pieces of circuitry. IOW, people may say they would never go back to not using external clocks and reclocking because they much prefer the sound if the dac has those things.
If you want to see a pic of I2SoverUSB on a motherboard that provides those additional functions (and more), you could take a look at: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...2soverusb-pcm2dsd-rtz-dac.423401/post-7917601
Then we make I2SoverUSB sound even better by sending it a higher quality external clock signal, as compared to the stock clock circuitry on the board (NDK SDA clocks, but only with a simple power supply, buffering through jittery CPLD, etc.).
Then we make its output even better by reclocking the I2S output signals using the very high quality external clock.
Experiments tend to show there are audible improvements with the various additional pieces of circuitry. IOW, people may say they would never go back to not using external clocks and reclocking because they much prefer the sound if the dac has those things.
If you want to see a pic of I2SoverUSB on a motherboard that provides those additional functions (and more), you could take a look at: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...2soverusb-pcm2dsd-rtz-dac.423401/post-7917601
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