Pars

Happy Birthday!

You would be surprised at how much stuff is really just designed from the datasheet examples. These are often wrong. Remember it isn't usually a design engineer doing the datasheet work, and even for new parts, the examples may be retreads from decades ago. Also, the reasons that things are done a certain way in commercial gear may have nothing to with sound quality or other aspects that you would think would have been accounted for. For example, that transformer on an SPDIF output may be there more to meet FCC part 15 testing rather than its suitability as a pulse transformer.

Just out of curiosity, what is the purpose of these resistors? Impedance?

The Headamp V2 board I have just has a spot for a series resistor per channel (10 ohms) for the pre out spot on it. Otherwise, no difference. I would doubt that resistor is critical either. If yours is built on a V2 board, there should be a spot on the back left edge of the board for this.

2SC3381 datasheet doesn't show any 3 legged for this... it would be kinda hard to pinout 2 BJTs using only 3 pins I hear ya on finding these... I was trying to get more in case I decided to do Dynamite. I decided to just do 2 ch Dynahi instead. Use 2SC2240 pairs to replace these (2SA970 is the complementary).

There, FTFY Smeggy!

I own VR-4 GenIIs, which are probably 3-4 generations prior to these (so maybe not valid or worthwhile). I've been quite happy with these and bought them without listening to them My younger brother had a pair and recommended them to me; since I trust his hearing, I thought it should be fine. It was.

Hehe... Whatever happened to that guy anyhow? Tariq Aziz was it? Kinda lost track of him after the invasion.

Steve, Thanks for the offer, let me think about it after buying another Rotel... I always wanted to hear something using AD1862s (and the PMD100), those being Jocko's fav. dac chips

Pure win!

Our one Fry's here (Lombard) is kinda the same way. Plus they seem to not restock parts. I went back looking for a couple of trimpots 2 months after buying the last ones they had. They still had not restocked

Any of you happen to snag one of these? I was thinking about it but bought a Rotel 991 prior. Audio Alchemy DDE v1.2 DAC converter MINT in Box - eBay (item 180318496916 end time Jan-14-09 18:13:07 PST) Audio Alchemy DDE v1.2 DAC Mint in box - eBay (item 180318477718 end time Jan-14-09 16:25:29 PST)

Interesting interview in Chicago Trib with Lars (Metallica). His comments/perception of the compression/loudness issue is priceless. Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' too loud? Too bad! -- chicagotribune.com

Glad you like them... Nice stuff.

No opinion (or knowledge) on the Zyx->Candela. Just wanted to ask you how you like your Odyssey toys?

Does there? Blanket statements such as this are very dangerous. Just because something is available and expensive (or not) doesn't mean it is good.

The data portion (i.e., the music) of the S/PDIF signal is digital. Most people forget about the clock (running at 2.8xxx MHz) which is riding on the S/PDIF signal; this is actually RF and is analog in the sense that it is the timing and not the levels that are of interest here. Very poor design (clock and data on same signal), but its what you're stuck with. I normally don't use a sep DAC, so I can't comment on different transports, etc.

Nice review. I'd like to hear a Capitole and an Andromeda.

Do your homework... alot of going out of business sales are higher priced than what you can find elsewhere. Remember the liquidators are trying to satisfy the creditors. Going-out-of-business sales are not always the best bargain -- chicagotribune.com Matches my experience.

You're good at stepping back and getting to the crux of the matter, aren't you? I agree...

You don't even have to call them... you can schedule a pickup while you are setting up the shipment and printing your labels out online.

It was -14F air temp here this morning; supposed to be a bit colder tomorrow morning. Not much for wind fortunately, but I get into my car in the garage and get out in a parking garage at work, so don't have to spend too much time outside and rarely have to clean the car off. Winter still sucks however. Nice thing about getting this cold is when we climb back up to around freezing (this weekend) it feels pretty nice out

Unfortunately, Nate is right. I use FedEx at work alot, and those tracking numbers indicate a shipment was prepared online; nothing else. It hasn't been picked up by FedEx, though you should call FedEx and see if they can provide additional info on the shipment, particularly if they actually have any packages in their possession. Sorry, and best of luck on this...

When I said grainy, it is nearly imperceptible. The Buffalo sounds slightly better (midrange just a touch better). I think I am going to change transistors in my output stage from 2SA970/2SC2240 to 2SA1016/2SC2362 and see what happens... EDIT: BTW, this is a std. TDA1541a (no crown, double crown etc.). I should hunt a double crown down since I took the trouble to socket this.

Got the Buffalo yesterday and got it up and running now. It sounds very good (as many of you already know). I'm running it using my Rotel 855 as a transport and can switch back and forth to compare the Buffalo to the TDA1541a and discrete stage in the Rotel. They actually are a lot closer in sound than I thought they would be... the Buffalo doesn't embarrass the Rotel at all, though it does sound better (slightly better fleshed out in the mids and slightly darker). The TDA (std.; not a double crown or anything) sounds just a touch grainy compared to the Buffalo, which I expected. I am enjoying listening to this!