[linuxworks]

I wonder if its worth the cost of jensen transformers? they used to make pro-audio grade balanced trans.

btw, you can't be a true tweak-head unless you are dissatisfied with a final output stage. so I take that with a grain of salt

 

[DKJones96]

Yeah, once they mentioned the transformers that pretty much ended the tweaking of the output stage. I plan on swapping out the primary opamp and taking the second opamp out that they use as a 'buffer' and putting a real buffer in there to see what that does for it.

I just want the sound to be as flat as possible out of the DAC. If anything is going to color my sound I want it to be my amps, not my source.

 

[MrSlim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxworks /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wonder if its worth the cost of jensen transformers? they used to make pro-audio grade balanced trans. btw, you can't be a true tweak-head unless you are dissatisfied with a final output stage. so I take that with a grain of salt

Maybe not the cost of Jensen, but there are a few other lower cost options..

 

[Yaka]

ive had this dac for a few months now, ive alwasy wondered if it would be possible to add an optical switch to it. i share between 4 sources and dislike having to pull out optical cablesbles

 

[linuxworks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yaka /img/forum/go_quote.gif ive had this dac for a few months now, ive alwasy wondered if it would be possible to add an optical switch to it. i share between 4 sources and dislike having to pull out optical cablesbles

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/pos...ml#post5613038

 

[Currawong]

I'm tempted to get one to play with it as I have a bunch of HDAMs sitting around.

 

[Yaka]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxworks /img/forum/go_quote.gif http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/pos...ml#post5613038

wow thats nice build mate, you gotta guide up for buiolding it yet or ist a work in progress?

 

[linuxworks]

the schematic and plans are coming, for that spdif thing. still some testing needed and some changes in the circuit to make it smaller/cheaper. plans will be posted here when its complete (boards and all that, too).

 

[individual6891]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxworks /img/forum/go_quote.gif the schematic and plans are coming, for that spdif thing. still some testing needed and some changes in the circuit to make it smaller/cheaper. plans will be posted here when its complete (boards and all that, too).

Can't wait for this optical switch!

Also, has anyone managed to compare this DAC to others?

 

[Voodoochile]

The vendor also offers another DAC based on the CS4397, which comes with PSU but no transformer. Lukasz Fikus (the lampizator guy) talks quite a bit about both of these, plus I read what seemed like the worlds longest thread on DIY Audio about these two DACS.

My Marantz already has the CS4398, so I thought I'd give the CS4397 a try. It was about $50 including shipping. I want to try it as-is, and then with either transformer coupling via Lundahl LL7902s, or maybe do a lampizator-esque tube stage.

I only got the thing mounted up on a breadboard with a little power transformer recently, and have minimal listening in at this time. I've got to say that it's pretty nice sounding as-is; shocking considering how cheap it is. I even rolled in a couple different op-amps, and it sounds best so far as it arrived.

I'll post up some detailed impressions later, but so far it's certainly a fair bargain. The soundstage feels somewhat intimate {ie, it's not as open/wide a soundstage as the Marantz(CS4398) or Ally DAC(pcm1793) has}, but the detail and clarity is excellent. A lot nicer than your average CD player.

Of course there is a lot more to a DAC and it's sound than the chip itself, but this guy's CS4397 DAC is so far and awesome platform to start from. You could hack this into a $50 player and it would be a pretty sweet source for $100.

 

[individual6891]

Grrr, hes hiked the prices up now! damn you all!

 

[DKJones96]

It's only by $5! Instead of 79.99 plus 29.99 shipping (109.98) he's got it for a flat 115 now. Maybe he saw schizo's comment and changed it. The other forum is when it really changed, the price almost doubled when they found out about it.

NEW Version 24bit/192Hz DAC DA CONVERTER W/ USB Kit - eBay (item 130306875301 end time May-26-09 07:59:30 PDT)

 

[linuxworks]

got mine today!

the unboxing:

this was from gigawork.

have not connected it to power yet - I didn't order the trafo from them so I have to find something of my own.

the box was well packed and things did arrive safely. so far so good.


I've also uploaded all the files he included on that cdrom:

http://www.netstuff.org/lm_gigawork_dac3/

 

[individual6891]

It looks like there's no add on clock circuit which fits where those jumpers are.

Thanks for those manual files. Also, do you have any dimensions? HxWxD?

 

[linuxworks]

there's an add-on circuit, it came in its own bubble wrap.

I plan to try it without the circuit, first. smoke test without things plugged in - that includes expensive little plug-in cards

my toslink jack didn't come with a plug/cover, though. I don't care - but its a detail they missed. and its not the shutter type, either.

I'm reviewing the included schematic now. I don't like the fact that they skimped on the pulse transformer. this means the coax input is not floating, as per the spdif spec. its one thing I'd change if I were modding this.

I also see they are using a 12v relay and that relay is controlled by the spdif receiver 'valid' (or 'signal ok') pin. I like the fact that there's a muting relay here, but I might change this to a 5v latching relay and get its coil off the private op-amp dual 12 bus..