The DAC side of the force

[Peter Stockwell]

I'm having loads of fun with my TC-7510. To my ears it's as a good at organising music to reveal nuances of the performance as the Technics sl1200 is with LPs.

It just keeps reveal cues in music that I never knew were there.

Stan, you mentioned a couple of "modifications", are these real upgrades, or do they simply change the flavour. i've also seen it stated that you use a liner power supply, is this one homebrew or is it commercially available ?

Bravo Stan!


cheers

[Peter Stockwell]

The TC-7510 has been running for 5 days now, It seems to sound different everyday. I've been warned of the 30 day +/- burn in period. Any others have any comments to add ?

[Filterlab]

The quality of your mains supply at different times of the day may be affecting it slightly, I have my DAC's power supply connected to a mains filter thing, it's the only component to my ears that is truly aided by a filter.

[Peter Stockwell]

The quality of your mains supply at different times of the day may be affecting it slightly, I have my DAC's power supply connected to a mains filter thing, it's the only component to my ears that is truly aided by a filter.

It's on a mains block with a rudimentary filter on it. I've got some missing link opus-F (in a Hydra configuration), that would be interesting to try. But the PSU for the beresford is plug mounted.

Otherwise I've the main rig on one spur and the dac/ae on another, earth is shared tho'.

cheers

[leo]

The TC-7510 has been running for 5 days now, It seems to sound different everyday. I've been warned of the 30 day +/- burn in period. Any others have any comments to add ?

I don't bother listening to something for the first week if its new, just leave it powered up 24/7 to let the components settle in, the sound of fresh capacitors always give a different sound to ones that had chance to mature.
Its how things work with electronics

[Peter Stockwell]

Leo,

Thanks for that. I just wondered, also, are SMPS as sensitive to mains quality as Linear ?

cheers

Peter

[tfarney]

I bought this digital transport to convert USB to coax on the way to my digital receiver - http://www.trendsaudio.com/EN/Produc...Audio_desc.htm. It also happens to have a humble Burr-Brown DAC in there, a 2704 I believe, so I tried it out between my Mac and my headphone setup. It sounds remarkably good. The power supply is a battery pack. I really wonder if, given a competent DAC chip in a good circuit design (separate digital and analog paths, etc.) bits aren't more or less bits after all, and the big differences are in the tone of the analog output stage.

Either that or I just got lucky.

Tim

[Marco]

I really wonder if, given a competent DAC chip in a good circuit design (separate digital and analog paths, etc.) bits aren't more or less bits after all, and the big differences are in the tone of the analog output stage.

Nope, there's more to it than that as well you (should) know!

I seem to remember a recent lengthy thread discussing this very topic involving TDA1541 chips and a Sony DAC...

Didn't you learn anything there, Tim?

Marco.

[leo]

bits aren't more or less bits after all, and the big differences are in the tone of the analog output stage.



Tim

If only things was that easy theres so much more with digital audio, lots of hurdles

[leo]

Leo,

Thanks for that. I just wondered, also, are SMPS as sensitive to mains quality as Linear ?

cheers

Peter

I personally detest SMPS, dirty things with their RFI seriously though some switchers are worse than others, some are known to inject a huge amount of crap into where we don't want it
Only good thing about them is that they are cheap, efficient with high current output in a small light weight box

With the newer green regs etc coming in I'd imagine SMPS are going to be more and more common