I don’t know if any of you guys have or had any Audio Alchemy audio gear…Well my first Dac was an Audio Alchemy DDE V1.0, with a Philips bitstream Dac, an incredible low cost piece of audio engineering. Since those days I’ve became an Audio Alchemy fan.
Yesterday I bought again that same V1.0 after ten years from a friend of a friend of mine, for 40 €. He wants to throw that away because it was old and doesn’t work. I’d take a risk and I bought it, and surprise…now is working again…The problem was in the power supply...
I’ve manage to resolve the problem (for now…) et voilá…Sound!
But what I find the most incredible is that these guys know what they done, for sure. There are not many differences between these great dacs V.1, V.3 and the Nad internal dac on the cdp, a PCM 1710.
Okay, there are some little aspects concerning the higher frequencies… The V.1 had a more sharply defined soundstage, but lacked the impression of instruments floating on air between the speakers. One other area where the V.1 clearly bested the multi-bits – because the bitstream dac…?! – was in conveying the energy and rhythmic drive of music. The bottom end had a punch and solidity that was particularly satisfying. Not bad for a 15 year old Dac...

I have contacted Peter Madnick, one of the Engineers behind Audio Alchemy, about the power supply – …two many opinions in the web concerning this matter…- he thinks best for my “new” Dac and he kindly replayed:

“The power supply should be simple to duplicate. It was + and - 15 Volts DC at 250mA current. The tip of the power plug was the + voltage, the ring was the - voltage, and the barrel was ground (common).”

In time i'll do a great power supply for this unique Dac.

Later I’ll put some pix.

Some Audio Alchemy related Links :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Alchemy From Wikipedia.

http://www.alchemy2.com/ The new company of Peter Madnick.

http://www.ciaudio.com/ Mark Schifter,Technical Service Advisor at Audio Alchemy.

Any opinions about Bitstream dacs ?

The V.1 was my second and last outboard DAC, mated to their anti-jitter box, whose model number I can´t remember.

That combination replaced a DELTEC DAC to great effect, and proved a great combination with my Kernwood DPX-9100 Transport.

I still have Audio Alchemy´s digital interconnect cable with a large kind of filter at one end. I can let you have it if you like.

I wish I still had that combo. I only got rid of it when I returned to vinyl in order to finance the purchase of my Thorens TD-124.

Jorge

I gladly accept your generous offer.
Tanx amigo.

Am I correct that they had produced the "DAC in a box" DAC?

Yes. The famous DITB (dac in the box) was made by the alchemists.

I've heard lots of positives about Audio Alchemy produscts for a long time.

Glad you were able to get the unit back and repaired.

Tanx Paul.
About Audio Alchemy, IMHO the initial rise in popularity of separate digital components must be directly credited to Audio Alchemy. The reason is fairly simple: Audio Alchemy was the first to make a truly inexpensive outboard digital to analog converter, the DDE. When the DDE was released it sold like crazy. For the first time regular Joes, audiophiles on a budget, enjoyed the luxury of an outboard DAC and took advantage of that mysterious single RCA jack on the back of their CD players.

nice Alvaro, i take it the new DAC will be used in the main rig?

After i'll make another power supply and a few cap mods, of course it will be used in the main rig. ...i'm a romantic audiolover... of course the sound matters, but if you have some kind of attachment with a certain piece of audio, it sounds even better...
...maybe i'm stupid, but i don't care.

this should make for a very nice addition to your system.