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The John Westlake/Lakewest MDAC/FDAC, VFET and Detox

First time in a long time I have heard the VFETS mentioned. I hope this is good. Thanks for the update.
 
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Hello gang! What's the consensus please, all these years on, as to whether the MDAC warrants experiments/faffing around with USB regeneration accessories (eg. Uptone)? I have always assumed that John did a good-enough job on the MDAC for add-ons not to be necessary. Has anyone of us discovered a reasonably-priced decrapifier (other than the one we paid to develop!) which works unambiguously well with the MDAC?
 
Mark Dirac said:
Hello gang! What's the consensus please, all these years on, as to whether the MDAC warrants experiments/faffing around with USB regeneration accessories (eg. Uptone)? I have always assumed that John did a good-enough job on the MDAC for add-ons not to be necessary. Has anyone of us discovered a reasonably-priced decrapifier (other than the one we paid to develop!) which works unambiguously well with the MDAC?
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In my opinion, no. I would invest in an up to date DAC, like an RME, Mytek or Benchmark, all of which are more reliable than the MDAC and, in my opinion, outclass it for sound quality.
 
Yes,because of the AKM fire the factory will be unable to supply for about a year so MDAC2 has slipped to the back,FDAC doesn't use those parts so is now at the front followed by VFET.
 
I used an Uptone Regen with my MDAC and it did produce a cleaner signal imo. Then it (or possibly the psu) died, as did the MDAC shortly afterwards.
 
GWM said:
Yes,because of the AKM fire the factory will be unable to supply for about a year so MDAC2 has slipped to the back,FDAC doesn't use those parts so is now at the front followed by VFET.
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But I didn't think that the MDAC2 used any of the AKM DAC chips ......
 
GWM said:
Yes,because of the AKM fire the factory will be unable to supply for about a year so MDAC2 has slipped to the back,FDAC doesn't use those parts so is now at the front followed by VFET.
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Which parts did he say he couldn’t get?

here is a list of parts and stock:

https://www.akm-ics.com/

also it won’t take a year to get full production as apparently according to one of the guys on here in the semi industry, it’s a standard process that can use any number of fabs.
 
russel said:
...
also it won’t take a year to get full production as apparently according to one of the guys on here in the semi industry, it’s a standard process that can use any number of fabs.
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everybody may choose his own truth...
From John:
AKM are specialist in mixed signal Fab technology - it will really not easy or swift to qualify a new fab line.
I really do not see any practical options for AKM WRT finding a temporary mixed signal vendor - even the in-house IC design tools are optimized hand in hand with the Fab process... you spin a few wafers gradually closing / understanding the gap between your development tools results and real results from the fab line... It takes years of experience to gain confidence...
You cannot compare CMOS digital with mixed signal process lines... ESS are hardly what I call a mixed signal process, they are in fact CMOS with great care taken during the layout of the CMOS output buffers / resistors to form the DAC array - its not in ANYWAY mixed signal as with AKM devices.

a second guy:
John is correct, mixed signal is extremely process tuned, we used to have a mixed signal IC business in Racal 20+ years ago.
They are also a big player in magnetic sensors, presumably for the automotive ABS and engine sensor market. Chaos for the next 6 months.

and a third Opinion:
Got this from Ralph, maker of the Aurora DSP
Luckily, we are talking about regular CMOS rather than BiCMOS or thin film with laser trimming, so hopefully they can switch to foundries. Still a major disaster for the numerous small companies offering decent DACs these days. At least on the high end, CS and TI seem to have given up, so AKM and ever difficult ESS are the ones pushing frontiers. And even AKM has been slipping, with the obsolete AK5394A beeing the pinnacle of low distortion ADCs and later offerings optimized for S/N rather than distortion.

source: DIYforum > General Interest > Everything Else > AKM Factory fire - will have a terrible impact on the audio indusrty
 
fred sonnen said:
everybody may choose his own truth...
From John:
AKM are specialist in mixed signal Fab technology - it will really not easy or swift to qualify a new fab line.
I really do not see any practical options for AKM WRT finding a temporary mixed signal vendor - even the in-house IC design tools are optimized hand in hand with the Fab process... you spin a few wafers gradually closing / understanding the gap between your development tools results and real results from the fab line... It takes years of experience to gain confidence...
You cannot compare CMOS digital with mixed signal process lines... ESS are hardly what I call a mixed signal process, they are in fact CMOS with great care taken during the layout of the CMOS output buffers / resistors to form the DAC array - its not in ANYWAY mixed signal as with AKM devices.

a second guy:
John is correct, mixed signal is extremely process tuned, we used to have a mixed signal IC business in Racal 20+ years ago.
They are also a big player in magnetic sensors, presumably for the automotive ABS and engine sensor market. Chaos for the next 6 months.

and a third Opinion:
Got this from Ralph, maker of the Aurora DSP
Luckily, we are talking about regular CMOS rather than BiCMOS or thin film with laser trimming, so hopefully they can switch to foundries. Still a major disaster for the numerous small companies offering decent DACs these days. At least on the high end, CS and TI seem to have given up, so AKM and ever difficult ESS are the ones pushing frontiers. And even AKM has been slipping, with the obsolete AK5394A beeing the pinnacle of low distortion ADCs and later offerings optimized for S/N rather than distortion.

source: DIYforum > General Interest > Everything Else > AKM Factory fire - will have a terrible impact on the audio indusrty
Click to expand...

As I said the chap on here has experience of wafer fabs, so I would choose him over someone with a proven record of BS over timescales.
 
GWM said:
Yes,because of the AKM fire the factory will be unable to supply for about a year so MDAC2 has slipped to the back,FDAC doesn't use those parts so is now at the front followed by VFET.
Click to expand...

Does anyone have the slightest idea of the current specs for the FDAC? Or whether John has a plan for the chassis/case?
 
Had this project been managed in a timely fashion, the AKM fire would be irrelevant. Just saying.........
 
GWM said:
FDAC doesn't use those parts so is now at the front followed by VFET.
Click to expand...

Until something else inevitably changes the direction again, and it all gets re-shuffled again

one thing seems guaranteed, every single "butterfly flapping its wings" in the semiconductor industry or any other global event, will somehow impact on times scales for this "project"
 
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