Rotel RDP-980 DAC
 

Saw this DAC on Ebay. There doesn't seem to be much info about it on the
web (and it seems to be the only DAC Rotel made).

I know I really shouldn't be getting a DAC (actually, I would like an
old Audiolab 8000DAX or the new Benchmark DAC1) without upgrading my
speakers or listening environment first, but here goes ...

Does anyone have any experience with this DAC?

Is it well engineered? ie

- is it relatively insensitive to jitter?
- is it transport invariant (ie can I hook up a £50 supermarket DVD
player to it and get great sound)
- is it good like all other Rotel products, or is it a lemon?

The user manual doesn't say much (no mention of the DAC chip used, but I
doubt Rotel designed their own). The manual does state the following though

"we have utilised a 1-bit 64x oversampling Delta Sigma DAC chip
including an 8x oversampling digital filter. We include a 5th order
switched capcitor filter, to minimise digital jitter, and then a 2nd
order filter after the 8x oversampling filter to eliminiate spurious
noise. The output stage is implemented with a low impedance buffer
amplifier that includes a 2nd order Butterworth filter to reduce
spurious high frequency noise"

So it seems that the DAC uses "bitstream" conversion and has the
appropriate steps to eliminate any high frequency hash produced by the
conversion. Still no mention whether the incoming data stream is
reclocked in a FIFO buffer or whether the clock is recovered using a PLL.

Rotel RDP-980 DAC
 

"Tat Chan" wrote in message
...
Saw this DAC on Ebay. There doesn't seem to be much info about it on the
web (and it seems to be the only DAC Rotel made).

I know I really shouldn't be getting a DAC (actually, I would like an old
Audiolab 8000DAX or the new Benchmark DAC1) without upgrading my speakers
or listening environment first, but here goes ...

I bought a TAG DAC20 for a mate -£235! A new one from Tag direct was £350
about 2 years before that. So keep your eyes open for a bargain.

btw where's the link to the Rotel DAC? I can only find the review from a
magazine.

Rotel RDP-980 DAC
 

Nath wrote:

"Tat Chan" wrote in message
...

Saw this DAC on Ebay. There doesn't seem to be much info about it on the
web (and it seems to be the only DAC Rotel made).

I know I really shouldn't be getting a DAC (actually, I would like an old
Audiolab 8000DAX or the new Benchmark DAC1) without upgrading my speakers
or listening environment first, but here goes ...


I bought a TAG DAC20 for a mate -£235! A new one from Tag direct was £350
about 2 years before that. So keep your eyes open for a bargain.

£235!!! It was probably going for £600 a few years before that! And teh
DAC20 is essentially the Audiolab 8000DAX.


btw where's the link to the Rotel DAC? I can only find the review from a
magazine.

The DAC is for sale on the Australian Ebay site. Is there a link to the
magazine review? Do they have good things to say about the Rotel DAC?