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MDAC First Listen (part 00111011)

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Correct, you do need to be fairly skilled to do this successfully as the etch is not of the best quality and it's very easy to damage it if you use an underpowered iron. It is do-able though, I managed to repair mine.
 
JohnW said:
An off the shelf chassis would really easy the VFET situation
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One of the Aliexpress Pass Labs clones looks ideal - with the heat dissipation calculations already taken care of.

I'd be happy to put mine together - drilling and tapping aluminium turned out to be a lot more straightforward than I expected, and bias setting could be covered in a video (and facilitated by pins on the pcbs?). Presumably the main objection to DIY from John's point of view is the potential loss of irreplaceable transistors.
 
jamjar784 said:
A few people have managed it but it's not an easy solder job. You need good eyesight and powerful iron. Maybe they'll chip in here .. sam_cat et al??? Or you can search this humungous thread :(
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Tricky job but doable if you take care, if the caps are leaking you will have to replace them and I think the “no comms” message is crystal related, maybe try putting a 100k resistor across the pins of the crystal if you cannot replace it, not ideal but if it works, it’s an improvement over what you have now.
 
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JohnW said:
Jem,

An off the shelf chassis would really easy the VFET situation, however we need to design the boards so could be translated to the full fat chassis.

The working plan is :-

MDAC1.5

MDAC2.0

VFET's

We are currently testing various PCB sections for MDAC1.5/MDAC2 (such as modulator boards etc). MDAC1.5 will be ready with 4 months, First MDAC2 boards end of the year.

To convince the metal work vendor to manufacture the front and rear panels for MDAC2 we had to design a small DAC, so there will be a affordable "commercial" discrete DAC / MQA etc (think around GBP400 pricing point) - however I expect MDAC1.5 will be shipping before as we can move faster with in house SMD etc and we 100% reuse the MDAC chassis (no new metalwork).

I suspect I'll be able to arrange a discount pricing for this commercial design for those who have sponsored the MDAC2 / FDAC etc. But really, the MDAC1.5 will be shipping before then and is a higher quality design.

PCB should arrive tomorrow for DevDAC II which will morph into the MDAC1.5 after testing / on the next PCB spin.

MDAC1.5 / MDAC2 use the same modulator options, so modulator boards for MDAC1.5 will work with MDAC2.0

Once MDAC1.5 / 2.0 are completed then we work on VFET's, once VFET's are out of the way then we look at FDAC.
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Ummm - regarding bold section John, I’m sorry but 4 months is 2 weeks less than end of year - can you really move from 1.5 to 2 delivery in the last 2 weeks of 2019? For me that shows a lack of realistic planning - or maybe Xmas is not celebrated where you are? Advice: forget December for delivery of anything, move to January!
 
Posted by JohnW a week ago:

"Update on the DevDACII PCB - .....Good results with the updated Clock Regulator circuit, but the Opamp based balanced output stage (with discrete Class A output buffer) does not work as hoped...... It was always planned that for the MDAC1.5 this Opamp circuit would be replaced with a fully discrete design for best sound quality - so we will now just go straight to the discrete design on the next PCB spin.

Jareks now updating both PCB designs, we hope to release the updated PCB files end of next week.

Both designs have been tested and issues understood, so I hope on the next PCB spin we can listen to the Discrete DAC array - then move to the MDAC1.5"
 
davidjt said:
Posted by JohnW a week ago:

"Update on the DevDACII PCB - ...
Jareks now updating both PCB designs, we hope to release the updated PCB files end of next week.

Both designs have been tested and issues understood, so I hope on the next PCB spin we can listen to the Discrete DAC array - then move to the MDAC1.5"
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So, did we? [basically a bump]
 
Yes, I am writing a song about the whole affair to be released in 2023/2024 if I live that long. "Oh John Westlake" is the (working) title.
 
It is strange but owning a DAC that I am completely satisfied with has put me in the position is wanting to pitch in for this.

The promise of the best DAC ever made will make me even happier than owning a DAC that already brings me great happiness does.

Quite seriously what is the cost of buying into the project as a non MDAC owner?
 
raysablade said:
It is strange but owning a DAC that I am completely satisfied with has put me in the position is wanting to pitch in for this.

The promise of the best DAC ever made will make me even happier than owning a DAC that already brings me great happiness does.

Quite seriously what is the cost of buying into the project as a non MDAC owner?
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I think time and developments with other technology have now left this project standing. Rob Watts’ designs are way ahead now, imho...
 
John_73 said:
I think time and developments with other technology have now left this project standing. Rob Watts’ designs are way ahead now, imho...
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You mean the M Scaler marketing BS. one million Tap-filters that is impossible to do on a computer and the fact that DSD is always converted to PCM.

Discrete DAC's is now the cutting edge ;)
 
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