yes, that was the final verdict
In the manual Ian offers a step further (I did not do that, as I want to keep options open till final installation…)
Quote from "Ian" :
…….It is theoretically better to physically bypass on-board LDOs when using one of these supplies [red. Doede: the 3.3V one]. You can solder a 0R
0805 jumper resistor or just a short piece of wire at positions R58, R59 which are located at bottom side of the FiFoPi……..
Attachments
Thanks! So the 5V out on the DDDAC board next to the I2S pins is not used at all?sure
you are right, a picture tells more than 1000 words
Here is a version of the 3.3v Doede is using. These have been promoted before chaps for the main board as well as the 5v version
LT3045-78XX Ultra Low Noise LDO Voltage Regulator
LT3045-78XX Ultra Low Noise LDO Voltage Regulator
of course, and this is (may be not so clear) done through the J1 connector flatcable at the bottom at the FiFoPi.
here is the scheme…. It is always good to document - One year later and you have clue anymore what you actually did
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Hello,
It looks like there are more " guiding lines " posted in order to make things more easily for people wanting to make some upgrades on their present dddac set up.
My set up pretty close to the one Doede used before.
Getting the board in France is a piece of cake once i am back home from cental Vietnam lol.
Before i already had some ideas about future plans with the dddac so i ordered a 200 and a 500 mA rated ll2771 to be used for choke input supplies.
Ian does make a kind of universal board that could supply all the voltages needed by batteries.
I have used sealed batteries before and you must make a real serious choke input to surpass the huge batteries i used.
And it seems not all parts in the dddac and the connected circuits require the same " things " from their individual power supplies. It seems that a clock needs a steady voltage to work as it should work. Throwing in lots of ldo regulators could make a supply that is beyond believe but will it sound like music when used for the dddac output stage? Probably not.
Like one of our Scandinavian members found out recently a state of the art regulator that looks very impressive on paper may not give audio nirvana after a few days ago. Your brain is gently brainwashed after you placed the order, parts gets installed, you do a 24 hours break in with a burn in tracks and then you will hold on to your listening chair. What is usually do is just let it play and not focus on listening to it with to much attention. If something goes very well you will notice and if you are concentrating on a newspaper and something goes wrong you cant read properly.
So when back home i will do some small modifications and once i know how to get rid of the Aurender in a nice way it will be the next step.
Greetings, Eduard
It looks like there are more " guiding lines " posted in order to make things more easily for people wanting to make some upgrades on their present dddac set up.
My set up pretty close to the one Doede used before.
Getting the board in France is a piece of cake once i am back home from cental Vietnam lol.
Before i already had some ideas about future plans with the dddac so i ordered a 200 and a 500 mA rated ll2771 to be used for choke input supplies.
Ian does make a kind of universal board that could supply all the voltages needed by batteries.
I have used sealed batteries before and you must make a real serious choke input to surpass the huge batteries i used.
And it seems not all parts in the dddac and the connected circuits require the same " things " from their individual power supplies. It seems that a clock needs a steady voltage to work as it should work. Throwing in lots of ldo regulators could make a supply that is beyond believe but will it sound like music when used for the dddac output stage? Probably not.
Like one of our Scandinavian members found out recently a state of the art regulator that looks very impressive on paper may not give audio nirvana after a few days ago. Your brain is gently brainwashed after you placed the order, parts gets installed, you do a 24 hours break in with a burn in tracks and then you will hold on to your listening chair. What is usually do is just let it play and not focus on listening to it with to much attention. If something goes very well you will notice and if you are concentrating on a newspaper and something goes wrong you cant read properly.
So when back home i will do some small modifications and once i know how to get rid of the Aurender in a nice way it will be the next step.
Greetings, Eduard
Hello,
Have done some reading on the lifepo4 power supply designed by the designer of the circuit Doede is liking a lot.
AND guess what they have come with an update that consist of adding a pair of ultracaps in parallel with the lifepo4 batteries to add a little extra to the 3,3 volt supply.
