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Thoughts on a bunch of DACs (and why delta-sigma kinda sucks, just to get you to think about stuff)
Dec 8, 2014 at 10:50 AM Post #1,982 of 6,500
feuergeist76 said:
  I've found this DIY Project, which seems to be interesting:
 
https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/r2r-for-the-rest-of-us/
 
Anyone already got notice of that?
Click to expand...

 
There's a very lengthy thread on DIY Audio about Soekris' DAC: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendors-bazaar/259488-reference-dac-module-discrete-r-2r-sign-magnitude-24-bit-384-khz.html
 
There's also a quite interesting Open Hardware DAC using shift registers here, with BOM, schematics, and PCB layout for anyone who wants to go ahead and build one:  http://www.signalyst.com/hardware.html  Should be pretty inexpensive.
 
Dec 8, 2014 at 5:17 PM Post #1,984 of 6,500
purrin said:
Just to get 12-14 effective bits at best, even with 0.01% resistors. Software trimming could help with accuracy I guess.
Click to expand...


15 years ago, 12-14 bits is all you could get from budget ADC (Texas Instruments) for the professional market. Would run out if dynamic range in some peculiar situation (like huge roll off in response from LF to HF).

But with the majority of 16/44 material I listen to I can't help bu think of lot of these extra 8bits to 24 is just here to record ambient and esp. Electronics background noise.

Also, on a pure technical basis, aren't mixing LSB accuracy and ladder dynamic range? In particular, there's no issue getting 24 bits from the ladder array but it's the precision of each quantization level you are questioning.

From the TotalDAC designer: effective dynamic range of the ladder is more critical than LSB precision (which affects how well you render mics hiss really :).

Arnaud
 
Dec 8, 2014 at 8:48 PM Post #1,985 of 6,500
Hey guys. I had a quick question regarding purrin's comments about the gungnir I was hoping someone could answer. 
 
He mentions the soundstage is "compact but well defined" in his comments on the generation 2 usb iteration; I was simply wondering if this is referring to the intimacy/immediacy of the presented sound (on the stage with musicians vs. 3 or 4th row), or if this means a shallow and/or narrow soundstage.
 
Thanks in advance for any clarification or insights anyone can provide!
 
Dec 8, 2014 at 11:20 PM Post #1,986 of 6,500
monago said:
Hey guys. I had a quick question regarding purrin's comments about the gungnir I was hoping someone could answer. 

He mentions the soundstage is "compact but well defined" in his comments on the generation 2 usb iteration; I was simply wondering if this is referring to the intimacy/immediacy of the presented sound (on the stage with musicians vs. 3 or 4th row), or if this means a shallow and/or narrow soundstage.

Thanks in advance for any clarification or insights anyone can provide!
Click to expand...




Well, I'm sure he means both - that the soundstage is shallower and narrower than some other units, but that the specific placement of musicians within that smallish soundstage is better defined than with some other DACs.

The intimacy/immediacy of the sound would be a seperate issue from the soundstage (though correlated to a minor extent). I think he stated that the Gugnir does have an immediate presentation.
 
Dec 9, 2014 at 12:27 AM Post #1,987 of 6,500
It's all relative. Gungnir stage is more compact depth and width wise compared to the heavy hiiters PWD2, SFD-1, Gen V especially. However, sense of depth is better than M7 or Yulong. M7 stage is set further back. Yulong stage is upfront. Gungnir stage is slightly more upfront than M7 but as not as upfront as Yulong. I would say Gungnir stage is about above average. Nothing extraordinary. Wyrd does provide for more openness, depth, and better sense of the venue.
 
Great staging seems to be the exclusive domain of expensive DACs.
 
Dec 9, 2014 at 12:29 AM Post #1,988 of 6,500
purrin said:
   better sense of the venue.
Click to expand...

 
this just became my GoTo phrase for capturing the essence of a DAC feeling "at the gig" or in the space.
kudos purrin.
 
Dec 10, 2014 at 5:02 AM Post #1,989 of 6,500
Finally I made my move to go for an Auralic Vega for the time being, looking for another solution during the next couple of months. I think talking of Sabre DACs this DAC is simple one of the best, maybe to some ears also the best implementation as of today.
 
I will experiment with some tubes and the impact on soundstaging as well as musicality (the stage is really impressive, as well as the transparency, and with the exact clock it's really a bliss to have this strong improvement available). Probably some set of tubes or adjustments in Software (PCM/DSD Encoding) can have some further improvements. While im sure that tubes can have a good impact, the impact of software adjustments will be a bit limited, I guess.
 
Dec 14, 2014 at 10:18 PM Post #1,992 of 6,500
I heard an Audio Note DAC for the first time this weekend. Fantastic. Can't buy it but will get a chance to hear in my system for a couple days. I think I get what the R2R fuss is about. Would be very interested to see what OP thinks about the AN DACs.
 
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