AYA dac

[SolidState]

I can't seem to find the thread, it was a group buy thread that seems to have disappeared.
If I come across anything i'll post back here.

[leo]

I've heard a fake S2, a guy I knew brought one and wanted me to compare it against my genuine, it sounded more like the A grades
Its easy to do fakes , all you need is a way of stamping the print on a normal Taiwan A grade, probably remove the serial code off and stamp on one the same as a known genuine, trust me some of these fakes are almost impossible to tell apart with the naked eye, we have to remember these chips can be sold for high prices so its obvious to me people are going to try it on if they can get away with it

You certainly don't need golden ears hearing the difference with a genuine S2 gainst a A or even S1 grade, it obviously helps if the design fitting these in gets the best out of it

BTW all later TDA1541A's are Taiwan stamped, S2 grades wasn't around when the philips ones was out as far as I know

[leo]

The other obvious way of telling a fake is by testing it, you need the test gear suitable though

[lurcher]

I have been thinking about that, as far as I can see the only recorded difference between the types is the LSB accuracy, and that would be very hard to measure without something like an audio precision test set. You might be able to do it with a 24bit dac as a reference.

Unless I am missing something obvious?

[Audiocom AV]

I've heard a fake S2, a guy I knew brought one and wanted me to compare it against my genuine, it sounded more like the A grades
Its easy to do fakes , all you need is a way of stamping the print on a normal Taiwan A grade, probably remove the serial code off and stamp on one the same as a known genuine, trust me some of these fakes are almost impossible to tell apart with the naked eye, we have to remember these chips can be sold for high prices so its obvious to me people are going to try it on if they can get away with it

You certainly don't need golden ears hearing the difference with a genuine S2 gainst a A or even S1 grade, it obviously helps if the design fitting these in gets the best out of it

BTW all later TDA1541A's are Taiwan stamped, S2 grades wasn't around when the philips ones was out as far as I know

Leo

The only sure way without the correct test gear is to buy from a reputable source.

In one DAC I have a pair of TDA1541 S1's with double crowns, now does this make them S1's or S2's?? I had read somewhere that some S1’s were rested and made the “Double Crown” grade.

Regards,
Mark Bartlett

[leo]

Reputable source, unfortunately their thin on the ground now that sell these, I've tried way too many of these chips, all I know is that I found the S2 to be the best, S1 next best thing.
I fitted one of the gold pin sockets with the levers on the ends to allow easy changing, people who's heard the dac here commented straight away on the bass being better with the S2, had more finer details which was only noticeable doing a direct comparison

I've never tried or seen a S1 with two crowns, because of the variation TDA1541A's used to be measured at the factory, they was stamped S1 or S2 depending on how well they measured, the ones that didn't meet certain measurements was left as the A grades.

I really wish they did all sound the same, it would be much cheaper, the standard A's are still very good, just not all lot of them, there is a few that sound poorer than others, at least with the crowns you know they are going to be decent

[lurcher]

I wasn't questioning that you can hear a difference Leo, just how that related to the process they used to grade them. The VIF sockets are a good idea, I am using low profile turned pin sockets to try and get the decoupling caps as close to the IC as I can, but the ZIF will certainly help this sort of comparisons.

One slight problem I can see with direct comparisons though is I find the DACs take a couple of minutes to get up to running temperature, so that would need to be taken into account.

What I want to try is to see how the 1541 compare to the more current (no pun intended) ladder dacs. But I need to get the valve output buffer built next, at the moment I only have the 1:10 step ups on the differential output, so that gives me about 0.8v full scale output.

[leo]

If I came across as a bit shitty I apologize I'm not great at explaining things so you have to bare with me

You are right these things do take time to warm up, I also have to adjust the trimmer for the DC nulling on each of these dacs outputs.
Thing I don't understand was the bass, I've no idea why it was deeper and tighter with the S2, I've found a lot of the A grades to be a bit slow and thick at times

[Audiocom AV]

I've heard a fake S2, a guy I knew brought one and wanted me to compare it against my genuine, it sounded more like the A grades:

Interesting, but bad news to say the least. Was the print on the fake 100% quality match of the genuine S2?

BTW all later TDA1541A's are Taiwan stamped, S2 grades wasn't around when the philips ones was out as far as I know

To the best of my knowledge the original Philips TDA1541A S1 chips were stamped both “single crown” and “double crown” depending on grade. The later S2 versions were only ever “double crown”.

According to the measurements the improvements offered by S2 are not that substantial over the standard A grade. That said, many report of notably improved sound from the S2 variety.

The last order of TDA1541A S2 chips I placed with the UK supplier sent back standard A grade. This suggest that S2’s have completely dried up from Philips. Do you know of any reliable sources?

Regards
Mark Bartlett

[leo]

Interesting, but bad news to say the least. Was the print on the fake 100% quality match of the genuine S2?

Not exactly, it was close but the points on the crowns looked suspect, it was the main reason he wanted to compare it

To the best of my knowledge the original Philips TDA1541A S1 chips were stamped both “single crown” and “double crown” depending on grade. The later S2 versions were only ever “double crown”.

I didn't know that tbh, there is a lot of hidden info on this chip

According to the measurements the improvements offered by S2 are not that substantial over the standard A grade. That said, many report of notably improved sound from the S2 variety.

Yes, problem in this hobby is that a lot of things can measure the same or similar , if only the measurements always matched the listening tests

The last order of TDA1541A S2 chips I placed with the UK supplier sent back standard A grade. This suggest that S2’s have completely dried up from Philips. Do you know of any reliable sources?

Unfortunately I don't Mark, I was very lucky with mine, it was from a small electronics shop who had it in stock for years, it was just listed as a TDA1541A dac chip so it only cost a few quid, he obviously had no idea what they was worth, shame it was the only one in there
I can have a search around if you like?