I've finished assembling of Buffalo III + IVY I/V + Placid HD BP + LCDPS + Toslink.
Although it is in the temporary paper box, it plays audio amazingly well.



Hopefully neither USPS nor custom office has lost the package on its way to the Europe,
but I've learned that nobody cares to update the tracking information. So only time
will tell if you got your package (i.e. two weeks by USPS First-Class mail).

There was lot of excitement and doubts during building this thing, but the
effort was worth of it. It took me about 20 hours - I'm not experienced builder,
and I've learned many new things.

Probably the most important thing was that shunted current is the current not
used by the device, i.e. "current consumed by load" = "CCS current set" - "current being shunted".

Also I was surprised that the "jumpers" for Buffalo must be soldiered and in the reality
those "jumpers" are tiny SMD zero Ohm resistors. Soldiering the first five was
a battle with tweezers, iron and big hands, but soldiering the next seven was fun. :-)

Thanks Russ and Brian, keep up the good work! Also thanks to LeonVB for the guide.



--
The power connector with on/off button is in the front; audio I/O are on the back.
I've mounted LCDPS module askew intentionally to keep power cables short, and also
to shield some EMI from transformers, but I only hope it has some positive impact :-)

Edited by user Sunday, December 4, 2011 6:15:30 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Up-to date picture of my Buffalo III in the Modushop box.

Some remarks:
- everything is mounted to metal plate that sits in the box
- there are added 47uF low-ESR capacitors on the Trident/AVCC outputs,
they helps to remove unwanted oscillations caused by some EMI source in my area (tv/gsm/wifi/?)
- headphone output is routed from R25/R26 IVY resistors through unused voltage IVY input to connector
- the case is earth grounded, all connectors are isolated
- the circuit ground is connected to earth grount at the LCDPS GND output via short cable

Warnings before copying my box layout:
- it is susceptible to receive sounds from nearby GSM cell phones (2G only)
- strange input #2 on SPDIF board; e.g. lock of others inputs is lost if I touch "-" of #2 and the ground

Edited by user Sunday, December 4, 2011 7:31:54 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I've reorganized layout so the TTL cable between boards can be much shorter now.

The issue with input #2 on SPDIF board I've reported in previous post has gone.

Also the the SPDIF signal from coax is now locked immediately, whereas previously it took a while.
The lock of signal from TOSLINK seems faster too, either it is still slower (e.g. 1 second).

Thanks Russ! :-)

Hey Russ, you already know it, don't you? :-)

I like very much how it converts digital data to analog signal so the amplifier can use it to
dance with speaker membranes in very fine steps and with precise rhythm.
Being in the room when whole system is playing melodies is the pleasure for listener
whose soul is being caressed by tender air vibrations...

:-)

Edited by user Saturday, December 10, 2011 8:55:28 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Those are Neutrik NF2D series connectors.

Good luck with early shipment and further work on DAC. I hope you post some pictures too. Best regards :-)

That aluminum plate is from local store. It is slided into rails and fastened with hot glue.

I still need to resolve grounding the case with that metal plate. Currently it is semi-isolated from the case
by the glue and there is around 40Ohm resistance (probably with front panel) and this is causing some issues with SPDIF input.