This also seems to be an interesting project once it finishes: BuffaloDAC

I dont see how that is different from other Buffalo Dacs? That is pretty poorly written too.. not really dripping with credibility.

What a fucking awful job of assembling that power supply...... crooked capacitors, resistors and diodes sitting miles off the board......

This also seems to be an interesting project once it finishes: BuffaloDAC

I vaguely remembered someone (sacd_lover ?) telling that the Buffalo has weak bass. The review raved a lot about the bass

Well Naaman's Buffalo had plenty of well controlled bass so I guess it depends on the implementation of the builder.

Every time I look at Pair site they are out of stock of everything. where do you guys get your parts?

From his wife.

Every time I look at Pair site they are out of stock of everything. where do you guys get your parts?

you need a distillation column to get anything out of TPA these days...

I vaguely remembered someone (sacd_lover ?) telling that the Buffalo has weak bass. The review raved a lot about the bass

The Buffalo bass has less quantity and is not very deep or impactful compared to my zap filter equipped dacs. The bass is not weak; adequate or average would probably be the best description. I have two Buffalo dacs so I dont think this is an implementation issue.

The problem is probably the output stage on the Buffalo versus the zapfilter. I assume the Buffalo you are talking about was using the Ivy output stage? The one I am listening to is certainly not deficient in bass, but also is not a bass monster or whatever. It is pretty equivalent in the low end to the rbroer I/V stage in my Rotel, which is DC coupled and is quite neutral (no caps, etc. in the signal path, so nothing other than mf resistors and the Toshiba 2SA970/2SC2240 transistors to color it).

It is also a possibility that the zapfilter is overblown in the bass Dunno, never listened to one, and think they are overpriced.

Edited January 24, 200917 yr by Pars

The problem is probably the output stage on the Buffalo versus the zapfilter. I assume the Buffalo you are talking about was using the Ivy output stage? The one I am listening to is certainly not deficient in bass, but also is not a bass monster or whatever. It is pretty equivalent in the low end to the rbroer I/V stage in my Rotel, which is DC coupled and is quite neutral (no caps, etc. in the signal path, so nothing other than mf resistors and the Toshiba 2SA970/2SC2240 transistors to color it).

It is also a possibility that the zapfilter is overblown in the bass Dunno, never listened to one, and think they are overpriced.

Yeah .... I think I have wriiten a number of times the Buffalo would probably be the best sounding dac with a good discrete output stage to replace the IVY. I like the zap filter dacs treble a little better as well; the improvement is not limited to bass and dynamics. I agree .... I too wish there was something like the zap filter you could use instead .... and even better if the replacement was less costly. The latest zap filters have not had the best QC either.

The TPA boys are currently testing their own 'Counterpoint' which does discrete I/V and can be used to directly drive the line outs.

A lot of audiophools are creaming their pants over it on diyaudio.

The TPA boys are currently testing their own 'Counterpoint' which does discrete I/V and can be used to directly drive the line outs.

A lot of audiophools are creaming their pants over it on diyaudio.

Sounds interesting.

Then there's tooleaudio's discrete I/V, as well.

Longtime DIY guru Erno Borbely sells a couple of FET I/V kits on his website:

http://www.borbelyaudio.com/products.asp

I'm a little surprised I haven't heard of anyone trying one out with the Buffalo; maybe that's because most of TPA's customers seem to be in the US (Borbely is in Europe).

Borbely seems to know his stuff (I've never used any of it), but it is rather expensive. The All-JFET I/V converter is shown at One for 190.00 Euro, which is over US $230 or so. And I think that is for one channel (other items are shown as Dual in the price list), so ~$460 for 2-ch I/V conversion. Add shipping, PSU or transformer (it says board has on-board regulation, so maybe you don't need much more?

Talking to myself again

Colin (or Marc or anyone who has an opinion on this):

In the I/V stage that I am using, I had used 2SA970/2SC2240 BJTs since they are quite neutral. I have read some threads that said that 2SA1016/2SC2362 sound quite a bit better, so I went ahead and got some. Can I just leave the existing BJTs in the CCS stages, or should I switch them all out?

In the attached schematic, only Q4L and Q6L are in the signal path. All other devices are CCS. I think...

Sorry to the OP for thread redirection

I grew up on GameFAQs so the only thing off topic is a thread started in a nonrelated forum.