Garbz
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- May 19, 2004
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Some of you may have noticed that I have talked a lot about DACs recently, having built one a while ago but never actually posted the design. I was going to post when I was finished but the DAC became a proto-design for anything DAC related. It now has 3 other boards hanging off it (usb, I/V stage, S/PDIF interface) with another to come. However with all the recent talks on output stages and the various designs I have seen using opamp I/V stages I thought I should post something about my recent experiments.
My most recent experiment, a few months in the making, has been a separate power-supply and modular I/V section which would allow me to compare various designs of I/V stages available and determine the “best” output. The original DAC had an OPA627 followed by an emitter follower, and incorporated a 2-pole low-pass filter tuned at around 40khz running from a +/-15V PSU. The new power-supply design is +/-40V and allows me to test a few stages like the Passlabs D1 stage, a cascoded variation of Jocko Homo's stage, Pedja Rogic's stage, and Hawksford’s Stage presented in the paper “Current steering transimpedance amplifiers for high-resolution digital to analogue converters”, (AES, 2000), which I will not post but feel free to contact me for it. Unfortunately the project was put on the backburner because of studies, an upcoming holiday, and a lack of funds. I hope to pick it up again next year but so far the only stage finished is the Passlabs D1 stage, which I chose first because I had IRF610Bs laying around.
There are various ways I/V can be done after the DAC, the simplest being passive I/V. Just put a resistor on the output and the current creates a voltage drop across it. The problem with this method comes down to output compliance of the DAC. Most DACs out there are designed with a perfect I/V stage in mind. They perform at their best with a direct short to their common voltage which allows them to dump all their available current with ease. Resistor I/V stages present an output impedance to the DAC which prevents this, and the most common complaint sound wise is a loss of dynamic range. That said some DACs work rather well in this configuration.
The most common design and indeed the design recommended in most datasheets are opamp I/V stages. Opamps present the voltage connected to their positive terminal to the source. So with that connected to the source’s VCom pin it becomes an ideal I/V stage. The other advantage is the ability to create complex multi pole filters, however this is usually done at a gain stage after I/V anyway. The problem with opamps is their slew rate and bandwidth combined with negative feedback. Opamps need to be very fast (reads expensive) to work properly in this application. A discussion on that is currently happening http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...=194150&page=2. Further information is also available in the Hawksford paper.
Transformer I/V stages are another option however at $200+ for a set of decent transformers they are prohibitively expensive. While they form their own filter they also suffer the same flaws as the resistor passive I/V.
The final option is discrete I/V stages which do not come without their set of problems, the main being complexity and difficulty to design. The general designs appear to be variations of a trans-impedance amplifier which presents an ideal low-impedance load to the source (usually setup as common gate or common base amplifiers with the input going into the emitter) while at the same time providing the compliance necessary for a passive resistor I/V.
The Passlabs D1 stage which I have completed provided a massive improvement over the conventional opamp (OPA627) circuit, and it actually worked out cheaper too. It is a MOSFET based design, with a common gate input and a source follower output I think (FETs are still somewhat alien to me), and it also incorporates a 2nd order low-pass filter though from the looks of things a 3rd pole should be easy to add. Sound-wise the difference mainly lays in the clarity of the sound, not so much with a difference in brightness or bass response or anything. I have only had it for a day but the more I compare the more I find subtle improvements over the conventional opamp stage like instrument separation and depth.
I look forward to completing the other 3 stages too and see how well they work, thus far however I do not think I will ever consider opamp I/V for any future project anymore. Picture:
My most recent experiment, a few months in the making, has been a separate power-supply and modular I/V section which would allow me to compare various designs of I/V stages available and determine the “best” output. The original DAC had an OPA627 followed by an emitter follower, and incorporated a 2-pole low-pass filter tuned at around 40khz running from a +/-15V PSU. The new power-supply design is +/-40V and allows me to test a few stages like the Passlabs D1 stage, a cascoded variation of Jocko Homo's stage, Pedja Rogic's stage, and Hawksford’s Stage presented in the paper “Current steering transimpedance amplifiers for high-resolution digital to analogue converters”, (AES, 2000), which I will not post but feel free to contact me for it. Unfortunately the project was put on the backburner because of studies, an upcoming holiday, and a lack of funds. I hope to pick it up again next year but so far the only stage finished is the Passlabs D1 stage, which I chose first because I had IRF610Bs laying around.
There are various ways I/V can be done after the DAC, the simplest being passive I/V. Just put a resistor on the output and the current creates a voltage drop across it. The problem with this method comes down to output compliance of the DAC. Most DACs out there are designed with a perfect I/V stage in mind. They perform at their best with a direct short to their common voltage which allows them to dump all their available current with ease. Resistor I/V stages present an output impedance to the DAC which prevents this, and the most common complaint sound wise is a loss of dynamic range. That said some DACs work rather well in this configuration.
The most common design and indeed the design recommended in most datasheets are opamp I/V stages. Opamps present the voltage connected to their positive terminal to the source. So with that connected to the source’s VCom pin it becomes an ideal I/V stage. The other advantage is the ability to create complex multi pole filters, however this is usually done at a gain stage after I/V anyway. The problem with opamps is their slew rate and bandwidth combined with negative feedback. Opamps need to be very fast (reads expensive) to work properly in this application. A discussion on that is currently happening http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...=194150&page=2. Further information is also available in the Hawksford paper.
Transformer I/V stages are another option however at $200+ for a set of decent transformers they are prohibitively expensive. While they form their own filter they also suffer the same flaws as the resistor passive I/V.
The final option is discrete I/V stages which do not come without their set of problems, the main being complexity and difficulty to design. The general designs appear to be variations of a trans-impedance amplifier which presents an ideal low-impedance load to the source (usually setup as common gate or common base amplifiers with the input going into the emitter) while at the same time providing the compliance necessary for a passive resistor I/V.
The Passlabs D1 stage which I have completed provided a massive improvement over the conventional opamp (OPA627) circuit, and it actually worked out cheaper too. It is a MOSFET based design, with a common gate input and a source follower output I think (FETs are still somewhat alien to me), and it also incorporates a 2nd order low-pass filter though from the looks of things a 3rd pole should be easy to add. Sound-wise the difference mainly lays in the clarity of the sound, not so much with a difference in brightness or bass response or anything. I have only had it for a day but the more I compare the more I find subtle improvements over the conventional opamp stage like instrument separation and depth.
I look forward to completing the other 3 stages too and see how well they work, thus far however I do not think I will ever consider opamp I/V for any future project anymore. Picture: