Simple TDA1543 NOS dac

[Yomanze]

Nice build Leo.

I see that you followed the Peter Daniel style, looks incredibly neat! Do you know of any sources of CS8412CP? They're like hen's teeth and I have a handful of CS8412CS, but don't like mounting them on adapters...

[Yomanze]

Woohoo, just picked up a CS8412CP from eBay for £21.57 inc P&P. It is NOT very often you see them for that price these days. Could only stretch to the one as it's November, but that's made my day. Some other idiot is selling them for £100!

[jonners]

I recently bought one of Clark Chen's TDA1543 boards, referred to earlier in this thread. The board is very thick, good quality and some thought has obviously been given to components - Nichicon and Sanyo Oscon caps, Dale I/V resistors. A good deal at the price, I think.

I have changed the supply to the dac chip from 5V to 8V, I/V resistors are now 2k7 and the Vref resistor is changed to 1k5. The changes have beefed up the slightly anaemic, shut-in sound of the stock board and I'm very pleased with the way it's developing as it settles in.

Circuit of the board as supplied is here:http://www.pic16.com/soft/TDA1543SCH.pdf

If anyone -Leo?- has ideas for other tweaks/improvements I would like to hear about them and try them out.

John

[leo]

With such a simple circuit like these I'd recommend you try some component alternatives , even the resistors make a difference with these dacs, they are actually one of the few circuits I'd mess about with things like cap and resistor brands especially for the I/V stage and output signal coupling.

A good mod that you've already done is increase dac voltage and adjust I/V and VREF resistors, 8v seems to be the optimum if using passive I/V

I don't know the DIR9001 well enough yet so not sure if the PLL can be tweaked like the older CS841* types

Build it a nice little PSU if the standard one isn't up to much, I'd personally do dual output and do a few alterations to the board so you can feed the Dac separate, you don't have to go that far, just a nice little single supply would be ok.
If the input diode after the DC socket is a standard 1N4001 type try something like UF4001 , BYV26 etc

Edit, I'd have given the Dir9001 analogue and digitial supply pin separate regulation rather than having these pins share the same reg, it makes an improvement to the other receiver chips so should do the same for this.

I guess you could try a 1:1 pulse transormer on the SPDIF input
Nothing new regarding mods I'm afraid but these dacs are so simple

[jonners]

Leo - Thanks for your input. Hours of amusement lie ahead!

I'm now following the dac with one of these fet buffers: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/STEREO-FET-BUF...742.m153.l1262

The sound is very natural and believable.

John

[Tripmaster]

I recently bought one of Clark Chen's TDA1543 boards, referred to earlier in this thread. The board is very thick, good quality and some thought has obviously been given to components - Nichicon and Sanyo Oscon caps, Dale I/V resistors. A good deal at the price, I think.

I have changed the supply to the dac chip from 5V to 8V, I/V resistors are now 2k7 and the Vref resistor is changed to 1k5. The changes have beefed up the slightly anaemic, shut-in sound of the stock board and I'm very pleased with the way it's developing as it settles in.

Circuit of the board as supplied is here:http://www.pic16.com/soft/TDA1543SCH.pdf

If anyone -Leo?- has ideas for other tweaks/improvements I would like to hear about them and try them out.

John

Hi Jonners/Leo

I quite fancy buying one of these...after a failed attempt at the cheap Cirrus Logic DAC I now think its time to destroy another one.

How does the TDA1543 sound when compared with the Cirrus Logic?

Thanks

Richard

[jonners]

Hi Richard -

At the moment I'm preferring the 1543 - but maybe I just like change! I think it just sounds more natural and present, whereas the Cirrus has a slightly more 'processed' feeling as if everything is wrapped in plastic film - if that makes any sense.
Sir Thomas Beecham famously said "The English don't like music, they just like the sound it makes". If I put the sound before the music I would prefer the Cirrus but, even though I'm English, I prefer the music of the 1543.
Hope this helps. Good luck if you decide to go for it, it's very simple so it's harder to mess up than the Cirrus.

John

[Tripmaster]

Hi Richard -

At the moment I'm preferring the 1543 - but maybe I just like change! I think it just sounds more natural and present, whereas the Cirrus has a slightly more 'processed' feeling as if everything is wrapped in plastic film - if that makes any sense.
Sir Thomas Beecham famously said "The English don't like music, they just like the sound it makes". If I put the sound before the music I would prefer the Cirrus but, even though I'm English, I prefer the music of the 1543.
Hope this helps. Good luck if you decide to go for it, it's very simple so it's harder to mess up than the Cirrus.

John

Hi John

Thanks for replying.

What made you go for the 1543 over the PCM1793?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=290287927373

Richard

[jonners]

What made you go for the 1543 over the PCM1793?

Just wanted to try the non-os thing.

John

[Tripmaster]

Hi John

I guess the PCM will sound similar to the Cirrus. I am going to order three additional TDA1543 chips for a possible later upgrade. Only 98p each!

Richard