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Post by karma67 on Jul 12, 2020 15:42:49 GMT
Silver or copper leads coming from the Tx? or better still get the tx wound in pure silver wire lol yes im being sarcastic! |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 12, 2020 15:50:23 GMT
Errr... you can see the darn things in your picture!! Haha, they are silver |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2020 17:25:25 GMT
Errr... you can see the darn things in your picture!! Haha, they are silver
Tinned copper or actually silver?
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 12, 2020 17:26:25 GMT
Tinned copper or actually silver?
Pure silver....yes....im that crazy lol No, I've cut the end off and its still silver inside so gawd knows what it is |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2020 21:05:03 GMT
Aluminium....
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 12, 2020 23:06:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2020 12:35:12 GMT
Personally a mix of feo-liquid material casement combined with a suitable Ag/Au/Cu outer core carefully annealed then long dip cryo treated should suffice Oli. Otherwise its just not cricket old boy, with a man of your stature and high regard in this community I have come to expect the unexpected  |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 13, 2020 13:00:49 GMT
Personally a mix of feo-liquid material casement combined with a suitable Ag/Au/Cu outer core carefully annealed then long dip cryo treated should suffice Oli. Otherwise its just not cricket old boy, with a man of your stature and high regard in this community I have come to expect the unexpected Hahahaha,...im happy with plain old copper |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2020 14:49:44 GMT
Sorry Oli feeling a little frivolous this afternoon bored at work and attempting to look busy and interested, failing dismally!
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 13, 2020 14:55:31 GMT
Sorry Oli feeling a little frivolous this afternoon bored at work and attempting to look busy and interested, failing dismally! Hahaha I know the feeling. Been at work for 3hrs and not seen a single person....intense boredom. |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 16, 2020 8:11:28 GMT
For the last few days, I have been doing some thorough research into digital. DACs mainly, and I noticed a small trend of respected audiophiles making moves in a "backwards" direction.
A few of the HiFi Fraternity are buying up old DAC's! Then proclaiming them to sound much preferable to what they were using from the modern era. This got me thinking.
What if DACs are going the wrong way?
What if THD and SINAD are not where the war should be won?
So, my theory is this....I love vinyl, It's highly flawed yet manages to sound as good or better than any digital I have heard. So why is that? What is it about Vinyl that makes this so. There are things like Jitter, noise, bits, NOS, Upsampling and almost every type of reason you can think of as to why digital can't beat vinyl. But what if the answer is a lot simpler?
Distortion. or lack thereof.
I set off on a journey of discovery and found that no R2R DAC can match the performance levels in that area of the D/S DACS but that in reality, the figures they quote are far more comparable with vinyl.
So, according to the link I shared recently: www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/vinyl-lp/70-tests/103-cartridge-tests.html?showall=1 Vinyl has between 0.656% - 3.56% distortion. Quite staggering isn't it, but apparently, it doesn't seem to matter all that much, as long as you set the cartridge up right. So what DACs have distortion that is comparable? R2R DACS!
So, I have long been interested in a particular DAC, the Denafrips Terminator. It's a R2R dac and by all user accounts I can find, it's a phenomenal bit of kit. But lets get real, I am not about to drop £4k on one, but I did notice that compared to the modern day Delta Sigma units, the performance in THD and SINAD is way below what the D/S can do.
As of today, I am still not entirely sure that R2R dacs can overcome these issues but I am very keen to try one. I did have a TeraDAC years ago, but I did not know how to get the best out of it and my system was not of the standard required to asses it fully.
So where does that leave the guys like me who are interested in such magical performance but don't want to invest heavily?
Well, the first item I found, that was reasonably price (780E 0r £765ish) was this:
soekris.dk/dac1421.html
THD @ -1 dB <0.008%
THD @ -60 dB <0.03%
Resistor Precision 27 bit, 0.02% Resistors
Clock Jitter RMS 0.3 pS typical
S/N 20 Khz Bandwith >120 dB unweighted
Frequency Range +0.1 -1.0 dB 20hz - 20Khz
USB Input Type B, Isolated, Full/High Speed
USB Input Mode Selectable Audio Class 1.0 or Audio Class 2.0
SPDIF / Toslink Inputs Up to 24 bit / 192 Khz
USB Input PCM Up to 24 Bit / 384 Ksps
USB Input DSD Up to DoP-128 and DSD-256
Digital volume control -80 dB to +10 dB
Output Line RCA, 2.0V RMS, Zout 50 ohm
Output Headphones 6.3 mm Jack, 6.5V RMS, Zout 2.0 ohm
Power Consumption 90-265V AC, max 25W
Size 220 x 205 x 40 mm
Weight 1.4 Kg
Warranty 3 Years
The figures in BOLD are what I am seeing foremost as the vinyl comparison. Almost every phonostage suggests a +/-1db variation in the frequency response (not the BB3, that's +/-0.5db  ) so again, this figure is very relatable. The SNR is 120db unweighted, which is far better than almost every phonostage on the planet. Then THD looks low enough but without venturing into Sabre/BurrBrown and AKM territory....see where I am going with this?
