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DAC Shopping, help!


compuryan

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Thanks for the insight on the THS4031 vs. 4032 Filburt. Had I not gone to a discrete output stage, those were where I was going next, and my player's stock I/V was setup to use duals. Of course I knew if I went to these, I would have to do alot of rework/bypassing to the stock stage to begin with.

Regarding the NPO ceramics, are COG available in this size? I forget how big they get (0.1uf? or 0.01uf?) but it would be interesting to see if you noted similar problems with these.

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yes, some red lights kinda went off in my head when he compared it to the bel canto3. But I'll just look on the bright side of things for now: Its a very compact dac/amp design which will be perfect for my small college dorm. I will also not have a problem reselling it for the same as I bought it because the DAC1's are very popular and in good demand on places like head-fi.

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Thanks for the insight on the THS4031 vs. 4032 Filburt. Had I not gone to a discrete output stage, those were where I was going next, and my player's stock I/V was setup to use duals. Of course I knew if I went to these, I would have to do alot of rework/bypassing to the stock stage to begin with.

Regarding the NPO ceramics, are COG available in this size? I forget how big they get (0.1uf? or 0.01uf?) but it would be interesting to see if you noted similar problems with these.

C0G is the same dielectric as NP0. It's just two ways of designating the same temperature coefficient. The biggest I've personally seen is 0.1uF. After some recent results using a scope and an analyser, I've started using PPS in place of NP0/C0G more often than I used to, although sometimes the ceramic cap ends up being a better choice, depending on the circuit and the components being used.

The 4032 is certainly usable; you just have to be extra careful about bypass because you want to keep it especially happy at high frequency or you could end up with garbage floating down to the audio band from the dac being unhappy (especially if it's something that works well into the MHz range, like a PCM1704).

yes, some red lights kinda went off in my head when he compared it to the bel canto3. But I'll just look on the bright side of things for now: Its a very compact dac/amp design which will be perfect for my small college dorm. I will also not have a problem reselling it for the same as I bought it because the DAC1's are very popular and in good demand on places like head-fi.

Yes, I imagine it'll work fine for you. It does seem modded units somtimes have trouble selling, for whatever reason, at the same price. I'm not sure why, but I guess because people don't trust the mods.

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yes, some red lights kinda went off in my head when he compared it to the bel canto3.

FWIW, I haven't heard any Benchmarks, modded or not, but I've spoken with a few fellow Bel Canto Dac3 owners. The ones that have heard the Benchmark didnt reach that conclusion, not even close. One guy was clear enough, in stating that in hindsight he would still rather pay twice the price of the Benchmark to have the improvement the Bel Canto offers, and that it was not a small improvement. As a matter of fact, he did just that, and purchased a second Dac3.

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I really dont get the whole my dorm is tiny thing. My dorms were pretty small but never that small that my ihp-140/emu/m^3 w/ steps was an issue

yeah i know dorms aren't that small. I guess it'll just be handy to have an amplifier already so I won't have to buy a cheap one now before I have money for a really decent one. Heck maybe when i buy a standalone amp I'll get a zana, and see how that works in my spacious dorm.

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The 4032 is certainly usable; you just have to be extra careful about bypass because you want to keep it especially happy at high frequency or you could end up with garbage floating down to the audio band from the dac being unhappy (especially if it's something that works well into the MHz range, like a PCM1704).

Hi, Filburt! Which do you think would be preferable?: Using a 4032, or converting a dual I/V to 4031s using a single-to-dual adapter? I know there are a lot of folks who don't care for Browndog adapters, but they have a pretty nifty dual DIP -> two single SOIC adapter that I've had good luck with before.

Also, is there any problem with increasing output coupling cap size from, say, 22uF to 47uF? This would be on a DA-500. Stock is 16V 22uF, and I have some 16V 47uF Silmics I could use there.

BTW, if anyone has technical questions about the DA-500, I have a service manual I can check.

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Pretty sure Filburt is hoarding those secrets especially the special druidic chants and animal sacrifices needed to make a ~300-500 dollar DAC sound superior to the ~1k Benchmark DAC.

Though in all seriousness, I have on good authority that the man and another man are designing their own DAC and details for that DAC (Which probably will incorporate some of what goes into his modded DACs of yesterweek) will be forthcoming.

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Hi, Filburt! Which do you think would be preferable?: Using a 4032, or converting a dual I/V to 4031s using a single-to-dual adapter? I know there are a lot of folks who don't care for Browndog adapters, but they have a pretty nifty dual DIP -> two single SOIC adapter that I've had good luck with before.

Also, is there any problem with increasing output coupling cap size from, say, 22uF to 47uF? This would be on a DA-500. Stock is 16V 22uF, and I have some 16V 47uF Silmics I could use there.

BTW, if anyone has technical questions about the DA-500, I have a service manual I can check.

Definitely use the 4032 instead. The problems I'm talking about that crop up with the 4032 vs the 4031 crop up in greater degree on something like the browndog dual-to-single SOIC adaptor. The 4032 is definitely a usable IC; you just have to be careful with it, just like the 4031. It's mostly just a matter of doing what is needed for the 4031, but with just that little bit of extra care on top of that. Well worth the effort, though.

I would appreciate if Filburt could post the mods for the DA-500 somewhere, so it could be documented and available publicly.

Honestly, I can't remember what the DA-500 looks like on the inside. If you could give me some good pictures of the inside of it, that would be really helpful in terms of my being able to give advice on mods. A schematic of the output stage would also help, perhaps from grenert :)

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Honestly, I can't remember what the DA-500 looks like on the inside. If you could give me some good pictures of the inside of it, that would be really helpful in terms of my being able to give advice on mods. A schematic of the output stage would also help, perhaps from grenert :)

Or I could just send you one of mine, you figure some stuff out and let me know what I owe you... Then post the mods at your leisure!

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Is the BAT VK-3i a better deal than the BAT VK-30 balanced (both on Audiogon)? ( I see I have an interweaving thread here. I only posted when I thought this thread had been complete with the "announcement of the DAC 1 purchase. Sorry to all if I've interrupted the flow.)

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You should try and snag a Denon DA-500. I think the sound would be right up your alley. They're cheap too.

I would post internal pics of mine, but I've only managed to strip one of the screws :sadcat:

You need a better set of screwdrivers, deepak ;)

Here's the analog section of the DA-500. Some highlights are:

M5218 op amps (IC502 and IC504) are filters

PC4570 op amps (IC501 and IC503) serve as I/V and buffer

C514 and C515 are the output capacitors

post-399-12951152187339_thumb.jpg

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