The Making Of Ultimate TDA1541 DAC (Part 2)

It is my dream to build the Ultimate DAC like this. This build will be based on my experienced, especially for all components, design and arrangement that contribute to the superior sound quality. The candidate DAC IC in this build is TDA1541A. This is one of the best sounding vintage DAC IC when it is implement correctly. I really love the mid range presentation with this DAC so much. It is multi layer, three-dimensional and detail mid-range presentation. The overall frequency response also have an outstanding performance. This is including great timing and attack in bass, large sound-stage, and nice smooth treble.

You probably have seen my previous post about the finished project of this Ultimate TDA1541A DAC but you probably not sure what makes this "Ultimate"? So in this post I will share the photos of the building of this DAC.

The "Ultimate" name is actually referring to the optimized implementation of TDA1541A DAC. Three key elements to optimizing the DAC is great power supply, high quality components, and the design.

The anatomy for this power supply is using 2 separate transformer. I am using the sealed C-core transformer for supply the DAC circuit and the analog section. I using another transformer only to supply to digital receiver. Every voltage output required for every IC's pin are regulated with adjustable voltage regulator in order to reach matching +/- voltage.

I am using a lot capacitors here. The reason with this is to improve smoothing voltage ripple cause by the diodes rectifier. The capacitor using here is also special. They are the new old stock Nichicon VZ which rare to find such this good quality capacitor today. You can find this Nichicon VZ using in the vintage hi-end CD player as well. Lucky I still can get those in brand new condition.

The next circuit I will describe is the DAC section. I am using TDA1541A, not the crown one. The receiver is 16 bit CS8412 SPDIF to I2S. It is just as simple as that. No special recipe in schematic by the way. This TDA1541A is so simple and almost everyone can make the DAC like this.

The difference is on the DEM capacitors. My previous TDA1541A DAC built is using Wima MKS with each value 470nF. This DEM capacitor value and quality give the significant result to the sound quality. Then in this project, I am using Wima MKP10 each value 220nF. This WIMA MKP-10 capacitor is larger in size. The sound quality result from upgrading to this DEM capacitors is amazing.

Because the DAC PCB doesn't have any space left, I should open a new board for the analog section. As you may know, the analog section is consist of IV and LPF. I always using op-amp for this analog section because it is not only sound good, it is also simple and it doesn't need so much current from the power supply.

Then I am wondering how the DAC using "Gennie in the bottle" sounds like, while using the well calculated LPF op-amps like this can be also sounds wonderful.

That's all my recipe in making this ultimate TDA1541A DAC. It is just as simple as that, not a rocket science theory, only simply optimized the circuit. The making of this whole DAC to become as good as this stages is require patient and experience. The proper initial planning lead to the great design in overall circuit layout.

From the first time I playing the music with this DAC, the sound is so great. It is so analog and natural. Hours of listening time passes without I notice the sun already dawn. Anyway, I listening to "What A Wonderful World" by Ingram Washington.

Yes it is so wonderful sound with this ultimate DAC:)

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