DIY intruder

[Lampie519]

keep us updated

I intend to ....

 

[Lampie519]

At this time i am building some more "prototypes" that i can distribute to my friends (lucky i do not have that many, LOL)...
The ones i have "lent" i am not getting back so need to build new ones.

We went to a concert of The Wood Brothers some time ago and could take this nice picture of us all together

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I guess you will have to ask them yourself as i do not speak for others (i try to avoid this if possible).

Understood. Whom do I ask this of?

 

[Lampie519]

Understood. Whom do I ask this of?

Good point, as far as i'm aware of, nobody i know is on WBF (yet).

 

[Kingrex]

I keep hearing the talk about DAC that makes the best stand above others is in a big part the power supply and vibration control. Even the finish on the case of my dac matters.

 

[Lampie519]

Not sure how much influence vibrations have on the dac (in my case as no tubes are involved).
Power supplies need to be extreemly clean (more so as the dac is the source in the signal chain) as a cartridge in a turntable is.
Some people put stickers on their equipment and state it is an imrovement (maybe so). I will not follow this path...
True that material of enclosures make a difference as are cables etc. So it is up to the designer how far to go and what price tag to put on the device. Electronics are cheap but artisan work not ! A peace of wood costs more then the entire dac !
I like to create things that are aesthetical as well and like to work with glass.
The finished product should be more then just some parts glued together but a joy to look at. On the other hand most digital electronics have a short life span (beeing replaced by something better within a few years).
I do not want that (not much influence from my side i guess) so the idea of this design is to keep it as simple and "spartanic" as possible. No USB and other fancy inputs as these are things that change all the time.
Modular? No way... who bought a modular device and could get an upgrade after 10 years because of better technology? I think i do not need to answer this question...
So, no amplification and no other inputs other then S/PDIF and maybe I2S for the ones who think S/DIF is not good enough...

 

[Lampie519]

Sometimes i get requests to repair an old amp... this is what happend... (SP6 turned into a mix of GRAAFiti and Lampie519)
As i had to do the dishes anyway .....

And a Dynaco Mark VI with burned transformer also got "transformed"...

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Good point, as far as i'm aware of, nobody i know is on WBF (yet).

How about anywhere in public?

 

[Lampie519]

Hello Kal,

Measurements i can provide but are not of great value i guess (same here as in other NOS converters). The main difference is the low output level (similar to pre digital area line levels of 0.775V)
If you are interested in observations of others these need to be people that are "neutral" right? So even if i would name some and these are no "public figures" then what is their observation worth to you ?
To get to the point: You will have experience it first hand !

Best wishes,

Frank

 

[Kal Rubinson]

To get to the point: You will have experience it first hand !

I guess so.

 

[ddk]

Not sure how much influence vibrations have on the dac (in my case as no tubes are involved).
Power supplies need to be extreemly clean (more so as the dac is the source in the signal chain) as a cartridge in a turntable is.
Some people put stickers on their equipment and state it is an imrovement (maybe so). I will not follow this path...
True that material of enclosures make a difference as are cables etc. So it is up to the designer how far to go and what price tag to put on the device. Electronics are cheap but artisan work not ! A peace of wood costs more then the entire dac !
I like to create things that are aesthetical as well and like to work with glass.
The finished product should be more then just some parts glued together but a joy to look at. On the other hand most digital electronics have a short life span (beeing replaced by something better within a few years).

If the products are designed properly they’re not obsolete simply because newer ones claim to better, even with digital. Original Meitner Museatex and Weiss Medea still sound better to my ears than many high priced DACs I hear these days. Same for Transports CEC TL0, TL-1 and Levinson 31.5. Even early CDs with minimal processing transferred from analog masters sound great, much better than high bit transfers.

I do not want that (not much influence from my side i guess) so the idea of this design is to keep it as simple and "spartanic" as possible. No USB and other fancy inputs as these are things that change all the time.
Modular? No way... who bought a modular device and could get an upgrade after 10 years because of better technology? I think i do not need to answer this question...
So, no amplification and no other inputs other then S/PDIF and maybe I2S for the ones who think S/DIF is not good enough...

SPDIF!

david

 

[Lampie519]

New dac's in progress, slow progress...
As i want my dac's to sound as analog as possible i use an anloge programming language called "soldering Iron". The "upload" of this to the components unfortunately takes a lot of time and cannot be flashed....

 

[Andrew S.]

I enjoy looking at everything but don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

This is a really good sentiment, if I may say so. Very healthy place to be. And hello to DIY Intruder!