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jb, I think that you are missing my point on this. This is a DIY thread about taking some cheap, run of the mill DACs and doing some simple mods on them to improve their performance. There is no one on this thread that I know of that assumes that it can provode SOTA performance. All we want to do is make something that is OK, better... good enough th be a DAC that we don't hate listening to and to have a little satisfaction in know that it sounds better because we had our hands in it. No more, no less.
The general consensus seems to be that stock/opamps mod they compete w/ retail anywhere from $600 to $2k range. Once you add transformer outputs, however, all bets are off and you open the vortex that is audio nirvana
OK, but I thought SOTA was the goal.With the potential of the chipsets on those cheap DACs there is no reason they can't be modded to give true SOTA performance. If you're happy polishing turds, I'll try not to spoil your fun.
jb, all that's being asked of you is to post step-by-step description of mods, w/included marked-up pics for us parts swappers that aren't knowledgeable about the actual curcuits. similar to what wu has done. is that so difficult?
Actually, for me your request is very difficult. I don’t have a Gigawork DAC and I don’t want one. It’s a turd. Had you guys settled on the third DAC in the group presented I might have be curious enough to buy one just to see how far it could go with simple parts swapping and minor circuit changes. The trouble is, with a combined digital IQ in single digits, you guys can’t tell the difference between a diamond-in-the-rough and a turd.I won’t be posting here anymore because it’s impossible to discern if a poster is seeking the very best or is simply looking for camaraderie with fellow turd polishers.
Not content to leave well enough alone I went and ordered this guy:
Am I understanding the whole scenario correctly?
In the CD player case, a high end DAC will transform a good CD player into a high end CD player. Is that true?
Yes. It can be! The CD player has a slight advantage in that the connection between the transport and the internal DAC chip is usually via I2S, and doesn't need to rely on the S/PDIF conversion that is used to transmit digital audio over a digital cable to an external DAC. Also, the inherent jitter (or minute mistiming of the digital signal) sometimes comes into play when making external connections to a DAC. But, in general, most people realize an improvement if the external DAC is of significantly better performance than the internal DAC. Steve
Beyond the CD player scenario, what other devices would output digital that can connect to a DAC?
How does this one compare to Gigawork?
Hasn't arrived yet. Anything from HK/China takes several weeks.
Cable TV receivers, Digital Video Recorders (DVR), DVD/Blu-ray players, gaming systems (PS3, XBox, etc.) and HD/Internet radio tuners are some possibilities. Aside from AV Receivers and Processors that have internal DACs that can decode multi-channel Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby True HD, DTS-HD Master Audio, etc., most all standalone DACs are 2 channel, and any of the multi-channel sources listed above would need to be set to output 2 channel PCM digital audio to be used with them. Steve
Any thoughts on this DAC? http://cgi.ebay.com/24bit-192KHz-DAC-DIY-KIT-FULL-ASSEMBLED-KIT-Lampucera-/120551270538?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c116a688aThis is about where my tiny budget for these things are. My source is a modded Olive Musica with BNC output. I think its internal dac isn't that great and that one of these kits might be a step up.
