Twisted Pear Audio Opus DAC kit

bikerboy

In the never ending quest for better sound I replaced the monica 2 dac with the Opus. The monica 2 developed a scratchy distortion that I couldnt fix. The Opus is a modular kit that uses the wolfson wm 8740 dac chip. A lot of people seem to like the wolfson chip. For $265 I got the single dac with the metro clock, spdif and optical input and ps. All the components are installed on the boards except for the components on the ps board and the all connector strips for the boards. That way you can hard wire the boards if you want or not. It all went together in an afternoon and is taped in a box for now. I am using it single ended straight off the dac to my pre amp. It sounds great. Very quite, great detail and imaging. I'm not going to be too critical, its only one day old but it sounds more dynamic than the monica. I'm surprised I didnt have any problems connecting all the wires and setting all the switches. There are a lot! I am gutting an old cdp and will make a wood face for it to use as a case. I am very impressed with the quality of the kit and the way they labeled all the parts. Highly recommended! When I get the case done I will post pics. DIY is the way.

Gaara

Just a FYI concerning the Monica, the scratchy sound could be the reclocking chip being lose. I had a scratchy staticy sound when I first got her in my rig and it was due the the chip being lose in shipping.

The twisted pear seems to be all the rage at head-fi. The chip in the Monica is a NOS type so should sound quite different from the Opus.

bikerboy

Hi Gaara,
When I received the monica, the clock was rattling around in the box! I have resoldered, replaced and checked all kinds of things on it and without more test equipment than the DMM I have I havent been able to find the cause. Its almost like a static discharge. Thats one reason I like the Opus. Its 2 boards plus the clock board and ps so if there is something wrong I can swap out part of it to fix it. The monica sounds great when it works but I thought I would try an oversampling dac this time. I have always felt my system is too bright so I thought the monica would be a good thing and it was. But this Opus is very nice, not too bright but with lots of detail. Maybe now I will dig deeper in the monica to see if I can solve the noise problem. If I ruin it it wont be the only dac I have.
Last night I was listening to the Opus and heard a strange pop or chirp out of the left speaker and I thought Oh no not this dac too. I replayed the cd to see if it was from the disc and no. So I am listening again and I smell burning electronics! :eek:Oh no whats burning! The florescent bulb had burned out at my work bench. Its behind me on the left. They really stink! Talk about a scare. With a tube power amp, tube pre amp and the monica on the fritz I'm a little paranoid of burning electronics. Hopefully things will have settled some and I wont have anything to fear or smell burning electronics for a long time.

bikerboy

Finished the Opus dac. Its in an old cd case with a koa wood front. I think it looks great and sounds better. I am very happy with the sound. Great resolution and the bass is so much better than the monica its funny. I used a Furutch gold plated cryoed IEC connector and teflon coated solid cat 5 to wire it up.
I also did some mods on the sony cdp. It didnt have a coax out before but now it does. I bypassed the optical output and went straight from the board out the back to a single rca for coax out. I also removed the headphone jack and remote controlled variable output from the front panel.
The system is relaxed and detailed, dynamic and quiet. Center image is more stable and imaging is all over as needed. The dac sounds much better than I expected. I have always had issues with siblance and it is under control now. The guys at Twisted Pear make a great kit and it really sounds good.

ben62670

I love DIY. Do you have a linky to the kit? I just killed (tore apart) my JVC receiver that I thought was the bomb till a couple years ago. I had it since 88, and it was second from top of the line. I need to fill another **** case with some Yankee ingenuity;)

bikerboy

Heres their web page. Read their links to head fi and diy audio also. Shows you their thoughts as to how and why they made it like it is. DAC design is way beyond me. Very flexible with the modular boards. It is well worth the <$300 given the great sound. You can make it balanced if you want. I cant use that now, single ended on all components.
http://twistedpearaudio.com/opus/opus.aspx
I keep finding new things to put in these old $10 cdp cases. First it was the Hagerman Bugle phono amp and now a Twisted Pear Opus DAC. Add VH Audio to the list of great companys to deal with for diy. Good times.

ben62670

I may have a matching JVC CD changer to play with soon too:)
Thanks.
Ben