Kit Taylor
Well-Known Member
UPDATE 27/3/05
I've know collated choice info from various threads and other posters on other forums, and posted it in the FAQ Room:
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9784
UPDATE 12/11/04
Thread continues here:
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8287
General Construction
- Built on high quality Roth Electronik board with round solder pads
- Four 1/2" PCB pillars as feet, plus one under the local resevoir cap to stop the dac assuming the launch position
- Support is two pieces of foamed butyl rubber topped with a light stiff piece of cork tile, in an antistat bag
- All grounds connect to same plane
- P2P wiring and signal earths are SCSI ribbon cable
- All resistors are Multicomp 1206 1% 0.125W
Power Supply
- DC source wallwart with schottky diodes and 3300uf 35V Panasonic FC (original LM7812 removed)
- Local resevoir cap 3300uf 35V Panasonic FC
- LM317 supplying each pin, with and 4700uH/20R inductor before and after
- Chip pins decoupled with 1uF 1206 X7R and 10nF 0805 X7R
- Voltage drop has been compensated for like so:
CS8412 VD+ / 5.18V / 754R ADJ
CS8412 VA+ / 5.5V / 816R ADJ
TDA1543 / 6.25V / 960R
NB Kept these values, but they are calaculated for 25R not 20R
S/PDIF
- Interconnect is a cheapo RCA plug connected to two strands of twisted SCSI ribbon cable, hardwired at the dac end
CS8412
- 10nF NPO 1206 coupling pins 9 and 10
- Loopfilter is 100R 1206 & 1uF X7R 1206
- 100R pn digital output pins
- 3300uF 16v Rubycon ZL on pin 22
- Foil groundplane wraps around both sides of CS8412
TDA1543
- Supply +5V
- SCSI ribbon cable as hookup wire.
- 869R I/V and 910R Vref
Output
- Coupling cap is 1uF LCR polypropylene
- Interconnect is hardwired 0.5mm silver in 0.91mm PTFE tubeing
Transport
- Cheap Wharfdale DVD player, SMPS upgraded with the biggest Rubycon ZLs that physically fit
Some related LM317 questions
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7099
Some related opamp and I/V questions
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7385
---------------------------------------
ORIGINAL FIRST POST
---------------------------------------
This is a super basic non-oversampling passive output dac based around the CS8412 reciever and TDA1543 convertor, in essence a tweaked clone of this Peter Daniel 3D dac. It's not flawless, it did cost less than £100 to build after all, but fed from my Sony 7700 DVD player it's perhaps my favourite out of all the digital sources I've tried at home.
It sounds very "live," busy and loud with instruments overwhelming one another in a way that makes it impossible fit all the parts neatly and clearly together. It doesn't give an overview of the grand scheme of things, so to speak, and there always seems to be more going on than at once than is possible to pay attention to.
I think this is a natural and compellingly atmospheric kind of presentation. With respect to fox and the other Manatroids, the "at last the music made sense and I finally understood it" sound is an artificially simplified reinterpretation. Music is inherently chaotic and mysterious.
It also has a ferocious bass kick, is very good at picking out the little pauses and wavers that make things sound human and has Naim-like sense of pace.
Faults? There's a bit of glassyness in the upper mid that I suspect can be tweaked away, and it's a little soft, dark, airless and slightly honeyed. Timing is spot on in terms of an individual musician's phrasing, but there's not that sensation of an umblical linking the different instruments.
I've know collated choice info from various threads and other posters on other forums, and posted it in the FAQ Room:
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9784
UPDATE 12/11/04
Thread continues here:
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8287
General Construction
- Built on high quality Roth Electronik board with round solder pads
- Four 1/2" PCB pillars as feet, plus one under the local resevoir cap to stop the dac assuming the launch position
- Support is two pieces of foamed butyl rubber topped with a light stiff piece of cork tile, in an antistat bag
- All grounds connect to same plane
- P2P wiring and signal earths are SCSI ribbon cable
- All resistors are Multicomp 1206 1% 0.125W
Power Supply
- DC source wallwart with schottky diodes and 3300uf 35V Panasonic FC (original LM7812 removed)
- Local resevoir cap 3300uf 35V Panasonic FC
- LM317 supplying each pin, with and 4700uH/20R inductor before and after
- Chip pins decoupled with 1uF 1206 X7R and 10nF 0805 X7R
- Voltage drop has been compensated for like so:
CS8412 VD+ / 5.18V / 754R ADJ
CS8412 VA+ / 5.5V / 816R ADJ
TDA1543 / 6.25V / 960R
NB Kept these values, but they are calaculated for 25R not 20R
S/PDIF
- Interconnect is a cheapo RCA plug connected to two strands of twisted SCSI ribbon cable, hardwired at the dac end
CS8412
- 10nF NPO 1206 coupling pins 9 and 10
- Loopfilter is 100R 1206 & 1uF X7R 1206
- 100R pn digital output pins
- 3300uF 16v Rubycon ZL on pin 22
- Foil groundplane wraps around both sides of CS8412
TDA1543
- Supply +5V
- SCSI ribbon cable as hookup wire.
- 869R I/V and 910R Vref
Output
- Coupling cap is 1uF LCR polypropylene
- Interconnect is hardwired 0.5mm silver in 0.91mm PTFE tubeing
Transport
- Cheap Wharfdale DVD player, SMPS upgraded with the biggest Rubycon ZLs that physically fit
Some related LM317 questions
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7099
Some related opamp and I/V questions
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7385
---------------------------------------
ORIGINAL FIRST POST
---------------------------------------
This is a super basic non-oversampling passive output dac based around the CS8412 reciever and TDA1543 convertor, in essence a tweaked clone of this Peter Daniel 3D dac. It's not flawless, it did cost less than £100 to build after all, but fed from my Sony 7700 DVD player it's perhaps my favourite out of all the digital sources I've tried at home.
It sounds very "live," busy and loud with instruments overwhelming one another in a way that makes it impossible fit all the parts neatly and clearly together. It doesn't give an overview of the grand scheme of things, so to speak, and there always seems to be more going on than at once than is possible to pay attention to.
I think this is a natural and compellingly atmospheric kind of presentation. With respect to fox and the other Manatroids, the "at last the music made sense and I finally understood it" sound is an artificially simplified reinterpretation. Music is inherently chaotic and mysterious.
It also has a ferocious bass kick, is very good at picking out the little pauses and wavers that make things sound human and has Naim-like sense of pace.
Faults? There's a bit of glassyness in the upper mid that I suspect can be tweaked away, and it's a little soft, dark, airless and slightly honeyed. Timing is spot on in terms of an individual musician's phrasing, but there's not that sensation of an umblical linking the different instruments.