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Looking to experiment with a DSD DAC with no DAC chip, DSD low pass filtered at analog output.
What are my choices these days?
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There is also the new PS Audio DSD DAC which has been comprehensively reviewed in Absolute Sound. Have a read.
There are no clear and transparent explanations of how the various DSD converters work and what the differences in algorithms are.
One of the show reports from this year indicated about Mola Mola DAC that did not use DSD or any other chip. But I could be wrong.
Hi,
Well, there are a few options that do not use dedicated DAC Chip's, but are based around generic logic (be it FPGA's or other programmable logic or discrete logic IC's) commercial and DIY. Most implement structures that are ultimately the same as implemented in SOME DAC Chip's for DSD decoding.
Commercial you can find Chord and dCS who re-build common DAC structures in programmable logic and there is Lampizator who does not really disclose what is being done, but claims to not use DAC Chip's.
For DIY there are some discrete logic based kit's from Japan (you can also find discrete PCM DAC Kit's in Japan) which generally are only available in Japan and there is the Signalyst DIY DAC.
The DIY DSD DAC versions I have seen are based on on the principle older generations of DSD DAC's from Burr Brown use. They often appear to lack the objective performance of the IC converters, likely due to larger tolerances between the various discrete logic IC's channel resistance and tolerances in the passive parts used.
Some of these DAC's have decided to increase the length of the filter (the Burr Brown original has a filter length of 8 BCK) which impacts negatively on the impulse/time domain response of the system (but improves the filtering).
If you want a truly "no IC" DSD DAC you need to make your own Flip-Flop's for re-clocking data from discrete parts and add output drivers (also discrete) plus of course a low-pass, strictly a DIY Job.
If you accept some IC's and use integrated logic gates, it is still DIY Job, strictly, you can find most of what you need for a full design in BP's article about a "discrete" DSD ADC (which is full of integrated circuits).
You will find Lampi DSD thread here http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?14676-Lampizator-DSD-DAC
Kedar
Thanks for your response.
I believe Playback Designs also uses no DAC chip.
As far as Lampizator, according to the website:
"the new Lampizator DSD DAC that converts DSD to analog using passive filters and active tube circuits"
Another thing to consider is the driver for the DAC. An ASIO driver that supports native DSD for Windows might sound better than if you are using DoP. Also, exaSound has an ASIO driver for OSX; but I believe only the music software Decibel supports an OSX ASIO driver. exaSound uses the ESS Sabre.
Hi Mercman:
thanks for the post.
drivers won't be a consideration as I will be using only DSD capable streamers.
i don't use computers as sources, simply to rip, download, organize, and house my music library.
"Common DAC structures"? I thought that the dCS Ring DAC is unique and patented. Mind you , I know nothing about DAC structures and and, like not possessing knowledge of the life cycle of the earwig, I am happy to remain that way. But interested in your comment.
Edits: 08/10/14 08/11/14
There may be specific patents on the Ring DAC, but the basic technology has been around for some time and goes by the name "Dynamic Element Mapping". You will find this in chips such as the ESS SABRE chip, and ESS holds some patents on their specific dynamic element mapping method.
The basic idea behind dynamic element mapping is to spread the conversion process around randomly. This has no effect if all the individual DAC switching elements are identical, but if they have slight differences then these will show up as noise, rather than signal dependent distortion without the dynamic element mapping. Since noise that is uncorrelated with the music is much less obtrusive than distortion this is a net gain.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
nt
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