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In Reply to: Requires Mods to DAC1? posted by charlies824 on February 2, 2007 at 14:03:03:
Yes, it requires adding an I2S interface which makes it a NOS DAC. You can always use a Northstar 192 DAC, which already has I2S in, but in order for the I2S to sound great, it needs some mods as well IMO......
Follow Ups:
NUS (as in non-upsampling)? :-)))IIRC, the DAC-1 uses some kind of sigma-delta or low-bit DAC, which simply can't work with any audio PCM data without some form of internal oversampling...
Which DAC chip does the DAC-1 use?
I imagine you've listened to the Benchmark in two implementations:a. your turbo modded Dac 1 with favorite spdif transport (usb or traditional); versus
b. an i2s feed (either Northstar or usb-i2s) into the i2s modified Dac 1 in NOS mode
how would you characterize the differences, and which do you prefer?
Rio - here are my preferences:1) definitely the I2S from the computer to the NOS DAC-1 - more resolution and detail, more airy. Best cymbols and bells I have heard from ANY DAC. Upsampling to 24/96 is great.
2) Northstar Transport driving I2S to NOS DAC-1 - more jitter, but upsamples to 24/192 in the transport. Close to the USB driven I2S, but not quite as detailed or airy. Superclock in the Transport helps.
3) Any low-jitter modded transport driving the modded DAC-1 with S/PDIF - Uses the 24/192 asynchronous upsampler "AD1896" in the DAC-1. Not as good, more fuzzy on top and less bass tightness, but still beats most $10K+ DAC's. Superclock in the DAC-1 for the upsampler chip helps.
These ratings are all published on my audiocircle.com forum.
but you mention in #1 above to "24/96 is great". Sorry, please explain
24/96 is upsampled data using SRC (Secret Rabbit Code) on the PC. IT does the upsampling on the fly. Best upsampling code that I have heard.
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