DAC progress

[Doc B.]

my forward movement with the Mini is part of the process of getting this product to market. Hope to have it ready this year.

[denti alligator]

Can someone explain to me the "jitter" problem. What is it? Where does it comes from? What does it sound like? How can it be overcome?

In John's post a few pages back he writes:

Right now I'm working on the digitally controlled super low jitter oscillator that can track any S/PDIF input. The original design philosophy was to send a S/PDIF stream from the DAC back to the soundcard which would sync its output to the DAC, this gives extremely low jitter IF you have a soundcard that supports this function. Unfortunately if you fed it from a source without the sync from the DAC you would occasionally drop bits. This turned out to actually sound pretty good, a lot better than I thought it would.

What soundcards would support this function?

[AudioDave]

This waiting for the Bottlehead DAC is driving me crazy!!  If I could place my order now I would.  In the mean time to get me by,  have any of you built the AMB Laboratories y2 USB DAC and if so what are your impressions?  It sounds like a fairly inexpensive substitute for the Bottlehead DAC until it is ready for purchase.
Thanks!
Dave

[Yoder]

This waiting for the Bottlehead DAC is driving me crazy!!  If I could place my order now I would.  In the mean time to get me by,  have any of you built the AMB Laboratories y2 USB DAC and if so what are your impressions? 

I was working on building one until my Crack, Foreplay, and Paramount's came in. From what I have read it is a great deal for the money, but...
1) I abhor how the parts list is put together. If you go with it, be sure to print it out and be free with the highlighter. Double, triple, quadruple check your list before you order.
2) It has some very small components so you better have a magnifier of some sort.
3) You will have to solder a lot of SMD's. Here is a link to a kit for practice http://co-bw.com/DIY_Soldering_Practice_Kit.htm#smd The kit is a bit pricey, but you will get a lot of practice. For me, I prefer the "flood and suck" method with SMD's. ("Flood and suck"...goes great with the BH naming scheme.) I do not suck though (that's what she said). I use USA made Qucik Braid-Easy Braid to desolder. Don't waste your time or money on the imported crap from Radio Shack. I tried various suction devices, but he braid works best by far.

I have done a lot of searching for cheap DIY DAC's and they just are not there. The y2 does not cost much, and it does fit the bill for portability and temporary DIY filler until the BH DAC is rolled out.

[AudioDave]

Thanks for your response,  I appreciate it.  I know what you mean about the parts list and the hi-lighters.  Very confusing.  I think I might give it a shot!
Thanks again,
Dave

[Doc B.]

Just a quick update-

We are back at this project after letting it percolate for a few months while we got caught up on other projects. During this time John Swenson has made some very interesting breakthroughs that make the DAC even more useful and even better sounding. I still don't have an exact time frame for release, but wanted to let everyone know that it is high on the priority list these days.

[2wo]

Good to hear. By useful, I hope there will be a USB option. I don't plan to go back to a sound card. I moved to a Vortex box on my old computer. That gives me USB and SPDIF, with a Squeezbox...John   

[Yoder]

I think Doc mentioned both TOSLINK and USB interfacing capabilities.

[HF9]

I think Doc mentioned both TOSLINK and USB interfacing capabilities.

I'd like to see a good old fashioned 75ohm BNC input myself

[tdogzthmn]

Can anyone give a size estimate of the DAC?  Is it smaller/larger than the Crack I currently own?  I am hoping it has a somewhat small footprint as many DACs need to share space on desks with lots of other peripherals.

[Jim R.]

Funny, I was just wondering the same thing today as I was looking at my very crowded rack. :-)

-- Jim

[Doc B.]

Sonic performance comes first on this project, and if it takes some real estate to incorporate what we feel we need to get the best sound, we will make it as big as it needs to be. We're still talking about different approaches, one of which is two chassis. Right now I am leaning toward a single chassis if possible. This will have the DAC, possibly three separate power supplies (real ones, not wall warts) and some tubes. So it might end up the size of a Crack or maybe a Foreplay or maybe even a Stereomour. But we are still working through this. John has been working hard on the latest iteration of the DAC circuitry and I'll have a more to share soon.

[denti alligator]

Another month gone by ... any update on the DAC? Obviously you'll post when there's something to share, but I thought I'd prod you just once...

[Doc B.]

John is working on a layout concept that requires some careful squeezing in of all the parts. You just reminded me that he may be waiting for some dimensional info from me.

[denti alligator]

Happy to oblige

I'm waiting off on getting a DAC for the BH model, though it's hard, especially with the increasing number of albums I'm getting on FLAC only.