Of course the designer is also promoting his products but he writes that any ldo regulator will degrade the quality of the battery supply.
I wanna try when i am back home.
Have to see how to justify buying the complete power supply when just in need for one perfect 3,3 volts ??
We will see.
Greetings, Eduard
Have done some reading on the lifepo4 power supply designed by the designer of the circuit Doede is liking a lot.
AND guess what they have come with an update that consist of adding a pair of ultracaps in parallel with the lifepo4 batteries to add a little extra to the 3,3 volt supply.
Of course the designer is also promoting his products but he writes that any ldo regulator will degrade the quality of the battery supply.
I wanna try when i am back home.
Have to see how to justify buying the complete power supply when just in need for one perfect 3,3 volts ??
We will see.
Greetings, Eduard
I wonder how much better 3.3v battery psu is versus the one I use now. If one 3.3v is what I need, I guess it’s enough with two batteries. Another question is how much Ampere is required. The manuai says 3.5A, with ten batteries installed, but maybe f.ex 1A is enough to power two batteries ?
DDDAC 1794 vs Chord DAVE
Hey everyone. I'm relatively new to the DDDAC 1794 world and have been listening, learning the circuit, and reading the previous 700+ forum pages for the past few months. I've been thrilled with the sound.
So, I'll play along. Here's a pic of my Chord DAVE (retail 10,000 EUR or something) next to a 2-deck DDDAC built by Dick/AudioCreative.
I use an inexpensive iFi iPower 12v switching power supply, the S/PDIF input, and the stock Mundorf output capacitors. As basic as it gets.
Comparison
The DAVE separates voices/instruments a bit better and gives a slightly deeper soundstage. DAVE has a built-in digital volume control -- with a remote -- that offers a nice bit of convenience. It also seems to improve less with a high-quality USB cable than anything else I've heard. My current SPDIF source, a Sonore ultraRendu, got far, far better when I added a Danacable TruStream USB cable (about 600 USD/540 EUR). Gobsmackingly better, actually. The DAVE got somewhat better with this cable but it was an incremental improvement at best. Its USB input is very impressive in this regard.
All great attributes.
Unfortunately, for my tastes, the DAVE sounds so much less like music than DDDAC. The "natural" timbre the DAVE is known for was a disappointment in my system. I have played in many bands and the DDDAC is the first DAC I've owned that gives me the instrument texture, weight, and detail I expect and recognize. And it gives you all this without sacrificing the acoustic space and recording hall information that is equally important to me. Cellos have all the resonance, full body, and biting timbre that makes them great. Through the DAVE they sounded thin and utterly disengaging. In general, all instruments through the DDDAC sounded much more palpable and convincing.
DDDAC has a particular strength at eliminating all treble fatigue without blunting the music. In addition to classical, jazz, and acoustic blues, I listen to pop punk, EDM, and 90s alternative rock. I have never heard those electric genres sound so good and non-fatiguing in my life.
Finally, DDDAC has a smile factor that I can't quite put my finger on. There is just something very right about it. I think it's the sonic weight -- it gives you a physical sensation in the room that has nothing to do with the usual audiophile/hi-fi attributes.
DDDAC sounds perfect played directly into my SET tube amp. I control volume digitally using JRiver Media Center. (My server is an Intel NUC i7 with Apacer industrial RAM running Windows Server 2019 in core mode, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer, and Minority Clean.)
I tried the DAVE via SPDIF and USB, with a preamp and direct to my amp, with my digital volume control and its own internal volume. DAVE is known to sound quite a bit better with its M Scaler upsampler, which I have not heard. But I don't think any amount of upsampling will change the DAC's fundamental character. I don't know, and probably never will. I listened through speakers exclusively.
Final Score
I sold the DAVE. It wasn't a close fight, and cost was not a factor. As soon as I took the DDDAC out of my system, I missed it sorely.
