Can I Build The Ultimate TDA1541A DAC ?
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- čas přidán 19. 01. 2024
- Discover the magic behind the legendary TDA1541A DAC and its exceptional sound quality! Join me as I dive into the intricate technology that makes this DAC a favorite among audiophiles. From its unique architecture to its renowned musicality, we'll explore why the TDA1541A continues to captivate music lovers worldwide. Don't miss this deep dive into one of the most revered digital-to-analog converters in audio history!
Beware of Fake TDA1541A specially S1 S2 often stamped over a regular chip see this link for Info.
www.diyaudio.com/community/th...
Parts used in this Video
UFL Cables amzn.to/4264Tw8
Active Balancer for LI-Ion amzn.to/3SnX69O
Ian Canada Streamer iancanada.ca/products/flagshi...
UCPure Power Supply iancanada.ca/products/41c-ucp...
UC Balancer iancanada.ca/products/41f-ucb...
Eaton Ultra Capacitors www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/P...
LI-Ion Capacitors 220F www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/5...
StandOff Assortment amzn.to/3vEl8o1 - Věda a technologie
looking forward to your next video this TDA1541A is very interesting subject those ultra capacitors are impressive but stay away from shorting them.
Poof! Don't let the angry pixies out?
What great work Gabster! I think that the brilliant part was connecting the I2S output from the re-clocking board to the DAC. It integrates the streamer to the DAC very much like a CD player combines the transport to the CD DAC. You eliminated a export board and the input board on the DAC.
Gaby, a quick question, I noticed that your streamer no longer uses a UcConditioner. Any particular reason?
Hi Gaby, I contacted Ian Canada directly and I understand the UcConditioner will make an improvement, however a "newer version" will be coming out very soon.
@@ehickert sorry never noticed your message till today
yes a UcConditioner will help I just keep changing things so many times so I often go for a simpler setup when testing. same for the wiring too long but again easier for testing. Just did a new Video on the UcConditionerII Pro
This is awesome can't wait to see the next evolution in your TDA1541A project Love your work
This looks insane. I have to do this one. looking forward and will dig into some ideas.
Gabster , obrigado por mais um video top de seu projeto DIY e por encorajar a nós de encarar construir nosso próprio Stremmer/ DAC ! Grande abraço meu amigo do Brasil!
Obrigado
Thanks for another great DIY project Gabster!
Thank you! 😊
The TDA1541A is still alive years later I wish Philips would produce new Chips I bet they can do even better now or a slightly modified one.
Great video Gabby, thank you as always!
Thanks 🙏
Brilliant, ground breaking. Thanks
My cat enjoys your videos, great dac design.
Hi your Channel is so educational it makes audiophile audience to watch your creative video with audio tech. Explain very well much appreciated for your video. Kindly please request your good self to make a detail video about interconnection to TDA 1541A and Circuit diagram for TDA 1541A Great video always thanks. God Bless You and your channel may grow huge. 🙏👍
Thanks, will do!
Yes that would be much appreciated to have a wire diagram. Looking forward to the next video hopefully it comes out soon. Do you have any updates when you'll be posting the next video on this AMAZING BUILD?
For sound quality improvement, adding several very fast tiny capacitors like 1 nF silvermica or similar to stabilize power as close as possible to the power consuming components, helps improve high frequency where micro details becomes super realistic! I guess the low ESR of many big capacitors are not in the very high frequency band. Therefore this tends to work like magic! You will most probably experience higher density in the higher audible frequencies, which translates into more realistic sound reproduction.
Totally agree and thanks for reminding me
I am thinking of a double combo 100uf 100nf or smaller in my next build
It would be great to hear this DAC. Gabby, can you record this DAC and add to the video, switching between original sound track and a record. It will be interesting. Good channel, wish you grow.
In my final hopefully Balanced version I will :)
Using the supercaps on the + - 5v of the 1541a chip definitely helps.
Quite a lot of research has been done on the chip. ecdesigns on diyaudio ran it to ground. You are missing a few things to get the most out of it. DEM clocking is critical. The best came from slowing it down. Almost as good is the Grundig design. Search diyaudio for the circuit which can easily be implemented using your existing decoupling caps.
Also the ground plane around the chip is critical. you can build your own ground plane using copper foil. Attenuation of the I2S signal will reduce jitter inside the chip. A circuit to balance the output voltages will also help.
Thanks I have read a few of those I may do more testing and measuring as not sure how far slowing it down works with UC PSU as the noise floor is lower. I will try a few of the old tried and tested tweaks :)
What amazes me is that you can make a great DAC from a single circuit board containing a TDA1541A with some capacitors and an OPA861 balanced I/V board. It looks like something even I could make 😀 Would you mind please making a schematic for the TDA1541 connections, preferably your balanced design. I already have Ian Canada streamer with ultra capacitors which is amazing.
