Will Voltage-Out DACs Ever Be Good, Like Current-Out DACs?

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SD is attractive as a source since it can be accessed by a very low power (tens of milliwatts) CPU, far less radiated and conducted noise than an Intel CPU as found in laptops/desktops (tens of watts). An SD player with I2S output can run from a small battery for several hours.
 
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Thank you very much diyiggy


This is interesting - why an SD Card is considered top approach?
How does the medium that store the file matter?


And the idea to use Portable Audio Players is definitely worth considering.
Sometimes, they cost like a DAC product..
Altho 1 disadvantage that this might have, is that the battery may end its life relatively soon,
since it will be used and then charged over and over..

And sadly, at least from what I know, those devices don't have a replaceable battery..
(and least not a user friendly way)


Not anymore with Lithium batteries, have a mate with still a portable Ifi product from many years.
 
low current and no powersupply polution from a linked laptop through usb.
Yeah that's a great advantage..
I did have some thoughts about powering a DAC from some battery, rather than USB,
and now we recall there is a product that is already built like that.. (tho, again, without an easily replaceable battery)


SD is attractive as a source since it can be accessed by a very low power (tens of milliwatts) CPU, far less radiated and conducted noise than an Intel CPU as found in laptops/desktops (tens of watts). An SD player with I2S output can run from a small battery for several hours.
I see.

Thank you both..



This is what I call a nice battery:

battery.jpg
 
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This solid electrolyt lead battery, not so good for sound, outputt impedance is too high and too much far from the active parts !


As we are on the blind with sound when it comes to buy off shelves, my purpose was more to list items what we believe here to be an advantage for the sound. Certainly naive and sort of trade off but glue to your targets.
Lithium cells based are much better for the sound than the one you linked. If you have 15/20 hours of music wit the little toys I linked above it is enough and if directly linked via its non wireless input I surmise it can also power such devices in the same way one you linked (SML, etc)
 
delta sigma is affected significantly :D a good multibit is affected less ... delta sigma dacs are very sensitive to the jitter, multibit dacs are less sensitive ... that is why an amateur can make a good sounding multibit even from cheaper components in more simple design and still sounds good ...
both designs are sensitive to the PCB routing
 
I think they sell out the old store (obsolete parts). A few years ago this DAC cost about 6USD. I can see now how the price goes up for some worthy chips. Like the TDA1541A S1 cost above 150USD today. It was not the case few years ago, one bought this dac for about 40. I watched this price but nobody gave it cheaper, so I didn't buy it (S1 version). I don't buy it at all today :D These DACs turned into gold in electronics :D
 
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BTW,
I found 3 DAC products by the company xDuoo, which are based on the WM8740..
All 3 of them are WM8740, and not WM8741 or WM8742.

If one of them was WM8741 or WM8742, I would give it a try..
But you guys mentioned the WM8740 is less good than the WM8741/2..

As you wrote:
some prefer WM8741/2 over WM8740 which can be caused by a better digital filter, they have selectable filters.


Also, since you wrote
I prefer AD1862 over WM8740 & WM8741 significantly (in my setup).
it makes me wonder should I really give the WM8741/2 a try,
or skip it altogether.. (since I bought 4x AD1682 chips)
 
...
it makes me wonder should I really give the WM8741/2 a try,
or skip it altogether.. (since I bought 4x AD1682 chips)

I hope you bought AD1862 :D ... it is up to you. I don't know xDuoo. It can be a DAC with additional stages. These stages will affect the sound, such as coloring, distortion. Such a comparison won't bring you anything.
Anyway, AD1862 in its basic design is significantly better as WM874x in any modification.
 
I hope you bought AD1862 :D ...
Oops,
yes that's what I meant :)


I don't know xDuoo. It can be a DAC with additional stages.
These stages will affect the sound, such as coloring, distortion.
Interesting point you raise.
It reminds me something they wrote in the product page for that DAC:
Adopts high dynamic and current opamp from TI, current-feedback architecture, high slew rate, OCL (Output Capacitor-less) with split power supply
Have you ever encountered the acronym OCL?
Or it's their own invention? :)

Does it change your opinion regarding whether it's worth getting it now?


Anyway, AD1862 in its basic design is significantly better as WM874x in any modification.
This is great to hear.
I saw the PCB you created, populated with components, and it looks not too crowded (which is great)..
Compare that to the picture of the SMSL M3's PCB, which looks like it has 4 times more components..

s-l1600.jpg
 
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When I said "invention", I was not refering to the idea of not using capacitors,
but to the "OCL" acronym..
(it doesn't look like an industry known acronym.. so I thought they created it)


Regarding this,
is this idea of giving up the output capacitors possible due to the use of Dual Rail power (+V, 0, -V), instead of Single Rail (+V, 0)?
(like in amplifiers)
 
Yes they used coupling capacitors due to single rail power supply. With a DC/DC can be dual power supply created (many types). Some modern DACs or headphone amplifiers have this in the chip integrated (mostly as the voltage pump only for negative rail). Somewhere in my posts I posted my schematic, how to create the virtual ground, which is also one of techniques how to avoid the coupling cap.
 
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