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Hand made DAC with bluetooth 5.0, spdif for amplifier FX-AUDIO FX502S PRO

Ruslan35

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Jul 27, 2019
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Hello dear forum members. I would like to ask your advice. I need a DAC for my Chinese FX502S pro stereo amplifier (modified by me, since the sound is terrible in stock). In connection with the limited budget and unwillingness to overpay for the finished product, I would like to do it myself, using ready-made boards from China. I will output sound from my TV via S/PDIF and from my iphone via bluetooth. I was interested in two boards. one on the AK4495 the other on the ES9038. bluetooth chip is the same - CSR8675. Tell me please, are these good DAC chips and which one is better?





And I don’t want pay more then 100$.



for example, TOPPING D50 costs more than $ 200. uses DAC ES9038Q2M

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/c0MGeL5g.

And on the same time is a ready printed circuit board, the cost of which is 4 times lower.

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/Kq4BSM6

And I immediately apologize, maybe I ask trivial questions that have already been discussed on the forum, but unfortunately I have strength to read the all forum in search of an answer, because after the Chinese amplifier and search for a solution how to tweak it to good sound I have no strength left to search for information about the dac I need.
 

maxxevv

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Since you're comfortable working with assembled boards, get a Khadas Tone Board and be done. Its US$99/-

Edit: Oops missed the BT part.
 

somebodyelse

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The DAC chip is less important than the implementation, as can be seen by the differences in performance between DACs using the same chip when tested here. Similarly your 502S-Pro has worse performance than the TI evaluation board for the same amp chip. The Tone Board is an example of a reasonably well implemented board where the designers did proper testing, and present audio specs based on actual measurements, and subsequently confirmed by independent testing. The same can't be said for the many cheap boards out there - where they do provide audio specs they're usually from the chip datasheet, and unlikely to be achieved by the actual board. Without test results it's hard to recommend one, so you would be trying your luck.


While the Tone Board doesn't have bluetooth, there are plenty of CSR8675 modules that claim SPDIF output. It wouldn't take much DIY to add a toslink receiver and a switch to connect these to the Tone Board's SPDIF input. It would be a bit over budget though.
 

Jimmy

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Jun 20, 2018
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The bluetooth part can be easily taken out of the equation buying one of the new combo transmitter/receiver devices like this one :

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32975647078.html

I don't know who's the OEM for these units, there seem to be quite a few that look mostly identical and declare the same specs, I have one and it works very well, I'm using it as a receiver/wireless headphone amplifier and it can power almost anything that I've tested to decent listening levels, even an HD600, however it works better with low impedance headphones, the only thing that I don't like is the limited volume granularity, everything else is fine (sound quality, reliability, battery life and features).

It can be used as a transmitter/receiver with an optical connection (a cable is included), so for the price I wouln't bother paying a premium for a unit that integrates bluetooth, if it's an old one it will probably be much worse than this, and using an optical connection may be cleaner in some cases and it can be powered with a spare mobile phone charger, however it won't work with the Khadas Tone Board, since the it only has electrical digital input.
 
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