Electronics Overview

Electronics Overview

We add this section to give an overview of the various electronics components on the card so the end user has a better idea of what they are getting for their hard earned audio dollars.

Digital to Analog Converters (DAC's)

This chip take to digital signal sent out from the main chipset and converts it into a usable analog signal which can be amplified and sent out to your speaker or headphones.

PCM1792A (ST Board)

The Burr Bown PCM 1792A is one of the highest spec'd Digital to Analog converter chips made to date. This component offer 127dB dynamic range and signal to noise ratio (SNR) when used in stereo configuration at 2Vrms.  Let's have a look at the block diagram:

In the block diagram, the DAC is the largest square, the right handed rectangles represent the Current to Voltage (I/V) and buffer opamps which we will speak about later.  This DAC features an 8X oversampling Digital Filter and a THD+N percentage of 0.0004.

PCM1792A Specification Sheet

Note: If you are interested in further explanation of the DAC and opamp layout, you can refer to our Essence STX review.

PCM1796 (H6 Board)

The H6 DAC expansion board uses a different model of DAC then that of the Essence ST.  This unit offers a dynamic range of 123dB with an excellent THD+N rating of 0.0005%.  This unit also contains an 8X oversampling filter as seen on the PCM1792 above.

PCM1796 Specification Sheet

Analog to Digital Converters (ADC's)

This chip is the exact opposite of the DAC; these chips take the analog signal from your microphone, line input or internal device and convert it to a digital signal that can be processed by the software.

CS5381

The CS5381 is a high quality Analog to digital converter chip that gives the user 120dB of dynamic range and a THD+N rating of -110dB.  This chip is built using a differential architecture which provides excellent noise rejection for the input signal.

CS5381 Specification Sheet