Stereo Tool

Hi

If you can manage to find one I strongly recommend the Douk Audio PCM5012 USB XMOS DAC (https://doukaudio.com/products/douk-aud ... card-p0052)

Do not be put off by the low price or the fact it has a headphone output, this is an excellent product and works exceptionally well with ST.

If you are interested, the data sheet for the chip is here: https://www.ti.com/product/PCM5102A
On this product, the phono outputs are driven directly from the DC coupled outputs of the chip i.e. there are no DC blocking capacitors in the signal path.
At 192k the DAC response is flat within 0.05dB from DC to 85kHz which is more than adequate to faithfully carry the MPX including RDS.
I am using an AAREFF 1W exciter which I have modified to have a modulation response down to 2Hz rather than 30Hz out of the box so I have no requirement to use the tilt/RC compensation in ST.
Using a Pira P275FM FM analyser I can see that the peak modulation control is excellent and the RDS phase is bang on which is probably due to the fact that there is no post filter after the DAC in the box.
I cannot fault the sound quality too, it stands up to anything on the dial (assuming you have the right preset in ST of course!).


Hope this is helps.

Regards,

James.