New R2R DAC

[garn63]

Indeed...they are becoming more refined. Also the folks building them are more experienced at tweaking them to taste now.
Perceptions, perceptions, eh
I tend to use my Dac for a bit of flavour that I happen to like at the time. The Schiit Gungnir tastes very nice in my current set up.

 

[Psilonaught]

I must admit that I find it fascinating that Lukasz moved away from the Soekris board and now only implements a "secret" DS solution, from what I understand.

I'm planning on buying a Pacific at some point and it will be interesting to see how it compares to a ladder DAC.

 

[vinyl4ever]

What NOS?

 

[MartinC]

I think this is this is the one:

Has been posted on here before.

I've seen that shared before but not watched it due to the click-bait title and that I had no idea if the guy talking was worth paying any attention to. Playing the video now I'd honestly have normally given up on it after a minute or two. The commonality between the DACs mentioned is hardly news, which more than anything begs the question why he'd bought so many of them in the first place. On the filters point I think he's missing that these are options built into the DAC chips themselves, so it's not remotely surprising that DACs using the same DAC chip will have the same options.

Just for you I did watch long enough to get to the useless comment I think you were referring to, where he simply says, "and the pre-amp section is still s**t." That's hardly an informative comment and I don't know what he actually means, and honestly I'm not convinced he knows exactly what he means either.

If you think of a hifi pre-amp (in the sense of a system component) it performs the functions of source selection and signal level attenuation/gain (if active). Within a DAC, I think source selection is performed upstream of the DAC chip, if digital-domain volume adjustment is applied this will generally be on the DAC chip itself, and then there is an analogue output section between the DAC pin-out and the output sockets on the back of the DAC (usually in part to convert from a current signal to a voltage signal I believe). Which part of this may be 'the pre-amp section' I'm really not sure.

If R2R are on the way out, what is replacing them?

What triggered this comment? I've been more aware of R2R DACs in the last five years than I was in the preceding fifteen. Maybe it's just been where I've been getting info. from I suppose but I don't go out of my way to look into R2R DACs as they generally seem to have too high latency to be of use to me personally.

 

[rabski]

I must admit that I find it fascinating that Lukasz moved away from the Soekris board and now only implements a "secret" DS solution, from what I understand.

I'm planning on buying a Pacific at some point and it will be interesting to see how it compares to a ladder DAC.

He does enjoy going off on a tangent, but in this case I suspect shortage of supply may be the straightforward reason.

Soekris understandably seem to be moving towards more 'fully built' units and virtually all of their standalone boards are not in stock. There are, of course, also worldwide problems with component availability, so it's equally understandable that if supplies are difficult, they're going to use what they have for profitable built-up items.

 

[antonio66]

Do you mean LPS = Limited Power Supply? Why would this improve the sound? I have a LM317/337 supply for the +-12V, and the 3.3V and 5V are from bench DC supplies. I have a Wave IO card outputting I2S on a separate USB board. Output is the most basic, direct from the Dac ladder with about 600R o/p impedance. The o/p level is 1.4V rms or +/- 2V in old money.

The Soekris as it is right now isn't right. Something about tonality and dulling the leading edge of notes. My AK4490 DAC definitely has a more realistic Steinway piano sound - more steely and percussive. The Soekris is flat in comparison. Same with vocals. The guy who set it up changed the original mode (?) by downloading another. Maybe it's that.

I purchased my Soekris 2541 from Bigman, he removed the internal SMPS, replaced with an external Linear Power Supply. I never got to hear the Soekris in it's original state. If you prefer the more forward sound of your AK4490 stick with it, or maybe try a different brand. Gustard?

 

[pmcuk]

I purchased my Soekris 2541 from Bigman, he removed the internal SMPS, replaced with an external Linear Power Supply. I never got to hear the Soekris in it's original state. If you prefer the more forward sound of your AK4490 stick with it, or maybe try a different brand. Gustard?

I suspect the issue with the Soekris is the filter. Looking into that.

I do like the sound of the AK4990 - it's more dynamic. The output is an on-board op-amp. It comes with a NE5532 but I've been rolling op-amps. Trying OPA2132, OPA2134, LM6172, LM4562. The NE5532 remains the most full and rich sound, but the LM4562 is cleaner and more detailed though rather sterile and less involving. I'll try the other three again.

I'm wondering if I can take the output off the pins of the 8 pin socket and try it into a DHT valve stage like a 2P29L. That would be interesting. Or just see what the sound is like off the pins of the 8 pin socket into my Hammond 1140 SUT.

 

[Patu]

ASR gave the Soekris board a thumbs up FYI

I have no experience with Soekris but I've read good things about them also.

About Holo, I must admit that I use HQPlayer with it, which IMO takes it to a completely new level (upsampling to DSD256 with advanced filter and modulator). When I made the decision to buy it, I didn't yet have HQPlayer though. And I had auditioned Auralic Vega G2.1, Mola Mola Tambaqui and owned Linn Akurate DSM/3 back then.