The Great Dac search

[fierce_freak]

Yeah, I'm not really super picky, either. I'd love to pick up the ultra micro to compare with my Opus, but I'd be almost afraid to like it more. My rig is single-ended right now, and I don't think balancing brings the amount of improvement most think it does, but I'd hate to not have the option down the line without using a balancing transformer or the like. I'm also not the most fond of having to use a 1/8" to rca cable. I'd ask Headroom if they'd make another exception and sell me a max board like the one in your Hersten Signature DAC, but I probably don't have the rep to swing it.

[n_maher]

Yeah, I don't see Tyll selling modules on a regular basis. My modules was somewhat of a proof of concept type thing to see if it could be done. I'd really like to hear an Opus one of these days but I don't see time to build one soon and have zero motivation to do so given that I already have more sources than I know what to do with and not enough amps!

[boomana]

And the Florida crew got to spend some time with the Hertsens recently, I think their impressions are in the thread on Head-Fi.

Is the dac going to make a trip to Mayberry? The problem I had in Florida was the same I had with the Cosecant. I wasn't familiar with the amps they were connected to, so other than being able to say it sounded good, it was hard to distinguish, especially in the short time period in a noisy FL meet, what part of what I was liking. I at least know John's HD2, though it's been tweaked since I heard it last, and Mike's old Woo5, which I've now heard a couple times, will be there again.

[n_maher]

Is the dac going to make a trip to Mayberry? The problem I had in Florida was the same I had with the Cosecant. I wasn't familiar with the amps they were connected to, so other than being able to say it sounded good, it was hard to distinguish, especially in the short time period in a noisy FL meet, what part of what I was liking. I at least know John's HD2, though it's been tweaked since I heard it last, and Mike's old Woo5, which I've now heard a couple times, will be there again.

I've offered to send it, no one has seemed that interested. Nums still won't give me his address to send him the cables he had me made so I'm certainly not sending it to him!

[granodemostasa]

I'm trying out an Arcam cd33 right now, it has the wolfson dac and i'm starting to see why justin chose it for the PICO

it's better than VDA-2 on overall level and bass extension. better in it's openness and soundstaging. cymbals and brass instruments have excellent tone and not as shrill sounding as VDA-2. VDA-2 gets a bit more detail and treble extension. overall i'd say they are on the same level but the arcam is a "little" bit better, so it's more like a slide up than a step up.

btw: i'm borrowing it from ASR

[crass]

I'm using the Ultra Microdac (I had it preodered a couple months before). Its an excellent unit and sounds incredible. A huge improvement over the microdac and other dacs I've heard (which isnt a huge list). I would give a buy recommendation to anyone who is thinking about it.

[deepak]

Would the Opus, USB/I2S and Metronome module be one of the better (ie compete with high end USB Dacs) USB DACs? I'm intrigued by the I2S/Metronome and their claims for very low jitter.

Or would it be possible to build a stand alone Metronome just as an I2S box to feed my North Star?

[luvdunhill]

Would the Opus, USB/I2S and Metronome module be one of the better (ie compete with high end USB Dacs) USB DACs? I'm intrigued by the I2S/Metronome and their claims for very low jitter.

Or would it be possible to build a stand alone Metronome just as an I2S box to feed my North Star?

One thing to note, is that there are various flavors of I2S. I just finished snooping on my new Muse player and found that they use the Philips I2S "standard" format, so yeah for me, as this dove-tails perfectly into my "plans". ! I have no idea what the North Star uses, but this would be the first thing to figure out.

[deepak]

One thing to note, is that there are various flavors of I2S. I just finished snooping on my new Muse player and found that they use the Philips I2S "standard" format, so yeah for me, as this dove-tails perfectly into my "plans". ! I have no idea what the North Star uses, but this would be the first thing to figure out.

I believe the North Star uses the Philips spec as well, but I will double check.

[deepak]

It seems the Current Output DAC from Twisted Pear is almost ready

The COD Module is based on the venerable Burr Brown (Texas Instruments) PCM1794 DAC chip, and like the Opus, offers I2S inputs, stereo balanced outputs, and is user configurable with a set on on-board jumpers (the PCM1794A does not have software mode). It can also be configured for dual-mono mode.

Being a current output DAC (Opus is voltage ouput), this module requires an I/V (current to voltage) stage at it's output. We have included a simple on-board passive I/V stage (392R Dale RN55 0.1% resistor/22uF 35V Elna SilmikII capacitor), which can feed the buffer of your choice (we of course suggest the Ballsie for that role).

In case you want to use an active or other passive I/V stage, the resisors come unmounted, and there are four on-board headers for bypassing the installed output caps. We have two active I/V stages in the works, both with balanced outputs. The first uses the TI THS4131 op-amp, the other is a fully discrete design.

I'm thinking about trying one with discrete output.

[luvdunhill]

anyone know of a decent quality BNC->RCA adapter?

[Augsburger]

If you mean an IC with BNC male on one end and a spdif/rca (male) on the other then Blue Jean cables makes a pretty good one. If you mean a plug with BNC female on one end and RCA male on the other then sorry no idea.

[Spiug31]

anyone know of a decent quality BNC->RCA adapter?

My Stereovox XV2 uses BNC to RCA adaptors but I haven't seen these sold seperately.

There seem to be plenty of cheap BNC to RCA adaptors around (doing a search in Google shopping for "bnc rca adaptor" just turned up 293 hits) but no mention of comparative quality.

[luvdunhill]

My Stereovox XV2 uses BNC to RCA adaptors but I haven't seen these sold seperately.

There seem to be plenty of cheap BNC to RCA adaptors around (doing a search in Google shopping for "bnc rca adaptor" just turned up 293 hits) but no mention of comparative quality.

yup, exactly what I'm looking for. the price is right on this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ATLONA-1-HIGH-QUALITY-RCA-FEMALE-TO-BNC-MALE-ADAPTER_W0QQitemZ150224886712QQihZ005QQcategoryZ32837QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

does it look similar to the Stereovox connector?

[Pars]

anyone know of a decent quality BNC->RCA adapter?

Yeah, it's called replace the RCA with a 75 ohm BNC

[luvdunhill]

Yeah, it's called replace the RCA with a 75 ohm BNC

heh, I have this reluctance to mod factory terminated cables. Perhaps I need to just sell this cable and make one with the proper terminations........

[Pars]

heh, I have this reluctance to mod factory terminated cables. Perhaps I need to just sell this cable and make one with the proper terminations........

Oh, you have a chassis BNC and need to put an RCA terminated cable on it? I thought you needed to go the other way... BNC cable to an RCA jack

[Spiug31]

does it look similar to the Stereovox connector?

no, but how much difference it will make I don't know. It may be worth asking the company that made your cable if they are willing to reterminate one end into a BNC.

Also there is a BJC RCA to BNC cable available for a good price on HF which might be worth consideration.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f44/fs-bluejeans-digital-rca-bnc-cable-266985/