new toy - Yamaha DA 202 DAC!

rifftrax

mix-meister
Got it from UPS today. Saw this curiosity on ebay just perusing through gobs of other electronics and it happened to catch my eye. I know the general quality of this vintage of yamaha equipment was second to none, especially in the pro-audio realm and though I could find nothing of it online, I decided to take a chance as I had a good feeling about it. I didn't know for sure if it would sound any better than my current Lucid ADA 1000 which I'm using as a DAC right now, but the price was right and it looked very solid (could be my backup I figured).

Here's how it looks when it came:

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So of course I immediately hooked it up and listened to the exact set of songs I had been listening through the Lucid - track 1, 8 and 10 of BT's Movement in Still Life (excellent album, one of my favorite electronic choices). I had just listened to these in that order with my other dac so I knew I'd have a chance to really see if there was any difference.

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Now, I'm pretty sure no-one else here has likely even heard that Yamaha made a stand-alone dac (I thought it was pretty surprising myself, part of why I picked it up) and I didn't know exactly what to expect, but the thing fired right up and the Phase Lock Loop light came on when I switched on my dvd player/transport which is a good sign :thmbsp: First song comes on and...

:scratch2:

Oh yeah - that is honestly a magnitude better than the Lucid dac (which is a pretty good dac). Extremely "lucid" (which is kinda funny) and effortless sound from the first track, instruments cut through the mix in the most intense sections without losing step at all and most interesting was the extreme smoothness of the high-frequency reproduction...actually really quite amazing how life-like and clean everything came through near the filter area in the treble (which I've heard is an extremely rare feat for many older dac's to exhibit such a complete lack of grain and edge) :yes:

Reminds me much of the times I've demo'd extraordinarily expensive pieces (dacs) in high-end stores...had much of the same feel to the music in the sense that there was no loss of coherence throughout the spectrum as the overall energy and complexity of the mix increased. Bass was pulled off with aplomb and the definition at points really caught me off guard - I'm so used to extremely loud passages feeling rather congested and squeezed out there by the speakers, it was as if the DAC had given new life to the speakers I'm using during the most demanding portions of the music!

Needless to say, I'm pretty blown away. It's a really hefty piece of equipment too. Easily 10 lbs. or more (way more significant the Lucid device). Has anyone even ever seen one of these before?? If you find one and don't have something comparable to the Benchmark DAC1 level - I would wager you'll find it kicks some serious ass.

Now, I just need to find a cheap dvd transport with a AES/EBU output, I hate spdif coax - bleh :yuck:
 
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[Vader] Most impressive. [/Vader] :D
I wonder which DAC(s) are under that plate armor.
Nice find. Auction prices jump 57%! :D
 
There is a YAMAHA DX-U1 DAC witch has 2 x PCM56P-K + YM3623B filter. same dac as in the CDX-10000/5000/2000 but with a newer filter, the CDX run the YM-3404. Around year 1987/88.
 
There is a YAMAHA DX-U1 DAC witch has 2 x PCM56P-K + YM3623B filter. same dac as in the CDX-10000/5000/2000 but with a newer filter, the CDX run the YM-3404. Around year 1987/88.

Maybe mine is as cool as the output from a CDX-10000!! :D Hehe.

That would be pretty sweet though, I'm going to see if I have to time to take some nudies today...
 
That's a pro DAC made for studio use in 1988. it's 16 bit, and I have to think that the good things you're hearing is due to the analog side, not the digital converter, which is way out of date.

But I bet it rocks for a home setup, and if it sounds good, enjoy!

I love vintage gear, but I would be careful with 'vintage' digital. A whole lot of advances have been done since the eighties. Maybe if you get nostalgic for 16 bit grainy sound...
 
That's a pro DAC made for studio use in 1988. it's 16 bit, and I have to think that the good things you're hearing is due to the analog side, not the digital converter, which is way out of date.

But I bet it rocks for a home setup, and if it sounds good, enjoy!

I love vintage gear, but I would be careful with 'vintage' digital. A whole lot of advances have been done since the eighties. Maybe if you get nostalgic for 16 bit grainy sound...

This thing doesn't sound "grainy" at all. In fact - it's literally one of the most open and smooth sounding devices I've ever run across. My jaw dropped when I first cranked the system. It's actually the antithesis of what you're describing.

I'm not sure specifically what "advances" have been made in the digital realm for DAC technology since the 80's but apparently I have been listening to the wrong modern devices as this puts a number of very nice converters I've owned to shame...

Not to say that Lucid, Digidesign, MOTU, Lexicon, EMU, Denon, and Sony make bad A/D/A based products (the ones I've owned to compare) - but this is something else.
 
resurrecting an old thread here...

i wonder rifftrax,are you still of the same opinion with this dac now,a few months down the road?i actually just did the same thing..mines a little newer than yours,a Yamaha DA2X from about 1990ish...saw it listed on that unnamed site for a ludicrously low BIN and hit the button...figured what did i have to lose?I've spent more on bad first dates with women i never wanted to see again

it's an interesting beast,accepts up to 20bit data supposedly,specs as good or better than most today[likely measured with 20bit input tho].it looks seriously designed and well built.these Dacs are balanced out only so really of not much use to most folks i guess,but i've been wanting to try the balanced inputs on my Bryston bp25,to have balanced line all the way through to the amp...interestingly for a Japanese product mine uses the Philips TDA1547 Dac...two of them actually in full balanced mode so this was not only cheap,but fit the bill for that experiment as well

the sound?...pretty much as one would expect from something intended for studio use...clean clean clean,it's got detail just oozing out all over,and is completely unphased by dynamics...it's impressive at first blush,but i think ultimately may turn out to be a bit fatiguing...but then perhaps mods await...
 
