$40 TDA1543 DAC Kit

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Thumbnail for The DAC dose not come with any RCAs or the toggle switch. The RCAs are left over from my other upgrad project. The toggle is added so it would be easy to switch between optical and coaxial in stead of having to get to the board and reinsert the jumper jack.
Thumbnail for Well, it was a fun little project. This project is not ment to be a serious one.
Thumbnail for After about 48 hours break. I inserted it in my main system. And now comparing it to my main Sony SCD-C 2000ES running straight to my pre. First thing I notice is the level is lower and the high is softer and overall less dynamic. Other than that I will need to give it a bit more time. But I'm likely to use it with my cable box, DVDR or running my iTune through my system. So far not bad at all. A surprisingly smooth sounding DAC. A fun $40 project.
Thumbnail for Testing time. Using my Apple PowerBook G4. Musics came off iTune encoded with "Apple Lossless Compression" feeding M-Audio T M-Groove (same as Transit) with the M-Audio optical out feeding the DAC. The optical input is tested with my old Rotel CDP and Cable box. The DAC is powered via a cheap 1.5 amp multi-voltage adapter.
Thumbnail for Time to dress up the naked DAC. So, it is acrylic cutting time.
Thumbnail for A dry run before drilling holes and guling it.
Thumbnail for Gluing process. I ended up using just my finger to hold them. Everyting went well.... until I spilled some of the crylic gule of wich is run like water on some parts. This made the clear acrylic to become fuzzy. I better be more careful nex time.
Thumbnail for Well, it is now all dressed up in a clear acrylic case. The bottom hole was a mistake. I was going to add a toggle switch so it would be easy to switch between the optical and coaxil but I cut it too low. Well now the toggle (got it from Radio Shack) is in the back. By the way I changed the green LED that came with the kit to the bule one from Radio Shack.
Thumbnail for Well, it is here. The $40 Mini TDA1543 DAC from Hi Fi Diy.net. I bought this on eBay. Pretty fast shipping from LA.
Thumbnail for Okay, let's get started already. Getting tools and things ready.
Thumbnail for Well, it is coming along nicely.
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