After three years of prototyping, listening, tweaking, nudging, renudging, re-prototyping, re-listening, and repackaging, we have a DAC! These are images of our functional prototype. Like all Bottlehead products the emphasis is on performance and the packaging uses the philosophy of form follows function.
We had initially planned to do this as a kit. However the main board is very sophisticated and very expensive to manufacture. We decided that we didn't want to raise our customers' blood pressure (or ours!) with scary proposition of having to buy a many hundreds of dollars replacement board in the event of an assembly mistake. So we will be offering the DAC in finished form. There will be a future battery supply upgrade that will be in kit form.
The front is very simple, with a smoked acrylic panel holding a power switch, input selector switch and the ubiquitous likeness of Doc B. Behind the panel stands an old school seven segment red LED display that indicates the sample rate of the file being played - which is set automatically each time a new song is started, up to 384kHz via USB.
The back panel has an HDMI socket which will be used for future added features, RCA output jacks (nominal output is 2V) and a power inlet across the top row and USB, TOSLINK and COAX S/PDIF inlets across the lower row.
As those who have been following the long development of this project know there is a LOT more cool stuff going on inside, and those who have heard it know that it is quite a special piece of gear. I am here late at the office tonight just to get these pics up. I will add more info about the DAC and how we plan to crowdfund the first production run over the next couple of days.
