simple minimalist dac

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CN211276
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Re: simple minimalist dac

Unread post by CN211276 »

I found that a power bank (£20) was a lot better than the power supply which came with the E30.
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Re: simple minimalist dac

Unread post by Latteman »

Fretless wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:00 pm Very minimal - have a look at the Teradak V4.5 Chameleon. It is a pure NOS DAC, which I find sound fantastic with NVA amps.

The Chameleon is a 2-box design with an external PSU

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There is an on/off switch on the power supply and a single toggle switch on the back of the DAC module to select Coax or Optical input. USB has priority override.

Cost should be under £400 via AliExpress
Sound is sublime.
Hi Fret- would u recommend any of the early versions which are significantly cheaper- cheers
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Re: simple minimalist dac

Unread post by Fretless »

Latteman wrote: Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:50 pm Hi Fret- would u recommend any of the early versions which are significantly cheaper- cheers
Well, yes and no,. I was so impressed by the Teradak series that I now have 3 versions of their DAC:

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V2.7: A single box unit utilising 8 TDA1543 NOS chips in parallel. This DAC has a pleasant clear and musical sound. Currently it resides behind the television and runs the audio from that through a Toslink connection. Perfect for TV usage.

Image

V4.1: Basically the same device as the 2.7 but then with the outboard PSU that the Chameleon also has. This DAC has far better grip on the music than the 2.7 but can sound a touch 'unpolished'. Great for a headphone-based installation.

In-between these two is the model V3.1 which has a superior internal power-supply to the 2.7.

And then there is the V4.5 Chameleon. The array of NOS chips was doubled to 16, which you hear immediately as the output voltage is considerably higher than the 4.1. These classic TDA1543 chips are rigged to run at their maximum capacity of 24bit/96KHz and the SQ from this clunky-looking unit is nothing short of spectacular. Warm, musical, dynamic, emotive. I could easily live with just this DAC (if the Denafrips Ares II wasn't so damn good!).

These are all pure NOS DAC's with no over-sampling (a bit of upsampling in the Chameleon - but if you set the input to 24/96 you bypass that and the SQ is superb). By modern standards these are very 'old-school tech' but the Chameleon will blow a lot of far more expensive DAC's away with its sheer transparency and musicality.
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Latteman (Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:17 pm)

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Re: simple minimalist dac

Unread post by savvypaul »

A Grace SDAC is about as simple as it gets - USB only.

About £80 from Mass Drop.

AKM chip, sounds very similar to the £800 RME that we also have here.
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