Excellent, you should hook up with Angela- Gilbert and do a colab.
Thanks!
Thank you appreciate the support that means a lot 🙏
@@Gabster1 I am so very looking forward to building a nice sounding streamer then DAC. I need to keep learning how the software technology goes together. I'm trying to hang on to Amazon music in the meantime. Mostly because I use it when traveling. I'm wondering how much better the sound can get above my current EMOTIVA XDA-3 DAC (Sabre), NVIDIA PRO Streamer-USB, with EMOTIVA XPA-1 Monoblock's (650w/ch), Decent speakers Carnegie CST-1's (planar magnetic tweeters are nice). I'm struggling to learn how the software goes together for Amazon music sourcing this nice equipment. Advice on place to learn? I plan to continue scouring Mr. Gabster's videos to learn... day job is keeping me too busy to play ...
@@AverageNiceGuy I am doing a video in the near future on a flagship USB Streamer /Dac you may find it useful
If you are a beginner start buy building the Protodac see my Video contact Mark he is very helpful it is cheap 100 to 300 with Q7
and sounds good see if that sounds better.
as far as Amazon Music I don't know of a good way to stream it on a Pi or anything high-end it is mostly for phones or devices like blue sound but I may be wrong and not not be up to date
This thread is long but very helpful
www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/asynchronous-i2s-fifo-project-an-ultimate-weapon-to-fight-the-jitter.192465/page-593
Hope that helps
@@Gabster1 Thank you very much.
I i’m hoping that at some point you will tray an r2r dac for a diy. Audiogd sell some bords . Many thanks for your efforts and nice projects
Thanks for pointing me to those boards. I've been trying to find an r2r board to work with. Now I just need to learn wtf I'm doing
Would be nice to have several inputs in this DAC (i2S, SPDIF, Toslink, USB). Can't wait to see the double TDA1541 version of this DAC
That is easy just slide a input board in the streamer
@@Gabster1Now I'm a bit confused. If I slide in Iancanada's output board (AES/EBU SPDIF Digital Interface Module) on the streamer then I should have the same inputs on the DAC. And what module could be used to have those inputs on a DAC?
@@dmitrid411 I would add a input board as well like the DDC
iancanada.ca/products/19d-receiverpi-ddc
if you want USB add a Amanero to it
@@Gabster1 Now it's clear. Thank you for explaining! Looking forward to seeing new episodes of your progress. I'd gladly try it out myself
Thanks for the video about this very interesting DIY project. Is there any place where we can get more technical information about it? I am interested in replicating the same with slight modifications, e.g. using Ian Canada's UCconditioners instead of the big UCpure caps. I happen to have built the flagship streamer by Ian Canada and the only thing missing is the DAC. So, looking forward to starting the DAC project ASAP.
Try this one lots of info there
www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/building-the-ultimate-nos-dac-using-tda1541a.79452/
Hi Gabster,
missing you on the channel 😢
Best, Holger
Also, would love if you tried to dig into a DIY kit for preamps.... And poweramp matching.
Lastly, Volumio on Raspberry Pi was a disaster - is Roon just the way to go?
If you don't mind paying the $$ yes some people seem to manage maybe ask on their forum but if you have to pay may as well use Roon.
Super cool. But why not use the "standard" dac from Ian Canada? (although I like options....) is this just a little different?
Already do in my main Dac exploring other Options.
Congratulations, very good done. Can you tell me about it’s sound quality when comparing with a good cd player?
I am planning to build a 2 parallel TDA1541A i2s dac similar to yours. I have already bought all components but I will start building it sometime in summer time.
The main difference of mine, it is rechargeable direct battery powered dac (without regulator chips).
As the i2s music source I am using LKS-100 usb to i2s converter.
I will use double OPA828 opamp chips as buffer.
For the next, I am also going to build a battery powered differential TDA1541A dac with tube out.
It is still a work in progress I am designing a new PCB design. getting close to finish. and yes Power supplies is where most gains are. It can work for both a CD transport or Ian's streamer.
I see the "Quality Control Inspector" was on site to check your work, up close and personal. 😹
Cool. Figured someone would link up with ya.
Can you build an outboard power supply with a connector between the main boards and the power supply? Does that introduce any noise with the cable between the 2 boxes?
do you have the schema for the TDA board?
Hi Gabster, do you sell your build or will you take order for your products? I am interested in the combo: streamer and TDA1541 DAC or your future TDA1541 differential DAC.
I have 7 dacs, ok I’m a dac slut, but the TDA1541a is my#2 fav. It has a unique sound with a weight to things that other chips just don’t do.
And #1 is?
What's #1?
see above PCM63K2
@@chrisd1405
Robert, please do share your #1 !!
Robert is obviously too busy listening to #1.. whatever that is... :)
Gaby, are you enjoying the TD1541A more than the dual ESS from Ian C?
They are both good but I am loving the sound stage and imaging from the TDA
So is it, you’d like to get differential configuration working or you haven’t tried it yet but plan to? I’m really interested to hear about how the differential configuration measures and performs
working on it :)
Is there a community/forum where to learn more about all this? I have so many questions
This is the most active one
www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/asynchronous-i2s-fifo-project-an-ultimate-weapon-to-fight-the-jitter.192465/page-573
I hate jumping into a specialist forum when I know so little, but I think I'll have to.
I built the iancanada streamer recently and really, really enjoyed it. I think I'll build the DAC next.
It would be great if you could provide the detailed schematics
I will for the final version
There's lots of SQ improvement to be had if you fiddle around the TDA itself
What about running the that tdk chip in bridge mode? Having two per channel, or having four as a push pull, I think you can run it as a push pull, so you can split it up can't you! you can have the dac and the amp separate from the chips
already working on both
a really interesting project
Do you plan to use any digital filter (for example PMD100) before TDA1541a to improve the frequency response and harmonic distortions of hight frequencies?
Not for now. Possibly later but the goal is to keep it simple for now. Once I establish a good base I can try things later
It's not needed, unless you can hear above 22kHz. Your ears are a reconstruction filter that does an adequate job.
@@ProtoDAC I personaly haven't done any A/B comparison. Some say that it helps, some say that it doesn't. According to the measurements it does help and takes some distortions into ultrahight frequency area. Can it be heard by ears? Hard to say
Boy, are those ultra-capacitors huge or what? Great pointers - those IanCanada products look impressive.
I hope you build the differential version in such a way that it will be possible to compare the differential vs. the single-ended versions.
I would experiment with one or two premium clocks if you have the time and/or the inclination. Also, the I/V stage is meant to be critical. There are far too many solutions on the internet to list. Some may be too old by now and thus hard to find though.
I was wondering how you can obtain a real TDA1541 in this day and age. Even though I obtained mine twenty years ago (how time flies..), now I am wondering whether they were actually real.
I am planning on building a few versions and comparing the sound
It is hard to find good ones lot of fake ones specially s1 s2 some plain ones are really good and more likely to be real If you do a good research 🧐
Wow
64audio with this 😮
I wouldn’t expect much improvement in a sound from op amp ultra cap power supply. Because they all have extreme psrr numbers. If you doubt, I would ask you next: would you like to use ultra caps in your pre-amp and a low resistance battery in your power amp?
A magic behind an ideal power and a good sound is a digital part, where a wrong signal can be caused by a tiny-tiny spike at a rising-falling edge. And this difference will exists during at least one tick. A same importance an USB cable shares. And such tiny-tiny non repetitive difference in an analogue part is just not audible. If a DAC chip converts everything right, a S/N of a recorded source is x1000 worse than any of analogue artifacts level. All we need is a good bandwidth, good V/usec, linear phase, and low IMD.
Deoxit red and then blue every connector and wire... Hand is. Good... Using a dremel is better. Very noticeable improvement
Thanks for the tip will do on the final version. I saw your system on DIYAudio very Bad #$$ You did a awesome job I bet it sounds great.
Is all of this designed based on listening? Or is there test data driving your design decisions? How do you account for placebo or bias? It looks cool and I’m sure you are excited about it. Anytime I’m in that situation placebo kicks in strong and I need to revert to blind testing with the help of a friend. It’s shocking how blind testing levels the playing field.
Decisions are based on real blind a/b testing within split seconds I have read all the mods all sound good But I need to try them for myself on my system
Why do you use fifo q7 on the dac as well as the streamer?
There is one Q7 in the streamer then the Dac connect to the streamer via 3 I2S wires
@Gabster1 why output from tweaked xlr and not rca directly?
I am not sure how Ian wired the RCA if he bridged 2 chanels or what, and I do not have a schematic for the Opa 861 and for some reason he does not recommend it in his manual. I figure it is safer this way using 1 channel could possibly be the same not sure.
@Gabster1 I don't know how it is wried either. But Ian wrote that the RCA out on the 861 I/V is only for testing purposes and he doesn't recommend using for critical listening.
Since the OPA861 has single ended current input from the TDA1541, it would seem there is DC voltage on the output from the I/V resistors?
Yes Mark you are correct about 1.37 V it is even on the output 😬I thought that it would not be on the output. It does not seem to affect the preamp or sound (it actually sounds great)
I can put a biasing circuit on the Tda output to bring it to 0 I have seen it done or wait for the Balanced version or both. (waiting on Ian's PCM Board to implement the Balanced version)
What do you think I should do, you have a lot of experience with this Chip.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Most preamps (and amps) have a DC blocking capacitor on the input for circuit protection. If you verify that your preamp does, you can do without a cap or bias circuit. If it doesn't, the 1.37V would change the bias of the first stage of the preamp, and likely change the sound. Do you have any info on Ian's PCM board? What does it do?
