Finally! The long-awaited, much-anticipated, long-overdued , oft-asked, finally see daylight… *drum roll please* Yup, in collaboration with Calv Acoustic Labs, DIY Paradise brings you… Non-Oversampling Digital Analog Converter Kits! (if you are cheap, use your business card box to house the dac) (i’m even cheaper. no box is best box!) *see below*

Half a kit, full kit, what the difference?
Yup folks. At offer here is DAC full kits. You get everything you need to build the part. Well not "full" in the strictest sense of the word, but "full" enough. You still need to get your RCA sockets, wires, casing, battery, solder, calories, sweat… The power supply side is not supplied, as it is diyparadise’s aim to promote going battery (though the PCB could be wired for separate power supplies). Remember, have battery, can travel. Besides after you built your DAC, bring your battery powered DAC and a mop to your hifi dealer, so that after listening to your DAC, they can mop up their drool! So here you go.

The TDA1543 DAC kit page.

The TDA1545 DAC kit page. DISCONTINUED

"Monica 2" – The TDA1545 DAC kit with asynch reclocking.

Update Dec 4, 2004: All you need to know about these DAC kits.

Testing, testing… Good!

Palm Top Dac, Pocket DAC, Mini DAC…

Perhaps you prefer a more conventional "box"? With power switch, LED at the front?
Shown here is 4.5Ah battery that lasts ~40 hours with this DAC. Sub for a more petite batt of your liking.

You can easily take out the guts and modify to your heart’s content!

www.diyparadise.com

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Well, almost…

History of the DAC
Idea was conceived while watching some horrible B-grade movie when thoughts suddenly drifted to all those ideas/thoughts/experience “stolen” from everyone/everywhere on the Great World Wide Web. Then Head Honcho of Calv Acoustic Lab lended a GIGANTIC helping hand by laying out the PCB design. Needless to say, never bothered to finish that stupid movie.

Pre-requisite to build the DAC
As long as you can solder properly, know how to use a multimeter, know how to work logically and of course, relax with your favourite beverage (milk, coffee, tea, toddy, stout, beer, sake…), you are ready!

Work logically : Solder in all components except for CS8412 and TDA154x. Power up and measure that power supply voltages are correct. Then in goes last 2 chips. Power up again to make sure that power supply voltages are still correct. With TDA1545, check that one end of R18 is at 1/2Vdd while the other end is at some other voltage (~0.8V in mind). Then hook it up.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy
First of all, a very important point to know about these non-os DAC kits is that there is no gain stage involved. Thus the output voltage you get is just the pure voltage as generated across the current-to-voltage resistor. In other words, passive I/V conversion.

Because of this wonderful reason, these DAC kits will not put out 2V output like most conventional CDPs. If you are using single DAC chips, it’s more like 0.5-0.6V. If you parallel the chips ala 4xTDA1543 or 8xTDA1543, then the output level is higher. Remember, these are current output DACs so when you parallel the DACs, the current adds up and you get more current, hence more voltage output. 4xTDA1543 gets you to almost 2V while 8xTDA1543 gets you more than 2V.

If your system is low gain and needs all the swing from your DAC stage, do NOT be alarmed that you need to crank up your volume from 10 o’clock till 1 o’clock to get back the same listening level. There is nothing wrong going on here. It’s just that the DAC output voltage is lower, that’s all. It’s no different like connecting a lower sensitivity speakers at the output. You just need to crank up the volume, that’s all.

If you feel that it is important to listen at 10 o’clock as opposed to 1 o’clock, then feel free to add in a gain stage. This is where I’m stubborn, obstinate to the point of being a pain in the you-know-where. The decision to eschew convention is partly based on my experience of haven’t heard any gain stage at the DAC level work so brilliantly without destroying the purity of the DAC stage.

I have listened to opamp stage (even using OPA627), tube stage (using the ubiquitous 6922 variants etc) blah blah blah… but never liked its “flavourings”. Each time, my ears tell me that no gain stage is still better. Of all the gain stages I have heard (okay, I haven’t heard that many), the one most faithful to the DAC is the 12B4-based gain stage. With its mu of ~6, it’s just nice! However, due to its very microphonic nature, again, it’s hard to recommend.

Briefly pros and cons of a gain stage
Pros: more output, better dynamics, better bass.
Cons: loss of “sonic purity”, sometimes loss of micro detail as well.
So if you feel like you need a gain stage, you are on your own! *diabolical evil laughter ensues…*

Troubleshooting the DAC
This is the fun part. Okay, there is this Mr Murphy and his darn wonderful Law that makes this page necessary. After soldering everything and verifying all voltages are correct, here are some troubleshooting tips.

