Adventures with a Soldering Iron Part 2 (DAC Build)

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Comments

  • Brumjam said:
    Part of it is a DAC. Most of the items you can see are for various power supplies.
    It's amazing how it all totals up isn't it! I have a DIY DAC that looks pretty busy too, it's not capable of high sampling rates via SP/dif but can via USB, as that's my main usage. Most importantly it sounds great.
  • Looks great James. I'm also upgrading my dddac at the moment, I have stripped the two DAC boards right back to the bare boards going for a four board DAC with all the mods. I'm run separate power supplies to the digital and analogue,
  • Nice one James that will sound great. Be good to see some pics of your build as you go. Are you going to use transformer output?
  • I'll try and get sme pictures up. I sold a load of dddac gear in order to finance what I'm doing which clued selling my Cinemag output transformers, I still have the buffer board though.
  • Well, over three years since I started this thread and I've still not finished my DAC! :))

    Here's a pic of the DAC and streamer case.  I've had to move the PSU into a dedicated enclosure - it provides 12 separate wires into the DAC case.  The DAC board can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner.  Above the DAC is a buffer board to drive the output transformers.  All those green boards are part of a re-clocking/isolation project from a very clever guy over on DIY Audio. The black boards are power supplies (again from DIYaudio) specifically designed for low voltage digital equipment.  In the bottom right hand corner you can see a green lifep04 battery which powers the clock circuit board.  Speaking of the clock, it's so accurate that it can be used in weapon guidance systems - I had to sign a disclaimer stating I was buying it for less sinister purposes :D.

    There has been blood, sweat, almost tears, and more smoke/blown fuses along the way than I care to remember; but it's been a great learning experience. Without this project I wouldn't have gone on to my other DIY amp projects.

    image


  • Super wel done James. Where is the PSU for the DDDAC?
  • sovereign said:
    Super wel done James. Where is the PSU for the DDDAC?

    Thanks James. The power supplies are in a separate enclosure. There's a 12v unregulated supply for the analog section of the DAC, 5v regulated supply for the Raspberry Pi, 12v (positive and negative) regulated supplies for the buffer board and a 9v transformer supplying AC to the two black boards you can see in my DAC case. It weighs a ton :-B
  • My Dddac is in bits as I'm trying to mod it, I'm getting a wee bit flustered. And I miss it. The moded gator Bearsford is excellent but just not the same
  • sovereign said:

    My Dddac is in bits as I'm trying to mod it, I'm getting a wee bit flustered. And I miss it. The moded gator Bearsford is excellent but just not the same

    Yep I know that feeling James. Many a night where I've thought why am I not just listening to music instead of soldering. It'll be worth it in the end. Have you heard the custom sowter output transformers? I'm tempted but they're not cheap and there's no way of trialling them.
  • I haven't mate, like a numpty I sold my output transformers, that I should have kept
  • edited October 2016
    Brumjam said:
    Well, over three years since I started this thread and I've still not finished my DAC! :))

    Here's a pic of the DAC and streamer case.  I've had to move the PSU into a dedicated enclosure - it provides 12 separate wires into the DAC case.  The DAC board can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner.  Above the DAC is a buffer board to drive the output transformers.  All those green boards are part of a re-clocking/isolation project from a very clever guy over on DIY Audio. The black boards are power supplies (again from DIYaudio) specifically designed for low voltage digital equipment.  In the bottom right hand corner you can see a green lifep04 battery which powers the clock circuit board.  Speaking of the clock, it's so accurate that it can be used in weapon guidance systems - I had to sign a disclaimer stating I was buying it for less sinister purposes :D.

    image


    Crikey, there's a lot going on in there.
    That's quite a magnus opus! =D>
    And the PSU is additional to that!

    The last sentence in the above quote is probably one of my favourite ever sentences on chews! :-D
    (BTW Colin would probably claim that you have lied by signing that disclaimer... ;-) )

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