New low cost soekris dac1221

Looong time ago I talked about making a new low cost discrete R-2R DAC, to replace the discontinued dac1321, and now the dac1221 is finally ready to ship.... It's basically an improved and cost optimized dac1321, unfortunately the price have gone up a little, due to inflation.... Please visit www.soekris.dk for more information.

It there are interest, I'll be happy to put one up for a loaner tour...

 

Thanks for supporting SBAF with a loaner! We all really appreciate it!

 

Questions regarding possible use with HQPlayer:

Can the internal filters be switched off/will they not be in use when the maximum input rate of 352/384 kHz is used?

How is DSD input treated? Will it be converted to PCM or is there a separate D/A converter chip for DSD? If the latter, are there any filters used and can they be switched off?

(This isn’t supposed to mean that I expect the internal filters to be crap! But if I want to use HQPlayer, it’s always better if nothing else changes the signal afterwards.)

 

There is a very soft filter....
DSD is converted to PCM using a required digital filter, cutoff depending of DSD rate....

 

Can you say more? If I understand correctly, for PCM you used an open source (SoX?) filter (linear or "minimum" phase I do not know - I suspect based on user impressions a minimum, but only a guess) and up-sampled to 8x before sending it to the ladder...

 

from dac1221 manual:

“FILTER” button: Select between the different reconstruction filters. Hold for minimum 4 seconds to store the current volume level and reconstruction filter selection.
“FILTER” LED color shows the current reconstruction filter selected

Red Linear Phase filter, also called brickwall filter
Orange Mix between Linear and Minimum Phase filter
Green Minimum Phase filter, also called butterworth filter
Off Soft Minimum Phase filter, a soft butterworth filter
​

The filters can be modified, a file is on the website, but no more docs than discussed in the loong diyaudio threads....

 

Doesn't seem like one of these can be ordered yet?

 

Why not ? I have started to ship.... Just send en email to [email protected]
Or if in the US, Mod House Audio will have stock soon....

 

Thanks, on the soekris site it says to order from Mod House. Mod House doesn't list any stock yet.

 

@soekris - I’d love to hear your thoughts on how the single-ended output of the 1221 compares to the single-ended output of the flagship 2451. I’m sure they aren’t equal given the huge difference in price but I’d love to know how close the 1221 gets in your opinion.

I previously owned a 1541 and I really regret selling it. It was an awesome DAC.

 

Which filter doyou consider the stock sound? Is it off?

 

Well, it’s a month later, has anyone received their DAC 1221 yet? If so, how do you like it?

 

Audiophile torture! I ordered mine Thu and it's supposed to be delivered today when I'm out of town.

Chain will be OPPO 203 -> SPL Phonitor Mini -> Sendy Aiva.

My MJ3 and Linn failed at the same time. Coincidence...?

 

Coincidence? Possibly, did you have a power surge recently?

 

There was a prolonged outage recently. And then a branch that took out surrounding power for a while.

 

K, been warming mine up all day.
Chain is OPPO -> 1221 -> SPL Phonitor Mini -> Sendy Aiva.

So far so good. However, even with the volume "fixed" the clipping light comes on for this album. Any way to get it not to clip; I realize the album is a bit of a torture test.

 

@artur9 The clip light would go off on my 2451 pretty regularly when I had the volume at zero. But when I turned it to -1, all was well. I listen mostly to rock music

 

According to the manual I should have it set to "0dB":

from TFM:

If you connect the Line Out to a system with a volume knob you might want to set the dac1221 Line Out volume startup level to a fixed 0 dB, you can do that by turning the volume up to -4 or higher, easiest is just to turn it full up (without music playing), then store the startup setting by pressing and holding the “FILTER” button for 4 seconds.

 

Clipping is also dependent on the filter selected. But don't be afraid to use the digital attenuation to avoid clipping. I have my dam1021 set to output 0.5 VRMS to match the downstream gear, and it is clean as a whistle.

 

In terms of listening impressions:

Listening to roon->OPPO 203->Phonitor->Sendy lasted all of 5m.

The 1221 sounds more like music, less screechy. For the 1812 above, despite the clipping, the cannon blasts came from several locations on the soundstage; seemed to be a few cannon, like 2-5 of them.