MattyW Posted July 12, 2020 Author Posted July 12, 2020 (edited) Mmmmm, system just warming up for the day with John Denvers Rocky Mountain High. This thing has real impact and bass response.... Really missing just that last bit of presence vs the Abbas Audio DAC2.2SE TDA1541A R1...... Definitely ahead of the Muji. Quite impressive. Incredibly detailed and real sounding. Very impressed with this, irrespective of cost. The best of Louis Armstrong..... Very very lifelike. As good as I've ever heard it on my second system. Now putting Chillout In Ibiza 4 on.... I'm not really sure I can review this.... The DAC has the usual problem I run into when writing about reference level pieces of equipment. It changes chameleon like from one recording to another. No real sound of its own. You got it right @muon*. Edited July 13, 2020 by MattyW
MattyW Posted July 13, 2020 Author Posted July 13, 2020 (edited) Certainly has greater bass authority with the Oldchen K3 integrated, though I think the copy Pass Amp Camp Amp is sweeter sounding and better detailed. Sounds even more as though you're there than the Oldchen though with clearly less headroom. At about 3 o'clock on the volume compared to almost all the way down on the Oldchen. To be fair though at max volume the ACA is dead silent so more of it's range is useable.... That said the Oldchen has FAR more power than I will ever use. Mmmmm, makes me want to try a Pass Aleph or some such with just a little more power. The crazy thing is this DAC paired with the Pass ACA copy is just magical. It has the thereness that I get in my main system. I'll take that over the superior bass impact of the Oldchen. Just spectacular. I'm absolutely blown away by this combination. Edited July 13, 2020 by MattyW
MattyW Posted July 13, 2020 Author Posted July 13, 2020 (edited) Nah, already had a Aleph Mini (cut down Aleph-3 using FET's) copy delivered to a mate in Melbourne. He'll be stripping it down and replacing the caps with genuine and doing a little cap rolling. Also getting a nice paint job, metallic black face plate and satin black for the rest of the case. Should prove interesting. Will likely pair it with a Stereo Coffee passive and replace the Little ACA. Edited July 13, 2020 by MattyW
Blood_Red_Bird Posted July 14, 2020 Posted July 14, 2020 @MattyW Any idea where they are sourcing the TDA1540 chips for the DAC's? Are they 'pulls' from old players or new production? Just curious as I have always thought there was potential for that chip & have a few players with that chipset laying around.
MattyW Posted July 14, 2020 Author Posted July 14, 2020 32 minutes ago, Blood_Red_Bird said: @MattyW Any idea where they are sourcing the TDA1540 chips for the DAC's? Are they 'pulls' from old players or new production? Just curious as I have always thought there was potential for that chip & have a few players with that chipset laying around. Unfortunately not. Could be factory rejects for all I know. Performance on the other hand is second only to the Abbas Audio DAC2.2SE TDA1541A R1. I freaking hate typing that long model, but Abbas has so many variations it's necessary. That it comes so close to the Abbas at 1/3 the cost is extraordinary considering the Abbas is itself an great value component for the performance level. They are the ceramic package TDA1540's though. Can't be too many of those about I'd have thought. Pretty well impossible to create a fake as no one makes this sort of thing any more.
