Soekris dac1101 R2R DAC/Amp

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by Cspirou, Oct 7, 2015.

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  1. Nanekiu

    Nanekiu New

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    Just ordered the 1541, i bet this dac will sound really good with NOS filter on dac and doing the upsampling with HQplayer instead.
    I also read somewhere that the relocking in the soekris is excellent and that a usb converter did not do much.
     
  2. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    I got shipping notification on the 1541 on Monday, and that updated to show it had actually been picked up this morning. UPS currently estimates that it'll arrive tomorrow - but since it is coming from Denmark I'm not going to hold my breath on that one (custom's has a nasty habit of holding things up there). But it's on it's way and whether it's here tomorrow or not I should be able to get to it in fairly short order.

    I've not heard from @soekris about how much "burn-in" time he wants on it before listening starts, and as previously mentioned that'll be the biggest determinant as to when I can turn things around.
     
  3. gepardcv

    gepardcv Almost "Made"

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    @Torq, I know you typically test DACs without USB, but if you can swing it, impressions with and without the Eitr would be welcome (to readers other than just me, I'm sure).
     
  4. soekris

    soekris MOT - Soekris Engineering

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    There aren't any parts in the audio path on a dac1541 that needs burn-in, so just start listening when you get it....
     
  5. Nanekiu

    Nanekiu New

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    Just curious but what's the precision of the resistors? looking at the specs i think it's somewhere around 0.05-0.01%
     
  6. soekris

    soekris MOT - Soekris Engineering

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    The dac1541 use a mix of resistors, there are most of the 0.02% ones but also quite some 0.01% ones for the most significant bits.... The precision resistors are the largest post on the BOM....
     
  7. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    The dac1541 has safely arrived ... quick picture for provenance ...

    Yes, the casework is a cool-mint/hospital green color - I'll try and get a better shot of that over the next few days. Thing weights about 2.5 lbs. It's quite compact - about the depth of an iFi Pro iCAN, about 2/3rds the height and an inch or so wider.

    1541-First-Power-On.jpg

    Just fired it up very quickly to take a picture and verify function (which is why it's running via USB in this picture). Next I'll move it into my main rig, give it some time to come to temperature (I typically allow 72 hours for this, which is going to be about what my schedule demands anyway) and then I'll be able to start serious listening and run it through my typical "LaY" gauntlet.
     
  8. m.i.c.k.e.y

    m.i.c.k.e.y Facebook Friend

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    Eagerly waiting for impressions/review.
     
  9. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    There's quite a lot to this unit, between the built-in headphone amplifier, cross-feed options, filter settings, and so on. So the full-write up will probably come late in the week, maybe early the following week. I may do some "stream of consciousness" updates in the mean time (if so, I'll spin up a dedicated thread).

    A couple (or four) things I will say right out of the gate, with the unit cold and being fed off USB and using it's internal headphone output:
    1. This is NOT going to be a repeat of the Audio-GD Singularity 19 fiasco.
    2. It's very easy to hear the differences between the different levels of cross-feed settings.
    3. Audible differences are also relatively easily discernible with the different filter options.
    4. I don't know how it measures, but using it in integrated form the stereo separation is definitely in big-boy territory.
    I will be testing it both as a pure-DAC and as an integrated unit ... which might prompt entries in both the "Life after Yggdrasil" thread (that's a definite) and a dedicated one, just to manage the content, and relevance thereof, properly.
     
  10. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    I should also mention, while I had it hooked up to USB, I tried playing some DSD files.

    No issues there at all ... unlike some units I could mention ...

    While, say, Mojo, Hugo, 2Qute and DAVE all claim 2x DSD support on OS X/macOS, that hasn't worked without significant drop-out issues (though I've never had issues at single-rate). That's been regardless of the level of performance of the Mac (which really shouldn't matter, since we're talking about native DSD files here and not upsampled-on-the-fly content, but we're talking about the fastest Macs available anyway).

    In fact it's only the Chord DACs that have exhibited any issue with more than single-rate DSD across any of my OS X machines. And I've reproduced the issue with Windows 10 on high-spec Microsoft Surface machines as well, so it's not just an OS X issue (though it's certainly much more of a problem there, at last with post-Yosemite versions of OS X).

    I'm hoping Hugo 2 fixes this ...

    But ... this isn't supposed to be about Chord's stuff ...

    Initial DSD impressions, again through the internal amp, are quite positive. Building on the comments about separation above, the binaural DSD files I've tried have an expansive stage, even with the LCD-4 (which I tried to see how much grunt the thing has) and a very open sound.
     
  11. m.i.c.k.e.y

    m.i.c.k.e.y Facebook Friend

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    Thanks! DSD in DoP right? or Native
     
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2017
  12. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    DSD over PCM, yes.

    Which still results in native DSD data, just the carrier format packs the bits into the sample words of a PCM stream.
     
  13. Nanekiu

    Nanekiu New

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    Hmm wonder if it supports updating/creating filters, as I can see no serial port on the chassis itself.

    My unit will probably arrive this week so excited for it.
     
  14. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    FWIW Soekris has a discount running through July 31st, so stream-of-consciousness would be appreciated ;).
     
  15. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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    The PCB as pictured does have clearly labelled pads for adding COM port headers. Not sure how that jives with the warranty.
     
  16. soekris

    soekris MOT - Soekris Engineering

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    The dac1541 is not really a diy product, but just like our other DAC products it do have a serial port, it's just internal on the PCB and using TTL levels but clearly marked, you can use a std RPi cable, like the FTDI TTL-232R-RPI. And the dac1541 happens to use same filter file as our other DACs....

    Messing with filters is on your own, but you will not break the general warranty unless you do something bad....
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2017
  17. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    @soekris Does the dac1541 have a non-oversampling mode? I thought the dac1101 was good but had a lot more potential in it.
     
  18. gepardcv

    gepardcv Almost "Made"

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    @soekris: Could you clarify if the volume settings are independent between phone and preamp outputs? I may want to connect a 1541 to powered monitors and headphones and switch between them without potentially getting my ears blown off by one or the other. If they are independent, are the settings stored separately in flash when persisted with the 4sec filter button press? Thanks!
     
  19. soekris

    soekris MOT - Soekris Engineering

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    There is no non oversampling mode, I don't like the large mirrored signal you get above nyquist. But there is a soft filter setting which are pretty good.... You can change the filters to it will become non oversampling....
     
  20. soekris

    soekris MOT - Soekris Engineering

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    The volume settings for headphone and line out are completely independent, and you can store the power up setting separately in flash.
     

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