After reading various surveys and listening to several suggestions I eventually decided to build my DAC rather than buying a new one.
There are various options and components available to build your high quality DAC. I used the boards produced by JLSounds.
Specifically, the basic component I used are:
- An USB to I2S board: I2SoverUSB v.III
- A DAC board: AK4493 board
- An output filter: DRV603 board
The nice property of the I2SoverUSB board is that it allows giving power independently to the USB section and the I2S section. The two parts are separated by a galvanic insulation, so that noise entering from the USB does not affect the DAC. A re-clocker is also used on the I2S section to significantly reduce jitter.
The AK4493 board also uses galvainic insulation, to separate the DAC section from signals (e.g. sampling rates, type of stream, etc. ) coming from the USB part and those sent to the LCD.
In order to fully expoit the galvanic insulation properties of these components, I used two separate power supply boards to separately give power to the USB section and the reclocker/DAC sections.
I also used an OLED control board, to be able to setup and check the status of the DAC.
The power supply boards are powered by a toroidal transformer 50VA, 230V AC, to 2 x 12V AC.
To put all togheter I used an 1455T2201 Hammond extruded enclosure.
Here are some pictures of the building phases, and the final version of the DAC:
How did it sound?
It sounds great!
🙂
Nice work! Compared to Cambridge DacMagic100 (seen in photo) is it a significative improvement?
Hi,
Generally, I notice much finer details and better focus.
In addition, note that DacMagic 100 is limited to 192kHz in PCM, and no DSD. JLsounds AK4493 goes up to 768kH in PCM, and DSD512, and bit depth arrives up to 32 bits.
Buon giorno Giuseppe, potresti spiegare meglio come sono collegati tra di loro i vari componenti e descrivere ingressi/uscite dell’apparecchio montato. Grazie
Hi,
DRV603 board is connected to the AK4493 board which is directly plugged on the I2SoverUSB v.III board.
The OLED control board is also connected to the AK4493 board.
Input digital signal is given via USB. Output analog signal is given using unbalanced RCA connectors.