[Spiug31]

Hello all,
I am looking for a portable DAC with:

Coaxial input
Toslink input
Battery power 20+hours (not SLA battery)
Mini stereo jack output
footprint no larger than 105mm (4.1") x 610mm (2.4")

NOS or non-NOS I am open to either.

This dac is going to be paired with my Supermini-III amp and will connect to either my ihp-120 (toslink) or my pc sound card (coax).

I am aware of the microdac but its battery life and "transportable" size are a bit off a turn off. My main intent here is to find out what the options are, so i can go looking for a prebuilt dac to buy.

 

[labrat]

Deleted.

 

[Spiug31]

Thankyou for the reply labrat,
I'm not very able to search but I do what I can, when I can.

It slipped my mind to mention that I am looking for a DAC costing less than $500.

I had already considered the apogee but its price was too high (even 2nd hand) and it is what I would regard as transportable rather than portable even though with a Li-ion battery it would be easy to lift.
The Overture and Microdac I had already read had short battery runtimes (<10hours) although the Microdac seems commonly regarded as the best portable dac below the mini-dac.
I had heard mention of the AOS Piccolo but hadn't researched it until now, it looks interesting as a stop-gap solution and I will keep my eyes open for its appearance on the Sale/Trade Forums.


Are there any DIY DAC's that while fitting my criteria, may be found pre-assembled or secondhand ?

I am looking for a sound quality either near or surpassing that of the microdac.


once again thankyou for the reply.

 

[labrat]

Deleted.

 

[labrat]

Deleted.

 

[star882]

Quote:

Originally Posted by labrat DAC's are very power-hungry.

The newer ones are very low power. A PCM1794 (192kHz, 24 bit, 132dB SNR) draws less than 100mA total supply current, which means it could operate for over 20 hours on 4 AA batteries using LDO regulators. A DSP, however, would most likely be power intensive. I believe there are low power DSPs and designs that do not need a DSP, however.
Quote:

(not SLA battery)

Why not? The smaller ones (6v, 4AH) are quite light.

 

[Spiug31]

labrat
The Picollo seems a good size for the Supermacro, since I'm using a Supermini-III I may well be able to sandwich the ihp-120 between Picollo and amp to make a portable stack. The Picollo is definately the current front runner unless/until Xin's fabled DAC appears or until the microdac gets a much better mobile power source.

Star882
The reason I put non-SLA as a condition was based partly on the weight and partly on needing to keep them charged rather than being able to let them run flat before recharging them.
Are there any proven good sounding DAC's using the very low power chips you mentioned that fit all my criteria ?

 

[Spiug31]

I've placed a "WTB: AOS Piccolo" post in the Source Components For Sale / Trade Forum. 40-50 hours on one charge of the battery pack, the ability to roll the opamp as well as small size and coax/toslink input seem a very rare combination.
Thankyou for your help

I'd still be interested to know if there are DIY designs that are as capable.

Douglas

 

[mrarroyo]

Check out:

http://www.headwize.com/projects/ifkovic_prj.htm

http://www.wolfson.co.uk/products/di...o/dacs/WM8955/

http://www.rudistor.com/nkk01se.htm

 

[Spiug31]

http://www.headwize.com/projects/ifkovic_prj.htm
This link is to an article by the same gentelman that went on to later design and sell the AOS Piccolo

http://www.wolfson.co.uk/products/di...o/dacs/WM8955/
An interesting combination DAC and amp chip but somewhat esoteric for me since I lack most DIY knowledge, I did however notice that it has a very low power consumption so it was interesting and shows what can be done.

http://www.rudistor.com/nkk01se.htm
The NKK-01se is a combined amp and DAC, it is specifically USB so lacks both of my essential coax and optical inputs and at $730 over my budget it is to expensive.
The price tag of $1230 makes a secondhand Apogee mini-dac (c. $850) seem positively affordable

.

I am having too much fun opamp rolling with my Supermacro and Supermini amps to presently even think of getting another amp or amp/DAC.
A standalone DAC is my next logical step.

thanks for the ideas though, the more there are the better my chances of finding one that fits.