SBAF DAC Talk II

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Maxx134, Jul 22, 2018.

  1. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    It's not about the part costs. You can spend thousands on random crap that has noise coming out the other end, have some idiot mount it on a breadboard, shove it in a metal box, and have it sound like shit. Many boutique manufacturers do this for audiophiles to feel more special about electrical part costs. Of course if you're only interested in audio gear to feel special and exclusive, then woe to you.
     
  2. MrTeaRex

    MrTeaRex His head's not fat, he's my brother!

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    Some boutique manufacturers mount random crap on actual wooden boards and shove it in a metal box.

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Elnrik

    Elnrik Super Friendly

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    Might as well get that nice mesquite wood flavor when it fries itself.
     
  4. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    What a beauty!
    That's solid engineering, right there!

    I hope he makes a discrete R2R DAC on a breadboard, too (or, better yet, free hanging). That will be sick!
     
  5. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    A deadbug R2R would be amazeballs
     
  6. SoupRKnowva

    SoupRKnowva Official SBAF South Korean Ambassador

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    Selling a point to point wired one for way more money as an upgrade would be incredible
     
  7. 9suns

    9suns [insert unearned title here]

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    Try not to laugh
    https://www.theaudioeagle.com/columns/dac_comparison.html

    That's a review of that POS (the same one in the picture), of course, he loved the sound o_O
     
  8. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

    Pyrate BWC MZR
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    Sometimes keeping distances between components short and compact is good. Sometimes providing space and separation is good. High art is knowing which to employ when.
     
  9. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

    Pyrate BWC
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    Props to anyone who can actually build a fully point to point dac though. That would simply be impressive to see.
     
  10. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Probably easier than a wire wrap CPU

    [​IMG]
     
  11. winders

    winders boomer

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    Do you guys actually believe that point to point wiring is intrinsically better than even the best circuit board designs?
     
  12. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    Some guys do. It takes more effort and they can hear the blood, sweat, tears.

    Slayer put in commendable effort to make commendable records. The builders of breadboard dacs mostly put in commendable effort to make trash.

    Expensive trash is still by definition trash. Trash may be another man’s treasure that’s what Craigslist is for. Slayer CDs can be had for under 10 dollars each on Craigslist and will provide a lifetime of metallic exceptionalism and headbanging.
     
  13. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
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    I've heard a lot of Lampi DACs, and in truth, they are not that bad. His tube implementations are excellent, as transparent as can be (well, with the exception of the one with 2A3 outputs, because I think the small signal tubes are less colored, but nevertheless, sins of omission were few). Now because the sins of omissions were few, all that was left was how crappy the digital sections were. Either that or he loved mega-sibilants.
     
  14. Senorx12562

    Senorx12562 Case of the mondays

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    CD-only_lg.jpg I see these going for ~$2k used every so often. No comment otherwise.
     
  15. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    It’s all in the plinth!
     
  16. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    No power supply either. Runs off a car battery.

    I should sell a Soekris module embedded in wood
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2018
  17. taisserroots

    taisserroots Friend

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    Nah,

    Realistically they do it because they're boutique companies with loads of options with caps and whatever. You can't really make pcbs to accommodate that.
    Pete millet and vertere are the only PCB tube stuff I have seen in the high end market because they have fixed component choices.

    Even if you offer people point to point for cap rolling or whatever, you get some people who will turn their red kt88 amp into a float plane.
     
  18. Scott Kramer

    Scott Kramer Friend

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    Is this a high school project? Looks like a really nice start!
     
  19. InsanityOne

    InsanityOne Acquaintance

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    Not to ruin the Solaris vs. Convert-2 debate, but what about the Burl Audio B2 Bomber DAC? I have been interested in this DAC for years but have never had the guts to actually buy it. (Mostly because there's no real way to demo it and I don't have any amp to do it justice.) But from what I have heard, this DAC has a beautifully warm sound (most likely opposite of the Solaris and Convert-2) which really interests me. Is there anyone else out there who has had their interest peaked by this DAC / company? Burl itself appears to get nothing but rave reviews online.

    [​IMG]

    Also, this may be exposing my ignorance, but with pro DACs like these which don't(?) always have variable clocks, how do those of you who own one setup your digital sources (namely computers) to account for this? Do you forcibly upsample / downsample all audio leaving the source to the same bit depth, or do you just adjust the DAC on the fly depending on the application? This is something I have been curious about for a long time as well.

    Edit: I just noticed that a Purrin and a few others were discussing this DAC earlier in the thread, I'm glad to know that it isn't just me who is curious about it!
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2018
  20. Scott Kramer

    Scott Kramer Friend

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    Lol, reply to myself!
    upload_2018-11-9_0-37-30.png
    Untitled.png
    22~ MHz MCLK output

    Interesting (after reading the dangerous dac clock options), and just for kicks, noticed my funky one-off DLIII also outputs the clock when switched back to internal stock. Gonna see if I can slave the Transport (pi) to the Dac (reverse), this is very raw, the linux driver dishes out PCM samples (16/24/32) timed to a GPIO pin (MCLK)-- may be applicable to the dangerous dacs, looks like they are doing a similar thing (or this is the standard thing). I'll experiment & see if there's a simple way to do this.

    PS yeah, don't do this at home... so dumb ;D

    PS2 (slim): NOT condoning these clock shenanigans ;D alas, here I am.

    Here's its butt (SMA for space instead of BNC) scope is on that sma center pin:
    Screen Shot 2018-11-09 at 1.37.53 AM.png
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2018

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