ProtoDAC TDA1387 X8 project

[hifinet]

Good Morning!
I have a kit ordered and have been looking at the build guide etc.
Do you think there is any advantage to a small film bypass on the decoupling caps?
Also - I recall you had used the discrete r2r day from bigbulb. Do you find this Potomac superior? I have one of his AD single chip designs and love it! this set me on the multibit NOS trail and was contemplating the R2R hat before I saw this design.
Thanks!

I have not tried a bypass cap on the power supply decoupling caps. I am still trying various combinations of electrolytics. Based on results with a polymer cap (see below), I am guessing a film bypass cap would not be beneficial. Sound quality changes quite a bit with decoupling caps, and I think the sound of this DAC can be tailored to personal preferences with decoupling caps.

So far, Panasonic FR sound best to me. The most realistic. Silmic II sound very good, big sound, but just not realistic. I know it's personal preference, type of music, system factors (including the DAC power supply), but that's where I am with classical music in my system. 

I have tried a polymer cap 680uF 7 mohms ESR with a 1000uF Nichicon UKA, but that didn't sound good at all. Very grey, sterile, no color.  

Two 1000uF Panasonic FR-A 28 mohm ESR sounds very good, but just slightly lacking color. The same cap combined with a UKA or Audio Note Seiryu was very good.  

Two FR-A 1000uF 41 mohms ESR Panasonic EEU-FR1A102LB (DigiKey) are the ones to get.  Tiny little caps. Cheap. Excellent sound. Big deep bass. Soundstage in a realistic perspective. I recommend starting with these. Be sure to give them a 60+ hour burn in. These are still improving, long after 60 hours.

I have two of Ew's DACs, the AD1865 and the Discrete DAC. Discrete DAC sounds better than AD1865. In my opinion, this DAC sounds much better. I very much like the sound of passive I/V paralleled TDA1387 DACs. I arrived at this DAC after my experience with L1387 and TeraDAK.