The one thing I am not keen on is the SMPS it is powered with. I may ask if a version is available to allow me plug my LPSU in. If not, they have a DIY version, but I don't feel entirely comfortable taking that on. I just don't know enough about Digital to take it on.
Then I got to wondering, is there a R2R DAC for the RPI? Guess what...THERE IS!
audiophilediyer.com/diy-nos-ad1865-dac-for-raspberry-pi/
Unfortunately, I can't find any specs for the actual performance, but the data sheet for the chip suggests that SNR ratio is greater than 110db, and distortion at -60db is around 0.03%, so its very comparable with the Soekris in that regard. So in true Bigman80 style, I have asked if there is a unit available for review.
there isn't....but that's because he is currently working on a new R2R dac hat with a chip that is easier to find!
I would like to try the original AD1865 version so have asked for a price for one of his remaining stock.
If it's not ridiculous, I may buy one in the name of forum content!
BTW, I know that I am massively oversimplifying things here, and in all likelihood missing a few very important considerations, but I don't claim to be a digital expert. It's just a novices journey into a theory I am sharing. So if you have ANY comment on things that may be helpful or enlighten my thoughts, please share them. I'd appreciate the guidance.
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Post by macca on Jul 16, 2020 12:52:05 GMT
If you prefer vinyl stick with vinyl. Sell all your digital stuff.
or see if there is some sort of plug in thing (software) that makes digital sound like vinyl. If there isn't one there should be. It would make millions.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 13:20:17 GMT
I would like to try the original AD1865 version so have asked for a price for one of his remaining stock.
I paid £300 for an Audio Note DAC using that chip. For me its only downside is it's a single input DAC so I will buy another if one crops up.
I may well be cloth eared but I don't care as I love listening to Qobuz from my Node2 through it.....
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 16, 2020 13:31:33 GMT
I would like to try the original AD1865 version so have asked for a price for one of his remaining stock.
I paid £300 for an Audio Note DAC using that chip. For me its only downside is it's a single input DAC so I will buy another if one crops up.
I may well be cloth eared but I don't care as I love listening to Qobuz from my Node2 through it.....
Explain to me why thats a downside....i don't know enough to know why. |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 16, 2020 13:35:41 GMT
If you prefer vinyl stick with vinyl. Sell all your digital stuff. or see if there is some sort of plug in thing (software) that makes digital sound like vinyl. If there isn't one there should be. It would make millions. These days macca, I am finding huge value in the digital playback and this is just me, experimenting and checking on a theory about how to move closer to the sound of vinyl, rather than match it. I'm exceeding happy with the PecanPi and most of my listening is done via that source these days as my library is so vast. Vinyl gets played when I want to listen to the good stuff that cost a lot of money to aquire. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 13:43:24 GMT
I paid £300 for an Audio Note DAC using that chip. For me its only downside is it's a single input DAC so I will buy another if one crops up.
I may well be cloth eared but I don't care as I love listening to Qobuz from my Node2 through it.....
Explain to me why thats a downside....i don't know enough to know why.
You mean because I said it's a single input? Well I can only plug one thing into it at any one time, so I'd need to faff about swapping cables. As it happens my current CD player doesn't have a digital out so in reality it's no big deal for me.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 16, 2020 15:59:20 GMT
Oh i see....lol
I thought you meant it was a chip limitation or something lol
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 16:32:09 GMT
oh haha lol
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Post by sq225917 on Jul 16, 2020 18:06:27 GMT
The best dac I've heard was a toss up between the Weiss Medea + and the Emma labs dac2.
Neither of them modern days...
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 16, 2020 18:33:28 GMT
The best dac I've heard was a toss up between the Weiss Medea + and the Emma labs dac2. Neither of them modern days... Thats mega interesting......and is another vote in the direction im thinking |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 16, 2020 22:47:12 GMT
A little side note... Look at this Badboy! Preliminary PCB for the AWM preamplifier...i am really excited to get to work on this little project.   |
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Post by electronumpty on Jul 16, 2020 23:44:30 GMT
AWM? looks cool and very concise
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 17, 2020 5:20:42 GMT
AWM? looks cool and very concise Yup, AWM Designers initials. Tidy ay! |
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Post by brian2957 on Jul 17, 2020 8:02:22 GMT
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 17, 2020 8:13:37 GMT
Cor!!!! Thats got the juices flowing lol No, no biscuit tin for the proper build. Im considering this lump. Obviously I will badge it up with a lovely alu plaque  |
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Post by electronumpty on Jul 17, 2020 8:54:12 GMT
Nice looking case there.
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Post by firebottle on Jul 17, 2020 9:09:34 GMT
Nice, got a link?
Might also be good for the valve buffer (shh).
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 17, 2020 9:30:03 GMT
Nice, got a link? Might also be good for the valve buffer (shh). They do a plain fronted one....I'll see if I can find it. |
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Post by brian2957 on Jul 17, 2020 9:51:27 GMT
That's a nice case .
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 17, 2020 10:03:49 GMT
Yes, not stupid money either! |
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) so again, this figure is very relatable. The SNR is 120db unweighted, which is far better than almost every phonostage on the planet. Then THD looks low enough but without venturing into Sabre/BurrBrown and AKM territory....see where I am going with this? 
