[325xi]

Did anyone look what's inside of Stello DA-220?

 

[swt61]

3 gerbils, a trained flea circus, 5 rubber bands and Michael Jackson's lost glove.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

LOL!

I tried to the other day, but encountered a badly stuck screw. Will try again later. You can see a few interior shots on the April Music website.

 

[swt61]

That really is a beautiful unit! The transport looks really nice too.

 

[325xi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swt61 That really is a beautiful unit! The transport looks really nice too.

So you think if I get their case, and mount Lavry inside, will it still sound better then DAC1?

 

[Edwood]

Managed to get Iron_Dreamer's Stello open.

Took lots of hi res pics. So he'll have some juicy pics to post soon.

 

[325xi]

At last!!!

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Here you go!:

 

[Jon L]

Well, we can confirm the use of AK4117 spdif receiver, AK4395 DAC, and AD1896 asynchronous upsampler.

As far as the other thread that is pegging Stello DA100 to be (almost)as good as DA220, there's clearly significant differences in build quality, most obviously the one transformer in DA100 and two in DA220, and the complete elimination of balanced output circuitry in DA100.

I'm pretty sure most people who A-B the two won't be able to tell too much difference in pure headphone setups, but I would be surprised if they sounded same in a decent speaker setup.

Now, I still haven't seen internal pic's of DA100 USB and DA220 Mk II with USB, but I'm suspecting that they've "upgraded" DAC chips to the new AKM AK4396, which WOULD be a significant upgrade, and this may be mainly why Stello is claiming DA220 Mk II has better sonics than DA220.

 

[darkninja67]

Pardon my ignorance, but are the parts Jon listed good? I know nothing about the engineering part of these DACs. Sure looks well biult and clean inside.

 

[swt61]

Damn! I was sure Michael's missing glove would be in there.

 

[325xi]

Good!

Any thoughts and specific comments about overall design, dejittering mechanism, power supply, etc?

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L Now, I still haven't seen internal pic's of DA100 USB and DA220 Mk II with USB, but I'm suspecting that they've "upgraded" DAC chips to the new AKM AK4396, which WOULD be a significant upgrade, and this may be mainly why Stello is claiming DA220 Mk II has better sonics than DA220.

DA100 internals for your viewing pleasure
http://www.hifi500.com/product/moreimageda100.htm

 

[TheSloth]

The discrete circuitry looks very Gilmore like.

 

[Jeff Wong]

Depending on what those NE5532 op amps do, that might be a choice place for an upgrade.