[ninjikiran]

http://cgi.ebay.com/HI-FI-DIR9001-4X-TDA1543-parallel-connection-NOS-DAC-S-/120612153492?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c150b6894
 
Seller seems legit, though its $10 cheaper than the $60 you mentioned unless you included shipping.  This guy a retailer? Don't want to buy fakes .
 
Any mods I should pick up for it while I am purchasing?  I also dont see any opamps in the design.

 

[lordearl]

Same guy I bought mine from - good seller.
 
I'm using a sealed lead acid battery, which seems to improve the sound a little.
 
Any other mod ideas would be much appreciated.

 

[Dynobot]

 
Quote:

No not at all.  The Kit dac treble is kinda laid back...but there is a hard edge to the upper midranges...every dac I've owned has this except the 2K Bryston and Reference 7 and also the 60 buck NOS...thats 3 out of about 10.

Dacs are like computers for Audiophiles....once you buy 1, you are liable to purchase 2,3 or 10 more.  I know I have probably owned nearly that amount myself.  I think sooner or later everyone will have all the inputs of their pramps being fed by different Dacs they own.

 

[SP Wild]

Quote:

 
Quote:

No not at all.  The Kit dac treble is kinda laid back...but there is a hard edge to the upper midranges...every dac I've owned has this except the 2K Bryston and Reference 7 and also the 60 buck NOS...thats 3 out of about 10.

Dacs are like computers for Audiophiles....once you buy 1, you are liable to purchase 2,3 or 10 more.  I know I have probably owned nearly that amount myself.  I think sooner or later everyone will have all the inputs of their pramps being fed by different Dacs they own.

LMAO! So true... I find myself addicted to DACs more than headphones...once I found the headphone that was "the one" for me.  Frankly I don't expect the Reference 7 can be superseded...I'm all set with "neutral" and precision like never before.  But my mind keeps wondering what the best of the best transformer coupled NOS dac could bring to the table...and there is no point lying to myself...by the end of next year, I'll probably have an answer.

 

[ardilla]

How do the Muse x4 respond to different sources? I mean - how does it handle jitter and stuff? I guess it's not the most advanced jitter-reduction money can buy..
 
In other words - anybody a/b-ed it with different sources of variable quality?

 

[ninjikiran]

Quote:

How do the Muse x4 respond to different sources? I mean - how does it handle jitter and stuff? I guess it's not the most advanced jitter-reduction money can buy..
 
In other words - anybody a/b-ed it with different sources of variable quality?

Going to take a guess here but considering price and the nature of R2R dacs I am going to go on a limb and say Jitter reduction will be based more on you than on the dac.

 

[ardilla]

 
Quote:

Going to take a guess here but considering price and the nature of R2R dacs I am going to go on a limb and say Jitter reduction will be based more on you than on the dac.

 
Do you mean that I should manually correct jitter myself? What are the appropriate tools? A laser sword?
 

 

[SP Wild]

This DAC sounded more precise with my transports COAX ouput than the TOSLINK.  It also sounds better connected toa car battery than the wallwart.  I think if one really enjoys this dac...than I believe the next logical step is perhaps the Chameleon DAC with 16 dac chips...or an Audio GD PCM1704 DAC.
 
Its kind of pointless modifying a 60 dollar DAC, when its small size limits the scope of mods...and its too easy to spend more on a single mod than the DAC itself.  The Chameleon was designed for modders...likewise an Audio GD BB1704 dac is a finished product for those less inclined to mod...or perhaps the Havana DAC is good as I found NOS and tubes go together like honey to the bee.
 
Having said that if I was broke...I'd be tearing into this little beauty for every last drop of performance...but I have the Reference 7 which is slightly better.  The Teralinx X2 USB convertor should work well...the PSU for the X2 is also adjustable to up to 12 volts....and would probably be a nice upgrade to the wallwart for about 40 bucks.