Interesting about this...

...I still love this DAC, honestly. I kept trying to find a weak point in it but it always surprises me - especially paired to a Yamaha P2075 studio amp it's really the bees knees I think. I haven't had a chance to put it up against any really heavy hitters...but then the thrifts here in Medford are reaaaaally dry compared to what I found while living in Reno (that was always fun).
 
I'm not sure specifically what "advances" have been made in the digital realm for DAC technology since the 80's
Well apparently yours is 16 bit. The newest are 32 bit. Therefore, they are twice as good as yours. ;) :D


But seriously, your love is probably all about the analog stage - it went missing for a while over the past few years with everyone going ga-ga over the latest DAC technology advances. Now everyone's figuring out that things were sounding too overprocessed and digital (that Benchmark DAC1 you referenced has had its initial reputation take a dive because of this very issue - it's too "harsh").


If you're this happy with it, I recommend never, ever listening to anything else. :D


Greg
 
ok so I've had this thing since yesterday,

today I've left it on,and set the internal PCB mounted gain controls to min to get this thing somewhat closer to normal "home" output level,tho the output is still decidedly high in comparison to my other sources... it's at least a little lower.

i also let the new set of Canare balanced cables settle in and played the digital cable game,finally settling on a Cardas high speed digital..which i originally used with my Audio Alchemy DDE V1/DTI...oh about 15 years ago...i think they still sell this cable and for me it STILL kicks most others to the curb..it's just plain nice,Cardas cables will spoil you every time :)

so i sat down with the intention of doing some comparison listening to the Rotel's analog out vs it's digital out through the Yamaha.I had some reservations about this DAC last night,but i really think the new cables needed some time to settle,and maybe the DAC needed some to stabilize as well,i also don't know that the balanced inputs on my Bryston have ever been used either,so I've been giving it all some time to settle before making any hard judgments...

i played some familiar stuff....and then just for kicks and because it's a really good sounding disc with a variety of styles on it,i put in Ray Charles' last release of duets "Genius loves company"...my intent was to compare to the Rotel,but i've heard this disc lots of times on the Rotel...it NEVER sounded like that! ...wow...just holy crap...effortless,huge,smooth and grain free...I was liking this so much i never even bothered to switch over to the Rotel's analog outputs..i know it doesn't sound anything like that...this Yamaha has some real potential!

it's not perfect,it is a bit hot in the treble i think,but that may be fixable with some tweaking of the analog stage,which is really just a slew of 5532 op amps...i know the pro's actually kind of favour the 5532 but there's undoubtedly some room to tweak the output...the verdict?i think i like it,it can better the rotel 1072 in several areas,that's WELL worth 35 bucks LOL
 
i played some familiar stuff....and then just for kicks and because it's a really good sounding disc with a variety of styles on it,i put in Ray Charles' last release of duets "Genius loves company"...my intent was to compare to the Rotel,but i've heard this disc lots of times on the Rotel...it NEVER sounded like that! ...wow...just holy crap...effortless,huge,smooth and grain free...I was liking this so much i never even bothered to switch over to the Rotel's analog outputs..i know it doesn't sound anything like that...this Yamaha has some real potential!

...that's WELL worth 35 bucks LOL

:D

That's exactly how I felt the first time I heard it... haha. It was like, "woah, that IS different". And very very good. :thmbsp:

I've heard my fair share of very expensive CDP's and DACs - the output from my yammie is no joke.
 
Just curious, as I now also have a DA-202 , what're the current opinions of this DAC?

Yeah, I know, eight year old thread.
 
Try it and see if you like it. A lot of the older high end DAC's sound just fine and were very well built.
Arm chair spec readers will tell you that nothing short of the latest and greatest DAC's will do. Funny thing is that the latest advance in DAC technology is the resurgence of R2R DAC topology. It's the same technology that the older DAC's used.
A lot of the DAC's from that time frame were not designed for high bit rate streaming that is common today but work quite well for there intended purpose, Red Book CD.
I use a Parasound D/AC-1000 from the early 90's and love it.

BillWojo
 
Martin, do you have any pictures of this unit? There is very little info on it that I can find.
So how does it sound?

BillWojo
 
Didn't see the reply. It looks like no-nonsense rackmount Yamaha professional audio. And it sounds amazing, plugged straight in to a p-2200 & NS-690s, it find coherent bass notes that I didn't know were present, and the treble is clean and clear and I really need to replace that idle pot on my power amp as it's running a wee bit warm on the left.

additional pictures from "Fetaudio"
http://www.fetaudio.com/wp-content/gallery/yamaha-da202/dsc_5232.jpg
http://www.fetaudio.com/wp-content/gallery/yamaha-da202/dsc_5242.jpg
http://www.fetaudio.com/wp-content/gallery/yamaha-da202/dsc_5243.jpg
 

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