Gotez
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2010
- Posts
- 59
- Likes
- 10
I’ve listened to this dac for a couple of days now and it is time to share my thoughts on the performance.
First of all I would like to thank Cobaltmute for the boards and Tomb for the dac chips. This made it all a lot easier.
I’ve never written anything like this before, so please forgive my complete lack of audiophile terminology.
The build
Sourcing all products was easy. The bom provided is clear and all items are for sale at digikey. The only bad this was that the shipping price to the Netherlands was just as expensive as the items themselves. I was able to buy all items in the Netherlands but this would not have been cheaper. The build is straight forward and simple enough. I did encounter some hiccups (as seen earlier in this thread) but I was able to troubleshoot these and get the dac to work. The tiny parts were posed a greater challenge than my earlier builds, but it was fun to do, and a learned a great deal. My hiccups were all due to me not soldering well enough and this cannot be blamed on the dac or board. Luckily the board provides enough measuring point and this helped me greatly in finding my errors and fixing them.
As to the layout of the board: U4 could use a little more room. This would improve the ability to fix any problems one might encounted after soldering this chip. I would also like to add that RCA connectors would be better. And perhaps a possibility to add a USB-b connection or a standard USB connection.
The sound
I used my MS1 as headphone for listening. At first I connected it straight to the dac output. It is more than capable of driving 32 ohm headphones and there is little to no hiss.
To keep it short: the dac sounds fine. It has a bright and clean sound. It’s strengths are its clarity and its powerful performance. Overall it is a very capable dac and it delivers lots of bang for buck. It does tend to sound a bit ‘sharp’ in the high end and can be fatiguing when listening to longer periods. Also the bass does lack a bit of slam and compared to more ‘sophisticated’ dacs it does miss a certain refinement. This is not meant as a negative, it is just my personal taste in sound.
The dac really comes to life when fed to my millitt minimax headphoneamp. The tubes give a bit of warmth to the sound that make it a lot more enjoyable. I really enjoy listening to this combo. I believe that this combination is where the dac can really shine. The clarity of the dac and the sound signature of the hybrid amp make it a very pleasing and enjoyable setup, one that I will listen to for many more albums to come.
Summary
It is a very good build. The sound is very good, and considering the price probably unbeatable. Especially if paired with a hybrid or tube amp.
First of all I would like to thank Cobaltmute for the boards and Tomb for the dac chips. This made it all a lot easier.
I’ve never written anything like this before, so please forgive my complete lack of audiophile terminology.
The build
Sourcing all products was easy. The bom provided is clear and all items are for sale at digikey. The only bad this was that the shipping price to the Netherlands was just as expensive as the items themselves. I was able to buy all items in the Netherlands but this would not have been cheaper. The build is straight forward and simple enough. I did encounter some hiccups (as seen earlier in this thread) but I was able to troubleshoot these and get the dac to work. The tiny parts were posed a greater challenge than my earlier builds, but it was fun to do, and a learned a great deal. My hiccups were all due to me not soldering well enough and this cannot be blamed on the dac or board. Luckily the board provides enough measuring point and this helped me greatly in finding my errors and fixing them.
As to the layout of the board: U4 could use a little more room. This would improve the ability to fix any problems one might encounted after soldering this chip. I would also like to add that RCA connectors would be better. And perhaps a possibility to add a USB-b connection or a standard USB connection.
The sound
I used my MS1 as headphone for listening. At first I connected it straight to the dac output. It is more than capable of driving 32 ohm headphones and there is little to no hiss.
To keep it short: the dac sounds fine. It has a bright and clean sound. It’s strengths are its clarity and its powerful performance. Overall it is a very capable dac and it delivers lots of bang for buck. It does tend to sound a bit ‘sharp’ in the high end and can be fatiguing when listening to longer periods. Also the bass does lack a bit of slam and compared to more ‘sophisticated’ dacs it does miss a certain refinement. This is not meant as a negative, it is just my personal taste in sound.
The dac really comes to life when fed to my millitt minimax headphoneamp. The tubes give a bit of warmth to the sound that make it a lot more enjoyable. I really enjoy listening to this combo. I believe that this combination is where the dac can really shine. The clarity of the dac and the sound signature of the hybrid amp make it a very pleasing and enjoyable setup, one that I will listen to for many more albums to come.
Summary
It is a very good build. The sound is very good, and considering the price probably unbeatable. Especially if paired with a hybrid or tube amp.