 

[ninjikiran]

Nope wise arse, a good transport   Which minimizes it before it gets to the DAC.  The sigma-delta based chips have somethign built in that minimizes jitter or makes it irrelevant where the R-2R are not and require a little more external work.  Granted some DACS I assume have elaborate solutions.  A $60 unit I wouldn't hold my breadth
 
Quote:

 
Quote:

Going to take a guess here but considering price and the nature of R2R dacs I am going to go on a limb and say Jitter reduction will be based more on you than on the dac.

 
Do you mean that I should manually correct jitter myself? What are the appropriate tools? A laser sword?
 

 

[SP Wild]

Well this DAC sounded more correct with timbre than the expensive Bryston with its fancy jitter reduction.  It is said that R2R is intrinsically less affected by jitter than DS...I agree with this statement.

 

[ninjikiran]

Quote:

Well this DAC sounded more correct with timbre than the expensive Bryston with its fancy jitter reduction.  It is said that R2R is intrinsically less affected by jitter than DS...I agree with this statement.

 
I would say fancy doodads I don't trust too much.  Though I have been convinced hat I need the LCD-2's which I should be ordering soon after christmas bonus.  Which is when i'll be able to try this dac out at its full.
 
I need ab etter transport as well....

 

[ardilla]

Really like the sound of the muse - but the cables coming out from all sides bugs me...
 
How about this one? 
 
 
http://cgi.ebay.com/LITE-Audio-DAC-AH-D-A-converter-Processor-TDA1543-x8-/180530471923?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a087463f3#ht_1457wt_903
Brand new LITE Audio DAC-AH non oversampling DAC
Philips TDA1543 D/A chips x8pcs, CS8418 digital receiver
High quality R-Core Transformer
3 regulated isolated power supplies
 
or the styled version:
http://cgi.ebay.com/LITE-DAC-AH-D-A-converter-Modified-OPA637AP-BlackGate-/180538636065?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a08f0f721#ht_1475wt_903
 
 
Brand new LITE Audio DAC-AH non oversampling DAC
Modified Version
OPAMP upgrade to Burr-Brown OPA637AP x2
Sanyo capacitors upgrade to Blackgate capacitors x2Philips TDA1543 D/A chips x8pcs, CS8418 digital receiver

 
 
 
 
High quality R-Core Transformer
 
3 regulated isolated power supplies
 
 
 
 

 

[SP Wild]

Quote:

Really like the sound of the muse - but the cables coming out from all sides bugs me...
 
How about this one? 
 
 
http://cgi.ebay.com/LITE-Audio-DAC-AH-D-A-converter-Processor-TDA1543-x8-/180530471923?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a087463f3#ht_1457wt_903
Brand new LITE Audio DAC-AH non oversampling DAC
Philips TDA1543 D/A chips x8pcs, CS8418 digital receiver
High quality R-Core Transformer
3 regulated isolated power supplies
 
or the styled version:
http://cgi.ebay.com/LITE-DAC-AH-D-A-converter-Modified-OPA637AP-BlackGate-/180538636065?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a08f0f721#ht_1475wt_903
 
 
Brand new LITE Audio DAC-AH non oversampling DAC
Modified Version
OPAMP upgrade to Burr-Brown OPA637AP x2
Sanyo capacitors upgrade to Blackgate capacitors x2Philips TDA1543 D/A chips x8pcs, CS8418 digital receiver

 
 
 
 
High quality R-Core Transformer
 
3 regulated isolated power supplies
 
 
 
 

I think the Valab DACs have a wealth of modification knowledge.  There are various states of tune...and like the Mini DAC there are no opamps in the output to color the sound.  This kind of dac has no active output stage, so its a case of the chips piping straight into the amp.  Even the cheapest Valab ($200) contain the much superior DIR9001 digital receiver which is more newer and advanced than the CS8418 units (the DIR9001 receiver chip is also the same one used in the Reference 7 and in the Mini Muse).
 
