Understanding DACs and the process of digital to analog conversion

asliarun

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In an attempt to better understand DAC devices and even the overall process of digital to analog music conversion, I came across a couple of excellent articles. So I thought I would share with the forum, and hopefully gain/exchange some views and observations from forum members.

PCM explained
Mother of Tone - The CD Format
R2R conversion
Mother of Tone - Conversion Techniques
(Such a good explanation!)

24bit vs 16bit, the myth exploded!
24bit vs 16bit, the myth exploded!
(What a nicely written article!)

The R2R sound and PCM1704 (versus the most popular Delta-Sigma DACs)
dac
(Huge article - needs a ton of patience!)

Note: I really need to read and re-read these articles properly to develop a meaningful understanding of DACs. I thought we could at least initiate a conversation on this subject to make this a little less "dry" so this doesn't feel like homework.

On an interesting note, Audio GD (a company i quite like) makes 2 models of DACs with PCM1704. The Master 7 ($2200) and Reference 10.32 ($1850). To my (limited) knowledge, this is the only option in this (low) price range, barring some no-name Chinese options that can be found on ebay.
 
Thanks for sharing this. Mother of tone is a nice website and was good to read this again
 
R2R is the holy grail. Two of the most revered chips - pcm1704 and tda1543 were r2r. Unfortunately this means that anything well implemented with those chips that offers bit perfect I/o and minimum phase filtering are very very expensive and hard to find.
 
The TDA1543 dac I bought was $40. Of course it needed an external power supply, which I am not sure my switching adapter is the best to deliver, and it ran up close to my friends $2000 dac, so close in fact that he was in tears nearly cos the $2000 dac barely sounded any better on his $15000 B&W's.

So why you guys say TDA1543 stuff is expensive ? I guess you could get better build, paralleled X 8 and on board power, but still I would think a few 100 would do it.

Cool.
Srinath.
 
R2R is the holy grail. Two of the most revered chips - pcm1704 and tda1543 were r2r. Unfortunately this means that anything well implemented with those chips that offers bit perfect I/o and minimum phase filtering are very very expensive and hard to find.

Peter Daniel (DIY Chip Amplifier Kits, PCB's, Components and Information.) makes a minimalistic DAC based on TDA1543 with very high component quality such as Black Gate caps (and he then practically gives away for almost cost price). I am in the process of buying his DAC. He used to sell it as a kit but now sells it fully assembled as a board (without case) or with case. Here are a few reviews:

Audiosector USB DAC -- my new DAC--(and comparison)

Here is the 6moons review: 6moons audio reviews: Audio Zone System
 
Peter Daniel (DIY Chip Amplifier Kits, PCB's, Components and Information.) makes a minimalistic DAC based on TDA1543 with very high component quality such as Black Gate caps (and he then practically gives away for almost cost price). I am in the process of buying his DAC. He used to sell it as a kit but now sells it fully assembled as a board (without case) or with case. Here are a few reviews:

Audiosector USB DAC -- my new DAC--(and comparison)

Here is the 6moons review: 6moons audio reviews: Audio Zone System

You are preaching to the choir. I used to own the fully upgraded audio sector DAC hand assembled by Peter himself. I now use an AMR which IMHO is the best nos implementation this side of the top end zandens.

The audio sector DAC is fantastic for the price - has excellent tone. Only real downer is slightly loose bass but that's OK for the price.
 
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Wow, really nice to know that you have used and liked this DAC. And your recommendation means a lot.

While researching this DAC, I also came across Audial - which makes a DAC based on the same chip and has similar minimalistic design philosophy.
 
Here is my story with a bit of background.

I am totally biased for tubes. No pun intended.
Tubes in a well designed and made dac will knock the living daylights out of anything.
Unfortunately, I dont have the moola to get one of those.

So I got the crappiest TDA1543 I could find ~2 years ago. $36 shipped. Came with a dc adapter that weighed all of 10 grams. The shock of my life was when my friend with a $2000 ESS dac called me in tears, this is 99% of the ESS dac.

I would try a 4 chip TDA 1543 @ $40 shipped. But that's just me. I have tubes in a lot of other equipment, pre's and power amps, and I may not need more tubes. If you only have 1 tube equipment - you may want a DAC, or heck with it, I actually like Tube pre amps the best. They last loooooooong time, are pretty trouble free and run in front of an accurate amp, sound just like there is a tube amp in the room ,with the added benifit of being more powerful. I ran the carver M1.0 t and dynaco PAS and people thought I had a 100 watt tube amp.

Cool.
Srinath.
 
Wow, really nice to know that you have used and liked this DAC. And your recommendation means a lot.

While researching this DAC, I also came across Audial - which makes a DAC based on the same chip and has similar minimalistic design philosophy.

Nice dac albeit a tad overpriced for a very simple design. Also it appears that there is no option to have both async usb and coax input together. For a wee bit more than that, one can get a loaded to the gills AMR.
 
Purchase the Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier at a special offer price.
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