Yeh. How much does the customer pay SP, to go from having AMP to AMP+DAC-

I'm curious bout the markup

Last I heard, the Square Wave DAC/amp was supposed to be approximately $1K. Non-DAC model slightly less, maybe $800-$900?

ah. That's actually not that bad... kinda. But then at the same time, 800-900 costs a bit, and usually the add-on already takes into account of the big profit made..i think. If it was around $50 at cost to him (in parts for the DAC, instead of a finished product gutted) I'd think that a very fair price. Too bad then. 'scuse my random thoughts/rambling.

So 3 people already who've had the same experience, are there other owners of this combo with similar issues? Any chance purk, CD44hi and Asr all heard the same unit? I'd be even more dissappointed in that situation, since there'd already been others who had a negative experience with it.

So 3 people already who've had the same experience, are there other owners of this combo with similar issues? Any chance purk, CD44hi and Asr all heard the same unit? I'd be even more dissappointed in that situation, since there'd already been others who had a negative experience with it.

I don't know about the timing of others, but the unit I heard w/ a DAC was in march '07. Long time ago. I remember the date because I sent an amp for an update, along in the return shipment with the SQRwave, this then became a putative project for a balanced SS amp. of course that was 1.5yrs ago, still the amp is a ghost.

So 3 people already who've had the same experience, are there other owners of this combo with similar issues? Any chance purk, CD44hi and Asr all heard the same unit? I'd be even more dissappointed in that situation, since there'd already been others who had a negative experience with it.

IMO, the problem is the DAC not the sound of the amp. With my own source, the SQ. Wave was one of the best SS amp I've heard to date under 1K. Of course using the DAC, they don't sound that good at all. If Mikhail just use a better DAC and revise the design, he can have a very nice amp/dac in hand that can seriously compete with Headamp, HR, and RSA.

Purk

More pics as requested. The 8-pin IC was really hard to visually identify due to really small print and some yellow gob on it. I scraped the gob away very carefully as much as I could and took a magnifying glass to it. The most I could make out: "ATMEL624" on the first line, "2LC64AN" on the second line.

yep thats the $50 dac board. Nice soldering job on the audio

output connector, or whats left of it. Guess that for $1k all

you get is this piece of shit.

Could someone seriously not figure out how to desolder the jack so they just tore it apart and left the internals soldered to the board?

Could someone seriously not figure out how to desolder the jack so they just tore it apart and left the internals soldered to the board?

Heh.

I remember when the majority of the posters here defended SP until they were blue in the face. Man how times change.

But seriously, that is some uber shitty work. How can this man stay in business?

Simple, the finished products usually sound good and he's one of the few builders willing to do custom work.

Simple, the finished products usually sound good...

The Ray Samuels fan club typically makes that claim too, whenever design or implementation is (however briefly) at issue over there.

You at least have to give Ray the nod for build quality.

I'm just kinda talking out my ass here, since I don't have a dog in the race. Don't take me too seriously.

Except in the case of RSA in my opinion the rather craptacular designs and implementation of them directly lead to the less than stellar sound quality that they have. Ray does have the build quality thing down pat though.

With SP most of the concerns up till this SquareWave w/ dac have to do with crappy build quality and poor customer service. While those two factors are certainly annoying as hell they don't directly cause bad sound quality all the time. I suppose if the build quality is so horrible that shit is falling apart then yes certainly sound quality would suffer but for the most part that doesn't seem to be the case.

your avatar suggests otherwise.

P.S. My dog would probably rip your leg off.

Maybe SP and RSA should merge.

**prepares self for onslaught of innuendo**

your avatar suggests otherwise.

That's less of a race dog and more of a hot dog.

Maybe SP and RSA should merge.

Then we get crappy circuit design, crappy build quality, crappy customer service, and amps that burn down houses and blow up real good. Sounds like a great idea!

Or excellent build quality and better circuit design.

Or excellent build quality and better circuit design.

And I'll pee rainbows and fart bunnies out my ass.

i would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

This one had me in stitches in my office.

And I'll pee rainbows and fart bunnies out my ass.

talented gal.

http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/dinglesquare.jpg

there is a slight error in the schematic which most of you won't

catch... Will fix later.

the poor handwriting