muon* Posted July 14, 2020 Posted July 14, 2020 (edited) Wouldn't think they would be factory rejects, no reason for it, they are sounding very nice in that thing, likely just New Old Stock. Edit: be far too costly and difficult to make fakes that work and sound good, these early chips including the TDA1541 that followed were expensive to manufacture. Edited July 14, 2020 by muon* 1
MattyW Posted July 14, 2020 Author Posted July 14, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, muon* said: Wouldn't think they would be factory rejects, no reason for it, they are sounding very nice in that thing, likely just New Old Stock. Edit: be far too costly and difficult to make fakes that work and sound good, these early chips including the TDA1541 that followed were expensive to manufacture. The "fakes" with the 1541 tend to actually be genuine Phillips product that failed QA and somehow snuck out the back door.... Or people restamping chips as S1 or S2.... None of that goes on with the 1540 as they did not yet have different grades. The D was ceramic package and I believe the non D was plastic like all the later chips? Edited July 14, 2020 by MattyW
MattyW Posted July 31, 2020 Author Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) Just an update, this DAC continues to improve with burn in. I've had tears come to my eyes a few times.... Most recently a few minutes ago with John Denvers "A country girl in Paris". Just beautiful. I now use the DAC not just for CD's but also for Roon with content both from my NAS and Tidal. I just use a Luxman RCA switch to switch between an inexpensive XMOS 208 USB interface and the coax output from my Denon DVD player. Works very well and has no issues with streamed content. I really don't find any limitations with these old DAC chips. It's all in the implementation. Edited July 31, 2020 by MattyW 4
maxspl Posted July 31, 2020 Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) I have a Revox B225 , Philips CD202 and Philips CD100 all fully restored and with the Philips TDA1540D Ceramic mono dac chips and Philips CDM0 mechanism. There is something that just sounds right about these first gen players utilizing the ceramic mono TDA1540D chips and tank like transport CDM0 mechanism. Edited July 31, 2020 by MarkT 3
MattyW Posted July 31, 2020 Author Posted July 31, 2020 It's certainly one of the best sounding DAC's I've ever experienced.
lemarquis Posted August 4, 2020 Posted August 4, 2020 Very very interesting @MattyW I followed your Abass story with interest. Seems this one is even more affordable. What was the landed cost out of interest? How is it developing after a few weeks now? Are you down sampling from the other inputs? This could be fed nicely from my Halcro 1
MattyW Posted August 4, 2020 Author Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) 41 minutes ago, lemarquis said: Very very interesting @MattyW I followed your Abass story with interest. Seems this one is even more affordable. What was the landed cost out of interest? How is it developing after a few weeks now? Are you down sampling from the other inputs? This could be fed nicely from my Halcro It was $1,100 though the Aussie dollar has dropped somewhat since then. It is an incredible value. The Abbas is the better of the two, though I could happily live with just the TDA1540D DAC if I had to. I'd happily recommend either of these. My Muji Studio DAC II on the other hand needed quite a few part upgrades and modifications to get to this level. I prefer the TDA1540D with my current Pass ACA, whereas the Muji Studio DAC II was the better of the two when paired with (the now sold) Oldchen K3 tube integrated amp. I will likely sell the Muji in the not too distant future. No point having 3x reference level DAC's. I believe @Carnelian is currently having the Abbas Audio DAC2.2 TDA1541A R1 built for him. That's essentially the same as my SE except less expensive choice of tubes, caps etc..... I'm really looking forward to seeing how he likes it. The price of the regular 2.2 is quite a bit more palatable around the $1,100 to $1,200 mark so in terms of price it's the direct competitor to the TDA1540D Edited August 4, 2020 by MattyW 1
lemarquis Posted August 4, 2020 Posted August 4, 2020 Sounds good. That guy has some nice stuff on his ebay store. DACs, FM Acoustics copy amps etc. If the other gear is as good as your experience then it's definitely worth considering. p.s. Good to hear you sold the Chen.. one less temptation 1
