Gordon Macfarlane Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 (edited) Hi guys , been playin around with computer based music delivery in my second ( family room) system. It's makes for very convienient background music listening with both music and system controlled via my new Ipad. I look at the Audio-gd site every other day as it seem they always have new products out . Anyway they have now released a new series of digital interfaces based on the Tenor TE8802 chip (24/192 capable) : http://www.audio-gd....DIv2/DIv2EN.htm so I purchased the DI-DSP with all the upgrades and plan on using it via I2S with my new Thorsten Loesch designed TDA1541a Dac board and Lampizator SRPP valve output stage with valve regulated power supply. Ok , so the dac is only 16bit/44.1 khz but when I looked at the costings of either the TP or Acko sabre dacs the budget very quickly blew out to a few thousand dollars and that isn't even in the same city as my ball park!. So the idea is to lift the sound quality to the point where we really want to sit down and listen to the music rather than it just being inoffensive background. Over the next few days I hope to get some pics of all the bits and bobs that make up the new pc based source. Cheers, Gordon Edited May 31, 2012 by Ozcall
Gordon Macfarlane Posted May 31, 2012 Author Posted May 31, 2012 PS : At the moment the system is as follows : Home made media pc running Windows 8 and Jriver media center is service (background ) mode. Usb connection to old Gigawork dac with analogue stages disabled and direct out from the dac chip (cs4398) to Analogue metric 6n3 based tube buffer., Preamp is Diyhifisupply EZ Ultimate Volume Control Standalone Linestage - Kit with Jfet output buffer feeding an Yam M60 power amp ,driving Gale 402'S 2
Guest treblid Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 Ozcal? Looking good.. media PC comparo!! ^_^ Looking forward to the pics...
Gordon Macfarlane Posted May 31, 2012 Author Posted May 31, 2012 (edited) Some pics of the dac board and valve stage as I was building them Edited June 1, 2012 by Ozcall 2
Gordon Macfarlane Posted May 31, 2012 Author Posted May 31, 2012 (edited) Ozcal? Looking good.. media PC comparo!! ^_^ Looking forward to the pics... Yep , it's me treb To be honest the media centre is pretty much stock standard fare , the last upgrade being an OCZ SSD for the OS and Jriver. Once I finish off the dac and valve output stage then we can have a play with MC's as I am interested to hear your Linux based solution. G PS : still waiting for some Elna slimic 2 caps to replace the Nichicons that the dac kit came with. Edited June 1, 2012 by Ozcall
Guest Muon Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 Looks good, mate Do you have a link to those DAC boards?
Gordon Macfarlane Posted May 31, 2012 Author Posted May 31, 2012 Sure do Ian : http://shop2.hifidiy.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8_12&products_id=50 The item as listed comes with it's own tube output stage but I was able to purchased just the dac board and associtated components for $150 TL reckons it is one of his designs from about 10 yrs ago. He also went on to say that it is probably the best board currently avialable from Chinese suppliers. So I followed TL's recommendations and also added in aTDA cap upgrade bag from Lampizator : http://lampizator.eu/shop/viewitem.php?productid=23 The other mods are to replace the Nichicon electrolytics with Elna Slimic 2's and passive I/V using Shinkoh tantalum resistors and silver mica caps for the lp filter.
Gordon Macfarlane Posted May 31, 2012 Author Posted May 31, 2012 Impressive! I just hope it all works when I get round to powering it up
LogicprObe Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 I just hope it all works when I get round to powering it up I'll say a prayer to Tesla for you!
Guest Muon Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 Nice move being able to get the dac board alone, allows more flexibility.
Nada Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 awesome project I reckon Id rather have this TDA1541 board then a Sabre design. The TDA1541 could take higher sample rates then 44.1 could'nt it?
Guest treblid Posted June 1, 2012 Posted June 1, 2012 Yep , it's me treb To be honest the media centre is pretty much stock standard fare , the last upgrade being an OCZ SSD for the OS and Jriver. Once you go SSD you wouldn't go back to spinning HDDs ever again... At least I couldn't... :wub: :wub: Once I finish off the dac and valve output stage then we can have a play with MC's as I am interested to hear your Linux based solution. Will do.. Also will you be putting your DAC inside the PC case, or outside the PC in it's own box?
gavtron Posted June 1, 2012 Posted June 1, 2012 Once you go SSD you wouldn't go back to spinning HDDs ever again... At least I couldn't... :wub: :wub: What brand of ssd do you use? I have the Corsair force 3 and am not that impressed as far as sq goes. Although it is great for loading to o/s - so fast
Guest treblid Posted June 1, 2012 Posted June 1, 2012 What brand of ssd do you use? I have the Corsair force 3 and am not that impressed as far as sq goes. Although it is great for loading to o/s - so fast iirc, it's the same brand as Gordon - OCZ. My music is streamed off a NAS. Except for noticing SSD cuts down the noise I can hear on my system (ground loop), honestly I didn't notice anything else AFAICT. Did you notice a SQ degradation when you swapped to a Cosair? At the end of the day it's the sheer speed :wub:!... Impossible for me to go back to normal HDD to run the OS again... So pampered by modern day computing.. hee hee
Gordon Macfarlane Posted June 1, 2012 Author Posted June 1, 2012 (edited) Some pics of the control interface: Ipad using Gear4 remote software , bluetooth to Gear 4 infrared blaster: to control the physical components Webgizmo remote for Jriver , wi-fi to mediacentre Webgizmo album view Edited June 1, 2012 by Ozcall 1
Gordon Macfarlane Posted June 1, 2012 Author Posted June 1, 2012 awesome project I reckon Id rather have this TDA1541 board then a Sabre design. The TDA1541 could take higher sample rates then 44.1 could'nt it? Thanks Nada , I havent heard any of the Sabre boards but other than Mick most of the folk who's oppinions I resepct seem to feel that it is very difficult to get the Sabre dacs to stay on musical point, ie they tend to sound sterile with the slightest provocation. I would love to hear one of the Audio-gd Ref 7.1 dacs in my system but again we are getting to $2300 landed and while this may happen in the future, if the 1704 chips are still available, it's just not on the cards now.
