Computer Audio Blasphemy, nige tries Another SD Card Player

[Georgi]

I have good time last night at Nige's place.
I was impressed from that sd player, really.
Looking forward to see the final product. ;)

[Fran]

This probably only kinda belongs here, but might be of interest for those play g with the SD player. I bought an aliexpress pcm5102a dac - 20 quid worth and probably available for less. It's pretty good out of the tin - and very handy for prototyping as it runs off 3.3v and needs no active circuit after the dac.

It sounded good, but today I took another look. I have removed the resistors and caps on the outputs (not needed), removed an electrolytic on the power side and removed the 3 as1117 regulators and powered it directly from a lifepo4 battery. Good jump in clarity and sound stage.

Next job is to reclocker the SD player, the clocks arrived yesterday.....

[Fran]

Photo taken before electrolytic cap removed......

[jkeny]

I got the care package from China so if anyone needs remote or SD card, give me a shout

I also have some Chinese PCM5102 DAC pcbs fully stuffed & working if people want to follow Fran's lead - these pcbs have MCLK input - I didn't see that on Fran's pic. Doesn't make much difference - the PCM5102 works without MCLK, it uses an internal PLL to derive the clocks

[Fran]

yeah, no MCLK input on this one. I was going to ask you that - does it make much difference? Depending on how the pads are done, I could run a line directly to the pin for it.

[jkeny]

yeah, no MCLK input on this one. I was going to ask you that - does it make much difference? Depending on how the pads are done, I could run a line directly to the pin for it.

When I tested the PCM5102A, I found that reclocking all the I2S signals was sonically worthwhile as opposed to letting the internal PLL substitute for MCLK but whether this is "much difference" in the eye of the beholder (or is it ear?). Even without reclocking there is a difference but using this DAC as proof of concept of the SD card it's quick & easy

[Fran]

Grand. I'll take it stepwise - I'll reclock the SD player and then after I hear that I'll do the master clock on the dac.

I have another kit sitting here - the tda1387 - but I want to dick about with this one first and see how it goes. Tell you what, it sounds great for an easy implementation. I would heartily recommend anyone wanting to trick about with the SD player (or any other I2S source) to get one of these little dacs to mess with. Cheap as chips and very easy to work with.

[jkeny]

This PMC5102A DAC is even better - it has MCLK input
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192241639787 ... rmvSB=true

[Fran]

Good link John. That one costs €3.70 all in - it'll take a month at least to get here, but shows how reasonable it is.

[nige2000]

Looks like it's easy to mod too
Good find