What is the best diy DAC? Looking for help and technical explanations

Jump to Latest
#64
Oh, it's doable alright... HQPlayer/HQPlayerPro will do that...

1680431713954.png


You need a pretty fast PC for the combination I've shown above. That DSD modulator is extremely CPU-intensive. Choosing a less demanding modulator would allow higher than DSD256 bitrates...

HQPlayer is a free download, and I think the unlicensed version will let you play music for 30min... or something like that.... at the time.

I have a little NUC11 with an i7-1185G7 processor and 980Pro SSD, which is sufficient for the combination I've shown above... and it does sound very good indeed.

However, streaming the PCM with just x2 oversampling (to remove the high-frequency roll-off in NOS), to May DAC in NOS, also sounds fantastic.... more natural than DSD, and has much better depth perception as well.

Streaming the PCM at 1.4112MHz (44.1KHz sources), or even 1.536MHz (48KHz sources) also sounds good.... that's x32 oversampling (!!).... a lot will depend on the DAC analog stage's ability to deal with these frequency artifacts...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Logon
#65
limono said:
Really? Most here adhere and aspire to the mainstream standard of music reproduction and try to join that club without incurring the expenses. There is little else going on. Maybe 3% of real DIY.
Click to expand...
Depends on what you think the entry requirements are. If you are prepared to forego the aesthetics and build quality and, quite possibly, the convenience, I see no reason you can't find yourself at least knocking at the door. The rules of electronics are the same across the board. You just need to understand them.
That being said, I have no desire to forego the aesthetics, build quality and the convenience. The DIY is just for fun and something of a folly.
 
#66
ulogon said:
Hi,
Could you kindly provide me with a couple of examples of devices that do this?
Or rather, could you kindly tell me how to do it (if doable) starting from a WAV file?
Thanks
Click to expand...
There are a couple of ways you might want to try:

There is a freeware PCM->DSD converter software that can do very high quality conversion. I would say its a good as the best I have personally heard from HQ Player. Downside of the software is that its an offline converter, not real-time. And its slow in its highest quality mode: https://pcmdsd.com/Software/PCM-DSD_Converter_en.html

There is also a hardware converter project in one of the threads here. IME it sounds best with reclocking after the converter board. Galvanic isolation is also probably not a bad idea. If you don't know how to do diy that sort of circuitry, you could probably get quite a bit of help here if you ask. Also the board will work without additional circuitry, but probably not sound its best. Also, IMHO its SQ is not quite as good as some of the best PC software conversion: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/simple-dsd-modulator-for-dsc2.370177/

In addition, there is a freeware DSD file player app for windows: https://sourceforge.net/projects/playpcmwin/files/
 
  • Like
Reactions: Logon
#67
@Extreme_Boky and @Markw4

Forgot to say that I don't use the PC at all 🙄, but a Digital Transport wired to DAC through AES3 and to SSD (containing WAVs) through USB.
Is there also a finished hardware alternative in order to obtain the same result?
If yes - and just to know and to better understand - what would be the connection scheme of devices?
Thanks
 
#68
ulogon said:
Is there also a finished hardware alternative in order to obtain the same result?
Click to expand...
Not that I know of. Unless you might want to use the FPGA based Simple DSD Converter as-is? It can work that way, but is probably not optimal for most dacs. If using Andrea's DSD dac then it would be fine that way since the dac typically includes a finished 'isolated FIFO buffer' board. An Iancanada FIFO board could perform the same basic functions as well. However, that type of solution involves some assembly. IOW its not a finished box.

Both the FPGA DSD converter and the FIFO buffers interface over I2S bus, using LVCMOS signal levels. So that would determine where in your hardware the board(s) would have to be connected.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Logon
#70
Seems doubtful the Holo Red streamer could do that. Took at brief look at the manual and didn't see anything about PCM->DSD conversion. Also, it is based around a Pi compute module 4, which is likely not powerful enough to do a very good job of real time conversion to DSD256.

For conversion using very low cost hardware, there are Chinese AK4137 boards such as the ones at: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=ak4137+board&_sacat=0

However, those boards are not very well designed as-is. Takes a fair amount of work to clean up circuitry, power supply noise, clocking, etc. At best they are still pretty marginal.
 
#75
I remember back then the T&A german DAC that was said to sound great by indeed oversampling all in DSD.... time is going fast...Perhaps 25 years ago ? It has a specialised dac chip for that and a separated for pcm that was sounding nothing special at the opposit of the DSD boosted oversampled material. I remember it was 4 000 euros... had a lilited sucess because of that while way less than DCS for near results said press.

It is cool that idea is finally exploited for better results.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Logon
#76
Markw4 said:
@Jcris

Yeah. Pretty much along the lines of some of what has recently been touched upon over in the Black Hole thread. Some of the newer dacs measure well but don't necessarily sound all that good.

Regarding your link, now we can do substantially better at perceptual SQ than AD1862, although at the penalty of more cost and complexity
Click to expand...
I appreciate your point of view,
Especially about complexity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom