Fred,
I can understand your feelings, but a few here have made it too toxic to post (the few are not even project sponsors), so the FB group where people have a public profile and are then less likely to troll is currently the main point of contact.
As you know I have worked long and hard on the MDAC2 design but have been increasingly unhappy with the sound quality of ESS DAC's - while the latest Hyperstreamer2 devices are a "Small" improvement over the ES9018 used in the original MDAC they do not bring the step change in sound quality I aim for the MDAC2.
This was confirmed this Christmas past when an old Pink Triangle customer shipped a Dacapo based design for repair (the customer begged to have his unit repaired as in his words it still outperformed everything that he has tried since). Well listning to the Dacapo was a revelation - it indeed just wiped the floor clean - a massive stepup from the ESS DAC's and I've heard many many many ESS based designs, not just my own.
The decision was taken earlier this year that the MDAC2 DD2A DAC would be reworked to be a fully discrete design - and this has been the direction we have been working on since the new year.
The DevDAC design has been "upgraded" for those who insist on ESS DAC's (Dual ES9038Q2M) - but the discrete DAC is the only version offered for the MDAC2 chassis upgrade.
The DevDAC is available Mid June (without chassis) - and we are working with a chassis vendor on a universal chassis solution for both the MDAC2 (for those without donor units) and DevDAC - I hope that the first universal chassis will be also be ready Mid June, but this is beyond my control.
WRT the MDAC2 DD2A, I just received the 4th version of the custom transformer at the heart of the design - I'll test today... the 3rd version was almost there with just a little fine tuning required, so I have high hopes that we can goto production with the latest transformer design.
The MDAC2 DD2A PCB is design to be also used in the FDAC, the FDAC will offer internal PSU and extra Modulator options (and a DSP card later).
MDAC2 DD2A will support 2 modulator / filter options (maybe more later) - these can be swapped by the user. One Modulator / Filter options follows the original DaCapo solution while the second is a more upto date solution (but not necessarily sonicaly better).
Unless we has any major issue, MDAC2 should be available in beta release around mid August - The DevDAC will be available before then for those who need a solution sooner or who doubt that we can do better then ESS...
The MDAC2 DD2A supports everything promised WRT features of the original MDAC2 designs (aside for ADC & DSP which is reserved for FDAC with its larger chassis).