Disassembled photos of OG Digitakt and DAC/ADC models

Elektron Gear Digitakt
1

I decided to change bolts on my DT OG and just for interest look inside to learn mainboard components and noticed something, that probably perplexed me little bit.

I have a different audio codec chip: Cirrus Logic CS4272-CZZ

I googled all photos with disassembled Digitakt and discovered that all this devices have audio codec chip AKM AK4621EF, btw mainboards were copyrighted in 2017.

Only one post i have found with newer mainboard from 2020 is this, but here i can not say that stereo codec chip is different.

Can you show some photos if you have?
Thank you :hugs:

PS1: My Digitakt has manufacture date of 2021-W27 and mainboard was copyrighted in 2020.

PS2: I know that this fact will change nothing and this chips are very similar and have enough specs to not hear any differences at all. But it just interesting little bit and why Elektron do not say what they change under the hood?

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2

They’ve changed more than that in the past with no notification. Model:Samples (and cycles I think) lost the secondary power port on the side. I mean, not a firmware disable, new units are manufactured without that port.

In that case, it does make a distinct difference to 2nd hand buyers which version they get.

EDIT: To be clear, they were upfront about it when asked, but I do not believe there was any announcement.

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3

Interesting. I did not know about it.

4

Hello! Which chip would you like a closer view of? I have a Digitakt II as well, if you want to compare!

5

I remember that during / after Covid there was a chip shortage, and some audio codecs that companies relied on for products just went out of production. Don’t remember which ones though, but could be an effect of that.

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6

I need to look motherboard of Digitakt 1, but thank you :relieved:

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May be in this period they used different DAC as mine.

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Here you go, I think I got all of the important chips in there. This is the Digitakt 1 that I got in May of 2022.

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9

I do not see audio codec chip

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Hmm where is it? On the underside maybe?

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Here

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Because chips go EOL. There are drop-ins with no actual audible changes.

There is no reason to update customers about 1:1 replacements in the BOM over a product’s lifespan.

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13

Here we go! Interesting that there’s an unpopulated footprint right next to it that shares one entire side of contacts…is that where the AKM AK4621EF goes instead of this one?

This one is rotated 180° so we can read the chip:

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Yes, the same as mine. Thank you. Probably Elektron used Cirrus Logic chip in 2020-202?.
As one person says before, this fact doesn’t change anything in terms of digital audio performance, but it just interesting to know.

15

It was indeed the AKM factory that burned down, which is most likely why they switched to Cirrus Logic. Both are well-regarded audio codecs.

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Thanks for that connection! I try to avoid the day to day industry details, if someone wants to know why components are used and changed the best way to do so is following smaller “boutique” manufacturers / building DIY yourself (and thus needing to know how to read and audit the BOM for errata.)

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Right now they afaik return to use AKM chips in newest DT2 & DN2

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By the way, thank you, everyone, for contributing to this little dumb stuff :innocent:

19

they are quite similar but dynamic range is different

Cirrus Logic has 114db dynamic range, Asahi Kasei 115db

AKM: https://www.akm.com/content/dam/documents/products/audio/audio-codec/ak4621ef/ak4621ef-en-datasheet.pdf

Cirrus Logic: https://statics.cirrus.com/pubs/proDatasheet/CS4272_F2.pdf

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This 1db is… meaningless to discuss about.