Hi, I’m new to this hobby and looking forward to start building my own headphone amp. This is my first project so I want to keep the costs low, in case I will screw up. Thereby I’m a student so I don’t have too much to spend. I decided to build the SSMH dsavitsk 12AU7 mod. Now I’m looking for a USB input DAC which I can combine with the SSMH.
I did some research online and I found these two options to be interesting: 1) YJ Assembled AK4399 AD827 II2S DAC Decoder Board with USB Interface | eBay
2) http://www.ebay.com/itm/CS8416-CS43...739?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item418aed6823
What do you think? Which one of the two will give better sound quality, or maybe you have an even better option? Will there be some minor modifications I can make to these units to increase sound quality? Maybe I can replace the capacitors for larger ones? I've already read a lot on this forum and often impressed and overwhelmed by the complexity of the modifications made to standard DIY kits.
Hopefully you can help this starving student out and make this the start of a nice new hobby.
I did some research online and I found these two options to be interesting: 1) YJ Assembled AK4399 AD827 II2S DAC Decoder Board with USB Interface | eBay
2) http://www.ebay.com/itm/CS8416-CS43...739?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item418aed6823
What do you think? Which one of the two will give better sound quality, or maybe you have an even better option? Will there be some minor modifications I can make to these units to increase sound quality? Maybe I can replace the capacitors for larger ones? I've already read a lot on this forum and often impressed and overwhelmed by the complexity of the modifications made to standard DIY kits.
Hopefully you can help this starving student out and make this the start of a nice new hobby.
You're probably right about cost vs. quality. Especially in my case with little diy audio experience it would be more beneficial to buy a finished product.
But where is the fun in that? For me the fun is in building it myself. Though it would be great if it turns out to be a dac-amp with good quality sound which i can enjoy in future.
But where is the fun in that? For me the fun is in building it myself. Though it would be great if it turns out to be a dac-amp with good quality sound which i can enjoy in future.
If sound quality is uppermost on your requirement list I can't imagine why you'd want to start with an S-D DAC chip containing CMOS opamps. S-D DACs generate noise modulation and their output stage opamps are inordinately sensitive to noise on their power rails.
I'd start out with a DAC chip which doesn't have these inherent limitations, like a TDA1387. We have a thread running here - http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...-check-its-design-mod-not-play-music-not.html
I'd start out with a DAC chip which doesn't have these inherent limitations, like a TDA1387. We have a thread running here - http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...-check-its-design-mod-not-play-music-not.html
I agree with you. and all is about your priorities. Mine has always be to have the best sound for the best money I can spend as most of the devices are too expensive for me.
DIY can be costly, and with tubes you need a serious safe casing.
Of course it's funnier to DIY
. Because I assume you are student and listen to music with a laptop or PC you need both a dac and a device to Stream from the laptop to the dac (USB output most of the time) !
The iNano device has a ot of sucess because for an affordable price you have a very good usb input which is more than important for the final sound. A portable battery device (noise proof), a headphone amp which can become as well a DAC before an amp. The volume pot is numeric and don't color the sound; it's pretty little too ! For the money you can't do better yourself or being yourself a very experienced engineer like Braxie member above ! little parts & furnitures, like the casing climb the total cost of ownership as well.
Of course again the pleasure to do it and to learn is on the by yourself way ! And of course you should follow the link above about TDA multibit DAC
! DIY can be time consuming as well and a trap for a student ..even more if he forgetts to eat !Good Luck
I've been extremely busy with my internship past weeks and most time left was consumed reading this forum. I didn't forget to eat although my sleep has suffered a lot.
Eldam: you really made me doubt. The iNano seems to be a good deal from what i red about it. But I want to DIY. I'm afraid it will take me more time, money and effort than I estimate right now but what the hack, ill just try and it will be fun.
abraxalito: thanks for sharing the TDA1387 thread, was fun to read. What I'm planning to do now is to buy the 4xTDA1387 usb powered dac (see link) and mod it with some of the easier mods described in the thread. I think I will fit it into the same casing as the SSMH (wood) or maybe just connect it by cable to the SSMH.
Fourparallel 4X TDA1387 HiFi USB DAC Decoder Beyond TDA1543 High Cost Effective | eBay
Eldam: you really made me doubt. The iNano seems to be a good deal from what i red about it. But I want to DIY. I'm afraid it will take me more time, money and effort than I estimate right now but what the hack, ill just try and it will be fun.
abraxalito: thanks for sharing the TDA1387 thread, was fun to read. What I'm planning to do now is to buy the 4xTDA1387 usb powered dac (see link) and mod it with some of the easier mods described in the thread. I think I will fit it into the same casing as the SSMH (wood) or maybe just connect it by cable to the SSMH.
Fourparallel 4X TDA1387 HiFi USB DAC Decoder Beyond TDA1543 High Cost Effective | eBay
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.