Nevertheless it's a nice idea, and maybe if I ever get more time Id give a project such as this a go, but for many of us, despite the possible quality advantages relative to price, it may be just easier to go out and buy ready made kit. to produce the valve output unit is going to push the cost over £400, and that again doesn't include the cost of paying someone to do the work - unless you (can) do it yourself. As pointed out by Nick, simply the component costs for the transformers, case etc. Getting one made up would probably put the cost up considerably. Actually getting one of those and making it is perhaps very easy for someone who does this kind of thing often. The basic board - i_Amplifiers&hash=item2c5cfad4f6&clk_rvr_id=264303805930&afsrc=1 appears good, but of course it's a kit, and it doesn't include a PSU. Interesting thread this, and drew me in nicely! Then I started to look more closely. This is the new copper one, i just goes to show what can be done with skills like Nick and Duncans from a basic board That was the one before my current one which was built around a Gigawork's board which has a very long thread running on Diyaudio about all the upgrades etc, Duncan breathed on the board and installed a valve output with no feedback that was all housed in a perspex and wood case, that has now gone into a mates system, my current Dunc dac is built around this () board which has switchable inputs via the built in volume control knob, you push it to change inputs and turn to adjust the volume, not much between them on sound but convenience won over. i would guess ali's latest is very close.? cant wait to hear it.
#Sowter it trannys audionote dac upgrade#
It was that dac really got me thinking i needed an upgrade from the early berrisford i had. It was very nice and i would have sneaked it away had you not turned up. Was that the one i had a session with at the 2nd wigwam show? and maybe a a i2c buss added so input selection and volume could be controlled by a controller board. Maybe better regulators could be used next to the chips. dac, with just direct output off board, so either a valve stage like I used here could be used, or a op amp stage added. What I was thinking was a board that had the four inputs the receiver chip offered. The board will cost a bit more, but in the realm of this output stage the price of the dac board is eaten up by the iron and other bits. But maybe a better thing to do now is start again with a new board design, aimed at allowing more inputs. I am musing if a better idea would be to start from the fact that the £20 is brilliant as it is, and what it shows is that the dac chip itself is very capable. While it is possible to kludge a spdiff switcher on the front of the board, it will be a hack. Almost everyone who has asked about this dac and its output stage wants more than the one input (Ali included). It'll be easy to swap over, so easy to see if I've wasted my money! Be fun trying it out though.īeen think about this while walking dogs (do most thinking that way). I have ordered an unpopulated board in order to try a board with all boutique components as detailed within the thread. There is a marathon thread on this board on diy audio. It way outclasses my AN Dac Zero, and I always thought that was a very good DAC. It's an overused term, but this really does sound analogue.
So how does it sound? Bloody good IMHO! Bags of air, space and detail, but the usual digital glare is totally absent to my ears. It also has balanced outputs, useful as I intend to go that way with the direct coupled electrostatic amps. The DAC is single input at the moment, though Nick has said adding switcheable inputs is no problem. I already knew how good Nick's output stage was. The opamp is socketed, so easily swapped out) and I mentioned to Nick how good it might sound with one of his valve output stages on the end.Ī good few beers later, I offered to bankroll the valved dac to see how it sounded, reasoning that if I didn't like it, it would be easy to swap the dac board for something else. It has a virtually flat noise floor all the way up to 80kHz.Īnyhow, when I heard the board at Owston, I was struck by how good it sounded (the board is self contained and includes an opamp output stage. It has been called a "Miracle" DAC, a true 24 bit 192kHz chip, and is DSD capable. The board is one of these-ĭon't be put off by the low price, this is a serious DAC, and is used in the Logitech Transporter amongst others. This came about via a beer-fuelled discussion at the last Owston meet, where Nick had brought along one of the dac boards with a couple of trannies to run it. Thought I'd post something about this new DAC I've acquired.
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