Pars

These look interesting, but having a hard time figuring out what is what, or which one(s) to get?

They are still highly thought of in many circles. 16-bit R2R DAC. Thorsten Loech chose it for his commercial DAC (can't remember the name of the company) even though they have been out of production for a decade. Just because it is old doesn't mean it isn't good. The primary reason that R2R dacs (multibit) aren't done much anymore is cost as it is expensive to laser trim all the resistors on the die.

They are just graded TDA1541a's. In other words, tested and verified to meet certain specs, and then sold at a premium (and now faked). Since they didn't test all of them produced (I presume), it is possible to get a TDA that performs as well as the single or double crowns, but just isn't marked (and can't be sold on fleabay for $200+).

Used to use vi.... on a VAX. And tbl. And pic. Fun fun Actually didn't mind it and liked vi. Writing formatting macros... kill a tree, rewrite... nuther tree.. heh.

I wouldn't necessarily think those TDAs were fake; the date code is valid, etc. There is a big thread on diyaudio covering these, but they look plausible to me. Since it doesn't power up and is damaged, the refund and return is the way to go. Good luck!

Very nice! Is that the TD160 you bought Stretch? Looks really nice. What arm is that again?

I can't believe fax is still in use. Medical seems to be the worst. I asked a nurse at my doctors office if I could just email a pdf of something they wanted me to fax to them and got the long pause on the phone

Ruh Roh... Nate's going for the MOAR MAXXXXED version

Happy Birthday!

If you do go for the Gilmore Lite and you still want to DIY, you could then build yourself a Sigma22 to power it since headamp no longer sells the DPS PSU. I find PSUs to be critical; not to say that the Lite sounds bad with the stock Elpac (it is what I use at work, essentially), but the Sigma is an outstanding PSU and worth the time and effort IMHO. Roughly $110 plus an enclosure from GlassJarAudio, or source the parts yourself if you wish.

Happy Birthday!

Congrats Beefy... nice that all the hard work was worth it!

Very cool. Looks like a nice alternative to dantimax.

I use auction sniper as well. Haven't looked at the one that sherwood recommended. A nice feature of auction sniper is bid groups. If you are looking for something that there are multiple auctions for, you can group them into a bid group. Auction Sniper will then snipe them until you win one (or you can define how many you want to win), and then will cancel the rest of the snipes.

You're supposed to put it in the freezer for a week with the deck of cards and a picture of you... DUH!

IMO it is audiophool bullshit. CDs do not travel at a constant RPM, at least according to this: Revolutions per minute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia These drives play off the belt drive turntable reputation. Since turntables DO travel at a constant rate of 33 rpm (or 45, etc.), there is merit in the use of a belt drive here. But not so much in a device that must change speeds, which a belt drive is not as good at as direct drive. Some people do swear by them though (CEC is it?).

Nice looking cases. Not to pull this off topic too much (oh wait! this is HeadCase ) How do you order with aluminum top and bottom from Modushop? Do you just have to buy the case as is and add the top and bottom, or can you get them to substitute? Seems a waste of material to get 2 tops and bottoms.

Happy Birthday Jim! Hope your students are nice to you today... maybe they'll bring you some good Scotch

You don't really want 10 or 100Gbps shit running around your audio gear...

Happy Birthday!

That's only if the mod in question has any plausibility whatsoever. Like shortening a cable Jizz is nearing ignore list if I wasn't too lazy to actually doing it.

This is even with the heatsink thingies from diyaudio group buy? I figured you could just slip them on and that would be that

Ordered... thanks!

Sorry to hear that, and sorry for your neighbors. Floods suck; try to stay dry and above water!

Happy Birthday!