Sunday, April 1, 2018

Revisit - DIY TDA1541A DAC with USB interface

After a couple of years, the unit began to sound more and more bass-ier?

Discovered the PRC made TEAPO capacitors had an oily film on them eg the 5 greenish capacitors on left side of unit close to the OPAMP(s). Sure enough, there were many feedback on the internet about these leaky PRC capacitors.

Topview of DAC internals with only final stage output caps replaced

The bad rep TEAPO PRC capacitors used for OPAMP power supply
TEAPO 220uF 35V replaced by United Chemicon 470uF 35V capacitor

Decided to take the opportunity to replace the Panasonic FC on the final outout stage with ELNA STARGAT(s) (with HF bypass) since I had to do some soldering.

Resultant internals after TEAPO replacement and final stage capacitor swap out with ELNA STARGATES

How does the result sound?

SUPERB is the word I would use.

In a A-B comparison against my upgraded CD650, they were very close,