With the PCM board you can run the Dac in Sim mode separate DL DR for lower noise and also run in Balanced mode. so you can run the 1541a and I believe your Protodac in Balanced mode as well. Here is the Link.
github.com/iancanada/DocumentDownload/blob/master/PCMboard/I2StoPCMconvertorBoardV1.1.pdf
I think the things that it fixes for the TDA1541 have been fixed in the TDA1387 design.
From Moode and diyAudio posts, I just found out that pins 2 and 4 of the isolated GPIO on the FifoPi MA and Q7 only provide 3.3V instead of the RPi standard of 5V. I think your ProtoDAC was only powered with 3.3V in your setup, which would not sound good. Need a stacking header with pins 2 and 4 removed, then power ProtoDAC with 5VDC from the pads between the RCA jacks. There are other ways to do it described in the posts.
I find 811 iv stage is amazing with 1541
Hi, nice project. It is a very good approach, that you go. If you design the DAC yourself and want it to be top notch, try the asynchronous mode of the TDA1541A. I also use the TDA1541A and drive it in asynchronous, NOS mode. This way it is possible to feed it with up to 384kHz signal. NOS DACs tend to sound a bit unusual (not bad, but not my taste) but if you feed a NOS DAC with a high res signal, there is nothing that comes close to it. I like the R2R DAC chips very much and spend a lot of time with them. This output stage is really nice, I know it from a friend, for me the only better option would be a tube based one with transformers. This would make this project very complex and you would need a high voltage PSU (300V+), so your approach is best if using low voltage only. Nice, but when you are ready, create a real PCB, this makes it sound even better than this hole PCBs.
As an output stage instead of tubes-based circuit would be sonically better and much cheaper option for amplification to use step-up transformers on Magnetec ring cores, but for impedance arrangement no NFB ultra high slew-rate buffers. As follows on my taste: BUF03, LH0033 non commercial version, HA3-5002-5, etc. And newer use any WIMA caps. KEMET PHE450 series are just perfect ones starting from 800 mks/V and higher. Success! Hopely, my englisch is good enough.
@@jevgenijsjakovlevs493 It depends, I like the tube sound very much and from all my test I stayed at tube based I/V and then into an A class amp. I know that transformers measure better, but for me tubes are best in I/V. But yes, transformers are also very good option, by far better than opamps and most discrete transistor stages.
@@tomtomczyk1264 That's right!
Thank you guys for your valuable advice.
I am designing a trial pcb to keep things tidy and better with various options to try a few dem variations and other options once I settle on the design will do a second final version.
Tube output is also on my list after I am done
Do you have a schematic for the tube design you like or is it a lampizator style.
@@Gabster1 I have written you twice what I would do, but both times it got removed. I dont know if it was automatic or how it got removed. I will try to write you an email, I have some advices, like the 50hz DEM clock and others...
The TDA1541 sounds better if you do the DEM modification a la Grundig CD9009. Cost only €10,- or you buy the module from nanocamp audio
ripple noise for IAN Canada power supply? Don't see in document
The power supply disconnects from the Ultracapacitor so it is just the Ultracapacitor providing power. It is the purest form of DC power here is the UC specs
www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/PowerStor-Eaton/XL60-3R0308W-R?qs=zW32dvEIR3tH2EHVAsggow%3D%3D
See DIYaudio : “TDA1541 DEM reclocking” , reaction #209 from nanocamp
Thanks for the info appreciate it. I am planning a couple DEM options and that is one of them
Can it compete with PS Audio ?
Have not Listened to the new one but the old one I am not a fan the tda in this configuration will beat it but a mile and I sill have a lot of things to improve
Tube output
On it :)
Very good , top project with TDA 1541 , BUT why R1 ??? The Worst revision of 1541 !
I have 2 S1 chips but will use them at the end, too precious to fry them by accident. When prototyping a lot can go wrong. Surprisingly I tried the S1 chip and my R1 seems almost on par so go figure some of the ratings are over rated 🙂
@@Gabster1 The only thing you need to know when prototyping with the R1 is that is is not 100% the same hardware wise. It has an build in internal cap, that makes it impossible to let it run in async mode. So if you fail to run async, try an TDA1541A. I dont know about the TDA1541 (withut R1 or A), but i had problems with the R1 in async.
Great article Gabby. How do you know the chips are originals? Seems to be a lot of fakes. @@Gabster1
get a tda1541a Taiwanese its great i have 1 its amazing