Any help greatly appreciated for a Newbie

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tmd

  • Jr. Member
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Any help greatly appreciated for a Newbie
« on: 17 May 2006, 04:39 pm »
Hi All,
t has been a very long time since I posted here. I got back to audio in the last few months and have built a pair of Decware HDT's so that I could finally resurrect my Decware Select tube amp.
I wasn't happy with the source, an Arcam Alpha 7 with a Scott Nixon DACKit anymore, so I built a kit from Doede Douma.  
His site is at www.dddac.de and I built the DDDAC1543.
There are two boards, the first being a USB receiver and the second, a DAC with I2S in from the USB board. It has 12 1543 DAC chips stacked!
The kit isn't really for newbies like me obviously, as I have no clue about the output from the DAC and it is left sort of open in the diagram.
The diagram shows a 100u electrolythic cap in parallel with a 100n cap. These are in line from the output of the DAC to the phono socket and there is a 100k resistor to ground after the caps.  
As I have no idea what this little circuit does, I had no idea what the note meant about substituting your own capacitor for that in the circuit as the ultimate tweak to make it sound best. I decided to try to couple the DAC straight to the Select and use volume on the PC as a starting point to see what happened. It does seem to work but I can't say I am overly impressed by the sound. It is fairly harsh in a way and fatiguing. It is very detailed too though.
Can anyone explain what the resistor/capacitor combination does? I know this is probably something basic in amplifier design but I have no clue.
I have a pair of WIMA .47u caps to try out on it but have no idea where to put them. Do they replace the two other caps or not? Is the 100k the best value resistor, or do different values have an effect?
Thanks, Neil.

Occam

Any help greatly appreciated for a Newbie
« Reply #1 on: 17 May 2006, 06:13 pm »
Neil,

Those caps are there to serve to block dc voltage from the output of your DAC. The Resistor is there to provide a load for the DAC. That resistance, 100kohms, is in parallel with the impedance of your amplifier (which is dc coupled, so you definitely need those output caps on the DAC.)
The DAC chip(s) is fed with a Va of 8.4vdc single rail, so the output of the dac is sitting somewhere between 8.4vdc and 0vdc, roughly 4.2vdc. (the dac designer prefers 3.85vda as optimum and provides instructions for optimizing).
You don't want to feed your dc coupled amplifier a signal with a dc bias, so the cap is there to eliminate the dc. [always turn on the dac prior to your amp, to minimize and 'pops']
The 100uf electrolytic is definitely overkill in terms of capacitance; the designer personally prefering a .47uf $$$Mundorf silver in oil cap.
I'd personally prefer about a 2.5uf cap to allow for the possibility of powering a lower impedance amplifier while maintaining bass performance, but remember that all things being equal, the larger the cap, the higher the price.
Arguing personal subjective preferences in capacitors is like discussing religion with strangers; inevitably you'll say the wrong thing. Nor am I conversant with your listening preferences or exhaustively what is available in Europe. The Wimas, either singly or paired, should be fine, but I wouldn't know if they'd be your cuppa. Low in cost, but with some audiophile credibility (FWIW based on no personal experience) are the Amp-Ohms available from RS and the ICW Clarity caps which are made in the UK. Your potential choices for the output coupling cap(s) range from SCR, Wima polypropolenes... on the lower cost end upwards to Mundorf Silver/Gold foil in oils, Audionotes, or Teflons. THAT is a subjective call.

tmd

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 160
Any help greatly appreciated for a Newbie
« Reply #2 on: 19 May 2006, 12:48 pm »
Occam,
I can't thank you enough. It all seems very clear and straightforward now. I did buy a few Wima .47uF caps that were fairly expensive as caps go (around $5 each I think) just to try something. I will stick one in line with each output and put a 100k resistor to ground on each output after the cap.
Once I get down to some serious listening, I will start to swap caps until I get a good understanding as to what way they affect the sound.
Thanks again, Neil.

Occam

Any help greatly appreciated for a Newbie
« Reply #3 on: 19 May 2006, 01:15 pm »
Neil,

You're quite welcome. When you've got your DAC sorted out, I'd be very interested in hearing your impressions. Specifically, a comparison between SPDIF and USB inputs. I do realize that comparisons are very implementation specific, as all thing are never equal, but both recievers seem to use circuitry of roughly equivalent sophistication, with both outputting I2S signals to drive the DACs.

Regards,
Paul

tmd

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 160
Any help greatly appreciated for a Newbie
« Reply #4 on: 20 May 2006, 08:43 pm »
Paul,
I would be delighted to give my impressions as far as USB goes but I didn't invest in the SPDIF module for now. I may at a later stage.
I do have a Scott Nixon DAC and was thinking of finding the I2S on that and feeding it to the 1543 section just for fun. I am interested in listening to the same track from both sources to see what differences there are.
Thanks, Neil.