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Do you remember your first DAC?

Blumlein 88

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My first ADC (excepting computer soundcards) was an MSB ADD-1 Audio Director. It had several analog inputs, it would digitize them to 44, 48, 88 or 96 khz rates at 24 bit. It would switch to whichever input was active in prioritized order from input 1 to 8. Comparing this AD to DAC vs interconnect is what convinced me there was nothing wrong with digital and might as well go full digital ahead. Of course this was when MSB made affordable gear prior to pricing aimed at residents of Monaco. I also was puzzled in that it really improved FM. Maybe the filtering got rid of higher frequency junk that polluted other gear, but FM was better through the ADC than straight into an amp. Even had a phono input. I think these were $450 at the time and maybe I purchased a refurb for $300. If I'd known and believed it, I could have purchased an early pro audio ADC.

Remember MSB at this time made the Link DAC for $349. Basically the same casework as this ADC. It didn't take them long to catch onto the idea there's gold in them there Audio Hills. I think it was 2004 or so they made the Platinum link with their own proprietary discrete DAC for $4k, and prices have gone up and up since. Currently they'll sell you a couple XLR cables for $4k.

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restorer-john

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what convinced me there was nothing wrong with digital and might as well go full digital ahead.

But those old telegraphs sure look pretty. I'd rather go 'full ahead' on the brass one over the digital one. :)
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andreasmaaan

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"It is difficult to determine exactly when the first data converter was made or what form it took. The earliest recorded binary DAC known to the authors of this book is not electronic at all, but hydraulic. Turkey, under the Ottoman Empire, had problems with its public water supply, and sophisticated systems were built to meter water... An example of an actual dam using this metering system was the Mahmud II dam built in the early 19th century near Istanbul... The metering system used reservoirs (labeled header tank in the diagrams) maintained at a constant depth (corresponding to the reference potential) by means of a spillway over which water just trickled (the criterion was sufficient flow to float a straw)... The water output from the header tank is controlled by gated binary-weighted nozzles submerged 96 mm below the surface of the water. The output of the nozzles feeds an output trough... The nozzle sizes corresponded to flows of binary multiples and sub-multiples of the basic unit of 1 lüle (= 36 l/min or 52 m3/day)... This is functionally an 8-bit DAC with manual (rather than digital, no doubt) input and a wet output, and it may be the oldest DAC in the world."

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Source: https://www.analog.com/media/en/tra...ndbooks/Data-Conversion-Handbook/Chapter1.pdf

(sorry, a little off-topic)
 

Blumlein 88

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"It is difficult to determine exactly when the first data converter was made or what form it took. The earliest recorded binary DAC known to the authors of this book is not electronic at all, but hydraulic. Turkey, under the Ottoman Empire, had problems with its public water supply, and sophisticated systems were built to meter water... An example of an actual dam using this metering system was the Mahmud II dam built in the early 19th century near Istanbul... The metering system used reservoirs (labeled header tank in the diagrams) maintained at a constant depth (corresponding to the reference potential) by means of a spillway over which water just trickled (the criterion was sufficient flow to float a straw)... The water output from the header tank is controlled by gated binary-weighted nozzles submerged 96 mm below the surface of the water. The output of the nozzles feeds an output trough... The nozzle sizes corresponded to flows of binary multiples and sub-multiples of the basic unit of 1 lüle (= 36 l/min or 52 m3/day)... This is functionally an 8-bit DAC with manual (rather than digital, no doubt) input and a wet output, and it may be the oldest DAC in the world."

View attachment 25651

Source: https://www.analog.com/media/en/tra...ndbooks/Data-Conversion-Handbook/Chapter1.pdf

(sorry, a little off-topic)

Very interesting. I used a somewhat similar design in a sewage plant once for flow regulation. Had no idea the Turks had done such a thing so long ago. My idea took some explaining before other people understood it even though it was relatively simple and very accurate with all simple equipment involved.
 

andreasmaaan

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Very interesting. I used a somewhat similar design in a sewage plant once for flow regulation. Had no idea the Turks had done such a thing so long ago. My idea took some explaining before other people understood it even though it was relatively simple and very accurate with all simple equipment involved.

That's fascinating :)
 

Ultrasonic

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Hypnotoad

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Sure do, it's a D30 and I still remember where I left it, for now.
 

Frank Dernie

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My first separate DAC was a Sony DAS 702ES, which was, I believe the first separate DAC put on the market. I still have it and it still works at 35 years old.
 

captain paranoia

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I guess your first real radio was a ZN-414

I don't think I ever made a radio; too prosaic... The first ADC I had was made using the ZN428, controlled by a Commodore PET, running a successive approximation process in assembler...

[edit: I found out later it was called 'successive approximation'; it was just a method I came up with...]
 
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Sal1950

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Inside my Magnavox CDB560 CD player. :)
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cjfrbw

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I can't remember my first one except it was an experience I don't wish to re-live. My second was a Creek, better, but......

After over thirty years of marketing hyperbole, they finally got digital in the ball park. Better late than never.
 
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