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The John Westlake/Lakewest MDAC/FDAC, VFET and Detox

russel said:
Can someone please find out what the part is?
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It appears to be 'AKM ASRC's (AK4137)'.

Found on the Facebook page in the following text from John: "Due the MDAC2's limited chassis size, its very hard to do everything optimally, the current clock PCB which is the heart of any DAC / ADC design is a sizable chunk of the PCB real estate - this will have to be cut down to be squeezed into the MDAC chassis - which is where we really need the AKM ASRC."

Audiophonics in France appears to have them in stock. I got up to 160 units without them appearing to run out of stock.
 
moosemeat said:
It appears to be 'AKM ASRC's (AK4137)'.

Found on the Facebook page in the following text from John: "Due the MDAC2's limited chassis size, its very hard to do everything optimally, the current clock PCB which is the heart of any DAC / ADC design is a sizable chunk of the PCB real estate - this will have to be cut down to be squeezed into the MDAC chassis - which is where we really need the AKM ASRC."

Audiophonics in France appears to have them in stock. I got up to 160 units without them appearing to run out of stock.
Click to expand...
Further to my last, I've just written to a manager at AKM in Japan to see if they can help us.
 
moosemeat said:
It appears to be 'AKM ASRC's (AK4137)'.

Found on the Facebook page in the following text from John: "Due the MDAC2's limited chassis size, its very hard to do everything optimally, the current clock PCB which is the heart of any DAC / ADC design is a sizable chunk of the PCB real estate - this will have to be cut down to be squeezed into the MDAC chassis - which is where we really need the AKM ASRC."

Audiophonics in France appears to have them in stock. I got up to 160 units without them appearing to run out of stock.
Click to expand...

That link to Audiophonics is for a board that uses the AK4137 so not really relevant.
 
moosemeat said:
It appears to be 'AKM ASRC's (AK4137)'.

Found on the Facebook page in the following text from John: "Due the MDAC2's limited chassis size, its very hard to do everything optimally, the current clock PCB which is the heart of any DAC / ADC design is a sizable chunk of the PCB real estate - this will have to be cut down to be squeezed into the MDAC chassis - which is where we really need the AKM ASRC."

Audiophonics in France appears to have them in stock. I got up to 160 units without them appearing to run out of stock.
Click to expand...


Thanks, according to https://www.akm-ics.com/product/akm-semiconductor_AK4137EQ.html

Which is akms official website by the way.

Manufacturer Part Number AK4137EQ
Manufacturer / Brand AKM Semiconductor Inc.
Available Quantity 97260 Pieces
Unit Price Quote by Email ([email protected])

There are nearly 100,000 pieces in stock, so it’s looks like the usual JW BS.
 
moosemeat said:
It appears to be 'AKM ASRC's (AK4137)'.

"Due the MDAC2's limited chassis size, its very hard to do everything optimally, the current clock PCB which is the heart of any DAC / ADC design is a sizable chunk of the PCB real estate - this will have to be cut down to be squeezed into the MDAC chassis - which is where we really need the AKM ASRC."
Click to expand...

Given that most MDAC boxes are now years old (7?) isn't it just making things more difficult/expensive to try and fit the new boards into the box rather than using a stock new box which has adequate space?
 
richardkendell said:
Given that most MDAC boxes are now years old (7?) isn't it just making things more difficult/expensive to try and fit the new boards into the box rather than using a stock new box which has adequate space?
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I thought there was going to be a new box, though I could have imagined that (or there was a new box then there wasn’t).
 
Stunsworth said:
I thought there was going to be a new box, though I could have imagined that (or there was a new box then there wasn’t).
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Reusing the old MDAC chassis was definitely dropped in favour of a whole new box. Definitely. I vividly remember feeling the relief that one of the daftest proposals had finally been consigned to history.
 
That is a good thing, the MDAC chassis not having ability to turn On/Off via the Remote Control frustrates me somewhat..also the ‘nob-feel’ of the Volume Controller is a bit cheapy
 
paulski said:
Reusing the old MDAC chassis was definitely dropped in favour of a whole new box. Definitely. I vividly remember feeling the relief that one of the daftest proposals had finally been consigned to history.
Click to expand...
If it is a new box then why is size an issue, surely you design the electronics and get a box of roughly the right size (or bigger) and tweak the circuit boards accordingly. It may be of course that the box is from an existing range (Project?) but it still seems to be an extra restriction that is complicating things unnecessarily.
 
I’m sure the whole donor thing but the dust. Imagine junking a serviceable MDAC just to use the sleeve for the new one.
 
Found this from July...

“DevDAC is being designed to fit within the original MDAC chassis (so MDAC2) - to allowing use of the salvaged MDAC's / owners MDAC's.
A full new CNC'ed chassis can be supplied for these without MDAC or Salvaged MDAC's.
From now on, DevDAC will be refereed to simply as the MDAC2.”

So if you have an MDAC you can use that, or you can have a new chassis.
 
I would rather have the chassis was made to fit the electronic instead of the other way around. That is actually what annoys me the most.
Now I have no preference for specific size electronics and they do not even have to match in size or colour. I have previously been addicted but am on the 6th year of not having a full stack of Cyrus quartz silver shoeboxes.
Guess the elephant in the room is that John has a basement full of salvaged MDACs at £370 that has to be used else they are worth zero if not used as donor units. Reusing the MDAC chassis was/is also a way of trying to keep cost down.
I sold my MDAC when full with chassis FDAC was decided many years ago so now I want a new chassis no matter the cost because looking at a MDAC chassis would remind me of years of enjoyment lost.
 
In my view, the single greatest issue with this project is that both sponsors and John are guilty of acting as if it's a trivial matter to deliver a multitude of bespoke hardware options. Even if Pro-Ject are now backing John's efforts, I suspect it's highly unlikely they'll be willing to entertain a plethora of customizations.

Regardless of the customizations offered, it seems clear that it's not possible to please all of the people, all of the time. Perhaps, instead of trying to project manage John, we should have tried harder to manage our own demands. I'm fairly sure that the fewer options we demand, the greater the chance we have of seeing a product eventuate.
 
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