Suffolk Tony
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment.
Well, my Buffalo 2 DAC box of bits arrived yesterday so I thought I'd start a thread detailing my attempts to put it together into something that actually works.
This is a major step up in complexity (and worry) for me but thankfully, in addition to the enormously helpful folk on the forum, there is a wealth of information on the Twisted Pear website and forum.
As usual with Twisted Pair Audio, everything arrived nicely packaged and clearly labelled -
The various bits are (clockwise from top left) Transformers (1 for analogue, 1 for digital), Placid Bipolar power supply, Placid supply, MUX 4:1 unit (for adding up to four digital inputs, then connects directly to the Buffalo via 12S connections. Apparently..), SP/DIF optical input kit, Legato I/V stage. I've also got three Trident regulators which arrived a couple of weeks ago, more of these later...
After opening this little lot and panicking for a couple of hours I sat down and carefully went through the units to familiarise myself. Where I saw something that puzzled me I found out the answer and the initial terror subsided a bit.
My initial plan is to assemble and populate the individual items, adjust the settings where stipulated, then lay everything out on a board the same size as my case. The latter's a Modushop Galaxy Maggia-wotsit 330x280x80 which seems to be fine sizewise.
I'd originally planned to fit the Tridents as I went but there's some doubt whether the Placid will have sufficient grunt to power these in addition to the other stuff so I think I'll get the DAC up and running with the standard jobs in place.
Job for today - solder up the Legato. It's got the most components so once that's done the rest should be plain sailing. Well, that's my theory anyway.
Here're the bits for the Lagato laid out. Sorry it's not in focus but I've moved it all around now -
OK, soldering iron's hot...Wish me luck!
This is a major step up in complexity (and worry) for me but thankfully, in addition to the enormously helpful folk on the forum, there is a wealth of information on the Twisted Pear website and forum.
As usual with Twisted Pair Audio, everything arrived nicely packaged and clearly labelled -
The various bits are (clockwise from top left) Transformers (1 for analogue, 1 for digital), Placid Bipolar power supply, Placid supply, MUX 4:1 unit (for adding up to four digital inputs, then connects directly to the Buffalo via 12S connections. Apparently..), SP/DIF optical input kit, Legato I/V stage. I've also got three Trident regulators which arrived a couple of weeks ago, more of these later...
After opening this little lot and panicking for a couple of hours I sat down and carefully went through the units to familiarise myself. Where I saw something that puzzled me I found out the answer and the initial terror subsided a bit.
My initial plan is to assemble and populate the individual items, adjust the settings where stipulated, then lay everything out on a board the same size as my case. The latter's a Modushop Galaxy Maggia-wotsit 330x280x80 which seems to be fine sizewise.
I'd originally planned to fit the Tridents as I went but there's some doubt whether the Placid will have sufficient grunt to power these in addition to the other stuff so I think I'll get the DAC up and running with the standard jobs in place.
Job for today - solder up the Legato. It's got the most components so once that's done the rest should be plain sailing. Well, that's my theory anyway.
Here're the bits for the Lagato laid out. Sorry it's not in focus but I've moved it all around now -
OK, soldering iron's hot...Wish me luck!