Home Tweakers' Asylum

Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

The Sound of AD1865

Hi Elso,

In my experience, the AD1865 *needs* a higher I/V impedance to sound its best.

In my Audio Note DAC, I replaced the passive 330 ohm I/V resistor with a 25 ohm and coupled/isolated the output stage with a Sowter 8347.

It collapsed the dynamics, and the sound went south, big time. Sounds like that is exactly what happened to you too, using a low resistance on the AD's current outputs.

Go to the AD1865 datasheets (the site is down at the moment).

Under the specs for current output, it lists an output of +/- 1mA and and output impedance of 1.7K. Output impedance? Source? Load? That got me curious.

I've had an email out for some time to Analog Devices about just what load might be optimum with the current outputs. I'd suggest at this time, that we don't just assume that the least resistance to a (virtual or true) ground is the ideal loading in this particular case.

Currently, I'm using a 1K I/V resistor with an Audio Note 1:1 I/V interface transformer. It sounds f**kin' great! But I will try an even higher resistance, or until I get an answer from AD.

But that could take forever.

Peter Qvortrup and Audio Note have pioneered the area of AD1865 I/V coupling. Quite successfully IMO, as a matter of sonics.

"We're not worthy!"

Cheers,
-Steve



This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
  • The Sound of AD1865 - -Steve 04/23/0112:08:35 04/23/01 (0)


You can not post to an archived thread.