TeraDak-style

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SteveS57
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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by SteveS57 »

I bought a teradak quite a few years ago now, i liked the idea of no amplifying stage in the dac.

I did and still belive in less is more, I was so impressed I bought a second for my living room system a couple of years later.
I don't think I have heard any dac that beats it in my view, but a few good ones have equalled it. Maybe I haven't listened to the right ones ?

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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by Fretless »

From the first listen to the little TeraDak 2.7, I could hear that there was a difference in presentation to what I had previously been used to from 'digital' sources.

The 4.5 Chameleon has only confirmed this with a big, bouncing sound that makes me smile and leaves me wanting nothing more in terms of 'life' or detail. It is also providing me with a whole new level of low-end information that the Musette (now) obviously lacks. Much more weight and presence.

Okay there is the occasional bit of glitch/switching noise as it shifts sampling rates and the coax/Toslink switch is rather inconveniently hidden at the back. But there is no doubt for me - THIS is the DAC that I've been looking for. :dance: :music-listening: :dance:

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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by Fretless »

Just found this article. It appears to be written by one of the designers explaining the unique build of the Chameleon.
Interestingly, the signal is upsampled to 24bit/96KHz which is the maximum the TDA1543 chips can handle but would seem to sound better.

Their philosophy is that they are definitely looking for the best possible sound. This must be an early description (2010 or thereabouts?) as they still refer to it as the 'Valab'- the original name. There was an improved version introduced later.

(NB: the Taiwanese English isn't great so I have tidied it up slightly.)

Image


Teradak Chameleon Ultra Low Jitter USB DAC --- Ultra low jitter version with dual 1ppm tcxo and ad1896 ASRC for 96K upsampling for Valab16 pcs of tda1543 dac chips paralleling
Why non-oversampling DAC? ------ 'oversampling' kill music!

You may not know, the actual digital signal recorded on your CD title is 16bit/44.1k format. Yes, never doubt it! Then why almost all modern DAC feature 24bit/96k or even 192k specification? In modern digital recording studio, music will be recorded in new 24bit/192k format but when they need to 'write' onto CD, these information-rich formation must be downgraded into old format. These 'New' DACs will try 'restore' the downgraded back to more informative format using some smart algorithm worked out by smart mathematician. ----- That is problem! why? All music you hear from CD will be processed by some smart algorithm, then you hear the artificial sound ---- actually bad sound! My verdict? No! If you are an experienced audiophile, you will find if these cd players or DACs use the same dac chip inside, they all will have very similaer sound features, even their analog circuits designs are quite different. Why? You hear the same result derived from the same smart algorithm.

These artificial contaminations will damage your audio enjoyment! Why, they mask real tone color and even 'atmosphere' of music player. You do not believe!? Try to find CD records which also have vinyl LP version, compare music from vinyl and CD. You will know how bad this artificial sound is! Back to vinyl record?

No! Vinyl LP really too troublesome! Listening to music should be easy and relaxing. Non-oversampling DAC is a compromise answer.

NOS-DACs may be an acceptable answer to CD music. Why? No artificial processing anymore from these NOS-DACs. You get non-refined music recorded on CD although it is still a degraded music. But in my experience, it is still much better than artificial junk.
Why? 'modern' dac can not basically generate right music signal from downgraded recordings on CD, but rather adds mathematically-generated fill-in bits into your music.
So NOS-DAC is an obvious choice!
VALAB NOS-DAC TDA1543 --- simple elegance

All NOS-DACs are simple. because these old NOS dac chips are such small and simple IC with few pins and only need simple circuit to work well. TDA-1543 may be the most small but tough one. It is a real vintage chip developed by Philips 2 decades ago. We choose it to implement our own NOS-DAC. No special innovation on this chip for it is too simple. What we should do is try to extract its maximum potential! How?

1. Keep most accurate digital signal and feed to TDA1543 in low jitter fashion.
WM8805 digital receiver is the answer for this propose. WM8805 may be the best sound digital receiver chip on market. You will get very amazing vivid and analog sound from it.
2. Paralleling DAC chips. We parallel up to 16 TDA1543 chips, 16 chips paralleling does enhance performance, get better resolution and lower output impedance.
3. Professional-use power supply. 30W sealed military grade power transformer was used in this DAC, it can offer up to 15 times required electricpower. No vibration, heating from this transformer. In rectification circuit, we use best sound 1n5062 diode, this is most creditable diode which is popular in audio tweaking. It does significantly improve sound quality, more smooth and natural sound. Expensive LT1084 5A voltage regulator and Rubycon capacitor were used in power supply section to offer clean and low drop voltage to tda1543 and dir9001 chips.
4. Native 16bit 96K USB receiving for computer based source. We incorporate USB receiving capacity to our new version of 1543 dac. Unlike other USB dac use pcm170x chip which integrates USB receiving and dac into one chip, which is very low cost and low performance. Our approach of USB DAC use very delicate design, using independent TENOR TE7022L USB receiving chip and get I2S digital signal feed into TDA1543 chip.
5. Precision Clock. In order to get best quality digital signal for TDA1543 chip, we integrate independent precision clocking and re-data circuit for digital receiving. You will never find any commercial NOS DAC have so dedicate digital design. No matter what price they sell! We invest our best efforts to extrapolate potential of TDA1543 chip. Our implementation may be best TDA1543 based DAC in market.
6. AD1896 upsampling module for sampling rate extension. This must be most risky technique exploring for Valab nos dac. Why we add a 'upsampling' circuit to 'non over-sampling' dac? At first, we just want to test the possibility if the tda1543 dac can work at 96k mode or not. Our test results convinced us and many of our previous customers this design does significantly enhance sound performance. We explore new possibility and potential to tda1543 based NOS dac.
7. After several month of selling this dac, we have accumulated much know how in parts choice from our customers. Key components usage list below.
a. First stage filtering capacitors: 10 Panasonic FC 1000u/35v Long Life/Low impedance 105 degree C tolerance
b. Decoupling capacitors for digital circuit chips: Eight PSC-470uf 16V solid polymer (os-con) Low ESR/Low impedance 105 degree C tolerance c. Decoupling capacitors for TDA1543 chips: 16 NEC TOKIN 10uf/25v SMD type capacitors, one for each tda1543 chip
d. Analog output output capacitor: Two UCC 20uf 800v MKP capacitors
f. Digital input coupling capacitor : Two metal can oil filled 0.01uf/200v
8. New layout by Teradak research group, significantly shorten signal path and use chassis chassis as heatsink, it will have much better heat dissipation efficiency, keeping dac chip cooler and long time stable.
9. Independent power supply, removing power transformer, voltage regulator out of main circuit chassis. Vibration, noise and supply section now completely isolated from dac main circuit. This dac may be most quiet tda1543 based dac in the world. We hear no hiss, no hum from our 103db/1w altec 604 speaker.

