USB Monica DAC

usb monica kills ass!

Here’s the low awaited USB Monica.

Of course, shown above is the Plug and Play solution. The PCB solution is available too. Just check out the e-store.

Now the USB Monica is not like any of those commercial offerings out there.

First the DAC chip uses EIAJ, not I2S format. Why this this a big deal? Well, all the commercial offerings out there uses DAC chips that accept I2S format only. Reason being the USB receivers (PCM2706) outputs I2S and not EIAJ.

As a result, many USB DACs use crummy sounding DAC chips like TDA1543 (bah!). Now if you have been to my site, you’ll noticed I have tested and played quite extensively with TDA1543. I even sold DAC kits based on TDA1543!

But at the end of the day, any time I’ll prefer TDA1545.

And this explains why the delay in coming up with this design.

I could have opted the easy way out and just ask the USB reciever to output SPDIF then use a SPDIF receiver (like CS8414) to convert to EIAJ format. But my friend, this solution SUCKS big time. Sounds HORRIBLE.

This is why USB Monica sounds so much better than many commercial offerings out there. The I2S-EIAJ convertor is an exclusive diyparadise design. Took me quite a while as I’m really the sharpest knife in the drawer…

If you don’t mind soldering the power supply and output wires/RCA sockets, go for the PCB version.