DAC IV plus Users Manual Rev 1 (12/2012) Sign Magnitude Ladder DAC Specifications Inputs: BNC, Coaxial, Toslink, balanced AES/EBU, MSB PRO I2S Input and a Balanced Analog RCA Outputs: 2.62 V RMS (7 Vpp) RCA Output Impedance: 53 ohms without volume controls, 38 ohms with volume controls Balanced Output: 5.
DAC IV Plus Users Manual Unique Product - a Preamp or a DAC? This product has the option to be a unique combination of a very high performance DAC and the ultimate passive preamp. It is intended to be used as both for the best possible sound in your system. Our preamp philosophy is based on the belief that from the moment analog audio is created, every transition that is made degrades the quality.
The Signature Data CD is a great companion to the DAC IV. It is shown here with the Signature Transport Power Base in Satin Black. Here is the complete MSB System, available in Matt White or Satin Black. iLInk II Upgrade This option adds an iPod dock to the cover of the DAC IV. There are no setup options or controls. Plug in the iPod and press play. In addition, the square remote buttons can be used to control the iPod. * The stop button actually turns off the iLink.
Unique Technology - the past and the future In the 1980’s early DACs were all 16 bit ladder DACs, with a precision laser-trimmed resistor creating the appropriate analog level for each of the bits. The DACs worked well and sounded good. They were quite expensive as very accurate resistors were required. Then along came the “single bit” DACs. Rather than using a resistor to create an analog level, pulse width modulation was used.
THE DAC STORY How DACs work Delta Sigma DACs (Single Bit) Each sample or jug is filled to the right level with many measuring cups, poured to reach the target level. 010010100011101000110110 A DAC is a circuit that converts digital measures of audio amplitude in discrete steps into a continuous analog electrical equivalent of the sound to be reproduced. The amplitude is a digital number (like a 16 bit word) and the steps occur based on the sampling rate (like 48,000 times per second).
The menu selectable digital filters (from the optional digital filter suite) permits the user to choose the filter design they prefer. It allows for the selection of a standard brick-wall filter or a slow roll-off filter, both at half the sampling frequency. Each provide a distinct, glorious listening experience. You may favor one or the other, or enjoy changing the filter response to suit the music you listen to. Music with less high frequencies may benefit from the slow roll-off 16x filter.
the adding next sample. This repeated roundoff results in a similar problem to the cascaded 2x filter approach, muddy sound. MSBs digital filter uses bit perfect accumulation in an 80 bit accumulator completely eliminating these debilitating roundoff errors. Only as the last step do we carefully convert the audio to the 24 or 26 bits our DACs require.
Step Two, Burn the CD - When burning a CD containing the custom filter you must burn the .wav audio file directly to a CD without first converting it to another audio format such as MP3. Converting the .wav file to another format will destroy the careful formatting which allows the DSP to load filters directly from a CD. You may however burn other audio to the CD as separate tracks. This allows you to create a CD with a custom sound that differs from the rest of your collection.
Right Analog Balanced XLR Output – This is the balanced XLR analog output. The DAC should be set for balanced mode when using this output. When set to single ended, the differential output will be equal and you will hear nothing. When the DAC is set to multichannel mode, the primary channel will be heard on the non-inverted output pin and the alternate channel on the inverted output pin. The output impedance is 106 ohms with volume control and 76 ohms without, and output level is 14 Volts PP (5.24 V RMS).
MSB PRO I2S Connector The MSB PRO I2S Network One of the most powerful features of MSB products is the PRO I2S network. Most new MSB products have a PRO I2S connection available. The MSB PRO I2S has the following capability: • • • • Works with standard CAT6 cable Simultaneous transmission of 8 audio channels with 32 bit resolution at 384 kHz sampling rate. MSB CAN Interbox communication Bus (for communications between boxes) Low Jitter master clock distribution from the DAC back to the Transport.
Front Panel Controls Although the user interface is very simple and easy to use, in depth menus allow complete control of the DAC. Menu Button – The square button is single purpose. It will enter the setup mode at the top of the menu tree. If in the setup, and it doesn’t matter where, this button will exit the setup and return to the normal operational mode. Input Selection – Each of the six inputs can be selected manually, or the auto mode can be selected.
Menu Upsampling Off On DAC IV Menu Tree Top level menus are for operational controls. Setup menus follow on the next pages. Phase Invert Press the menu button on either the front panel or remote. Navigate up and down the options with the front panel knob or the volume up down buttons on the remote. Off On Filter Select Use the arrow buttons to navigate right and left in the menus on either the front panel or remote.
Setup Off Reclocking On S.E.
Operational Menu Options The high level menu options have to do with operation settings. They are things that you may want to change on the fly as you listen to different music or with different equipment. See the Menu tree for details. Upsampling on/off - Upsamples all incoming music to either 384 kHz or 352.8 kHz. Phase Invert - Toggling the Phase Invert will change the absolute phase of the output. There are some recordings that “accidentally” swap the phase.
Dither on/off - With the dither activated the MSB Digital Filter continuously adds a tiny amount (-110 db) of random ultrasonic dither to the Output. We have found through extensive listening tests that this tiny amount of dither greatly increases the perceived resolution of the audio without harming the music in any way. The dither is added separately in common mode to the positive and negative DACs in the Platinum and mostly cancels itself on playback helping to linearize the DACs.
Upgrades and Modifications Removal of the cover - Unplug the AC power. Work on a clean surface. Start by removing the 14 screws of the cover. Carefully remove and set aside the cover. Removal or Installation of the volume modules - The volume modules can be plugged in, or unplugged from the Platinum mother board. They are held in place with their two connectors. The boards are automatically detected, so when unplugged the DAC will output the same level signal as it would with them plugged in at 0 dB.
First, install the supplied MSB drivers from the included USB 2 drivers CD or from our website (not necessary for USB 1 operation). So with a PC, there are two possible play modes. The “advanced speaker properties” window lets you set up Windows output sample rates up to 192 k as shown to the right. Any audio played by an audio program would be output at this sample rate. Specialty programs like Foobar can be modified with a plug-in, like ASIO (http://www.foobar2000.
Input #2 - MSB PRO I2S The MSB PRO I2S is new and will offer amazing performance on new transports as they are brought to market. (See the table) It is lower jitter and higher speed (ready for 768 kHz music) than the MSB Network. It contains 20 channels of audio of 768 kHz, 32 bit audio in the I2S format, as well as a an outgoing clock and control data.
Bit-Perfect Source Testing Perhaps one of the most useful features of the software is the bit-perfect test. The following series of files can be downloaded from the MSB web site: 16 bit x 44.1 kHz sample rate file (CD standard). 16 bit x 48 kHz sample rate file. 16 bit x 88.2 kHz sample rate file. 16 bit x 96 kHz sample rate file. 16 bit x 176.4 kHz sample rate file. 16 bit x 192 kHz sample rate file. 24 bit x 44.1 kHz sample rate file. 24 bit x 48 kHz sample rate file.
