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Balanced DIY DAC?

post #1 of 12
3/21/10 at 6:18am
Thread Starter 
Can the Y1/Y2 or some of the other DAC be made to operate in balanced? Or is there a DIY DAC out there that is already built to be balanced? I can always just get a balanced DAC but I'm sure building one would be more fun.
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post #2 of 12
3/21/10 at 6:49am
the gamma2 has balanced out , but you lose filtering and buffering from the output stage.
has been discussed in the thread, but I'm not sure if anyone tried this yet.
I wanted to try a ballsie behind the gammas balanced outs but I'm missing an amp to try.
Also would be interesting to know, if the ballsie impairs the gammas audio quality.
A zapfiltered gamma2 would be interesting, too.

Yeah and building will be much more fun .
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post #3 of 12
3/21/10 at 7:02am
Buffalo dac?
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post #4 of 12
3/21/10 at 7:03am
Or there's a tpa opus/cod which can be balanced straight out the dac or through the IVYIII output stage.
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post #5 of 12
3/21/10 at 7:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lifthanger View Post
the gamma2 has balanced out
I'm actually building a gamma2 at the moment but I don't ever recall it having the capability to have balanced outputs...could you elaborate on this please?

Nevermind, I just discovered the magical world of the search button.
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post #6 of 12
3/21/10 at 8:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by m11a1 View Post
I'm actually building a gamma2 at the moment but I don't ever recall it having the capability to have balanced outputs...could you elaborate on this please?

Nevermind, I just discovered the magical world of the search button.
.

the twisted pair stuff is nice, but not really DIY imho.
if you want to go that route please remember to get the metronome.
without it, you'll lose a lot - again imho.

having both, I can only recommend the gamma2. havent used them balanced though.
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post #7 of 12
3/21/10 at 9:41am
@Lifthanger - Offtopic but:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lifthanger View Post
if you want to go that route please remember to get the metronome.
without it, you'll lose a lot - again imho.
I've been using my opus without the metronome for about a year now as i've believed an asrc shouldn't really be necessary in a well designed system and is more of a fix for bad digital signals. Was I completely wide of the mark? Should I use a metronome?
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post #8 of 12
3/21/10 at 9:55am
Marcus_C, I'm certainly no authority on this matter. And my onboard coax out could be the reason of the difference. But the gamma2 with asrc sounded much better than my opus+ballsie combo. In fact listening to the gamma2 (+mini3+hd595) was the first time I was really happy with my setup. There might be other reasons for this, but the main difference was the asrc.

I'd be happy if someone else has any insights on this.
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post #9 of 12
3/21/10 at 12:27pm
IMO my balanced opus with no output stage sounds unrefined and a bit raw (like very high contrast) without the metro. the metro really smooths things out and tames the dac (i think there's a very noticeable difference). sounds very good with the metro though. The dac has a lot of detail
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post #10 of 12
3/21/10 at 3:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by m11a1 View Post
I'm actually building a gamma2 at the moment but I don't ever recall it having the capability to have balanced outputs...could you elaborate on this please?

Nevermind, I just discovered the magical world of the search button.
The DAC in the gamma2 like many DACs outputs a balanced signal. To quote AMBs site: "The DAC chip's balanced analog outputs are sent to a low-noise, precision rail-to-rail CMOS dual opamp which serves as a balanced-to-unbalanced convertor, analog low pass filter and output buffer"

You need the low pass filter and an output buffer, so if you want to use the gamma2 balanced you would need to provide that.
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post #11 of 12
3/22/10 at 12:38am
Thread Starter 
Alright thanks for the input guys!
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post #12 of 12
3/22/10 at 12:27pm
Probably the easiest way is to purchase a IVY from Twisted Pear and wire up from the balanced test points on the Y2 board. I've been wanting to try this, and re-case my Y2 for a while. I just can't find a good reason to go balanced yet
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