Nada Posted June 2, 2012 Posted June 2, 2012 Thanks Nada , I havent heard any of the Sabre boards but other than Mick most of the folk who's oppinions I resepct seem to feel that it is very difficult to get the Sabre dacs to stay on musical point, ie they tend to sound sterile with the slightest provocation. I would love to hear one of the Audio-gd Ref 7.1 dacs in my system but again we are getting to $2300 landed and while this may happen in the future, if the 1704 chips are still available, it's just not on the cards now. You might just find you prefer your TDA1541 DAC to a Ref7.1 anyway. Your DAC should sound really good. I think you could enjoy high res tracks if you restrict the bit depth to 16. The next mod upgrade could be a low jitter clocked USB to I2S input. Please post more photos of the build. Im fascinated with what your doing. Cheers.
Gordon Macfarlane Posted June 7, 2012 Author Posted June 7, 2012 (edited) Hi guys , got the DI-DSP yesterday but can't get the drivers to install on Windows 8 cp. Any one managed to do this? Edited June 7, 2012 by Ozcall
wolster Posted June 7, 2012 Posted June 7, 2012 Hi guys , got the DI-DSP yesterday but can't get the drivers to install on Windows 8 cp. Any one managed to do this? Gordon, as you know, I'm no tech but is it possible that the drivers would be happier with Windows 7, particularly as W 8 hasn't even been released yet
Gordon Macfarlane Posted June 7, 2012 Author Posted June 7, 2012 (edited) Gordon, as you know, I'm no tech but is it possible that the drivers would be happier with Windows 7, particularly as W 8 hasn't even been released yet , absolutely Wally but that means I would have to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows 7 and Jriver mediacenter and ,and....... So it is a viable solution but one I am trying to avoid. Edited June 7, 2012 by Ozcall
Guest myrantz Posted June 7, 2012 Posted June 7, 2012 May be wrong, as I have yet to to try out Win 8, but in a way Windows 8 is just a new skin over the old stuffs (Windows 8 has a new desktop which is more "touch" friendly). So in theory drivers for Windows 7 should work: Try this and see if it works If above doesn't work, you may well need to modify the INF file and look for anything that says 7, and change that to 8 and see if it installs ... 1
Gordon Macfarlane Posted June 7, 2012 Author Posted June 7, 2012 Thanks for the tip Mr M , will give it try in the morning
Show Posted June 8, 2012 Posted June 8, 2012 I cannot help but be Cpt Obvious for a second. I noticed you have a TV in the room! :o *gasp* Any plans to do a 5.1 or 7.1 in the future. I find that surround still works better for movies because I am too distracted visually to be scrutinizing the audio components. I want to convert my stereo PC hi-fi movie set up into a 5.1 but got no where to start. Also, Windows 8? o.O am I that out of the loop? Beta? Trial? Voodoo? Also, how are you connecting the PC to the DAC? Straight from MoBo or from a Sound Card? Currently overhauling entire CD collection (including smashing some into the dirt) and re-setting up the PC source.
Gordon Macfarlane Posted June 8, 2012 Author Posted June 8, 2012 (edited) Hi Show , the system in the pictures is our second music system , the main music system has a dedicated room and there are no tv's in sight We are also lucky enough to have a home theater system in another dedicated room. The tv in the second system is just for watching the news etc when we get up in the morning and also to allow us to configure the music pc etc. I could add 5.1 to the second system as I have enough spare speakers and a gorgeous sounding ( for ht ) Sony VA-777ES surround amp that I got for nothing but that would make the living area look rather untidy and is not what I was looking to use the second music system for. In your case the addition of a sound or graphics card with hdmi out should allow for 5.1 if your amp has hdmi in. As for windows 8 , yup ! Mircrosoft have released a "Consumer preview". The CP looks very simmilar to Win 7 with the addition of the new Metro interface. There has been some suggestion that the sound quality from Win8 is better than Win7 but I can't confirm this as the pc it is loaded on is not dual boot. The PC is connected to the dac via USB ,with W8 then seeing the dac as a USB soundcard. I have also had the pc connected to the dac via coax spidf direct from the header on the mother board but with my current dac board : http://hifimediy.com...t&product_id=60 usb connection seems to give the best results. Cheers, Gordon Edited June 8, 2012 by Ozcall
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