Problem : No sound. LED doesn’t light up when you pressed “Play” on your CDP.
The LED is just an indicator. More importantly, check pin 28 of CS8412 (the pin closest to LED). It should read ~5V when no music is playing and ~0V when you pressed “Play”. If it is ~0V when you pressed “Play”, then chances are you got the LED orientation wrong. If you still get ~5V, this means CS8412 was unable to “lock” to the incoming SPDIF signal from your CD transport. Check that you got the 75ohm, 100nF caps at the input wired correctly. Check also the PLL filter (470ohm, 220nF, 3300pF) are all placed correctly.

Also, measure Frequency at pins 1/2/3 of TDA154x pins. (Measure at the leads of the chip!) All of them should read something when music is playing. Pin 2 should read ~44.1kHz. If you could get some frequency measurement at these pins, this means all the digital signal is reaching TDA154x, then it’s highly probable that you have a dead TDA154x chip. If not, you could have a broken connection somewhere between CS8412 and TDA154x.

Problem : Distorted sound.
Check that you got the right I/V and Ref (R18) resistors in!

Problem : Got sound but I’m hearing things I’ve never heard before! Is there another backup singer on this track?
This is spooky. Call an exorcist!

Problem : My friends love the sound and wouldn’t return my DAC!
Those selfish bastards! Get new friends and new DAC.

Problem : My wife loves the sound! She said this diyparadise guy is her new hero. I’m jealous!
Lie to her that I look like a toad.

Problem : I can’t decide between mahogany wood, ABS plastic, or stainless steel chassis.
Ask your wife.

Problem : My dog/cat runs away when I play your DAC!
Are you using a super tweeter? If your system capable of up to 44kHz? Maybe your pets are irritated by this super-sonic noise. Hey, at least they can’t ruin your audio gear! They are also leaving you to listen in peace. So what’s the problem? Do you also experience less mosquito bites? I heard that mosquitoes hate this frequency too.

What else?
There’s certainly room for improvement! You could start a search for your “perfect” gain stage. You could build a super clock for asynchronous clocking between CS8412 and TDA154x. Details will be available soon.

Remember, this DAC kit is meant to give you a start in the wonderful sonic world of non-os. Now that I’ve got your attention, there are certainly many steps ahead in this wonderful journey.

Enjoy!

www.diyparadise.com

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Dear yeo,You bastard! You ruined my life with your non-os dac! Now I can’t listen to conventional dacs anymore. Makes me puke! With your dac, I feel much closer to the music. More natural, more organic, more grazioso, more music… more… like you said it, mama mia! But what’s next? Surely some of your customer-friends asked you this right? Surely this is not all that you got? Thank God you invited me over to listen to the new version! I did as you said and tried out that little squarish thingie [that’s an oscillator, my dear] 50MHz first, then 80MHz. You were right. 50MHz was already an improvement over the current dac but 80MHz was…. ooooohhhhh…. amazing! Yes! Yes! I don’t understand how and why but you worked magic! Now I’m more than ruined. I can’t go out, I can’t listen to my friends’ systems. I can’t even do anything without listening to music through your dac. And that’s why I hate you. Monica

dear monicaplease forgive me. it’s never my intention to ruin your life with this non-os dac. what more with the new version. the only difference over the previous version is that : i. it uses cs8414 chip instead of the already-extinct cs8412. ii. the pcb is silver plated instead of tin plated. iii. it has asynchronous reclocking of the 3-wire eiaj signals. and yes, the higher the freq of the oscillator, the better it sounds. the highest i could source here is 80mhz so if i find any higher freq than that, you know whom i’ll send to. ; ) to up the “mojo factor”, die-hard diyers (you know who you are!) can just purchase the “eiaj reclocked” kit, which is essentially half of this board, and swing any eiaj-based dac chip of choice. hey, have i got your attention? again, my sincere apologies. yeo

Monica2 is now succeeded by Monica3!

Monica2 PCB   USD25 (RM90) Monica2 PCB with surface moounted chips soldered on   USD50 (RM180) you need to get the other parts yourself Assembled/tested Monica2   USD125 (RM450) as of June 2006, assembled/tested Monica2 is supplied with only power supply wires soldered on TDA1545A   USD3.50 (RM12)

To help you “roll your own” Monica2…

Fedex shipping is prefered. For shipping weight below 0.5kg,

Fedex to USA/Canada is USD17.

Fedex to most parts of Europe is USD25.

Order directly from our e-Store! http://store.diyparadise.com

Stuffing guide

For More Mama Mia! Recommended gain stage for Monica2 — Grounded Grid Tube Gain Stage

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For EVEN More Mama Mia! Recommended gain stage for Monica2 — Rudolf Broertjes’ SS I/V Gain Stage

.

Other Monica related pages, Cloning Monica.

www.diyparadise.com

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