Where can I see/learn more about this DAC

[brentw]

Hi Peter,

Long time no talk... Congratulations on the new DAC(s)!!

Where can I see a picture, price, interface, details and so on?
Do you have it on another website? Am I blind?

Cheers,
Brent

[PeterSt]

Hey Brent ! I saw you on-line and thought the same.

Do I have a website for it ? no man, this is what you were going to make, eh ?
But not too fast or otherwise we go crazy here.

Small picture is here : http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=642.msg14426#msg14426
Price is 2.900 euros (ex VAT & shipping), and specs ... are secret. Well, for those interested in the first place they are not. I will send you an email.

Kind regards,
Peter


Edit : By now, see here : Phasure NOS1 24/384 DAC Specs and graphs

[tuyen]

Hi!

I am more interested in this dac too if you could please send me more info about it?

I am currently running a NOS TDA1541 S2 dac which uses valve power rectification and valve output stage. It's the best DAC I've heard so far (compared to upsampling, new tech dacs).   But I am always looking for something more..

I can't seem to find any internal shots of the NOS1 dac.  Is there a reason for this?


Cheers,
Tuyen
Australia

[PeterSt]

Hi Tuyen - Welcome here.

A picture may tell more than a 1000 words. Ok. But maybe not with audio ?

Well, I guess the real answer is that I myself don't feel it is necessary to show details to "proove" the sound quality of a D/A converter. But, this incorporates the "being here" throughout the development of the Phasure NOS1, and you were not of course. You could say that riding along in this small community would have been sufficient for some necessary trust in order to blindly order one - and which quite some people did. Did I thank those people for that yet ? maybe not. So, here you go !

More seriously, we're not in the stage of being "commercial" as such, and which never has been the objective anyway. It's about the best sound ever though, and I guess people will find it one way or the other, without us getting crazy of building DACs. But slowly if possible, so we can get used to doing a thing like this. May it sounds stupid to you, but we rather have a few DACs out which are 100% to spec, than 1000 of which 20% failing that. And this is difficult enough when doing it slowly ...

Anyway, I will send you the specs by email, and along with that below you find a picture of the mid section of the DAC. Notice though this is a kind of special one, and I made the picture just for ourselves because we think it is a small masterpiece;
The specialty here is that this a DAC with two (XLR only in this case) outputs and no single switch or anything in the signal path to do it. Don't ask for the why, but it was made for someone who really cares about what we care about ourselves - and this is indeed about avoiding everthing and all which normall would be in the signal path. Zero compromised.

The way we did it here was applying two DAC boards (in the normal situation only the left board is there) which can be individually active, and instead of changing cables to another output, it can be switched by means of a switch (hehe), that still not being in the signal path. All includes our own objective of not drawing twice the current compared to normal, which would heat up things more, and degrade the life of the capacitors.
I guess this is what happens when you really care about "the best" and no compromise anywhere, and which actually was a challenge once we received the question for it. It is exactly this where we go for, because it shows the care of the person who wanted it, while we overhere couldn't bare the slightest degradation anyway. This, at relative high cost of course, which the mere prooves the care on the other side. Great !

Well, for those awaitening the 8 channel version ... you are almost looking at it. The difference will be the nest of output wires to be larger. That's all.
Don't get me wrong, because the 8 channel version isn't there yet. The physical setup will be the same though.

Thanks,
Peter

[Gerard]

and degrade the life of the capacitors.

Peter,

You also said something in the release note's about these capasitors and there lifetime when they do not have enough cooling space. Since i do not now anything about them can you please tell a bit more? How long do they life do you think and what will happen when they are warn out. Just suddenly no sound anymore?

And do we have to replace those after a few years to avoid further damage when one dies??

 

[PeterSt]

Gerard,

All is about the recharging capabilities and the speed at which that goes. When this drops, the capacitor just doesn't have enough "capacity" within the time frame needed.

I'll do it a bit by heart now and the figures will be wrongish, but it is to get the idea :

A capacitor often is rated for 60 degrees Celcius. This is a fairly normal temperature within electronic devices.
At 60 degrees the best caps (which are just in the NOS1) will last 10,000 hours. This seems much, but for a device of which it is advised to keep it On always (and without that advice we'd do that anyway, right ?) - it is not. Not at all, because it would be just over one year only. Now think something like when the (for the caps) ambient temperature is 20 degrees C lower, they will last 1 million hours.

Notice that a more normal (low quality cap) may be rated for 1000 hours only (60 C).

Peter

[Gerard]

Ok...

one year 

What is the ambient temperature in the NOS1?

Gerard,

All is about the recharging capabilities and the speed at which that goes. When this drops, the capacitor just doesn't have enough "capacity" within the time frame needed.

I'll do it a bit by heart now and the figures will be wrongish, but it is to get the idea :

A capacitor often is rated for 60 degrees Celcius. This is a fairly normal temperature within electronic devices.
At 60 degrees the best caps (which are just in the NOS1) will last 10,000 hours. This seems much, but for a device of which it is advised to keep it On always (and without that advice we'd do that anyway, right ?) - it is not. Not at all, because it would be just over one year only. Now think something like when the (for the caps) ambient temperature is 20 degrees C lower, they will last 1 million hours.

Notice that a more normal (low quality cap) may be rated for 1000 hours only (60 C).

Peter

[PeterSt]

Less than 40C.

[Gerard]

Less than 40C.

 

[Chriss]

Off:

I am currently.... TDA1541 S2 dac
Cheers,
Tuyen
Australia

WoW...where you found S2? GZ!

[Telstar]

Well, for those awaitening the 8 channel version ... you are almost looking at it.

But not mine... i think

Don't get me wrong, because the 8 channel version isn't there yet.

 

[PeterSt]

What is the ambient temperature in the NOS1?

I just had the cover on for the whole day and thought to actually measure;

Temperature around the 40.000uF caps is 32 degrees (C); the further hottest spot I can find on any of the other (small) caps is 42 degrees (this is in between the second pair of heat sinks and those large caps). So, quite ok.
Btw, ambient (room) temperature is 22 degrees.

Peter

[Gerard]

What is the ambient temperature in the NOS1?

I just had the cover on for the whole day and thought to actually measure;

Temperature around the 40.000uF caps is 32 degrees (C); the further hottest spot I can find on any of the other (small) caps is 42 degrees (this is in between the second pair of heat sinks and those large caps). So, quite ok.
Btw, ambient (room) temperature is 22 degrees.

Peter

Thanx that is very nice! 

 

[Par]

Hi,

Im interested in ordering the Phasure NOS1 but have a couple of questions first.
Can the XXHighend be run on a Mac Mini 2.66Ghz/8GB with dual boot running Win7?
Also can the Dac drive headphones?
Tks
Par

[PeterSt]

Hi Par,

About the Mini - would that have a PCI Express slot, I wouldn't know why not. But, even if it had, it has not been tested.

Headphones ? no. But this is merely because we didn't want to spend (again more time) on developing something real good for it. However, as the plan is, it can be added later (as an upgrade). A bit pretentious to say so, because it will need a special PSU for it which has to fit in the case, and although there is space left, it is not infinitely much.
Also, up till now it has been my thinking that people with "real" headphone setups will have their own headphone preamp just because they think it is good. I'm sure we can come up with a "good" one ourselves, but next this will really add up ($$).

Let me know if you want a further "specs" document, ok ?
Regards,
Peter