[qusp]

well Brian, to be honest mate, theres not much right about it. it works (just) but thats about it. my main problem is definitely feel though. on mine its very stiff and when it does move its really clunky. 1-2 positions are kinda OK, but then past there it pretty much seizes and I had to put some silicone grease on there to even move it further; its also the wrong size really. 6mm is the most common for nice knobs, of course thats pretty easily fixed. nice job for being ready to address (or at least talk about) the issue mate, its one thing to keep the price of parts down for people, thats great, but if a part is often bought twice and the original not used, it stops being economical. of course if it were in the signal path I would have more issues, but as its not. All that is really needed to improve it to the point I would use it, would be for it to be 6mm, have a nice smooth action and be reliable; contact material, dielectric and resistance isnt an issue with this one. this is a top quality product you have here Brian and people are building these dacs not only for fun, but in place of quite big dollar DACs that usually have nice tactile switches, its part of the pride of ownership and the current one just doesnt gel with that idea IMO

john lol, so you made a boo boo on your switch and blew heaps of dollars; dont worry about it, you do not have to spend that much to get one that is leagues ahead of the stock version. my case arrived today; as did my MUX switch from PCX and its really great, $38 and even that is over the top, i'm sure one of similar quality could be found for ~$10-15. (or considerably less in bulk) I myself would not have minded paying a little more for the kit if a nicer switch were included, because the stock one is going in the trash, so it didnt save me anything.

 

[qusp]

either that or [dons flame suit] dont include one at all and instead have a recommended parts list and knock whatever it costs off the price. even stock it separately?? I mean people already have to buy connectors etc. because the requirement for functionality, number and quality is different for everyone. the switch falls in the same category IMO. for many builds this switch and the on/off switch are the only tactile contact you have with the object, so I want mine to be suitable for such a great sounding piece of kit. everyone has different requirements and priorities here; of course the sound is what matters, that is not in question, but the object itself and my interface with it are, while not equally important, not insignificant either.

I hope that makes sense Brian and you do not take me the wrong way

 

[BrianDonegan]

Quote:

on mine its very stiff and when it does move its really clunky. 1-2 positions are kinda OK, but then past there it pretty much seizes and I had to put some silicone grease on there to even move it further;

I have not experienced this. I usually use a knob that's about 25mm or greater in diameter though.

Quote:

its also the wrong size really. 6mm is the most common for nice knobs,

Ok. 1/4" is most common in the US. I will see what we can do.

 

[qusp]

i'm using a 25mm anote knob and while it moved between 1-2, it really didnt want to go further without having to push hard'ish and clunky and it got worse after a few turns, not better. sure 1/4" is the most common for US, but IMO (subjective opinion alert) most of the popular quality attenuators and therefor knobs are 6mm standard.

 

[nattonrice]

It should be said that I have a stock selector switch as included in the MUX.
I didn't use a rotary selector in my build.
If any aussie DIY'er wants it they can have it for free.

 

[MrMajestic2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nattonrice /img/forum/go_quote.gif It should be said that I have a stock selector switch as included in the MUX. I didn't use a rotary selector in my build. If any aussie DIY'er wants it they can have it for free.

I have a few as well is someone wants them.

 

[qusp]

so keen on LCDuino

 

[IPodPJ]

Can anyone here provide some comparisons between a well-built Buffalo32 (8 stacked dual differential Sabre DACs, voltage) and the Audio-gd Reference One (8 stacked dual differential PCM1704UK DACs, current)? I'd also like to know about what some builders have done with the analog output stages of their Buffalo32.

Reason I ask is because I'm contemplating having a Buffalo32 built to go with my Beta22 build. The Ref1 is a tough DAC to beat though (but frankly, I'm tired of the heat given off by my Audio-gd gear).

Thanks in advance.

 

[qusp]

AFAIK whether the buffalo32 outputs in current or voltage mode depends on the impedance the output sees. it is neither current or voltage out specifically. of course i'm no expert here, if someone can correct me cool, but thats the way I understand it. sorry but I cant provide any meaningful comparisons for you though. never heard the REF1

 

[FallenAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qusp /img/forum/go_quote.gif AFAIK whether the buffalo32 outputs in current or voltage mode depends on the impedance the output sees. it is neither current or voltage out specifically.

Yep

 

[qusp]

^^ cool, thought so, and regard to the analogue output stage of the sabre 32, all answers I got on the subject pointed to the output of the sabre dac needing very little to no filtering as far as capacitance in output coupling is concerned, so a complicated I/V stage when driving an amplifier is really a waste; I suppose if you really wanted (and this is something I am considering later) you could get yourself some ludahl (or crazy ass audio consulting silver rocks if you are made of money

) audio transformers for output, tapped from before the I/V resistors, closer to the dac (havent investigated that far as yet). I even have some mundorf and duelund caps that I had bought for output coupling, but ended up leaving them out because of this. I am still interested to try nice trannies on the output at some stage though. I still need to give it a real listen TBH as I only fired it up to test and now gotta case it all up, so will think on it more if i feel it lacking or want to tune it more to my taste.

 

[Hottuna_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianDonegan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi guys. What's the main problem with the switch in the kit? Looks, feel, what else? If it is unsuitable, I would like to improve it.

Well besides the 1/4" shaft (I drilled the knob i had for it to fit), my gripe with the supplied switch was the grub screw of my knob was binding to the switch thread instead of the shaft.
My knob is currently a fair bit off my front panel to bind to the switch shaft.
However i will probably follow MisterX's suggestion and put washers between the switch and the panel on the inside of my front panel.

nattonrice's build has got me thinking about implementing a microcontroller + button based switch. I have an ATmega48 board with a parallel port programmer cable sitting around here somewhere and also various functions already written including a pretty robust debouncing one and eeprom read/write. Shouldn't take long to whip up something in WinAVR. My C is pretty rusty though.

 

[BrianDonegan]

Quote:

the sabre dac needing very little to no filtering

Not correct. however, transformers have a natural frequency roll-off that lessens the need for filtering.

 

[qusp]

sorry I should have specified, I meant DC filtering (as in caps) and in this context of course it could mean something entirely different

 

[IPodPJ]

Well I really like the natural tone of the Reference One. It has a 0.5dB drop at 12kHz and a 1.5dB drop at 20kHz, like many high-end DACs do. Other than that it's perfectly flat. What would be the best way to accomplish this?