how does Opus DAC compare to other DACs based on non-oversampling TDA1545A?

Edited by user Friday, June 8, 2007 4:32:58 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi ullus,

I have heard a few non-oversampling DACs. I can't say they sound bad, they don't, but its not my cup of tea. They are extremely easy to design and build, but the TDA chip (while nice and simple) is just not in the same league as those from either Burr Brown or Wolfson. I am not talking subjectively here, the data sheets back this up. The TDA1545A simply don't measure as well. The TDA has much higher distortion and much lower SNR. It is very difficult to get much better than 120db SNR (the TDA is around 98db at best). The TDA has much higher distortion at -88db(at best) verses -104db for the WM8740. That is huge. Add into that that a TDA1545A requires an I/V stage (active or passive) and you inject even more noise/distortion into the signal before its even left the DAC. Those all good reasons I would never consider designing a TDA1545A based DAC. One other important factor is that the TDA1545A basically an obsolete part even if you can still get it. Many designers are using the TDA it because they don't want to do small SMD packages. I can understand that, but SMD is not a hurdle for me.

Cheers!
Russ

Edited by user Friday, June 8, 2007 9:54:38 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified