Re: Anybody built a DAC kit?

jtdesigns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Serge Auckland wrote:
jtdesigns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
tony sayer wrote:
In article <44af79c5$1_4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Serge Auckland
<serge.auckland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
Andy Evans wrote:
What I did when I needed an ADC, is to get a Crystal Semiconductors
evaluation board. They do them also for their DAC chips. This is a
complete ADC or DAC on a board, with DIP switches for setting it up.
All you need is a power supply and a box to put it into. They cost
about
the same as the DAC-AH, but you get the latest chipset. >>

How do you get such a thing? Knock twice and ask for Crystal?

In your case, what was your receiver chip and what was the DAC chip?
How long ago? Did it sound good? Do tell us more. Andy

The best thing to do is to look up www.crystal.com Find the chip you
want and see if they do an evaluation board. You can download the manual
for the chip and the board, and make sure it's exactly what you need.

Then, find a Crystal Semiconductors distributor in your territory, get a
price and buy one. I bought the CS5335 ADC board about 7 years ago when
I got my Meridian D1500 'speakers as these only have digital inputs, so
I have to convert my analogue sources. The CS5335 is a 20 bit ADC, and I
leave it on 48k sampling, which is fine for my vinyl and FM radio.

As to sound, I compared it with one commercial unit, the Lindos LSC24
A-D/D-A converter and couldn't hear any difference with the sources
available. I also put it back-to-back ( Digital out from CD to LSC24,
analogue out of the LSC24 to Crystal ADC, digital out to 'speakers) with
the LSC24 and sent a digital signal to my 'speakers and again, it was
transparent using a CD as a source. This, to me, means that I wouldn't
be deriving any benefit from something "better".

S.

Any idea of suppliers Serge?...
--
Tony Sayer
A friend built a couple of these and lent them to me.A complete waste
of time I reckon.
Any well executed modern budget CD player would probably sound
better.They sound quite smooth but very two dimensional.

Any idea what measurable parameters would account for a two-dimensional
sound?

S.

Serge,
My apologies.i was refering to the kits using the phillips 1543 non
oversampling kits .
I have a Pioneer 705 with many modifications including a Crystal
CS43122 chip in place of the original.
If you are interested in the other mods I can give the details.
I am yet to hear a better sounding CD player or DAC.I used to own a
Metaxas MASDAC that cost $5000 which was also very good, but not as
good as this moded Pioneer.
So the CS43122 must be pretty good.

JT


Some years ago, the company I was working for was developing high-end studio AD&DA converters. The electronic design wasn't too difficult, but the PC board layout was hyper-critical if the circuits were to be totally stable. The great benefit of using Crystal's evaluation boards was that the layout is optimised, so you know what you're measuring and listening to is the best that chipset can do. When you have your own boards made, you can compare them with the Crystal reference to make sure that nothing has been degraded. That's what gave me the idea of using an evaluation board when I needed an ADC as I had confidence that the design was optimised.

At the time, the AKM D-A chips had a better spec than the equivalent Crystal D-As but it was the other way round for A-Ds. I would expect that today they would be so close as to be indistinguishable.

S.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Anybody built a DAC kit?
    ... They do them also for their DAC chips. ... what was your receiver chip and what was the DAC chip? ... The best thing to do is to look up www.crystal.com Find the chip you want and see if they do an evaluation board. ... I bought the CS5335 ADC board about 7 years ago when I got my Meridian D1500 'speakers as these only have digital inputs, ...
    (uk.rec.audio)
  • Re: Anybody built a DAC kit?
    ... They do them also for their DAC chips. ... complete ADC or DAC on a board, with DIP switches for setting it up. ... what was your receiver chip and what was the DAC chip? ... As to sound, I compared it with one commercial unit, the Lindos LSC24 ...
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  • Re: Anybody built a DAC kit?
    ... Crystal Semiconductors evaluation board. ... them also for their DAC chips. ... what was your receiver chip and what ... the CS5335 ADC board about 7 years ago when I got my ...
    (uk.rec.audio)
  • Re: Anybody built a DAC kit?
    ... They do them also for their DAC chips. ... complete ADC or DAC on a board, with DIP switches for setting it up. ... what was your receiver chip and what was the DAC chip? ... As to sound, I compared it with one commercial unit, the Lindos LSC24 ...
    (uk.rec.audio)
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