MattyW Posted August 4, 2020 Author Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) 40 minutes ago, lemarquis said: Sounds good. That guy has some nice stuff on his ebay store. DACs, FM Acoustics copy amps etc. If the other gear is as good as your experience then it's definitely worth considering. p.s. Good to hear you sold the Chen.. one less temptation Kind of sad to see the Oldchen go.... It's a beautiful amp and really has something special in its sound, and aesthetically it's a pretty thing to look at. It's another piece of gear I've parted ways with that I'll think about wistfully for years to come. It's in good company with darTZeel NHB108B copy, Ariston RD110 SL and Red Wine Audio Signature 30.2 monoblocks, Hashimoto HM7 SUT and Valab LCR-1 Mk2 phono stage..... Supex SD900 Super LOMC..... You're right. They've a nice selection of gear there though nothing which piqued my interest like the TDA1540D DAC with its fully discrete output stage. That it's not a copy of anything is a nice touch too. Edited August 4, 2020 by MattyW 1
muon* Posted August 4, 2020 Posted August 4, 2020 Still be picky in his selection of wears, I notice he sells a TDA1541 DAC that from what I've read the design is a bit ho-hum and can easily be bettered, so much range of very good to very poor in Chinese kit. The trick I guess is choosing the good. 99.9% of Ebay sellers are just sellers after all. 2
MattyW Posted August 4, 2020 Author Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, muon* said: Still be picky in his selection of wears, I notice he sells a TDA1541 DAC that from what I've read the design is a bit ho-hum and can easily be bettered, so much range of very good to very poor in Chinese kit. The trick I guess is choosing the good. 99.9% of Ebay sellers are just sellers after all. True with everything in this hobby really. Most gear isn't that great. You research everything you can and try to make informed decisions, though sometimes you just make decisions based on your gut. There's an element of luck involved Edited August 4, 2020 by MattyW 1
akjono Posted August 14, 2020 Posted August 14, 2020 Very interesting... I just found this thread last night regarding the "old school" TDA1540D primordial Dac so to speak. Obviously every piece of equipment is system dependent, but your home systems have allowed you to play around a bit. And Muon* as well.... . Tubes/Solid State.... etc. . How does it sound now that 10+ days have passed? (IT used to be that I waited 20 ish hours for even new cables to break in, but a few years ago I bought some power cords and rcas and the power cords still changed the sound @120-200 hours..... Therefore this Dac may continue to impress!) What a fun hobby! Enjoy the music. 1
MattyW Posted August 14, 2020 Author Posted August 14, 2020 It is a spectacular performer given the price point. It's not quite as real sounding as the Abbas Audio DAC2.2SE TDA1541A R1 but to be fair it is 1/3 the cost. I can definitely recommend it 3
MattyW Posted November 26, 2020 Author Posted November 26, 2020 Well, my wife still hasn't noticed that this is in the system. How lucky is that? I have since moved a little indoor tent in front of the rack for my little one so with some luck when my mate in Melbourne finished tweaking the Aleph Mini and Leaf Audio ARC LS22 based preamp I'll be able to install these (displacing the Pass ACA) and they too will not be noticed. It will be nice to get a little more power on tap. I like having more than I'll ever actually use 1
muon* Posted November 27, 2020 Posted November 27, 2020 If she notices both at the same time I promise I'll show up at your wake!
MattyW Posted November 27, 2020 Author Posted November 27, 2020 (edited) 47 minutes ago, muon* said: If she notices both at the same time I promise I'll show up at your wake! If I don't survive you're welcome to any audio gear I have. No one else in the house knows how to operate it correctly, or even the value of it. You could be in charge of selling off all the kit to free up funds for the little one. She'd probably want to top me a second time when she finds out what is recovered, and what a small percentage it is vs new. Edited November 27, 2020 by MattyW 2
muon* Posted November 27, 2020 Posted November 27, 2020 You'll be ok, Matt. What is it they say? It's easier to get forgiveness than permission 1
MattyW Posted November 27, 2020 Author Posted November 27, 2020 25 minutes ago, muon* said: You'll be ok, Matt. What is it they say? It's easier to get forgiveness than permission It's easier for them to not even know than find out..... Ignorance is bliss 1
MattyW Posted July 18, 2021 Author Posted July 18, 2021 Well, now I've a VTL Reference on the way this will make an interesting comparison. Looking forward to your thoughts on that @muon* . It'll be a good fit in my rack and with some luck manage to improve on the TDA1540D, though that really is hard to believe possible. If it betters that then I may need to compare with the Abbas in my main system. It's going to be interesting to see how you like the NOS TDA1540D in your system now that it's fully burned in. I found it opened up and became more natural and relaxed sounding with use. Cheers Matt 1
Recommended Posts