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My New DAC


crazikid

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time for a new change - computer audio.

my requisites for my digital front end was a computer. I always found cd technology cumbersome. i loved the idea of controlling my music from a armchair via a iphone or iPad rather than the silver disc dictating what 10 tracks i could listen to at one time. then i had to get up and wade through the jewel cases for the next CD. only to find the Cd was not in its case. very frustrating :mad:

I had recently sold my wadia cd player- killerdac combo. Was very nice - but life is about experiencing new things.

all this talk of jitter and synchronous and asynchronous audio confused the hell out of me and it was through statemans experience with the ACKODAC - i decided to enquire. I am really glad i did. i order the AKD12 integrated combo with exau21 which arrived today.

its not hard DIY - actually one of the easiest builds i have done as most of the hard work has been done - connect 3 transformers put into a case and enjoy.

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Edited by crazikid
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I need a flameproof suit, IMHO, you have one of the best DACs in Brisbane in the photo above!

one of =)

very nice crazykid! i've caved on the turboclock too, havent recieved it yet though. in fact I only just now decided 100% =)

i'm qusp btw =)

Edited by fetischizm
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one of =)

If I hadn't heard your DAC I'd be only making baseless claims!

i'm qusp btw =)

For those playing along at home, I am hochopeper on diyA. I really need to talk to someone about changing my username on here.

Edited by zman
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better try a better native DSD input then =) EXA seems to have a ways to go in this regard. theres a few interesting DSD direct technologies getting around the japanese DIY scene that are of interest too. as in no dac needed, since DSD is effectively an analogue signal already. not that this is a huge deal the tiny proportion of material that is actually recorded in DSD is miniscule, so many are just PCM converted

Edited by fetischizm
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how do you guys find the difference between listening to native dsd capable dac vs dsd that is real-time converted to pcm (via playback software) or maybe just hi res 384 pcm?

is it 'night and day' ?

Yes its a big difference, listening to DSD converted to PCM sounds like PCM, even 384 is still just pcm. DSD is in a league of its own, very audible, unlike many snake oil claims, of course theres lot of other issues too, DSD recordings are usually very well done, you obviously want a high resolution system to hear how good it is. Native 325/384 recorded wav pcm comes close but still second. Shame theres not that much music, but it makes a great standard to aspire to. And you get to hear how good your system can be with such a high quality source.

An Amanero/Buff3SE will cost you about $600 and possibly best way to hear native DSD without hyper price, although the Mytec dac is good value at around $1500, haven't heard one.

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no, I like being semi incognito :ph34r:

I have pics of my ackodac, but i'd raher let James post his first

please feel free to show us your acko, Jeremy.. i think this dac deserves alot of praise being aussie made and all!

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as for pics, OK i'll dig around. nothing is in its final shape I only have pics of various different 2 channel arrangements. once I get the second NTD1 up and running and the turboclock i'll be attemting to draw a line under it for a while.

contrary to popular belief, ESS does not play native DSD, its still converted to its internal 6bit DS format for the modulator, rather than what is essentially a 1bit FIR filter which is all thats required for playing DSD.

DSD is actually noisier/lower performance than PCM, yet some still prefer it. Accuphase have developed a custom digital filter in an FPGA to play native 1bit with ESS, but with the buffallo or ackodac its not.

if you want to play native DSD in 1bit, you need DSD1794, which is an advanced segment dac, but has the ability to simply act as a 1bit FIR filter for DSD, or you can use this schematic is here which as you can see has no DAC, its simply a high performance analogue filter. as well as some high end discrete solutions such as the Grimm SD1

that doesnt mean it doesnt sound great playing DSD, but putting it forward as a way to play DSD natively is incorrect. the format is due for a few shake-ups in the next year or 2, with things like Multibit DSD. I think custom FPGA builds are the way of the future, but it'll be a while before it matures and of course even longer before we start to be able to buy music in those new formats.

so for now our ESS are perfectly serviceable haha

Edited by fetischizm
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no problem, yeah i'm going to sit back and watch for a while re DSD, as DoP (DSD over PCM) is changing/evolving too fast to invest much in it and multichannel is not available as yet AFAIK. for now i'm happy to have the option to play around with it as a novelty while already having state of the art multichannel PCM decoding. DSD128 and higher does not present the same noise issues of DSD64, or rather the noise is pushed further up in frequency so its not an audible issue. but the problem is processing it, none of the standard programs are able to process native DSD audio data, so it makes a DSD digital crossover pretty much impossible for now.

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heres a few dodgy pics of various stuff i'm playing around with. I also have 2 other IV stages for ESS including SEN/CEN and one i'm starting to play around with based on Scott Wurcers SW-OPA jfet (BF862) based discrete opamp. NTD1 is where its at for me at the moment. inn the photos I have Amanero, Titan and fifo for different sources/transports. but Titan plus the turbo clock will be where I rest for multichannel for the crossover, at least until Ian designs a multichannel fifo.

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Edited by fetischizm
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