I think the advice above is excellent. There is a great dac project on the forum by Miro, a simple project and lots of opportunities to play with output stages and find your preference. Half my fun is in the journey! If you went that route, I’d look at auto-formers for volume control or speaker upgrades after. Good luck!
Last edited:
@sebbyp @Brijac
Thanks guys for the info! I have a PeachTree Audio GrandPre DAC, and I also have an NAD C542 cd player that I just ordered another optical laser kit from Taiwan. I refuse to deal with aliexpress/alibaba anymore..Too many scammers! Anyhow I was just wondering if I could step it up a notch or two(sound wise) by building one of these DIY DAC kits you guys are talking about? I'd like to keep my expensive cables if possible, USB 2.0 Type B male end/RCA interconnects and Coaxial digital cables.
Are these AD1862 DAC's compatible with what's available on Iancanda's websites? Also do you guys have a good link to the dac project by Miro?
Thanks again!
Thanks guys for the info! I have a PeachTree Audio GrandPre DAC, and I also have an NAD C542 cd player that I just ordered another optical laser kit from Taiwan. I refuse to deal with aliexpress/alibaba anymore..Too many scammers! Anyhow I was just wondering if I could step it up a notch or two(sound wise) by building one of these DIY DAC kits you guys are talking about? I'd like to keep my expensive cables if possible, USB 2.0 Type B male end/RCA interconnects and Coaxial digital cables.
Are these AD1862 DAC's compatible with what's available on Iancanda's websites? Also do you guys have a good link to the dac project by Miro?
Thanks again!
Unfortunatelly noone can tell you for sure, as things are subjective. GrandPre DAC is sabre 9018, which to me sounds worse than nos r2r chips. That model, i have not heard, but in general all delta sigma dacs lack musicality in comparison due to technology it employs (way too much filtering and guessing of data for pure syne wave). It's not that expensive to make miros dac, so might be your ticket into nos r2r crowd 😁
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...s-input-nos-r-2r.354078/page-364#post-7435685
Miros topic. Theres a lot, and many dacs there. I built pcm63 dac, but it's pretty much rarest high end r2r chip atm. So ad1862 is your easy choise 🙂
Miros topic. Theres a lot, and many dacs there. I built pcm63 dac, but it's pretty much rarest high end r2r chip atm. So ad1862 is your easy choise 🙂
Hi StigErik,
Exactly. The RME has +24dBu max and a low impedance, that´s why it works.
All the best
Mattes
All professional interfaces, controllers, mixers and D/A converters can do that.
I use the Hypex NCxxxMP modules a lot! These are the sweetspot of digi amps for me. Very easy to handle, robust, "cheap" and neutral sound. You can easily change the gain of the input buffer with one resistor, even change the OPA to opa1612 for e.g.
I got a S/N of 129dB(A) with a NC250MP. I'm sure that's VERY close to a Purify setup and way easier to handle.
I really like the sound descriptions here - that's exactly the experience I had. Transparent AND smooth at high frequencies, no distinct character. I have the impressin that many people who don't like switching amps never heard a good Hypex/Purify amp - these are really good.
Most of them probably, like RME, but typical hifi preamps and DACs typically can’t.
The NCxxxMP modules are great! I have them all over my system. The NC100HF hanger module is a bit too weak though. Can’t drive my 3ohm tweeters properly.
I'm having an issue with my 1200as2, as I have connected an amber LED for standby and a blue LED for power ON. It keeps switching back and forth like it is getting a signal, then it switches back to amber like it has no signal? It was doing this a few weeks ago, and all of a sudden stopped. Now it's starting again. I have no clue as to why it does this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Yes! I like to reduce to 20dB cause i often use them for measurements and then "calculation" of output voltage is easy ;-)
This was for pressure measurements, it needed to be able to go from DC with maximum dynamic range (129dB still was not perfectly enough - but I could not do more quickly).
NC100HF have a better S/N for 2-3dB - so they are great for high sensitivity tweeter. What tweeter do you use? I never ran into problems but either use HiFi tweeters or higher impedance PA drivers (to get less noise).
Hi I have a mivera amp using the 1200AS2 too.
From what I have googled around, the purifi does claim to perform better. But I have no idea how much better it is. Read that icepower has stronge brass but purifi is better in miss and highs. Several posts and reviews mentioned that purifi has a natural and relaxed sound. I assume it's more laid back?
I am looking around for a used purifi amp to test out but looking at the price...hmm....
I have several Mivera 1200 amps and even after changing out the iec's to the Furutech 9 NCF, fuses,and some internal wire, they still were not ready for prime time. I sent them off to Ric Schultz at EVS to see if his mods could turn them into keepers. I'm extremely happy with them now and have used them in several systems with nice results. I think he lists most of the mods he does for you DYI guys looking for a project.
Hi Harry, I'd like to try these mods on my 1200as2 amp. I actually purchased just the 1200as2 amp module board and did the rest myself as a DIY thing..lol Right now I am having issues with the amp going into standby mode even when a signal is present! I intentionally put (2) LEDS in the bottom right of the front of the amp to show ON (blue LED) and STANDBY (amber LED) Perhaps I can look up this Ric Schultz on here and message him. Thanks for your input!
I'm waiting for the Fusion plate amps to get the NCxMP modules and hopefully an improved NCx100HF? OTOH the existing HF amp probably won't run into problems with >6 Ohm / 95dB/1W/1m tweeters?
True - the DSP is the total bottleneck of the plate amps. I also talked to them and there is no high performance variant in work (but there is something in the making for the active speaker version for a while - not sure if/when they will bring that).
And they are still one of the best possibilities to get a very high system dynamic range and clean sound with digital input ...
NC100HF works great for me! It doesn't run in any problems with any tweeter I used. It has the same operating voltage as the other amps just can't do a lot of RMS power - perfect for tweeters. And 2dB less noise.
And they are still one of the best possibilities to get a very high system dynamic range and clean sound with digital input ...
NC100HF works great for me! It doesn't run in any problems with any tweeter I used. It has the same operating voltage as the other amps just can't do a lot of RMS power - perfect for tweeters. And 2dB less noise.