Soekris Dam Dac

[sima66]

Better start believing! :)

Where did you got the cotton sleeves?!

Happy New Year!!!!!

[nige2000]

Its not cotton sleeve its PTFE tape
I figured it was the same as interconnect cable so I used the same method I use for interconnects
10mm cotton rope wrapped in PTFE spiralled the two silk covered silver wire around it and wrap again with PTFE to hold all together

[rickmcinnis]

Nigel,

Have to say you could be missing out by using those RCA jacks.

I have found superior sound for little money by using silver plated XLRs - just use two of the pins. I use them throughout my system when I have to use a connector. Much easier to deal with and a very solid connection with little connector mass. I only use the connector part - I throw all the rest of it away. I think these are even better than EICHMANN's which were the best RCAs - but so damned fragile.

The brand I use is DELTRON - I get them from MOUSER. Great for power connections, also. Using them for my computer supply now that I have had to discard those AUDIOWIND things. Just not up to the task. Using the BELLESONs I got years ago for the same task - just not using batteries then and with an eleven dollars heat sink from HK - runs cool. I swear I think I hear a little better sound with the better regulators - using a much higher input voltage with these, also.

Found out my failed OPTIMA battery was due to one of those failing. I bought a new battery before verifying the regulator was working. Superhuman mindlessness!

You will notice the 3.3 rail is running low - but back in the cMP days we would turn down the voltage on the then SOTA ATX supply - that green box from ANTEC I think it was. So, it might be to the good,

[nige2000]

Nigel,

Have to say you could be missing out by using those RCA jacks.

I have found superior sound for little money by using silver plated XLRs - just use two of the pins. I use them throughout my system when I have to use a connector. Much easier to deal with and a very solid connection with little connector mass. I only use the connector part - I throw all the rest of it away. I think these are even better than EICHMANN's which were the best RCAs - but so damned fragile.

excuse me this are Rhodium plated rca's
all joking aside id say your right the amount of mass in rcas is a joke
ill likey be bringing the dac places so it needs to be compatible

The brand I use is DELTRON - I get them from MOUSER. Great for power connections, also. Using them for my computer supply now that I have had to discard those AUDIOWIND things. Just not up to the task. Using the BELLESONs I got years ago for the same task - just not using batteries then and with an eleven dollars heat sink from HK - runs cool. I swear I think I hear a little better sound with the better regulators - using a much higher input voltage with these, also.

ive about 20 audiowind regs no failures so far at least none that didn't involve user error
my speciality destruction is mobos and dac chips or any ic's

Found out my failed OPTIMA battery was due to one of those failing. I bought a new battery before verifying the regulator was working. Superhuman mindlessness!

You will notice the 3.3 rail is running low - but back in the cMP days we would turn down the voltage on the then SOTA ATX supply - that green box from ANTEC I think it was. So, it might be to the good,

[randytsuch]

Nige
Where do you get your silver wire from?

Another on my long list of projects is to try your interconnect/usb cable formula.

However, wife is making me clean up my audio room. This will be good in the long run, but will likely distract me even more, and I've hardly touched my audio stuff since before Christmas, took a holiday :)


BTW, one of my many faults is that before I finish one project, I'm looking at other ones. It's why I have so many unfinished projects lying around.

Before New years, I read through this thread
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital- ... ost4565466

The basic concept is to filter out the high frequency content of a DSD waveform, and feed that directly to your preamp/amp.

Since I have most of the pieces to try it, I want to see how it compares to my Dam Dac.

Randy

[nige2000]

http://wires.co.uk/acatalog/silk_covered_silver.html

Wasn't really looking for another project for a while but I'll look at it

[nige2000]

can someone try routing the single ended gnd direct to the battery not into the dac board please?
think it might be an AOI (area of improvement)

with the intona experiments a few days ago i was reconsidering my thoughts on the on board i2s isolators so i retested
i had both sides of the isolator powered by the same cell

so i tried using an isolated cell on the i2s and thought it was half a hair better
i then powered that cell from the main dac 3.3v ps meaning no longer isolated and it narrowed or closed that tiny gap

i think ill put another cell on the board

[rickmcinnis]

Interesting.

So the ground wire from the output cable is not connected to the board at all - a wire is extended to the battery ground? I assume you mean the output battery ground?

Look forward to giving this a try.

[jkeny]

can someone try routing the single ended gnd direct to the battery not into the dac board please?
think it might be an AOI (area of improvement)

with the intona experiments a few days ago i was reconsidering my thoughts on the on board i2s isolators so i retested
i had both sides of the isolator powered by the same cell

so i tried using an isolated cell on the i2s and thought it was half a hair better
i then powered that cell from the main dac 3.3v ps meaning no longer isolated and it narrowed or closed that tiny gap

i think ill put another cell on the board

Yea, when you mentioned that in Tony's, I knew you were bypassing those isolators, just didn't know why - I wonder if that has anything to do with the Intona not getting a lock onto your Soekris - you know the Soekris plays around with ground shifts in order to be able to use the -4v ref

[nige2000]

can someone try routing the single ended gnd direct to the battery not into the dac board please?
think it might be an AOI (area of improvement)

with the intona experiments a few days ago i was reconsidering my thoughts on the on board i2s isolators so i retested
i had both sides of the isolator powered by the same cell

so i tried using an isolated cell on the i2s and thought it was half a hair better
i then powered that cell from the main dac 3.3v ps meaning no longer isolated and it narrowed or closed that tiny gap

i think ill put another cell on the board

Yea, when you mentioned that in Tony's, I knew you were bypassing those isolators, just didn't know why - I wonder if that has anything to do with the Intona not getting a lock onto your Soekris - you know the Soekris plays around with ground shifts in order to be able to use the -4v ref

anytime i used isolators for i2s on a complete battery system pc to dac(no pc +5v ) i found no additional benefit
and therefore considered isolators to be a cure of sorts for a noisy ps to the i2s device and that providing cleaner power was the prevention method
i was experimenting with that i2s isolation earlier and im still of that prevention type opinion for the most part
and that i may benefit from another cell and/or different wiring methods

i dont think thats why the intona didnt lock
gnd is still gnd and without a direct gnd connection between the usb to i2s converter and the soekris fpga gnd on both sides would still be connected the long way (through the earth gnding in most systems amps monitors etc)

i assume you mean the shift registers thinking -4 (-3.3v) is gnd?
is that what they call a virtual gnd?