AK4499EQ - Best DAC ever

[Wik]

is sound quality big diference to tda 1387?

 

[diyiggy]

Yes.

 

[Terry Demol]

Isn't that just a measurement artefact? With a bandwidth of around 21 kHz (44.1 kHz sampling) the third harmonic will "disappear" once your fundamental gets above 7 kHz. There is also a small reduction just above 10 kHz. This could be where the second harmonic is outside the measuement bandwidth.

I've seen those same freq dependent steps on so many AP plots that it almost certainly is a measurement artifact. Further to this, suspected Vref artifacts could be interrogated on SE vs balanced OP's as there should be better CM cancellation on the bal OP.... depending on Bal -> SE circuit component tol.

 

[Markw4]

What does the distortion residual look like? Is there a residual/artifact on Vref?

 

[altor]

Has anyone tried AK4191 in async mode?
Can we trust it when working from spdif/toslink sources, or leave it in synchronous mode (like running from USB) and put AK4137 on the PCB as well?

 

[orchardaudio]

Has anyone tried AK4191 in async mode?

The PecanPi+ DAC I have runs in ASYNC mode. It works very well.

 

[altor]

OK, thanks.
So I can avoid 4137.

Now in my 4499 my DAC, 4191 works always in sync mode, just from USB it uses low jitter oscillator's mclk and from spdif/toslink it uses recovered mclk from the receiver. Will try to make experiments using 4191 async mode from spdif/toslink.

 

[altor]

Will try to make experiments

There was no time to do this yet.
But there is a question: does the 4191' asynchronous mode also work for DSD?

 

[Pawellos]

Hello is it possible to use AK4490REQ instead AK4490EQ? Is it equivalent?

 

[bohrok2610]

AK4490REQ has the possibility to use external power supply for digital circuitry so pins 1 & 16 work differently compared to AK4490EQ. So they are not pin-to-pin compatible.

 

[Pawellos]

Thank you for your response. A few years ago I bought a Dac PCB, it has been started, now I have time and I would like to assemble it. The AK4490EQ chip is the only problem. It has been out of production for several years. I don't know where to buy it to be sure that it is original and of full value. It doesn't have to be new, it can be used. What do you think?

 

[bohrok2610]

It is fairly easy to design a dac board that accepts AK4490EQ/AK4490REQ/AK4493EQ/AK4493SEQ just by un/populating couple of resistors/capacitors. However with existing PCB designed for only AK4490EQ you are stuck with using AK4490EQ. I suggest you make a "want to buy" post in swap meet as there may be members here who have an AK4490EQ to sell.

 

[Pawellos]

Yes, this is about an existing PCB. I'm not a designer. Thank you for your suggestions. I added a post in swap meet.