Interested IN making a DIY DAC

[Little J040]

Wondering how much it would cost to sound upwards as good as a Apogee mini dac or other nice dacs out there, With a optical in and regular 1\4" out or 1\8"? Anyone have any schems i can look at? How much is there to a Dac?

Cheers,

Jeff

 

[Porksoda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Little J040 Wondering how much it would cost to sound upwards as good as a Apogee mini dac or other nice dacs out there, With a optical in and regular 1\4" out or 1\8"? Anyone have any schems i can look at? How much is there to a Dac? Cheers, Jeff

Not familiar with that DAC. Some of the more popular projects I've heard of are the DDDAC1543 or the Monica 2. For about $125US you can get the Monica 2 already built and tested, then just build an amp into the case, an optical input, some sort of power supply, and you are set!

Beyond that, designing your own is a bottomless pit of despair. I have learned this first hand.

 

[Little J040]

How doese the monica 2 sound? Warm liquidy? Or fast and detailed?

 

[dsavitsk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Little J040 How doese the monica 2 sound? Warm liquidy? Or fast and detailed?

From my experience with what Yeo (the designer) likes, I would bet it is more on the warm and liquidy side.

 

[ble0t]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Porksoda ...then just build an amp into the case, an optical input, some sort of power supply, and you are set!

Actually, it's SPDIF input...unless you want to add some type of TORX receiver

I own a Monica 2 and I have to say that I enjoy the sound. I tried it with both wall power and with battery power (12V SLA) and I prefer the battery. I haven't had a chance to hear too many other DACs, but it's not too shabby for the price

As for the type of sound, I'd just look for threads here and elsewhere talking about the sound of the TDA1545 since that is bascially the sound you are getting in this case.

 

[Little J040]

Does yours have optical in? Or did you stay with spdif?

 

[ble0t]

I stayed with SPDIF.

I'm not going to go into all the details, but suffice to say if you want to know why I would look for numerous threads in the Digital section over at diyaudio.com concerning the increased jitter associated with optical.

 

[labrat]

Deleted.

 

[skyskraper]

monica 2 linkage

 

[labrat]

Deleted.