The Best DAC is no DAC

Jump to Latest
#1,821
sergiu2009 said:
Hi Hazard,
Sorry for the late repply. I have a weak pc for decoding on the fly. Its an e8400 oc'd at 4ghz buyed when it just appeared, 8gb ram ddr3, an 60gb ssd, and two 256gb hdd's in raid0 and an old video card.. This config was very good 9years ago when i bought it brand new, but not now.
I dont want to update soon because i want to buy a i3 new generation nuc and put a big ssd or sshdd and 16gb ram at 1600mhz as my multimedia pc. I want to go slim and silent for my audio sistem, that's why i asked.
It would be nice to do something to go with pcm as no dac. I like to keep things simple and the signall path as short as possible...
I now have foobar on my phone and i'm pleased with it.

Abraxalito, your ideea is very interesting. I didnt heard such a thing till now.
I'm not an expert into this field, so i'll stay in my seat , take my hat off for the excelent work you guys done here, and wait for a miracle to come.. But if you guys figure out a way to do this i will be happy to test it out. I think next month i will place an order for the nodac trafos and the rest. Till then i have to finish my speakers.

Thanks again for the info.
I dont know why i didnt receive a notification yet because i subscribed to this thread...
Click to expand...

Hi I have good experience with Intel NUC computers, they are very small powerfull and quiet.
If you install Ubuntu 14.04 on it with JRiver, you have a very small SACD.ISO compatible audio streamer that you can control with your Ipad.
Ubuntu 14.04 is UAC2 compatible, that means that you can connect a USB DAC to it, and Ubuntu sees your DAC as an external device, and transports all music data straight to it, the shortest way possible!
 
#1,822
OK, i just connected the NoDac SE for the first time!

No box yet, just placed everything on a board, and it works. The sound is, well, pretty dam good! however, there's a major problem 🙁 i get lots of skips, pauses and even speed changes.

Im using Jriver, which i know other used in the past for DSD on the fly, and my PC should be up to the job (an I3 nuc), so im not sure what to do about it.

any tips, idea?
 
#1,823
Small update.

In jriver's DSP manager i tried using native dsd*1.. but i get an error which indicates the device does not support it (odd). In DoP i do get a signal, and it works without clicks and pops only when i select the kernel streaming driver (also odd).

And i know, Linux and hqplayer is the way to go.. i might try Linux, buy hqplayer is not on the table right now (do to budget issues..)
 
#1,824
Tankpopper said:
OK, i just connected the NoDac SE for the first time!

No box yet, just placed everything on a board, and it works. The sound is, well, pretty dam good! however, there's a major problem 🙁 i get lots of skips, pauses and even speed changes.

Im using Jriver, which i know other used in the past for DSD on the fly, and my PC should be up to the job (an I3 nuc), so im not sure what to do about it.

any tips, idea?
Click to expand...

What's Windows performance monitor telling you when you're running JRiver/DSD?
 
#1,826
After some listening, here's what i got.

This sounds really good. it has tough competition in my EAD DSP7000 and im not sure that i'm going to go back from NoDac! however, there is significant roll off at the top end right now, which might be caused by the 40khz LPF i used. i'll have to the 80khz filter to get a better impression.

So here's the question. with Jriver on Windows i can only use DoPX2 (which probably means 256), due to the known driver limitations.. is the 80khz LPF even relevant for that?

Also, what values do you reccomend i use for the 80khz LPF?

Thank you!
Tank out.
 
#1,827
Tankpopper said:
After some listening, here's what i got.

This sounds really good. it has tough competition in my EAD DSP7000 and im not sure that i'm going to go back from NoDac! however, there is significant roll off at the top end right now, which might be caused by the 40khz LPF i used. i'll have to the 80khz filter to get a better impression.

So here's the question. with Jriver on Windows i can only use DoPX2 (which probably means 256), due to the known driver limitations.. is the 80khz LPF even relevant for that?

Also, what values do you reccomend i use for the 80khz LPF?

Thank you!
Tank out.
Click to expand...

Link to RC low pass filter on line calculator

RC Low-pass Filter Design Tool

For example near 80kHz 2 ohms & 1uF
 
#1,829
Here's my current NoDac implementation. Singxer SU-1 balanced IS2 DSD output through HDMI (Foobar2000 with "DSD Processor" that converts everything into DSD256) filtered passively and fed through a TVC in to a tube preamp. I get some hiss, not very good SNR, need some more filtering.

Is there some ready DSD filter on the market or some DIY effort that is for sale, passive or active?

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Tallenna
Tallenna​
 
#1,832
I've read thru most of this thread and feel I need to experiment with this before I buy any more DACs he he. I have a pair of tvcs that I'd like to bring back into my system and this filter looks like a great excuse. Did anyone experiment with tvcs using the simple hazard filter? If so I'd love to hear how it went. I will be building some balanced amps and hope that this will work well to get dsd out of my computer. Which flip flops ? Edge triggered? Did anyone try a mono version with the flip flops vs stereo? Thanks.
 
#1,833
mcspack said:
Did anyone experiment with tvcs using the simple hazard filter? If so I'd love to hear how it went.
Click to expand...

Yes, both hazard and I tried them; connected to the outputs of the flipflop wasn't a success- too much hash noise, IIRC Hazard now uses his TVCs after his normal Llundahl transformers. The info is in the thread somewhere.

mcspack said:
Which flip flops ? Edge triggered?
Click to expand...

Somewhere in the thread I detailed the part numbers I used successfully.

mcspack said:
Did anyone try a mono version with the flip flops vs stereo? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I don't recall anyone doing this.
 
#1,837
jedy said:
Dears ALL,
this is my personal version of Valve Preamplifier for DSD - DAC.
In this special Preamplifier there only a capacitor of uncoupling among input and output.
Is very important that all capacitors not polarized are of high quality.
The polarized capacitors are long life and for use to 100Khz (for DCDC converter).
Thanks and All the Best,

JEDY
Click to expand...

Hi JEDY, where from do you feed the DSD signal into your tube preamp?
 
#1,839
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom