[wushuliu]

This little muse showed up yesterday from China. In only a week to boot - which has to be the record. 4 TDA1543 chips, passive output, wall wart PS. They sent me a European wallwart, but luckily I have some extra 12v's lying around. It's only been running for a few hours now. I bought it so that I could get an idea of the TDA154x sound that everyone talks about. I know this isn't the best example, but hey, it's cheap. I've got it hooked up to my music server/pc with a TeraDak X2 sdpif/coax converter (w/ usb isolator).

Up until now I've only heard cs4398, ad1865, and whatever dacs are in my Marantz receiver (burr brown i think). I did hear a Bel Canto DAC2 (PCM1738?) recently at a fellow audiophile's and it was very nice. Having listened for a few hours now I can understand how this chip has a following: the midrange. Man, the midrange really has offers something very different from the other DACs I've heard. A lot of body and soul. Very seductive. A few minutes in I realized I'd stopped analyzing and was just listening to the music, which is always a good sign. Can't really describe what I hear, but there're enough opinions out there already, so I'll just say 'they're right'. Detail, transparency, etc. is so-so but given the cheap design this isn't a surprise, maybe it will open up over the next few days (actually I'm sure it will as new components always need a few days to adjust to the conditioning gear I have set up). I've already swapped out 2 resistors which helped a little, and no doubt the output caps would be better of w/ film instead of the electrolytics, but with an enclosure this small this is pretty much a no-go. I'll probably swap the power supply cap for an oscon and call it a day. The chips run hot, so the heatsink is definitely needed.

One interesting thing is the output is pretty high. With the DCB1 buffer and ClassDAudio amp, the farthest the volume knob goes is about 11 o'clock for moderate levels. I'm guessing this guy will not be invited to the Aikido preamp party I'm preparing given the gain  , at which point I'll probably sell this dac - I just wanted to get a feel for the TDA sound. So far I'm impressed enough to invest in a more robust iteration down the road.

[JohnR]

Hey I've had the single-chip version for a couple of days. Pretty much agree with your assessment. I was thinking of trying a small film bypass on the output caps.

[wushuliu]

Hey I've had the single-chip version for a couple of days. Pretty much agree with your assessment. I was thinking of trying a small film bypass on the output caps.

Hey john, the bypass caps sound like a good idea. So far, DACs are my favorite audio component. I'm always amazed with how these little chips can bring out such different and wonderful sides to the music.

[lordearl]

Wushuliu - I just got this one, too.  The sound is phenomenal for such a small DAC, it actually competes very easily with my $2k CEC dx71 dac!

What resistors did you change?

I'm using a 12v SLA battery, so there's probably not much point in changing the power supply capacitors, but any other mod ideas?

[Chris Adams]

Hi, Guys. Just my 2 cents.
I have done extensive mods to a Teradak Chameleon which has 16 of the 1543 chips in it. Probably the biggest bang for the buck would be to replace the four caps, one at the end of each chip, with a 47uf @ 16v muse or similac ll bypassed with a Vishay 1837 .1 or .068 and do the same with the output caps. Of course a film cap would be best on the output but as said, little room. Then replace the I/V resistors with something better of your choice. Texas TX2575 work great for the I/V.

[wushuliu]

Wushuliu - I just got this one, too.  The sound is phenomenal for such a small DAC, it actually competes very easily with my $2k CEC dx71 dac!

What resistors did you change?

I'm using a 12v SLA battery, so there's probably not much point in changing the power supply capacitors, but any other mod ideas?

Well using the SLA battery should make for a big improvement. As mentioned above the stock tantalum caps next to each chip could do w/ replacing - catch is you'd have to remove the heatsink and with such a small enclosure that would not be a good idea. As for resistors, basically all the resistors on the output side followed by a small film bypass cap next to the electrolytics. That enclosure really limits options, but for this dac cleaning up the PS with a battery was probably the easiest and best move.