The IsDAC

12S may not like travelling long distance but the sound is still better
 
Isaac Sibson said:
Maybe so, but I still feel that no one would use it... I2S outputs aren't exactly commonplace.
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Ok, its your dac ;)
Well good luck, it should be a nice project, it will be interesting seeing the thing evolve
 
michaelab said:
....... you might want to mention BlueMax's little Yahoo group about the SuperDAC - that went down like a house on fire :D
Michael.
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That thread someone else started and that Michael kindly contributed to, more than doubled the membership, of this new group for M-Audio Super DAC 2496 at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/M-Audio_SuperDAC_2496
within 24 hours. :)

At the same time as I was having 'fun' with some posters on the thread; huge number of 'reactions' created, kept pushing the thread to the top and brought the group to the attention of the 'silent majority'.

The group comes up in Google now; as Michael hinted. :)

An interesting case study in human behaviour for marketing men. :D
 
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Isaac Sibson said:
How many? My current thinking is 1 AES/EBU, 2 coax, 1 TOSlink.
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Yes as minimum spec. But one more coax will help if cost or design restrictions don't get in the way.
Digital recorders are getting better and cheaper so RCA digital outputs could become handy.
 
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I am also considering allowing the two coax to be used in parallel for 192kHz, although I feel this will be only marginally more useful than I2S.
 
Perhaps an I2S connection could be provided onboard for direct connection to a CD player internally should someone wish to do so. But then again perhaps all this will make things overly complicated and expensive for what should be a lowish cost high performance DAC. (and maybe too much work for Isaac!).
 
Nice idea Isaac, I'd have gone for this myself if first I had £200 and second I didnt already have an AK4395 doing the honours. I'd be interested to hear how it turns out :)
 
hifikrazy - that's doable I should think, and I would consider that of more utility than an external I2S connection. It would be easiest to implement this as an either/or option of I2S input OR DIR to AES/EBU, SPDIF, etc.

Boards will be 2 layer, and it looks like a panel will cost £188 inc VAT. How many will fit on a panel depends on how big the board ends up, but it should be at least 4. Further panels will be cheaper (£147 inc VAT) because the tooling charge is not repeated.
 
Different implementations of a DAC chip may sound very different indeed. A Marantz CD85 does not sound like a Naim CD1 does not sound like an Arcam Alpha 5 does not sound like a rotel RCD-955. They all use the same Philips TDA1541 DAC chip though.
 
wadia-miester said:
Nah, he's not getting of the hook that easy, and we want hard wired circuit boards to, using premium wanky wire and a minimum of 8 layers.
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Well he does want top quality :D
 
Isaac Sibson said:
Different implementations of a DAC chip may sound very different indeed. A Marantz CD85 does not sound like a Naim CD1 does not sound like an Arcam Alpha 5 does not sound like a rotel RCD-955. They all use the same Philips TDA1541 DAC chip though.
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Too true Isaac, it amazes me how bad some of the commercial players sound using TDA1541 yet get it right and it sounds very special.
I'm sure you can do a great job with the AK4395
 
hifikrazy said:
mmmm, double crown......
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Yes, I've got a double crown, 2 x single crowns and a few standard A's.
I was amazed how much better the double crown sounds compared to the others
 
Isaac, if you have a case in mind, I could knock up a 3d model and a drawing of the cut-outs for the conectors etc ... if you decide to go into production.
 
Production isn't an intended course. It's just to get the experience of doing it really. However, cheers for the offer!
 

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