Hi,
Coda II said:
I'd assumed this was a regulatory thing; electrical approval and so on, but is that it or is it also cost of parts/labour that means they tend to come direct from Hong Kong/Taiwan?
Regulation has nothing to do with it. It is largely related to the fact that Non-OS Dac's simply do not measure terribly good in the traditional sense.
You can get AN UK Non-Os DAC's.
A few remarks, over the years I have build a lot of Non-Os DAC's with most of the chips that are the usual suspects. The TDA1541 comes out as the best, the TDA1543 often found in the common Non-Os DAC's (I call them Kusonoki Klones) comes in pretty far down the list, TDA1545 is much nicer and the PCM56/63/1702/1704 and AD1865 still IMHO come in well ahead of the TDA1543.
For those who are looking to get the Non-OS concept taken to the logical conclusion I am currently working with a UK/HK/PRC startup on a top-loader CD player (which will sadly be quite expensive, no way around it), but is designed to use the TDA1541 to the limits, well past ANYTHING done commercially so far in a number of areas (that ioncludes Marantz CD7 and Naims Players using TDA1541), including the option to select non-oversampling filterless, non-oversampling using my own unique analogue filter design, oversampling and upsampling (asyncronpus oversampling) with a number of factors using a BB/TI DSP Engine and followed up with a zero feedback valve output stage using New Old Stock Valves, valve rectified and multiple choke filtered dual mono analog supplies.
BTW, despite having a valve analog stage (transformerless at that) you will get pretty low output impedance (~ 200 Ohm) and reasonably low distortion (< 0.1% THD for digital full scale), which is notably better than what has been done so far to my awareness.
The rest of the digital engine also has many unique (and I mean UNIQUE) features, sits on a rather small and extremely low noise layout 4layer PCB and the powersupply side is probably also taken to the extreme with completely seperate supplies for each functional block (12 seperate supplies in total) so noise from one sections PSU cannot enter another combined with loads of current source supplied shunt regulators where the regulators have well > 100KHz bandwidth in critical positions and other super low noise regulators etc, as needed by the circuit.
Also on board is serious mains conditioning which even adjusts the AC voltage from the wall if it deviates more than 5% from nominal and which also compensates for "flat-topping", distortion in the mains and filters RF noise out, all that WITHOUT taking the common approach of using a PFC input switched mode supply.
It will have impeccable build well past anything yet seen in China/HK (we are aiming at CEC, Krell and Zanden here, not at the Derek Sheks of this world). Such niceties like solid copper chassis with structural parts machined from solid aluminum billets and a few other things I'd better not mention yet (design patents need to be applied for first) will be included. Due to the limited availability of the NOS Valves and the TDA1541 Chips in decent quality (eg not the 3rd round rejects) overall production will likely be limited to << 5,000 pcs.
Anyway, I should be getting a near production prototype in the next 2 or three month, we are still tinkering with the case a little most of the electronics are tested in the final configuration, so we hope to show the player (and matching hybrid amp) at Heathrow this Spring in production form. Not quite "from the UK", but largely "designed in the UK" and with full supporting distributor and dealer network.
For a tease a not quite complete very early prototype (call it "alpha") picture including the BJ crew is attached...
Ciao T