Anybody has some Pictures from tuned DIY DAC boards or assembled DACs you use in your systems?
Pics? What is it you want to see? How to make the dac sound better? Look better? Something else?
I like to get some ideas about it.
I read lots of pages from this thread but never saw a project of anyone which pictures some upgrades discussed here.
Only some schematics and fancy explanations which are hard to understand for me most of the time.
maybe i'm in the wrong place for this?
I read lots of pages from this thread but never saw a project of anyone which pictures some upgrades discussed here.
Only some schematics and fancy explanations which are hard to understand for me most of the time.
maybe i'm in the wrong place for this?
This DAC board (and other similar variations seen in this thread) is unfortunately a bad design. You can moderately improve it by implementing some of the hacks listed in this thread but even then the result is far from satisfactory and not worth the effort. So my recommendation is to try it as it is and if you find it lacking purchase a better board or a complete DAC.
The modifications that most people seemed to think made the most difference were: (1) build a proper 3-opamp output stage, and (2) build a proper AVCC power supply. Both things are a lot of work to diy, particularly item (1). If the interest is to get some experience modding a minimal quality dac and or to learn about factors affecting dac performance, then those changes might be worth making. If the interest is to get a pretty good dac for cheap, the mods turned out to take a lot of time and effort, and maybe required some money for more and better parts. Nowadays its probably cheaper just to buy a Topping or similar dac for a few hundred dollars, or for whatever the budget is going to be.
May I ask what the interest is this time around?
May I ask what the interest is this time around?
oookay. :-D
so the interest was to build a good dac/preamp/streamer combo which is capable of playing DSD for cheap and has a volume knob.
I didn't exactly know that you also have to lookup the whole design around the chip. cause the chip seemd to be a good one I bought the board for fun.
So actually my goal will then be, just build the combo with the parts I have and run it in my second system for some testing.
Maybe I'll later try to build a power supply into the housing. with some parts mentioned above.
thanks for the help again!
so the interest was to build a good dac/preamp/streamer combo which is capable of playing DSD for cheap and has a volume knob.
I didn't exactly know that you also have to lookup the whole design around the chip. cause the chip seemd to be a good one I bought the board for fun.
So actually my goal will then be, just build the combo with the parts I have and run it in my second system for some testing.
Maybe I'll later try to build a power supply into the housing. with some parts mentioned above.
thanks for the help again!
Sorry, missed that one.
Edit: Actually the load transient responses are not directly comparable as the capacitance values are different (LT1083 has Cout=10uF, LM317 Cout=0). As far as I can tell with something on Cout and Cadj (dashed lines) there isn't that much difference.
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Nowadays there is no need to spend a few hundred dollars to get audibly excellent DAC. A few dozen dollars will do.
Fosi Audio Q4, FX-Audio DAC-X6, PROZOR 192KHz DAC. Even cheaper are the built-in DAC that came with preamp, disc player or receiver.
Sorry, but my inner SQ guy disagrees with using the "audible excellent DAC" statement with these DACs.
E.g.
I take it we're not referring to the same documents. Here's what I'm seeing (LT317 on the right)
Well, in fairness, nobody should recommend that unit as audibly transparent, or objectively 'good enough'.
If you read again you will notice that the capacitors are not identical even on dashed lines. Both have the same load regulation spec so I would not expect much difference.
Anyhow what is your angle regarding this thread? Both LT1083 and LT317 with their limited bandwidth are woefully inadequate with ES9038Q2M. They can be used as pre-regulators followed by op amp buffers or proper regulators but not for much else.
Merely curious why you'd claim something so self-evidently false as you claimed re LT317 vs LT1083.
Sorry if I hurt your feelings. That graph does not make my claim false. If you can find something more specific then I may reconsider my claim.
Recall your original claim was :
studying the datasheets reveals that LT317 is similar or slightly better than LT1083 in every performance characteristic.
How do those two graphs harmonize with this claim? 'Similar' in my parlance would be within 1dB or so, what does it mean in yours?
studying the datasheets reveals that LT317 is similar or slightly better than LT1083 in every performance characteristic.
How do those two graphs harmonize with this claim? 'Similar' in my parlance would be within 1dB or so, what does it mean in yours?
Like I said already the graphs are not comparable as the capacitor values are not the same. Both have same load regulation spec (typical 0.1%) which should indicate that there is not much difference if any.
This discussion started with Markw4's claim that LT1083 sounds better than LM317 or modern regulators. If you have some proof of that claim then I'm all ears.
This discussion started with Markw4's claim that LT1083 sounds better than LM317 or modern regulators. If you have some proof of that claim then I'm all ears.