First, the big question:
When will the Buffalo be available again? We have a large board order in which includes more Buffalo DACs, so we are hoping to have them available in a few weeks. As the dates firm up, I will post more information so everyone has plenty of notice. I will likely sell them in a few smaller batches, rather than all in one day.
The first batch of
Counterpoint I/V boards should also be arriving soon. After we get them tested and kitted up, they will be available. It will be available as a complete kit (all through-hole parts) and bare PCB with parts list. Pricing is still TBD.
The
Placid power supply will also be available soon. It was designed primarily for use with our linestages, but will work with all of our digital modules as well. It is a dual variable shunt-regulated supply, which can also be used as a bipolar supply by adding a jumper. It is all SMD, and will probably come as a fully assembled module as well as bare board with parts list. Price is also TBD. Performance should be spectacular though.
Also coming in this batch is the
Volumite, a tiny controller for adjusting volume. It is designed to be a low-cost controller solution which works in conjunction with the Joshua Tree (replicating functionality of the original JT controller) and the Opus and Buffalo DACs. It consists of panel-mount volume pot mounted to a tiny PCB with a 8-pin A-Tiny microcontroller. It outputs I2C or SPI, which, depending on the installed firmware, controls the JT's I2C Relay Driver board or interfaces directly with the two DACs to utilize their digital volume control. Power comes from the board it is driving. It will be sold stand-alone for each DAC, or bundled with a "Simple Joshua Tree Kit" (no display or remote control). For all the bells and whistles (display, rotary encoders, remote control, multi-device control, etc), we have the Audio Controller 1, for which the revised boards should also be here soon.
We have also ordered a full batch of
Sympatico boards. When the initial batch runs out, so will the introductory pricing. There are a few minor layout revisions in this batch, but no circuit changes... just minor nit-picky things to make life easier for Russ and I.
[EDIT: More Items!]New
S/PDIF MUX boards have also been ordered which fix a small error on the prototypes. They should be available a couple weeks after the boards arrive.
We have also ordered prototypes for another new product: the
Mesh, which is a replacement for the Twisted-X Driver (TXD). Like the TXD, the Mesh uses an LM4562/LME4972 instumentation front-end for high input impedance, and a fully symmetric THE4131/OPA1632 stage with adjustable gain. There are some important differences between the TXD and the Mesh, however. The Mesh does not expose the feedback loop for external components, but does include spots for optional capacitors and resistors in the feedback loops, allowing it to function as a balanced high-/low-pass first-/second-order active filter. So the Mesh can be used as a basic building block for an active crossover. The kit will come with all the basic parts for a preamp (decoupling and bypass caps, opamps, 0-gain resistors and jumpers). We will also provide a document listing values and part numbers of components for different filtering frequencies so you can configure it as an active filter to meet your application.
[END EDIT]We have also restocked boards for several of our other kits and modules, so stock levels should be solid.
That reminds me... the
Toslink module. I had been using the Toshiba TORX142LF receiver for it's high bit-rate to accommodate 192kHz input. Toshiba has discontinued the 142, replacing it with the TORX147, which has a lower bit-rate. Supposedly it will still do 192kHz, but I don't actually have any high res optical sources, so I cannot test it. If someone has a high bit-rate source (192kHz, 24-bit) and would like to test it for me, I will send one for free.
That's all for now.
Edited by user Thursday, October 2, 2008 10:29:01 AM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
