Midiman Super Dac

I'd not disagree with WM's above assessment of the afternoon's proceeding at all.

Had I not heard the Super DAC in stock form before some months ago (again matched with very expensive anciliries) I'd not have belived what we heard yesterday as possible. The external PSU has bought it up another couple of notches. Can't wait to hear what it's capable of after the cap and op-amp upgrades. Obviously you could really go to town and go beyond the £200 outlay - now that would be interesting.

I'd estimate what we heard yesterday to be at least equivalent to a £500 second-hand DAC, if not £1000+ if we're comparing brand new kit, or a £1500 integrated. I believe a certain someone is trading in their DAC20 for one of these!

We did feed the Super DAC a rather good signal though, so it was running under very ideal conditions. Not sure what it'd sound like at 16/44.1 with a more representative (say £2-300) transport. Upsampling at 24/88.2 which definitely prefereable even to 24/44.1 which we also tried.

And to think that in the entire reply, the DAC was the cheapest component (even including the cost of the PSU) by far - yes even the cables used cost more! It sure wasn't disgracing itself.

 

OK so what size of improvement could I expect over my Arcam Alpha 7SE? The things that the Arcam is weak in is the midrange isnt as solid as I would like and the bass lacks a bit of solidity and weight too. Detail is good, but it doesnt capture me with emotion as I would like.

 

Well, the superdac, is now being used in one of the Reference systems we use for testing purposes, and it's being used with a £1500 cdp (as a transport) as it's simply better than the dac section in that player, which surprised us some what, anyway if any of you guys want a listen more than welcome Wm

 

when i can blag a day off.................................



how long have i been saying that now Tone? to long me thinks

 

Round 3, on the Infamous S/dac, kicked off this afternoon, a bit late, due to extended ' internal restructuring' of Wm's new Wadia.
Todays mods, as they say at the BBC 'Not as Sheduled' , I had some new opamps kicking about, and though, Fook it, the superdac looks a bit unloved, bang some of these in and see what transpires
As this is a budget job, I only replaced the 2 op-amps that feed the Single ended outputs (RCA's), as the balanced uses 2 (single Op-amps) per channel (that would be 6 in total), humm a bit more tricky this little mod, the orginal op-amps are soldered both sides of the legs
Also purchased some little current devices to enable biasing into class 'a', total cost of parts £15 approx, whats it sound like Now?, I'll let you know Tomorrow, after I reassemble it, time crept up on me today Wm

 

Pic's to follow?

 

Ok, I'll try and do some piccys tomorrow.

 

Well Penance came over to retrieve his amps this afternoon, nice to see Andy & his good lady again
The super Dac has been recieving some attention today, the Schokkty diodes went in along with all the power supply caps & dac cap decoupling caps, just a word of caution, there not too keen on coming out the board, and leave a lot of solder in the holes even with a solder mop & pump, proved to be a sod
Let the caps around the op-amps, as I need to accquire a piece of kit to assist me here.
How does it sound, humm even from cold (takes about 40 mins to fully warm up), immedately more obvious, depth of sound, detail and far better vocals, tighter bass & more drive/dynamics too.
Have done some picks, but Timpy needs to empty the camera. Wm

 

Yesterday was listening room time, for most of the day, on some projects, including the s/dac, tha caps we replaced the O.E. ones with were Stargets (a cheaper audio grade type, but none the less better than stock).
The midiman, does a good 45 mins to warm up, else the sound is hard & stark, anyway settled down to some serious spins on transport, hum it's really come alive now, (the mods have had 32 hours on them so far, and I still expect a little more to come after a week or so.
The detail and bass extension and cleaniness are greatly improved as is the dynamics and 'life', with realistic drum thwacks now, rather than a polite twat , more body to the vocals and depth has been taken up a couple of notches, it's in no way laid back now, it gets up and goes, as opposed to skipping along nicely.
I have the decoupling caps to replace by the op amps, some resistors around the reciever chip & another diode, all in all a cracking sound for not a great deal of outlay, we have a couple of CDP is for modifications, and it acquainted it self well against some what more expensive machincery.
For some one on a budget, this is a vaiable option for a half decent sound. I might do a build manual and publish it on Z/G, then you guys can have a go too Wm

 

still sounding promising
After seeing the inards the other day, it doesnt look to hard a job either.
I may well stick it on the upgrade list

 

Sounds like a good idea

"rather than a polite twat "

When did I come into this?

