low budget dacs

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Bengali

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Joined 2006
for the TDA1541 dac, I found out from the seller the sound quality also depends on the grade of the TDA1541 chip. He mentioned the chip is discontinued so they are now expensive. the tda1541 with the stanard version is a recycled chip. there is suppose to be a S1 and S2 grade as well, price for the chip around $80.

I paid for one but now have second thoughts. quite a few dac's out there to chose from.

Dave was very helpful regarding the ADI Eval Dac. Unfortuntely, the price is around $600USD for it and not readily available to anyone.

In the future, I'm considering either the dddac 1543mkII
or the audionote 2.1. These are in the $700USD range.

Right now, I'm looking for someting under the $200 range.

the one you mentioned looks good for the price but
needs heavy mods:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HI-END-24bit-19...id=p3286.c0.m14

would be nice to get one with the less amount of modding.
I'm looking into the opus dac as well.
 
kevinkr

kevinkr

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Joined 2004
kta-hifi.net
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Take a look at the Zhaolu 2.5C which you can get here: http://www.diykits.com.hk/

I purchased the 2.5A and even stock it was quite an improvement over some other well respected and far more expensive dacs I had on hand at the time. Some simple tweaks make it really good. The 2.5C responds to all of the same tweaks, is reputedly as good or better than the 2.5A and was under $200 last time I checked excluding the S&H. I had my 2.5A in 3 days from these guys..
 
B

Bengali

Member
Joined 2006
googling dacs, I came across this list:

http://www.zerohurtz.com/archive/index.php/t-28207.html


I'll look into the Zhaolu 2.5C. I don't need pc connection
but it's probably useful to have. complete unit is always
good.

Would you rather spend $700+ for a dac or just get like a cambridge 640c or higher model with latest dac?

the opus dac looks worthwhile but they are not available at the moment.
 
whitelabrat

whitelabrat

Member
Joined 2006
How about the DA24QS from Uwe Beis:

http://beis.de/Elektronik/ADDA24QS/DA24QS.html

I've ordered just the PCB and the EPM3064 pre-programed. The only SMT soldering are the CS chips. I can get the rest of the components cheaper here in the US. I hope to upgrade the opamps and output signal capacitors and resistors.

You may be able to reduce cost by using cheaper parts.

I was hoping to do something with a TI PCM1792A, but I've not found any boards for sale. I'd likely get into trouble doing my own PCB for it.
 
P

pmkap

Member
Joined 2001
Bengali,

As you're purchasing a Zhaolu 2.5, you should give a long read to this thread-
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=77992&perpage=25&highlight=&pagenumber=1
where Kevinkr adresses grounding issues and other mods on the Zhaolu. Although for some unexplicable reason, Kevin prefers the a version over the CS4398 c version, BobM has implemented those same mods on his 2.5c, IMO with great success. I've heard Bob's 2.5c in comparison to a very good, costly cd player $17K+, and its very, very close. Your choice of the LM4562 or OPA2107 for the opamp will be one of subjective preference.

Enjoy,
Paul
 
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