DACs

[Josuah]

There are a ton of DACs out there, and it seems like there isn't a whole lot of objective evidence for why you should prefer one over the other. Does anyone here have any ideas on what DACs would actually result in the most accurate reproduction of the audio? People writing reviews always say things like smoother, laid back, forward, organic, analytical, etc. which mean absolutely nothing. And some people actually prefer the sound of NOS (no over-sampling) DACs which should be less accurate.

Any help?

[thxgoon]

You might check this out. A few years ago I geeked out and read stats on every dac I could find. From what I've found dynamic range and noise floor are primary factors in sq. Also the ability to decode multiple bitrates without conversion somewhere upstream. IMO though, you have to also look at the rest of the output stage as much as the dac itself as the signal still has a long way to go.

[Josuah]

From what I can figure, the DAC implementation has a lot to do with how accurately it can handle changes in the digital input, and ensuring linearity of the output voltage. Dynamic range shouldn't be an issue, because you only need to go a few volts???

The rest of the output stage is important like you said though, yeah.

Not sure what I should be getting out of the TI page? A list of products that incorporate their chip?

[thxgoon]

You can click on each of the DACs and get specs as well as see the intended purpose for each chip. At least it used to. I'll look again when I have more time but they used to publish output graphs for each chip showing its performance. I could be wrong about the dynamic range thing but it stands out in my mind for some reason. I remember that the dac's used in the Yamaha RX-Z9 were used primarily because of their high dynamic range.

[Josuah]

I guess I could try to build a DAC using on of their chips... I did find the chart that lists the different DACs they sell, and then clicking on the part then datasheet includes the response graphs. Thanks for the link.

Of course, that means I have to figure out how to actually build a DAC. Which sort of sounds like an interesting project....

[jerome]

Josuah wrote:

There are a ton of DACs out there, and it seems like there isn't a whole lot of objective evidence for why you should prefer one over the other. Does anyone here have any ideas on what DACs would actually result in the most accurate reproduction of the audio? People writing reviews always say things like smoother, laid back, forward, organic, analytical, etc. which mean absolutely nothing. And some people actually prefer the sound of NOS (no over-sampling) DACs which should be less accurate.

Totally agree with you ! I'm trying to find a good DAC for my system and most of the reviews are confusing and negate each other. I wish there could be some comparative DAC tests out there like there are plenty for CD players, receivers, ... It's very frustrating and I can't buy 10 DACs to find out the want I like best !

Please we need some help, anyone .....

[thxgoon]

Josuah wrote:

I guess I could try to build a DAC using on of their chips... I did find the chart that lists the different DACs they sell, and then clicking on the part then datasheet includes the response graphs. Thanks for the link.

Of course, that means I have to figure out how to actually build a DAC. Which sort of sounds like an interesting project....

Cool project, wish I could help but I'm no EE. Are you planning to post the build?

[Josuah]

I'll have to see. I have an EECS degree, but my focus was really on the CS side. Closest I got to something like this was a CD player (including the decoding chain) but that was with a FPGA and ATAPI. I'm going to have to find some books on building the entire audio chain, like taking S/PDIF or PCM and hooking it up to the DAC, etc.

It'll be a while, that's for sure.