 

Before I (possibly) buy this could I have a few questions answered in idiot speak please ?

a) Rca sockets. This are the sockets that I plug the Interconnects into yes? (told you it was idiot speak! )

b)I assume that I would be connecting this to to the marantz cdp via an optical cable? If so what would be the best cheapie cable? something like the budget qed or is there better out there for the money. Want to keep it sensible so no mentioning Apogees please

c)If I dont want to get the rca mod done and leave the jack sockets there would I be able to use adaptors from maplins that plug directly onto the interconnects then into the dac itself? If the answers yes are these : "6·35mm (<+>1/<->4in.) Plug to Phono Socket Adaptors. Allows a phono plug to be used with a 6·35mm (¼ in.) mono jack socket. Available with plastic body or high quality gold-plated metal body." the correct ones to go for?

Cheers in advance.

 

David asked
" Rca sockets. This are the sockets that I plug the Interconnects into yes? (told you it was idiot speak! )"

Yes, they are the 'Phono' sockets you plug your interconnect cable in, between the dac and the Pre/intergrated amp

David, also enquired

"I assume that I would be connecting this to to the marantz cdp via an optical cable? If so what would be the best cheapie cable? something like the budget qed or is there better out there for the money."

David if you can, use a co-axial cable, it is know for it's beneifical sound quality, we could get into al sorts of quandries over cables, but a used Ixos 1051 for around £30 is helpfu;, yes they are better out there but, I'm remembering the budget here, if you have to use optical, I really don't habe one to recomend, maybe the other can on this one.

the last question from Davis was

"If I dont want to get the rca mod done and leave the jack sockets there would I be able to use adaptors from maplins that plug directly onto the interconnects then into the dac itself? If the answers yes are these : "6·35mm (<+>1/<->4in.) Plug to Phono Socket Adaptors. Allows a phono plug to be used with a 6·35mm (¼ in.) mono jack socket. Available with plastic body or high quality gold-plated metal body." the correct ones to go for?"

Yes you can use these adapters (same for XLR/RCA) however you may find them expensive (2 gold plated phono sockets are £2 each, and will give a better quality than use an adapter of any sort (In my opinion).
There is no drilling required, and desoldering the jack sockets is pretty easy, if your not confident, perhaps a local TV repair man might undertake the job for you for a small renumeration, shouldn't take more than 25 mins from start to finish max Wm

 

Well I've bitten the bullet and just ordered one of these things. Finally screwed up the courage to press confirm on the order

£171 delivered. I know I could of got it cheaper of ebay, but a) never used it and b)dont want to use it

Now the wait begins

 

Welcome to the club.

 

What DAC chips are in this little guy?

 

digital interface is a CS8414.

DAC is an AK4393.

Control logic and stuff is a PIC (16C54 I think).

Output drivers are NE5534 opamps.

Power supply rectification is 1N4001.

Electrolytic caps are VLSOM 20%.

 

Just had a thought. Would I be able to connect my pioneer dvd player to the optical input on the dac at the same time as having the cdp connected and would there be any benifit to doing this? Also wm suggested connection this to the coaxial socket I am assuming this is the spdif connection option?

Cheers.

 

Further listening today on the superdac, I carried out a spot more remedial work on it tuesday, replaced all the op-amp decoupling caps, and changed the wire from the boards to the RCA sockets It is getting quite respectiable now.
David, if you are stuck for anyone to swop the rca's over, Pm me and I will do the said mod for you Gratis. Wm

 

the DAC has AES/EBU, SPDIF and Optical inputs. These are selectable by front panel button, and can be connected to different sources. I have the optical connected to my computer, and coax to CD transport. I will eventually have the transport on AES/EBU and a DVD player on coax.