How hard is the Alien DAC to put together? First time DIY

I would not recommend SMD soldering as a first project for DIY.  Besides, you are well beyond that $50 if you have no DIY/SMD tools, such as a good soldering iron with a very small tip, decent 63-37 solder, a good pair of tweezers, etc., etc.

 

Take a look here under the "Construction" menu selection and it will give you a better idea of what's involved:

http://www.diyforums.org/BantamDAC

It's quite possible after constructing a CMoy, but results will vary.  There are some who've built an SMD DAC such as the Alien on the 1st try.  There are others who are among the best builders in our community and have had no success at SMD.

 

Note that the Bantam is the same essential circuit used in the AlienDAC, it's just smaller with some different options.  Both are sold at GlassJarAudio.  I believe you can order both with an option that has the DAC chip already soldered.  That can simplify things greatly.

I found that my first AlienDAC sucked and was next to impossible to do. I got three boards, did all the PCm2702s at the same time - that was kind of a mistake. I almost destroyed one, the other two came out alright, but these three took me forever. The next thing was a GrubDAC, which I completely dominated - nailed all the soldering and finished in a little under an hour and a half. Before the Aliens I really only had some experience with a CMoy, which didn't go so well soldering-wise.

 

I find that saving money by getting cheap equipment isn't really worth it - either find a soldering lab at a university or invest in a decent soldering station, with variable temperature. It helps a LOT. Having decent solder helps too, especially thin solder for small SMD work.

My first project was a BantamDAC. I abandoned it since I couldn't get rid of the solder bridges after four hours of heating the PCM2702 up with a 25W iron. Fast forward a year later, with alcohol, toothbrush, flux, solder, braid, sucker, magnifying loupe, needle tweezers, and compressed air in hand, I cleaned up all of the crud that got stuck underneath the pins, bought new parts to populate the board... and success!

 

The PCM2702 is TINY. For a beginner, I will recommend starting with the GrubDAC. Simple and not difficult to solder and assemble. Sounds great too.

Edited by ShinyFalcon - 11/15/10 at 7:39pm

Really, it depends if you've got good eyesight, and if you're smart about it. I did the y1 as my first project. Went out, grabbed myself a WES51, some 63/37 solder, some flux, solder braid, and a small conical tip for my iron. I watched the videos at Curious Inventor on SMD soldering, as well as various Youtube videos for through hole soldering. I read the basic soldering tips link on AMB's website. All in all, I didn't really have any problems, other than a dead PCM2707. It took me a little while to get the hang of soldering those annoying as piss SOP-5 packages, but the bigger chips were really easy. I must have spent several hours making sure my joints were contacting the pads properly, and not getting bridged to another leg. I don't profess to having the cleanest or best soldering job in the world either, but the y1 works, and looks pretty neat. A few through holes look a little ugly, but half way through the project, the quality on my through holes started looking better and more consistent.

 

Now, what worked for me may not work for you. The PCM2702 looks to have about the same pin pitch as the PCM2707, and that's pretty small, so it can be tricky for your first chip. Those SO8s look pretty easy though, but make sure you watch the Curious Inventor video on SMD soldering at the very least.

Edited by Ntropic - 11/15/10 at 9:05pm

How about asking for a gift certificate to Mouser or Digikey? I'm not sure if they offer them, but give them a call and see. They have good service and might allow someone to give you a credit. That way, you could knock off a CMoy. Or maybe ask for a related tool - you could get a decent meter for $50.

In the end, it's all just soldering stuff and seeing if the solder joint is good or not. That and placing things in the correct places. 
Most people find difficulty in different balances of the above, for me the second part is a severe problem for some reason.