DAC question please help

[familyman]

so i picked up a firewire card and i'm trying out a firewire solo and i had a few questions...

when i popped it open i could only see 1 DAC that says...

AKM
4381VT
3N435

i thought there would have been 2 dacs one for the balanced outputs and the other for the headphone.the level knob controls both outputs at the same time.
does this mean they both use the same DAC?
i also noticed this one part that looks like a dac or a adc but i cant find it on the net it says on it...
LC00A
49k
E7D4

is this a DAC? it is closer to the headphone out than the other DAC...
anyone have some input?

 

[Garbz]

Yes it would have only 1 DAC chip. Many DAC chips output a differential current. This option is much more accurate then using multiple chips. The reason this one is balanced when others aren't is because the output stage of the DAC keeps it balanced. Often the differential outputs of the DAC are fed straight into the differential inputs of the output stage and the balanced operation is lost.

It looks like that thing also has an ADC in it.

That other chip is not a DAC.