Building the ultimate NOS DAC using TDA1541A

These blue electrolytic caps do sound very fine, but very curtained too.
I would not supplement every single electrolytic per little smd-condensers. If, use one smd-c only. But much more homogenic would be without any supplements.
It may be, the electrolytic capacitors do not sit at one "point", "circuit".
The layout is out of my view. But nobody does regard "circuit" - no matter.-)-;
 

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These blue electrolytic caps do sound very fine, but very curtained too.
I would not supplement every single electrolytic per little smd-condensers. If, use one smd-c only. But much more homogenic would be without any supplements.
It may be, the electrolytic capacitors do not sit at one "point", "circuit".
The layout is out of my view. But nobody does regard "circuit" - no matter.-)-;

Hi cumbb,

I've found that having the 100nF np0 in parallel with the 100u gives a slightly better sound. I remember thinking it sounded less noisy as well.
 
Try Kaisei bipolar 100u16V. Great sonic improvment! They are a bit bigger than the Nichicons and need some time to burn in, but worth waiting.
Thanks for that feedback. This is precisely what I was contemplating, but hoped to see someone practically do it and report their findings.

If I could find 100uF BG PK I would use those. Sadly I did not pick some up when they were still around. I wondered if the Kaisei would be on the same path.
 
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Try Kaisei bipolar 100u16V. Great sonic improvment! They are a bit bigger than the Nichicons and need some time to burn in, but worth waiting.

Ecdesigns was advising against 16v caps - they will be running close to their limits and so may not last as long?
Could try placing some alternate caps on other side of board to give yourself more space? But the bunching looks better than where I have added more capacity in my NAD350 amp!
 
Quote:

Why bipolar instead polar caps? Are polar better for this job?


General experience is that bipolars sound better. If you choose polar with same spec, you may have smaller diameter ones which look better. And what about the sound? Who knows, maybe not as good as bipolar, only slightly worse but better than nichicons. I bought 4 pcbs, but since I heard the sound of this Kaiseis, the urge has flown away...
 
Thanks for that feedback. This is precisely what I was contemplating, but hoped to see someone practically do it and report their findings.

If I could find 100uF BG PK I would use those. Sadly I did not pick some up when they were still around. I wondered if the Kaisei would be on the same path.

If I well remember, there were no BG PKs with this spec. 100u16V or 25V was only available in much bigger standard, F, or N series. I tried 10mm diameter elkos, but the look was not that attractive. Kaiseis are theoretically on halfway to BGs. Anyway, not an impossible investment.
 
Ecdesigns was advising against 16v caps - they will be running close to their limits and so may not last as long?
Could try placing some alternate caps on other side of board to give yourself more space? But the bunching looks better than where I have added more capacity in my NAD350 amp!

If I were a manufacturer of goods to sell, I would have chosen 100u25V polar Kaisei to be sure not exceeding any limits. But I'm a hobbyist, who can solder another cap if necessary. Prior to soldering I tried several diameter caps, how they look. This way the pcb appearance is not very awful. (I would have been a bit happier If Ryan had provided some more space for the caps)
 
Hi JOSI1,

I heard your are working on a new DAC/Player concept.
Can you already provide some basic information.


We are working on a number of new projects:

1) New digital audio interface that's compatible with DACs that have a Toslink input. I developed this new digital audio interface specifically for the connection with the DAC because I ran into unfixable problems with existing digital audio interfaces on the DAC.

2) USB translator for use with our new digital audio interface.

3) Toslink / Coax translator reclocker for use with our new digital audio interface.

4) New UPL24E with PC-based graphic user interface (apps for Linux, Mac, and Windows) and support for our new digital audio interface. Stand alone operation is still possible using the optional IR remote transceiver with built-in LED display.

5) New D/A converter, the D/A96TF. The design for this DAC was inspired by Fractals (ever repeating patterns that occur everywhere in nature).

The Fractal converters are totally different from the R2R and Mosaic converters and offer a number of advantages compared to existing D/A converter concepts. These Fractal converters have a true parallel data interface that feed the Fractal encoders in these converters. This ensures lowest possible clock and data rates and related lowest possible interference.

I used two 32 bit Fractal cores in the D/A96T

These Fractal converters run on a balanced +1V8, -1V8 power supply. DC-coupled output voltage equals 3V6pp and output impedance equals 375 OHms.

The converters are externally powered by a single 5V power source. Power consumption varies between 100 milliwatts @ 44.1 KHz to 200 milliwatts @ 96 KHz.

The complete DAC is located on two piggybacked circuit boards that form a compact 12 x 12 x1,5cm module.


I attached a sketch of the D/A96TF housing that measures approx. 15 x 15 x 2.5cm.
 

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We are working on a number of new projects

Hello John,
I had a look at your current products and liked your passive preamp... Interresting to see how you moved from stepped attenuators integrated in the dac back to traditional potentiometers. (is it linear taper? => more precise and the logaritmic effect can be programmed in your application). It is unfortunate that these large slider pots are not available in cermet...
Currently I'm more into low impedance shunt: 1K series with a 1K shunt cermet pot to ground... It is driven by and sounds very good (transparant with kept dynamics) in my AYA tda1541 dac.
Regards, Berny
 
Dear -EC- wrote:

5) New D/A converter, the D/A96TF. The design for this DAC was inspired by Fractals (ever repeating patterns that occur everywhere in nature).

The Fractal converters are totally different from the R2R and Mosaic converters and offer a number of advantages compared to existing D/A converter concepts. These Fractal converters have a true parallel data interface that feed the Fractal encoders in these converters. This ensures lowest possible clock and data rates and related lowest possible interference.

I used two 32 bit Fractal cores in the D/A96T

This is Alien Stuff. Confess!!!

With Pure Unconditional Divine Love,
M.