Jump to content

Parasound DAC Owners....


ecclesand

Recommended Posts

It was discussed before in the other Parasound thread but nobody has heard them I guess. The ones with inferior digital chipses (1000,1500) probably better for this upgrade as they gain 24/96 capability (if the DAC chips are replaced as well with PCM1704U-K chips) while this is not available in the 1100 or 1600.

A Hungarian guy has a heavily modified 1100, I will probably try to organize a comparison between that and my stock 1600.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just bought a D/AC 800 so I would be upgrading the stock NPC SM5813 which is a rebadged DF1700. I think it may prove a worthy upgrade based on some of the reading I've done but the cost of the upgrade will be more than the DAC itself. I have already pulled all the opamps in the output stage and replaced with sockets and have been rolling opamps with some success. Would it be fairly simple to skip the output stage and go passive with some nice film caps?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know enough about this stuff to be really dangerous, but wouldn't a passive output sound better than an active one with all the opamps? I did something similar with my Lite DAC-AH and it sounds much better to my ears. Of course, the caps I used cost more than the DAC itself.:palm:

In any case, I'm moving ahead with the ASE-Audiotuning mods to swap out the stock Yamaha receiver (YM3623) and NPC filter (SM5813) on my D/AC-800. I'll report back when they've settled in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would just buy a whole new DAC instead of going with the audiotuning mods, as IIRC, they are really no less expensive than getting something like a DAC 1100HD. Anyways though, the PCM67 outputs 1.2mA centered around something like 3v (not looking at the datasheet right now), but also provides a reference voltage equal to that offset which the I/V opamps are almost certainly using for their + input instead of ground, which cancels the offset. You should measure, but coupling caps are probably not needed at all here. I would upgrade the opamps used, or change to some other I/V, but I wouldnt just pull and bypass the opamps entirely, unless you like how aliasing sounds. DACs like these need a LPF to properly reconstruct the original waveform.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Colin. I've been reading up on different uses for opamps and was able to recognize that some of them in the D/AC 800 are used for a low pass filter. Parasound was nice enough to send me the schematic and I'm quickly realizing that what I did with the Lite is probably not transferrable to this DAC. Again, thanks for your help!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know enough about this stuff to be really dangerous, but wouldn't a passive output sound better than an active one with all the opamps?

Not necessarily. There are lots of different ways to do a passive or active output stage, and both approaches can have an influence on the sound quality positively or negatively.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.