Which dac?

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marcus7601

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#1
Ive been searching a while now for a dac-project to begin with but i havent found the perfect one for me. Is there a dac out there with good documentation so i can do my own pcb and also has optical input? A fairly basic dac is ok for me. No ultrahighend needed.
 
#2
I think that you need to give a little more detail on this one. For starters what kind of connection you looking for? I2s, Spidif, USB.

Budget would be good as well

Application probably would help.

I'm not that experianced with building DACs, but there are many here to answer questions
 
#4
I've been evaluating DAC chips and boards for my employer, and we tested everything! The blow away surprise was the Analog Devices AD1955 Eval board. Out of the box it blew away everyone else. The runner up was the AKM4396 eval board.

Both of these boards are relatively cheap and require an external +- 12VDC power supplies.

BTW, I modified the AKM board adding xlr outputs by placing connectors just after the onboard resistor before the summing opamps for single ended output. THe Analog Devices board has both XLR and RCA out.

Both boards have TOS and S/PDIF inputs.

The Analog Devices board is a monster in terms of sound.

-David
 
#6
AD1955 Eval board?

dw8083 said:
I've been evaluating DAC chips and boards for my employer, and we tested everything! The blow away surprise was the Analog Devices AD1955 Eval board. Out of the box it blew away everyone else. The runner up was the AKM4396 eval board.

Both of these boards are relatively cheap and require an external +- 12VDC power supplies.

BTW, I modified the AKM board adding xlr outputs by placing connectors just after the onboard resistor before the summing opamps for single ended output. THe Analog Devices board has both XLR and RCA out.

Both boards have TOS and S/PDIF inputs.

The Analog Devices board is a monster in terms of sound.

-David
Click to expand...
Weird, I could not find any link to the AD1955 evaluation board on the AD's website.



😕
 
#7
Re: AD1955 Eval board?

QSerraTico_Tico said:

Weird, I could not find any link to the AD1955 evaluation board on the AD's website.

😕
Click to expand...


You need to contact Analog Devices salesforce directly. The board is unbelievable. I was better than my Lavry DA-10 and other highend DAC's I've tested. It has the biggest soundstage and detailing I've ever heard.

One other cool aspect about their eval board is that all digital signals are available on header pins - DSS, PCM, I2S, etc. One of the more flexible boards I've evaluated, great for DIYers.

-David
 

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#9
marcus7601 said:
I think i have decided for the Extreme 1543 DAC from hifidiy.net us.hifidiy.net

Anyone has any experience from this?
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I know a lot of DIYers like this chip for it's simplicity, but it just sounds constrained, thin, and cannot hold a candle to the lastest crop of delta-sigma chips.

Before I get flamed, I know there is a lot of passion about on oversampling chips like this one. I just encourage you to try the AKM4396, or the AD1955 to the 1543. You will never look back after 2 minutes of listening.

-David
 
#10
dw8083 said:
I've been evaluating DAC chips and boards for my employer, and we tested everything! The blow away surprise was the Analog Devices AD1955 Eval board. Out of the box it blew away everyone else. The runner up was the AKM4396 eval board.



-David
Click to expand...


Did you evaluate the Texas Instruments' PCM1792 or PCM1794 evaluation board? If so, what was your impression?

Tom
 
#11
Hi Tom,

I did listen to 2 1792/4 Dac's but decided not to order the TI eval boards. Although the chip sounds wonderful, the cost was 3-4x more per chip. The AD1955 is about $7 per chip, while the TI is closer to $20. The BB/TI path would have added more than $75 dollars to the consumer cost of the product beyond the AD1955.

There was a heavy economic factor we needed to consider.

-David
 
#17
Hello

Since we talk about old design Dac, here's a texte from from Thorsten Loesch in the Abbingdon Music Research web page;

AMR auditioned many of the recent and historical contenders for the title "the King of the Digital to Analogue Converters" and awarded the crown to the Philips TDA1541A. The rationale is that the Philips TDA1541A chipset offers a superior sonic performance which to this day, remains unsurpassed.

The Philips TDA1541A was designed in the late eighties: a time when performance not profitability was the objective. As a result, when properly and fully maximised, not even the so-called "latest generation" of DAC chipsets come remotely close to reproducing music as faithfully and involving as the venerable Philips TDA1541A chipset.
Click to expand...

Any opinions ?

Thank

Gaetan
 
#19
Re: Abracadabra

QSerraTico_Tico said:
If I understand the abracadabra from the datasheet well the AD1955 is software controlled. Not an easy piece for the simple DIYer.
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Unless you want to use it under very restricted conditions it needs setting a register. It's very easy - an 8-pin micro + minimal programming.
 
#20
Re: Re: Abracadabra

analog_sa said:



Unless you want to use it under very restricted conditions it needs setting a register. It's very easy - an 8-pin micro + minimal programming.
Click to expand...

Thx. I feel dumb and stupid now.
A lot of high-end DACs are using the AD1853 like the Jadis JS1MkIII, Accuphase, Benchmark, Lindemann, Levinson, Micromega CD132.....etc.
 
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