Today my AVM Evolution DAC upgrade CS8414+DF1704 chipset arrived from Germany, so I decided (after helping my wife fill up the raised beds with fresh topsoil and steer manure) to upgrade my Adcom GDA-600 DAC from the Redbook CS8412 receiver chip and DF1700 filter chip. Disassembly of the DAC was extremely simple (hats off to Adcom for good industrial design), but removing the old CS8412 and DF1700 was a colossal pain. Initially I tried to remove the CS8412 intact in order to preserve it in the event that something wasn't quite right with the chipset, but after about 30 minutes with the soldering iron and solder sucker, I realized this was a 'destroy the village in order to save it' scenario and snipped off the pins at the chip. Once the chip was removed, I had to heat up each pin, pull the pin out of the board, then reheat and solder-suck each hole to have a clear path for the 28-pin sockets I was installing. Once that was in place, I simply plugged in the CS8414 daughter board.
The DF1700 removal and DF1704 install was much quicker as I just clipped out the DF1700 without wasting time, then followed the same process to install the 28-pin socket and DF1704 daughter board. Upon reassembly, I crossed my fingers, dialed up ABC's 'Look of Love' on the Raspberry Pi and slowly turned up the volume on the preamp.
Sweet, sweet music.
What does this give me, you might ask? The ability (finally) to play greater than 16/48 files on my DAC. Unfortunately, while the PCM63 chipset is dreamy - especially the early Japanese PCM63P chips as used in the Adcom - in 1993 there wasn't much thought to 24/96 or 24/192. With the CS8414 and DF1704, I should now be able to play 24/96 high-def FLAC files (unfortunately, 24/192 is a bit beyond what is possible with the DF1704 - I'd need to upgrade to the DF1706, but no guarantee that it would work with the approaching-30-year-old PCM63 DACs).
Right now Beck's 'Sea Change' is playing in the background...mmmm.
(sorry - forgot to take photos of the install - was too excited to make sure it worked)
The DF1700 removal and DF1704 install was much quicker as I just clipped out the DF1700 without wasting time, then followed the same process to install the 28-pin socket and DF1704 daughter board. Upon reassembly, I crossed my fingers, dialed up ABC's 'Look of Love' on the Raspberry Pi and slowly turned up the volume on the preamp.
Sweet, sweet music.
What does this give me, you might ask? The ability (finally) to play greater than 16/48 files on my DAC. Unfortunately, while the PCM63 chipset is dreamy - especially the early Japanese PCM63P chips as used in the Adcom - in 1993 there wasn't much thought to 24/96 or 24/192. With the CS8414 and DF1704, I should now be able to play 24/96 high-def FLAC files (unfortunately, 24/192 is a bit beyond what is possible with the DF1704 - I'd need to upgrade to the DF1706, but no guarantee that it would work with the approaching-30-year-old PCM63 DACs).
Right now Beck's 'Sea Change' is playing in the background...mmmm.
(sorry - forgot to take photos of the install - was too excited to make sure it worked)
