Yay! New toy

[Nick]

Well, if it wasn't for the current requirement, it looked ideal for £300.

[Ray P]

Another RTZ DAC lives! This is a breadboard build, combining spare parts that Tony and I had around. I need to do some minor snagging before it is passed on to a mutual friend in the new Year. It accepts a PCM input as it has a module on the DAC imput that resamples PCM to DSD256.

[Ray P]

Finished the snagging today, primarily replacing the output header, which was a bit iffy connection wise, with wired connections to a pair of phono sockets. I also added a heatsink to the LM317 in the 5V power supply - I noticed it was getting quite hot so I'm assuming the PCM2DSD module pulls a bit more current than the reclocker board I had used with it previously.

Anyway, I've just been listening to it for a couple of hours, which can't be a bad sign.

[Mike H]

Fab.

'Snagging'?

[Ray P]

'Snagging'?

Borrowed from the building industry Mike, the remedying of minor defects - in my case just making small improvements to make the build a bit more complete/resilient.

https://www.newbuildinspections.com/abo ... -snagging/

[Nick]

Given the word, I suspect it actually (like a lot) derives from the textile industry originally

[Mike H]

Isn't the English language wonderful.

[pre65]

Isn't the English language wonderful.

SNAG.

Etymology 1
From earlier snag (“stump or branch of a tree”), from Middle English *snagge, *snage, from Old Norse snagi (“clothes peg”) (compare Old Norse snag-hyrndr (“snag-horned, having jagged corners”)), perhaps ultimately from a derivative of Proto-Germanic *snakk-, *snēgg, variations of *snakaną (“to crawl, creep, wind about”).

Compare Norwegian snag, snage (“protrusion; projecting point”), Icelandic snagi (“peg”). Also see Dutch snoek (“pike”).[1]

Noun
snag (plural snags)

A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch.
Synonyms: knot, protuberance
A dead tree that remains standing.
A tree, or a branch of a tree, fixed in the bottom of a river or other navigable water, and rising nearly or quite to the surface, by which boats are sometimes pierced and sunk.
(by extension) Any sharp protuberant part of an object, which may catch, scratch, or tear other objects brought into contact with it.
A tooth projecting beyond the others; a broken or decayed tooth.
Synonym: snaggletooth
(figuratively) A problem or difficulty with something.
Synonym: hitch
we hit a snag
A pulled thread or yarn, as in cloth.
One of the secondary branches of an antler.
Synonyms: tine, point

[Mike H]

[iansr]

Hi Tony, maybe a new project? Looks interesting. I'll read through the content later.

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/thre ... st-7272403

I think powerDACs are going to become quite a thing in the not too distant - it’s such a good idea in principle. ECDesigns make one that outputs 11v. Owners are singing its praises. The designer is John Brown. Ryan’s D3 DAC on DIYA is based on his older TDA1541A design ideas.

[Dave the bass]

Given the word, I suspect it actually (like a lot) derives from the textile industry originally

Pffffttt, shoddy!

Err, there y'go!

[Ray P]

I think powerDACs are going to become quite a thing in the not too distant - it’s such a good idea in principle. ECDesigns make one that outputs 11v. Owners are singing its praises. The designer is John Brown. Ryan’s D3 DAC on DIYA is based on his older TDA1541A design ideas.

A while ago I built a headphone amp from a cheap Chinese Class D amp board and it was amazingly good sounding.

https://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB3/vie ... php?t=8595

[Tony Moore]

PCBs arrived today for my trial of using I2SoverUSB and piCorePlayer as a possible alternative to my Transporter as streaming source.



The board is a variation on the one I did for an RTZ DAC I am putting together for a forum member. That one connected to a PCM2DSD but on this one I've put on an HDMI socket and 2 x DS90LV027A LVDS drivers, together with a low noise 3.3v supply for them. Apart from one connection missing on the regulator (oops) it works a treat. LVDS chips are on the back and it's a 4 layer board, as recommended in the datasheet.(Although that is vastly overkill I imagine at the frequencies of I2S however it was fun to learn and try it out)

At the moment I cannot easily make any comparisons with the Transporter but once I get some power supplies rigged up I can hopefully make progress. First impressions are favourable. I suspect the clocks on the I2SoverUSB are probably better than in the Transporter and the signals have not been messed around with so much. Plus I2SoverUSB can be upgraded to support even better oscillators - so more fun ahead!

I also made a pcb for the receiver end but have not assembled that yet.

[simon]

Looking good Tony. Do you have any tips for getting the connectors spaced accurately on your pcb to mount the I2SoverUSB board? I've played with an Arduino mega footprint in KiCad but I'm not convinced I've kept the accuracy. I probably don't know KiCad well enough.

[Ray P]

Hi Tony, maybe a new project? Looks interesting. I'll read through the content later.

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/thre ... st-7272403

I've ordered some PCBs to give this PowerDAC project a try.