I've got my eye on the Chameleon, by Teradak - makers of the Valab DACs...a whopping 16 DAC chips with external PSU, this costs $500.  The other NOS dac that has drawn my attention is the MHDT Havana tubed DAC, running PCM58 R2R 16bit chips (precursor to the infamous 24bit PCM1704).  In due time I would like to purchase a higher end NOS dac.  If you do like the "lifelike" quality of NOS dacs but crave a little more treble response...Audio GDs DAC19 with PCM1704 chips is the cheapest way into the last R2R chip ever developed (1704). 
 
For 60 bucks, though, this DAC is still socking all SD dacs I have heard thus far.  It is a great way to hear for oneself a subsegment of audiophilia (mainly vinyl users...though I've never really listened to vinyl...my reference is as a drummer playing on stage and jamming all the time) that has been chasing this kind of sound...which true enough I have never heard out of DS dacs.  My experience matches the Mother of Tone article to the tee (found this article linked in the Hifiman HM601 review by LFF).

 

[ardilla]

So Chameleon seems like a good choie if one like the Muse. Stumbled upon this one as well, seems like it's some kind of hybrid?? Any thoughts?
 
http://www.ciaudio.com/products/VDA2
 
 
Our new VDA•2 takes Digital to Analog audio conversion to a new level. Traditional DAC designs use brick-wall digital filters, usually followed by more analog filtering to reduce sampling noise, but cause signal degradation in the process. Another approach has been to use no filtering at all, but this adds noise to the analog signal. Both of these designs have their strengths and weaknesses, but neither tends to be a good trade-off. Our design uses only a mild "slow roll-off" digital filter and first order analog filter to tame the sampling noise. This architecture has reduced filtering artifacts compared to brick-wall types, and lower sampling noise than filterless types, resulting in a more "analog" sound.

Digital input signals are accepted by Toslink optical or coaxial SPDIF, then fed to the CS8416 24 bit/192k low jitter input receiver, then to the Burr Brown PCM1794 balanced/current output DAC. Our unique output stage is a fully discrete/zero feedback design and uses only a single transistor per output to insure the purity of the audio signal. Circuit board is high quality 2 oz. copper with lead-free silver solder construction.

 
Also
 
http://www.metrum-acoustics.nl/NOS_mini_DAC.html
 
but I can't fin dany details about the construction or chips uses. I like the switch in front of the chassis and that the cables are all on the back (which really is the main reason I look for alternatives to the muse. emailed the producer

 

[SP Wild]

This thing is using a superseded PCM1794 DS dac chip.  I built a dac with the newer PCM1796 dac chip with very aggressive analogue filtering, but it still sounded very fatigueing.  I can't say for sure about this dac as I've never heard it, but the only DS dac I heard that didn't have this digital fatigue was the very expensive Bryston.  But just as observed by the Mother of Tone article...even this high end DS cannot produce the lower octaves correctly as in it sounds like those last few octaves of a piano or acoustic guitar sounds a little AWOL. 
 
This DAC you point to does not seem very high end as it is wall wart powered and is priced in the same category as the Dacmagic which is also a wallwart powered DAC.  The Dacmagic had three selectable filters and the one more effective at reducing digital glare, the aggressive steep filter setting, was in fact not very effective at all.  There doesn't seem to be anything on paper to separate the VDA2 from all the other common entry level DS DAC.
 
IME, I just think that it is a safer investment in a NOS or R2R to get the tone that you are after.  Especially if like me, it is very difficult to audition as many DACs as I would like to be able to.  Just with the statistics of my experience of 10 DA convertors - none of the DS dacs sounded "right" and only two do it right and they were both R2R designs.  I spent big bucks to buy the Reference 7 when I already bought the Bryston to have both sided by side, just to be able to get a grasp on the different DAC concepts.  I am only wishing to be able to help members via sharing experiences, and I read about how you felt about live music versus the HD650 and your experience seems to mirror mine exactly and I thought you might appreciate my opinion.