The Buffalo has spoken and it is loud.
I finished the Buffalo last night and it sounds great. I am using the Ivy single ended. It is very controlled, direct, smooth, dynamic and loud. It has too high of output and Brian has a fix in the works. It still sounds better than the Opus (direct out of the dac-SE) in every way. The sound is more connected. It is hard to believe the bass could be better than the Opus but it is. Now I have to learn more about IS2 and DSP data streams and why they are better and if they are used with red book playback.
What is the recommended voltage for the bipolar PS to be used with the IVY? I didnt see it anywhere. Thanks, great dac.

Hi,
I was going to add an output stage, but saw the flap about the Buffalo. A friend is going to buy the Opus from me so if he wants to improve it I will help him. With the Opus I could hear differences between the sony es cdp and the toshiba 3950 dvd player. With the Buffalo there isnt any difference between the two. Better jitter spec I guess.

Hi Brian and Russ,
I was able to come up with the 2k resisters to lower the output of the Ivy and that smooths out the top of the Buffalo. Like a fine wine this dac has mellowed after many hours of use. Any idea when the revised parts will be sent? Thanks.

Revised parts for ver. 1.0 Buffalo received and installed.
Installed the parts and only had 10 minutes to listen before I had to go to work. The top end is not as loud. I thought the top end(cymbles) seemed too loud before but didnt know if it was the rest of the system or not. I installed the IC in the Buffalo but it looked like the same numbers but it is so small and hard to read. I hope to listen more tomorrow. Thanks Brian and Russ for the fast update on my month old Buffalo.

New member saying "Hi"

Looking to purchase a Buffalo-Ivy kit, but can't tell if they are sold out or they (next wave) haven't arrived in yet. Home page indicates that they are not yet in, but forum posts indicate that they are being sent out?

I also may be interested in a Sympatico and a JT. Same deal with these?

Thanks, Devodave

The first batch sold out, and more are being made right now. They should be available in a few weeks.

Brian,

Thanks for the reply. I have a question about something you stated in your last post where you said it is possible to interface the SB to the Buffalo two ways; either S/PDIF direct to the Buffalo, or tap I2S inside the SB and run that to the Buffalo. If you can use the I2S taps inside the SB, could you then utilize an Opus or COD DAC and eliminate the S/PDIF or USB receiver? I am not that familiar with the SB yet (I don't have one in hand as of yet) and being a mechanical engineer, I can put things together, but electrical circuit design and troubleshooting are "black arts" to me. That why I look for kits to build.

The DIY interface project I was referring to was something I found at one of the DIY forums (I am at work now and don't have the link here) that provided a better sync between the SB and an external DAC. That project required that the external DAC included 1) I2S inputs, 2) a 11.2896 clock, 3) 5v input, and 1 or 2 more that I can't remember. If I can eleiminate the S/PDIF receiver, I would think that would be a whole lot simpler to work with. Unfortunately, schematics for SB's seem to be unexistant, so such an endeavor may be impossible for me as I may not be able to idnetify the I2S outputs in the SB. I feel fairly confident that I can identify the S/PDIF output and bypass the interal DAC of the SB. I have looked into this a bit on the SB forum, but with this new info, I can do more in-depth searches.

Brian,

That would be the easiest way to use the SB, but I wanted to integrate it into the amp chassis. If I can eliminate the mechanical connections and directly hardwire the SB output to the DAC input with wire as short as possible, I understand I should realize a much better sounding system. Here is the link to the article I was referencing:

http://home.socal.rr.com/audio_gestalt/default.htm

Likewise, I wanted the DAC to be integated in the chassis as well and wired directly to the amps.

I have seen various posts where people have done this, but again, it may be beyond my ability to pull it off succesfully.

Devodave

With the Buffalo DAC there is no performance gain to be had in using PCM (LR or I2S or whatever) instead of SPDIF. This is because the ESS Sabre does not obtain the clock information from the SPDIF signal as conventional receivers do. So save yourself a lot of headache and just use the SPDIF from the SB. You can throw a lot of the conventional DAC performance tweaks out the window with the Buffalo. Its not an ordinary DAC.

Cheers!
Russ

From Brian,

"So, all you would need is a different version of firmware to tell the Buffalo to use LJ format instead of regular I2S instead of adding another board. That can be accomplished easily enough."

After looking at a number of options with my SB3, it looks like I can realize a performance improvement, either by improving the SPDIF output with seperate inverters from the clock inverters (requiring a new board and circuitry) or leverage the LJ format. So I have gone back to research the Buffalo firmware route, but am not having much success. The ESS datasheet states that Register #10 [5:4] requires a change, but how exactly is that accomplished. What is the firmware that is used? Can you simply revise/edit the current firmware (assuming that you are able to open it) or do you need to load new firmware? Sorry if these sound like noob questions, but that's what they are. I am aware of the I2C interface port and that I would need an interface device (USB for Windows probably), but that's where the trail has ended for me. I have done programing (FORTRAN - that probably dates me alot!!!), so I would like to see if this is something that I could accomplish. Has anyone attempted Buffalo firmware changes/revisions and been successful with it?