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You got to be ?& · Kidding me

To be as short as possible, I just came across many articles on the web regarding a trend amongst DAC designers to disregard all the Industry has learnt and done in 30 years and go back to the basics.

I am on the market for a new DAC, so I was researching many options such as Weiss, Berkley Alpha, Bryston, etc...

And then I came across an article regarding a DAC GURU from Eastern Europe that on his point of view a 1980´s TDA1541A D/A chip and using no Up-sampling is far more musical approach than any up-to-date Burr Brown, Crysta or Wolfson DAC with 24 Bit 96 or 192 Khz technology.

But it seems that he is not alone, there are many DAC designers using this scheme as well. SO I HAVE TO ASK, "ARE YOU SERIOUS??!!!"
kapa11
aplhifi
515 posts
 
And then I came across an article regarding a DAC GURU from Eastern Europe that on his point of view a 1980´s TDA1541A D/A chip and using no Up-sampling is far more musical approach than any up-to-date Burr Brown, Crysta or Wolfson DAC with 24 Bit 96 or 192 Khz technology.

And since I also consider myself from Eastern Europe, I am wondering if the above mentioned Guru has heard some 195kHz/32bit that is further upsampled to 6.24MHz, and how this sounds compared to NonOS?

Just curious!

Best,
Alex Peychev
kapa11 OP
19 posts
 
ALEX, I SEE YOU ARE A DESIGNER YOURSELF, AND A DAC GURU AS WELL, THE GURU I WAS MENTIONING IS "Pedja Rogic" FROM AUDIAL , HE IS FROM SERBIA AND IT SEEMS THAT HAS A LOT OF FOLLOWERS ON THE DIY COMMUNITY. BY THE WAY, HOW MUCH IS YOUR DAC?

REGARDS

Karim
4est
507 posts
 
What is so hard to believe? Physics hasn't changed, only our application of it.

IME, NOS DACs have a very organic presentation that is rather nice on simple music, but breaks up or washes out on complex passages. I prefer the native sample rates in a more modern (revealing) chip.

FWIW, the chip its self is but small portion of the sound of a D>A conversion. Transport clocking, output filters and output stage are just as important, if not more so.
geph0007's avatar
geph0007
165 posts
 
I am not sure about any of this but I have run the path of afordable CD players from early Magnavox units to CA 840, Rega Apollo, Sony SACD 777ES. The one thing that sticks in my mind is that while these later units (from an objective point of view) are better I swear I enjoyed the cheap Maganvox players more. They just seemed more musical. Keith
kapa11 OP
19 posts
 
ALEX, I SEE YOU ARE A DESIGNER YOURSELF, AND A DAC GURU AS WELL, THE GURU I WAS MENTIONING IS "Pedja Rogic" FROM AUDIAL , HE IS FROM SERBIA AND IT SEEMS THAT HAS A LOT OF FOLLOWERS ON THE DIY COMMUNITY. BY THE WAY, HOW MUCH IS YOUR DAC?

REGARDS

Karim
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