It's important to note it's only the 9023 dac, so it's not that great of a deal. Given nwavguy's following though, you shouldn't have any issue flipping it.
I agree, I think he should have at least provided an option for DIYers. Perhaps release a board with the two chips pre-soldered, like how TPA does most of their boards?
The lack of a schematic is particularly glaring in this case, especially when you compare the ODAC to the O2. O2 a full schematic that was CC licensed, while the ODAC has....nothing.
I think the argument that he uses for the pre-assembled boards essentially boils down to:
1) USB and DAC chips are difficult to source in small quantities (and apparently require OEM agreements)
2) Small SMT components and fine pitched IC bring the project to a high difficulty level
3) "Given all that, the ODAC requires commercial automated assembled in fairly large batches."
Not saying I agree with it, but that's what he says.
For an objective scientist that insists on measurements and actual proof, he sure puts a lot of faith on raw speculation. While we're on that topic, why the heck did he go for moderators and admins? I'm fairly certain some of the more popular head-fi "reviewers" get more free gear than them.
Leftover grudge from getting banned, I'm guessing?
Over 4,000 words to release a DAC, not counting the "preview" articles he wrote.
I'm a bit curious as to what Nwavguy would say about the Pico, but then again I wouldn't wish that on Justin.
Oh, I think a good review for him to do would be any RSA amp. Wouldn't that be interesting?
They don't have a dScope and don't have published measurements of their products, so they must be designing by ear! Seriously, listing Amb and Twisted pear between Audio-GD and Burson?
What parts can be upgraded to premium parts anyway? A nicer transformer and maybe switching to vishay-dale resistors?
Of course there's always the premium knob
Factory reset after a major update is definitely worth doing, though having a rooted phone with titanium backup makes the backup process much smoother.
Did you try resetting the phone, Shelly?
It's a publicity stunt by the makers of the lasers. Doing this stunt netted them almost 100,000 views on the video (let alone all the word of mouth the video is undoubtedly getting) and it only cost them a single iPad. They're also using roughly $2,000 worth of lasers to burn it.