This weird trick lowers DAC distortion

[marce]

13 hours ago, mansr said:

I tried that, but I couldn't easily cool the hot side sufficiently.

Device packaging plays a big part...

[marce]

15 hours ago, fas42 said:

I just had a thought about how I would do something like this - key would having a tiny evaporative coil in the system, which could be placed near the critical part. Then a small, slow running fan with the air flow funneled as precisely as necessary to what matters, say the top of the DAC chip - this would give one great control on how much cooling was going on.

 

Some of the hardware that would do something like this is inside every, discarded laptop - just run this in the reverse of the normal heat cycle.

Look up heat pipes....

Been there done it😀

[marce]

14 hours ago, mansr said:

It would work to cool the hot side of the Peltier element. Alternatively, it could be attached to the backside of the PCB, giving the Peltier cooler a better starting point.

This works best with bottom terminated components or components with a heat pad, that the die is on.

[marce]

http://www.iceotope.com/

[marce]

1 minute ago, mansr said:

Yes, cooling works best on parts designed to be cooled. What a surprise.

Yes it is a surprise but how many are conversant with the various packages available one wonders, but at least they can look up bottom terminated devices and get an idea now, wot a surprise....🤨

Yes, it also needs the PCB to be designed for doing such a job, thermal vias, copper coins etc. Even more fun when the board is in a sealed box, vacuum etc.

Peltier cooling with heat pipes can be a good DIY solution...

[marce]

Now you've done the test at the devices lowest operating temp, I wonder what the figures are like at its hottest 85dec C...

[marce]

On 1/19/2020 at 11:36 PM, fas42 said:

Amazing ... temperature differences make a difference - who would have thunk it? Those villainous circuit designers should be shot, for not getting this under control ...

Never knowing whether your serious or not, a look around and you would see people are working on it...

https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/electronicpackaging/issue/141/3

 

For a domestic DAC though does it matter if the noise is 120 or 125dB down one wonders.

[marce]

I should have added a question mark, would the noise reduction be noticeable after gain stages. The figures were arbitrary, but would cooling your device down to -25 be beneficial in regards to noise, or would the extra issues created by the cooling mechanisms not be beneficial. One knows its counting how many angels on a pin head, but it is also informative.

I sort of play about with cooling devices, these days due to size reduction power density has increased and heat is always an issues, smaller packaging, plastic cases, vacuum all create issues for heat removal. Cooling down to the level Mansr got to is a bit extreme, Jneutron on DIY Audio would be able to help here, or get the wife to stand there with a few cans of freezer spray during critical listening😁.

As to the use of "one" its a rather archaic English inflection, when we become the 51st state of America we will corect the abuse of the English language (banning all sensible phonetic spellings and re-introducing the long e).

One is not amused!😋