Is the Bottlehead DAC repairable?

[pdxgrampa]

Mine seems to have given up the ghost.

Is it worth repairing?

Greg

[Doc B.]

Not really enough info to be able to offer a specific suggestion. If your power supply died that's probably an easy fix. If you changed sources and the new source won't talk to the DAC via USB that is not something that can be made to work because it is usually the newer vs older USB chips can't talk to each other. If USB is the issue you might still be able to use the TOSLINK or the coax input with an appropriate source. If the DAC itself is completely dead after all these years it's hard to say whether it is repairable or not without deep diving into it. I don't consider myself qualified to work on it at the component level and I'm not sure that PB would be able look at it either. Perhaps John Swenson could look at it, but I have not communicated with him in several years and don't have current contact info. We only had a few spares for full board repairs and over the 10  years since we made the DACs those few spares have been used.

[pdxgrampa]

Thanks Doc,

Thought that was most likely the case.

Any thoughts on a replacement built or kit?

Greg

[Paul Birkeland]

Is it just not powering on?  There are some transistors I can replace on the incoming power supply board and a small modification I can do to keep those devices happier.  This issue popped up mostly on DACs without the Bottlebatt power supply.

[pdxgrampa]

Hi Paul,

It does power up and will sync with 44.1,but there is no output

Greg

[Doc B.]

Which input are you using? USB? TOSLINK? Coax? It would be helpful to have more detail on what happened, what you have the DAC connected to, what power supply you are using, what apps you use, etc. Also tell us if you had changed anything in the system right before it stopped working, like a new source or any software, firmware or operating system updates to the source.