Comments on: Another story about TDA1541A: 384 kHz

By: jaffrie chen

jaffrie chen — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:44:53 +0000

Hi Pedja,
I don’t believe that higher sampling rate will equals good sound. It’s all in the recording.
This may sound ironic but there is still life in Red Book format. Too bad I can’t share with all what my AyA has become. The other trick is direct I2S to get the best sound but here the transport is very important.

Cheers

By: Pedja

Pedja — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 11:53:32 +0000

The advantage of the 352.8/384 kHz sampling rate is beyond doubt for me. Unfortunately, not much has changed in these six years since I wrote the original post. There is still not much music in this format.

2l.no had some free test recordings in different formats, including 352.8 kHz (handy if you want to compare), but it looks like they are currently unavailable.

If you search around, it is best to look for “DXD”.

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 13:11:33 +0000

Hi !
I’m planning to build (again) another TDA1541 DAC, and I have found this site. But I have a double question: Why to build a 384 KHz capable DAC ? and Where can I find music recorded in 384 KHz ?

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 14:27:02 +0000

Hi Frank,

Thank you I will do so. Hopefully I can find the answers I’m looking for.

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 14:07:20 +0000

Hi, Nick,

Please try to post this request in the diyaudio.com forum.

Best of luck

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 03:29:34 +0000

Hi I have a question for this group of fellow enthusiasts. I have a ModSquad Prism player, the Magnavox CDB-650 version, and I somehow have lost the external power supply. Was wondering if anyone could please help me with the voltage/amperage and wiring pinout for the mini XLR connection? It’s driving me crazy not knowing where it went and I figured I’d just build my own or find one compatible.

Any assistance would be very greatly appreciated.

Thanks

By: Frank Beltzner

Frank Beltzner — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 14:09:47 +0000

Hello Pedja,

thanks for response !

I do have some Cambridge players to compare but the result is not the same i found.

I guess that is because they still use the original i2s digital filter (SAA7220p).

Now i use 2 stereo dac’s that can handle 2x 176,4 KHz each with great results using dual SPDIF inputs from the transport. The sampling frequency can be changed on the transport and therefore be compared.

Best regards,
Frank

By: Pedja

Pedja — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 12:11:08 +0000

Hello Frank,

I have no plans to try to go above 384 kHz with TDA1541A, and I don’t expect the TDA1541A itself would be able to work any way above 384 kHz, either.

The idea with multiple D/A chips looks like a moving average “oversampling” in the analog domain. You can check the old Cambridge CD3, it used something like that, with four TDA1541A, each operating at 176.4 kHz, to achieve 16 times oversampling (IIRC).

Regards

By: Frank Beltzner

Frank Beltzner — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 10:03:40 +0000

Hello Padja,

I use an upsampling transport (Chord Blu) and soon the Hugo M Scaler that can provide even 705,6khz sampling rates (16×44.1khz).

Now this will be too much but i was thinkin of using a demux and use multiple dac chips to handle this sampling frequency.

What is your thought about this approach?

Best regards,
Frank

By: Pedja

Pedja — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 11:54:31 +0000

Hello Jaffrie,

I would start by checking the D/A and output stage supplies. And we will be probably more effective if we move to the email conversation in this case.

Regards

By: Jaffrie

Jaffrie — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 11:42:49 +0000

Hi Pedja
How are you ? Wanna ask a question been a couple of months since I last powered up Aya they other day when I tried playing music all I hear is hum no sound. Where can I check with a dvm.
Was wondering if the output opa is faulty but then again it can’t be for both channels right . Lol

Thks

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 15:46:12 +0000

Hello everyone, I can see this is a bit of an old thread, “but” it can’t hurt to throw something out there as to why I found this. I currently have a classic modded Magnavox CDB-650 also known as a “Mod Squad Prism”. It’s currently being repaired by recommendation of SMc Audio (Patrick/Steve) by Ken.

What I would like to try to do, is effectively bypass the transport, and feed what is the known as the digital/main board in this unit that has the TDA1541 on it (that board has been modded, along with a completely new analog board), with a digital COAX, and that way I should be able to pickup/use any streaming device, in my case probably a HEOS Link (LS2). Another way of stating my fantasy is, I would like to use that classic, modded CDB-650 as a DAC, and not just a “CD Player”.

Suggestions?

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 22 May 2019 03:19:37 +0000

I can officially confirm now that the TDA1541A in properly configured Synchronous Data (PCM) mode can do 384kHz just fine. I have built a version of my FPGA-based converter board that uses an AK4137EQ to test the hypothesis. Before, I was only assuming as I didn’t have a source for 384KHz files.

By: Pedja

Pedja — Fri, 03 May 2019 14:56:13 +0000

A TDA1541A playing with 384 kHz source can produce the best sonic results, so far. The problem here is that we don’t have really a lot of such sources. I assume, of course, native hi-res sources, not over- or up-sampled ones.

As for the other DACs, I would expect any other ladder DAC to benefit from higher sampling frequency. That way, it would be fair to compare different DACs only at a given fS.

Regards

By: Johan Maessen

Johan Maessen — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 06:33:46 +0000

PS I have a CD-94II with dual TDA1541A on a separate DAC board which I would like to abuse. 🙂