Vintage Synth Repair

With all respect to the people who are tracking down rare new-old-stock ICs for exact replacements, I suggest that a newer compatable IC be substituted for an $80 IC.
  Texas Instruments took over Burr-Brown and continues to make 16-bit parallel interface Digital-to-Analog convertor ICs that sell in the $15 to $25 range.  To use a substitute like this, it would be necessary to make a small 'daughter-board' that would bridge the pinout between the original IC and the modern replacement.  Also the modern IC would use a different voltage.  
  But I don't imagine that it would sound differently.  A 16-bit DAC is a 16-bit DAC.  Here's where I sit back and await the onslaught from the vintage synth true-believers.  But if you're old enough to remember buying a Prophet 5 back in the early 1980s, then your ears probably can't tell the difference between a $25 16-bit DAC and an $80 vintage one.  Because, if it is a good DAC, then a DAC is a DAC, especially a high-end one that has 16-bits or more.

  I had a discussion on the web like this several years ago over guitar flanger stompboxes.  Several responders said that they could definitely hear the difference between a $1000 flanger and a $100 one.  I looked at the schematics for both and said that it would be unlikely that there could be 10 times the difference between the sounds.

  Well I was treated to a discussion about the audio difference between 'brown' resistors made in the late 1960s and those resistors made today.  Along with being the type of person who would choose a photograph of the Mono Lisa vs. the actual painting.  I've never had a $1000 flanger, a Love Tone perhaps, but I can't believe that similar circuits made from similar parts using similar schematics are going to sound very different.

  I await your comments on my barbaric nun-kulturni existence.

--- On Mon, 10/12/09, synthparts <synthparts@...> wrote:

> From: synthparts <synthparts@...>
> Subject: [vintagesynthrepair] Prophet-5/10/T8 DAC Chips Available
> To: vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Monday, October 12, 2009, 2:44 PM
> Hi, I have a couple DAC71-CSB-I
> Prophet-5rev3/10/T8 DAC chips. I rarely ever have these in
> stock and are near impossible to find. They are $80.
> 
> Thanks
> Doug
> synthparts.com
> 
> 
> 
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