Built from a kit in 2011.
The design is a typical oversampling DAC of the era: S/PDIF receiver is followed by an asynchronous sample rate converter, followed by a PCM1794 DAC - quite similar to my ezDAC (see an earlier post). The USB interface is built around TI's PCM270x chip. A fancy addition is a tube buffer. The construction is very solid with thick aluminum panels.
I know this is subjective, but I don't like the sound at all. Unfortunately, I can say this about every single eBay kit or PCB I have ever purchased. They all feature pretty PCBs with extra thick copper, machined aluminum panels and, in this case, an R-core power transformer, they promise big ticket performance on the cheap, but they do not deliver. The good sound is not in thick copper or solid aluminum enclosure.
The design is a typical oversampling DAC of the era: S/PDIF receiver is followed by an asynchronous sample rate converter, followed by a PCM1794 DAC - quite similar to my ezDAC (see an earlier post). The USB interface is built around TI's PCM270x chip. A fancy addition is a tube buffer. The construction is very solid with thick aluminum panels.
I know this is subjective, but I don't like the sound at all. Unfortunately, I can say this about every single eBay kit or PCB I have ever purchased. They all feature pretty PCBs with extra thick copper, machined aluminum panels and, in this case, an R-core power transformer, they promise big ticket performance on the cheap, but they do not deliver. The good sound is not in thick copper or solid aluminum enclosure.
