HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

http://www.soekris.dk/dam1121.html

I know a couple of you on here use Metrum R2R DACs, before I decided to try the MHDT the DACs from Soekris caught my eye. Their own line looked OK, but what struck me was that they sell DIY and OEM boards. Which got me wondering what any of you DIY types could do with them with bigger powers supplies etc.

The Teddydac (mine has a volume control) is about £900. Teddy is based in Israel so customs may choose to charge vat on top of this.

The dac has been well liked by many people. I have not seen any negative comments about the device. Teddy has some similar characteristics to the Doc; direct selling with a money back guarantee and no b*llsh*t.

I can only imagine that there are a number of ways of designing a dac some of which cost more to produce. There is a bewildering choice available but to produce something for under a fiver which is competitive to something which costs a lot more is quite an achievement.

Just 'cos a modern DAC chipset has it 'all' on board and costs a fiver doesn't automatically mean it's crap. Teddy and others are quite possibly making things too complicated to justify their name on the front panel, when the decoding, filtering and audio output side can be placed on one small die now. The fiver DAC with a nice linear supply feeding it really is amazingly competent and you forget it's there after a few minutes. The case probably costs more than the innards plus the 'intellectual profit' of course. Just sayin' like...

By the way, the old TDA1541 chip was all pins and mounting I understand, the actual business part inside it was the size of a pin head I remember from pictures... It's nothing to combine several bits inside to reduce chip count nowadays...

The original tda1541 was made as small as technology allowed at the time

http://www.lampizator.eu/lampizator/LIN ... 01541A.pdf
Yes the TDA1541A is small. Total chip size 36mm x 14 mm.

I have two CD players with this chip inside. They cost me £20 and £30.

Edit: chip size corrected - I misread data sheet. Thanks to DSJR.

It's a bit more than 14mm long - http://blog.audioworkshop.org/dir9001td ... tDBSGyWyt8

I have been wondering how many voltage supply pins are on this dac chip. The TDA1305 in my Naim CD3.5 has 3. Naim gave each pin its own regulator but it was all on the main psu along with everything else. I gave each dac supply pin its own dedicated psu. It was a hell of an improvement from what i remember. With this Chinese dac using surface mount components it will probably be a bit harder to do or impossible. That's if there is more than one supply pin.

When i get it the first thing i will probably do is have a look inside

Stemcor1990 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:31 am The Teddydac (mine has a volume control) is about £900. Teddy is based in Israel so customs may choose to charge vat on top of this.

The dac has been well liked by many people. I have not seen any negative comments about the device. Teddy has some similar characteristics to the Doc; direct selling with a money back guarantee and no b*llsh*t.

I can only imagine that there are a number of ways of designing a dac some of which cost more to produce. There is a bewildering choice available but to produce something for under a fiver which is competitive to something which costs a lot more is quite an achievement.

Cheers Stemcor,

Teddy does sell direct but his prices are more than trade price. He started off like me - butchering Naim equipment in the pfm diy room.

Stu

karatestu wrote: ↑Fri Apr 13, 2018 4:18 pm I have been wondering how many voltage supply pins are on this dac chip. The TDA1305 in my Naim CD3.5 has 3. Naim gave each pin its own regulator but it was all on the main psu along with everything else. I gave each dac supply pin its own dedicated psu. It was a hell of an improvement from what i remember. With this Chinese dac using surface mount components it will probably be a bit harder to do or impossible. That's if there is more than one supply pin.

When i get it the first thing i will probably do is have a look inside

But conversly if you embrace surface mount there is a lot you can do. There are some very good regulators that are small enough so you can have one and a couple of caps next to every supply pin on your dac and supporting circuits. I found the LT1761 was good for example.

karatestu wrote: ↑Fri Apr 13, 2018 4:18 pm When i get it the first thing i will probably do is have a look inside

Something I've been thinking about for a while now!
I liked the "cheapo" DAC powered by the USB-out on my laptop, but couldn't believe how much better it sounded with the power provided by the standalone supply. It really is something special.
I have been wondering if there is anything else that could be done to improve it even more - whether the amplification to bring the output up to line level could be done off the chip for instance (with another power supply?)
I'll be following this thread with interest.