This simple and small NOS-DAC does have a most delicate design and very very good parts choice. You can take it to compete other much much expensive DACs of your friends. You will be very happy.

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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by karatestu »

So you get two boxes - dac and power supply ?

The psu is linear then ? Any pics of it's innards ?

Maybe some scope for improving the psu.
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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by Fretless »

Image

Upstairs:
Vinyl
Pro-Ject 1.2 + Grado Sig Jr + Cambridge Alva Duo
DigiVolumio PC + Kiss DP-500 + Sabaj A20d
NVA: P50sa - Cube2 - SSP - LS6+ Sabaj A10a (x2)
Downstairs:
Vinyl
Logic DM101 + Syrinx LE1 + Grado Sig MCX
DigiDenafrips Ares II + Volumio PC + Cambridge CXC
NVA: P50 - BMU+ Aiyima A07 MAX (x2) + Arcam One
HP: HifiBerry Digi+ PRO + Sabaj A10d
Office:
Allo DigiOne SIG + SMSL M300se + Douk G4 (x2)
Mission 760 + Monolith THX AAA 887
Headphones: German Maestro & AudioQuest

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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by karatestu »

Cheers Fret :guiness;

They are very tidy inside. A "C" core transformer by the looks of it and lots of small smoothing caps.

I see from the TDA1543 data sheet that the IC only has one supply voltage pin and can accept between +3 and +8 Vdc. No split rail design needed here. I don't know what the receiver chips etc run from though. Looks like 3 wires going from psu to dac box. One will be 0V and the other two probably two positive voltage rails i don't know for sure.

How about a BBPSU for it ? :lol: Or several :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by Fretless »

Only a BBPSU, Stu?

Surely you've got room on the farm for one of these?
(The Russians are trying to flog a used one 2nd hand on Ebay) :grin:

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Upstairs:
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Downstairs:
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HP: HifiBerry Digi+ PRO + Sabaj A10d
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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by karatestu »

Is that nuclear ? Biomass only for me. That would be one clean psu :lol:
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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by karatestu »

I am not sure what attracts me to the NOS style dac's. I suppose it must be the less is more thing. With the dac i have in my CDP i can't get away from it unfortunately. The SA7376 decoder chip in my cdp does output a I2S signal which the TDA1543 will accept as it is closely related to the phillips TDA1305 in my CDP. Maybe with a bit of jiggery pokery i can bypass the receiver chip in the teradak and connect the two.

You know i believe all this circuitry between transport and dac is unnecessary if you can get the dac in close to the decoder (ie in the same box and a couple of cm's away. Maybe i will try it some day. Naim disabled the digital out function on the decoder as they did not believe in digital outs on their cdp's at the time. How times and marketing bollocks have changed.
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Re: TeraDak-style

Unread post by Fretless »

Hmmm. Irritating.....

Tried hooking up the Chameleon on a USB cable to my Asus netbook last night. This DAC is supposedly optimised for USB input which takes priority over the SPDIF connections.

Cable hooked in, netbook on and Foobar ready. No output device. Computer says that the DAC has no valid driver and cannot be recognised.

Off to the TeraDak website where there is a driver download for the Tenor TC7022L receiving device.
Okay download that and unzip it. The general setup program doesn't recognise Windows 10 (XP - yes. just shows how old the software is) but going into the 32-bit folder does provide a working setup program.

Driver loaded and the DAC is recognised by the system. Played a few brief clips and turned in as it was 1 a.m. Sound was big and warm, had the idea that it was a bit 'fuller' than the coax input.

Had another go today and try as I could - the damn machines would not work together. The Asus netbook just refuses to hook up the DAC.
But I've had troubles with this puny little PC before now. It is just a reserve laptop that is handy for use with the music system or being taken on holiday. Very slow and limited.

Given up on the USB input for now. See if I can be bothered this weekend.

Upstairs:
Vinyl
Pro-Ject 1.2 + Grado Sig Jr + Cambridge Alva Duo
DigiVolumio PC + Kiss DP-500 + Sabaj A20d
NVA: P50sa - Cube2 - SSP - LS6+ Sabaj A10a (x2)
Downstairs:
Vinyl
Logic DM101 + Syrinx LE1 + Grado Sig MCX
DigiDenafrips Ares II + Volumio PC + Cambridge CXC
NVA: P50 - BMU+ Aiyima A07 MAX (x2) + Arcam One
HP: HifiBerry Digi+ PRO + Sabaj A10d
Office:
Allo DigiOne SIG + SMSL M300se + Douk G4 (x2)
Mission 760 + Monolith THX AAA 887
Headphones: German Maestro & AudioQuest

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