Hey!
I just finished a fun project
I found this on eBay of which is turned out to be from a guy of hifidiy.net So I did some googling on this cheap Phillips TDA1543 chip. Seem like a pretty popular chip among DIYer and according to Stereophile magazine, the Wavelength Audio use this chip in thier "Brick" DAC.
It got me thinking. Hmmm... only $40 (+$4.05 shipping I think) I guess I could try this to improve the sound of my cheap DVDR and with this I could finally run my iTune off my Apple PowerBook to my main system. And see if this little thing could beat my Sony SCD-CE2000ES SACD/CD changer.
So, I got it... well it would be fun anyway. And now here is my little project...
It came on last Friday. Pretty fast shipping from LA.
Time to get out the soldering iron and tools.
Soldering this reciever chip with all those tiny legs is a bit annoying. Good thing I didn't burn it up.
Testing time. Using my Apple PowerBook G4. Musics came off iTune encoded with "Apple Lossless Compression" feeding M-Audio "M-Groove"(same as Transit) with the M-Audio optical out feeding the DAC. The coaxial input is tested with my old Rotel CDP and Cable box. The DAC is powered via a cheap 1.5 amp multi-voltage adapter.
The JVC F10 reciever driving my own Pipedram speaker
Time to dress up the naked DAC. Since it ment to be a fun little project I chose clear acrylic to make the case because it is pretty
A dry run before drilling holes and gluing. Well, cutting was't that bad. But when I was gluing it together I screwed up a bit by spilling the acrylic glue of which run like water! On to some of the parts and this cause the clear acrylic to get fuzzy... memo to myself... better to careful next time!
Well, now all dressed up.
The back. The Kit doesn't come with any RCAs or the toggle switch. Those RCAs are left over from my other upgrad project and the toggle is from Radio Shack. With the toggle it is much easier to switch between optical and coaxial than reinsert the jumper on the board. Notice I there is a hole in the front of the case... well I was planning to put the toggle there but at the end I realized that I drilled the hole too low and now there is not enough room... well here is another
From the top. Well, it was fun. I was thinking of make the case a bit bigger incase I want to upgrade those output caps to a better one of which will be much bigger. But if I made the case bigger than it won't look this cute right?
BTW I changed green LED that came with the kit to the blue one that I got from Radio Shack.
Ooooh it look very pretty in the a darken room... I have to work on another photo to show what it look like in a darken room... pretty!
Okay, so I'm sure you are all wonder how is the sound of this little DAC right?
After about 48 hour of break in with second TV system using cable box feeding it. Well, it is now in my main system using my Sony feeding it via the coaxial input.
But as of right now I could say that the Sony got an edge over this little DAC in my system.
Well, overall a fun project and so far not dissapointed at all. And now I could run my iTune in to my system. Very smooth sounding little DAC. Surprisingly very enjoyable!
So, I think it is still early to tell for sure. I think I will give it a few more hours than I will update you guys on the sound.
Take care,
Buddy
PS
There are a few more pictures of this project in my gallery. Just click the gallery link below.