DAC crowdfunding now in progress

[Doc B.]

Ok, we are at 16 commited. Thanks Phuong and Tom! And also thanks to Dave, who was lucky thirteen and I forgot to thank! Just four to go to make this happen. We are certainly not locked in at 20, but we must have at least 20 or we can't do a production run at all. The sooner we get to 20 the sooner we can order the most critical parts, and the sooner everyone will get their DAC.

[denti alligator]

Ok, we are at 16 commited. Thanks Phuong and Tom! And also thanks to Dave, who was lucky thirteen and I forgot to thank! Just four to go to make this happen. We are certainly not locked in at 20, but we must have at least 20 or we can't do a production run at all. The sooner we get to 20 the sooner we can order the most critical parts, and the sooner everyone will get their DAC.

Cool, so you'll keep taking orders after the 20! Nice. I really want one of these, but can't be part of the 20. I'm pleased to see it's happening so fast.

[Doc B.]

Thank you Frank, Craig and David! That brings us to nineteen commitments for the new DAC.

We just need one more to get this production rolling! Who's going to get us over the top?

[Aural Robert]

Wow, I almost pulled the trigger, but the CDN to US conversion puts me over $1800. I'm gonna wait a few days and see if Stevie has a plan to improve things.

I have until the 23rd to get the free cable so I will be hitting the buy button before then for sure.

Aural Robert
... don't forget your mittens ...

[Doc B.]

We now have 24 commitments. Thank you Greg, Ansgar, Jerome, Marian, and Dave! We will be getting orders in for the components that we have to order in quantity to receive licensing as soon as possible. That way we will have them ready when we are starting the production run at the end of the crowdfunding.

I want to remind those of you who are thinking of commiting that our special offer of a Supra USB cable to be included with your DAC lasts through Thursday October 23rd.

[mcandmar]

Excellent news, congrats on a successful project (https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cr-x.org%2Fgif%2Fbeer.gif&hash=a54af39185b722927bf6e67f4aafc913156b5c01)

[pdxgrampa]

Might they be ready for Santa's Sleigh ?

[Doc B.]

We are estimating early January for delivery of the first units. A software icense needs to be acquired. Chips have to be ordered and programmed by the manufacturer. The boards have to be made, assembled  shipped to us and programmed some more. There are a lot of steps in the process so I prefer to take a conservative approach to a delivery estimate.

[xcortes]

" I prefer to take a conservative approach to a delivery estimate"

For a change?

(It's a joke)

[Natural Sound]

Wouldn't it be something if we could reach our goal of twenty before the weekend is over?

You did, congrats. 

[Doc B.]

As of this morning I think we are at 25 DACs ordered. We crunched the numbers for this run a couple months ago and I was reviewing them this morning. Basically it works out that we need to order parts for 40 DACs (plus a $minimum order$ of a much larger number of oscillators and USB chips) to get the best prices and actually break even. I figure we will need a few review samples, so that means we have about 10 left from this first run. Certainly we will do more runs so this is not a one time deal. It will just some extra time to get the boards made for those future runs as we will need to continue to order the boards in lots of at least 40. So if you want to get a DAC sooner rather than later (like probably January rather than maybe February or March) it might behoove you to commit to one of the ten or so remaining in this first production run.

[denti alligator]

Does this mean every new run will require a certain number of orders, or will there just be a longer wait as funds come in from other places, too?

[Doc B.]

The plan right now is to get the first 40 going ASAP. It might take a little time to get a feel for how far ahead to order another run so that it comes in around the time the existing run sells out. For this first round the lead time on this stuff is like 4-6 weeks to get the chips made and programmed and then after that a couple more weeks to get the boards made and assembled. Then we have to assemble, test and burn in the DACs. For board production runs after the first run that initial 4-6 week wait for the chips won't be a factor for quite a while, because we have to buy a s**t ton of them up front.

[Loquah]

Congratulations Doc and Team Bottlehead!!! I wish I could have been a part of the opening run, but I'm excited to see that the project is now a reality - very excited for you all!!!

[Doc B.]

Just a quick reminder that today is the last day to get in on the free-Supra-USB-cable-with-your-DAC-order deal.