Now I will be investing in a proper maxed out implementation (12 decks?) with WaveIO/FiFoPi input and better I/V resistors. And giving everything separate rails of top shelf linear power. With my basic build, I know I'm hearing DDDAC at perhaps half of its capability, so I'm excited for the future.
Thank you so much to Doede, Dick, and everyone on the forum who has contributed to testing and refining this incredible project for so many years.
p.s.
You see my Cinemag transformers in the photo; I was testing. And yes, I can confirm that the bass is not good when the transformers are powered by only 2 decks!
Hey everyone. I'm relatively new to the DDDAC 1794 world and have been listening, learning the circuit, and reading the previous 700+ forum pages for the past few months. I've been thrilled with the sound.
So, I'll play along. Here's a pic of my Chord DAVE (retail 10,000 EUR or something) next to a 2-deck DDDAC built by Dick/AudioCreative.
I use an inexpensive iFi iPower 12v switching power supply, the S/PDIF input, and the stock Mundorf output capacitors. As basic as it gets.
Comparison
The DAVE separates voices/instruments a bit better and gives a slightly deeper soundstage. DAVE has a built-in digital volume control -- with a remote -- that offers a nice bit of convenience. It also seems to improve less with a high-quality USB cable than anything else I've heard. My current SPDIF source, a Sonore ultraRendu, got far, far better when I added a Danacable TruStream USB cable (about 600 USD/540 EUR). Gobsmackingly better, actually. The DAVE got somewhat better with this cable but it was an incremental improvement at best. Its USB input is very impressive in this regard.
All great attributes.
Unfortunately, for my tastes, the DAVE sounds so much less like music than DDDAC. The "natural" timbre the DAVE is known for was a disappointment in my system. I have played in many bands and the DDDAC is the first DAC I've owned that gives me the instrument texture, weight, and detail I expect and recognize. And it gives you all this without sacrificing the acoustic space and recording hall information that is equally important to me. Cellos have all the resonance, full body, and biting timbre that makes them great. Through the DAVE they sounded thin and utterly disengaging. In general, all instruments through the DDDAC sounded much more palpable and convincing.
DDDAC has a particular strength at eliminating all treble fatigue without blunting the music. In addition to classical, jazz, and acoustic blues, I listen to pop punk, EDM, and 90s alternative rock. I have never heard those electric genres sound so good and non-fatiguing in my life.
Finally, DDDAC has a smile factor that I can't quite put my finger on. There is just something very right about it. I think it's the sonic weight -- it gives you a physical sensation in the room that has nothing to do with the usual audiophile/hi-fi attributes.
DDDAC sounds perfect played directly into my SET tube amp. I control volume digitally using JRiver Media Center. (My server is an Intel NUC i7 with Apacer industrial RAM running Windows Server 2019 in core mode, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer, and Minority Clean.)
I tried the DAVE via SPDIF and USB, with a preamp and direct to my amp, with my digital volume control and its own internal volume. DAVE is known to sound quite a bit better with its M Scaler upsampler, which I have not heard. But I don't think any amount of upsampling will change the DAC's fundamental character. I don't know, and probably never will. I listened through speakers exclusively.
Final Score
I sold the DAVE. It wasn't a close fight, and cost was not a factor. As soon as I took the DDDAC out of my system, I missed it sorely.
Now I will be investing in a proper maxed out implementation (12 decks?) with WaveIO/FiFoPi input and better I/V resistors. And giving everything separate rails of top shelf linear power. With my basic build, I know I'm hearing DDDAC at perhaps half of its capability, so I'm excited for the future.
Thank you so much to Doede, Dick, and everyone on the forum who has contributed to testing and refining this incredible project for so many years.
p.s.
You see my Cinemag transformers in the photo; I was testing. And yes, I can confirm that the bass is not good when the transformers are powered by only 2 decks!
Attachments
Welcome to the club
You have a lot to look forward to. With the DDDAC you don't have to tweak a weak product to make it sound good. You have a good foundation that you can make even better with different upgrades you described in your post. Have fun