Second time around [burned a board] and a really magnified light source.....yeah baby!!!!! Green light, all voltages good, one cold joint on leg 3 of clock redone and wallahhh! It sings and very nicely at that. Really generic RCA cables and all. Using a pair of homebrew full range speakers I built from parts express blowout, spdif from Denon CD that scopes very clean, Pass B1 pre, and a Decware SE84 clone I built around their DIY Tranies from a few years back and this DAC sounds really good. I can't wait till I build the system I got this for. Just for your FYI C2-3-18 are 100uf Elna Starget, 10uf C8-13-21-32 are OsCon for audio, C22 470uf organic polymer, and C10-29-30 WIMA's per BOM. I am glad I put the time and effort into the point soldering as challenging as it was, I think it really payed off. It prepped me for my next project which is the Shigaclone CD transport which I will pair with Subbu, then a DCB1 pre, and I have a real Decware SE84 I will spruce up a bit. Then I have to decide on speakers. I would love to get some Oris horns for SE84, paired with some 15" woofer selection TBA with its own power also to be decided. Thanks Subbu and Jean-Paul!! There is what I call the sound between the notes [otherwise known as silence] and this DAC plays from ground zero, dead quiet, like an empty sound studio. Acoustic guitar sound like someone is playing live in the room, voice nuances, instrument voicing, on and on... very real, very honest. Switching between Subbu and denon cd components is like night and day. Next I will construct a case and get some pic's to post. Thanks again!
best regards,
Steve
best regards,
Steve
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If anyone wants a nice finished dac with buffer look here: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/swap-meet/283023-subbu-dac-calvin-buffer-nice-case-mods-2.html
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hi ... i just ran into a problem with my subbu dac. After taking it apart to put in another case no suddenly the left channel is not working any more :-( Whats really confusing me is that there is the same voltage as on the other channel when playing music so i don't get whats wrong... is there anyone who could point me in the right direction?
thanks for the hints 
i was talking about ac from rca out to see if there is a signal ... honestly it behaved really wierd because when i plugged in the rca plug and measured on the other end i had around 1,4 VAC. So i checked everything again and i had a tiny solder bridge on the rca out plug. I still don't understand why i could measure 1,4 Vac with a short on the plug but whatever After cleaning the bridge everything works as it should again
i was talking about ac from rca out to see if there is a signal ... honestly it behaved really wierd because when i plugged in the rca plug and measured on the other end i had around 1,4 VAC. So i checked everything again and i had a tiny solder bridge on the rca out plug. I still don't understand why i could measure 1,4 Vac with a short on the plug but whatever
After cleaning the bridge everything works as it should again 
I have been using Subbu V3 DAC for quite sometime,but I always used to feel that analog sound that I am getting was not the best.Reason I found was the powersupply.I did not have groupbuy PSU and was using local LM317 make.even tried LM723 on raw PCB board.The sound out has edgy treble(I prefer smooth ,rounded treble).Bass sounds loose.After reading ,I decided to make a double layered PCB for LM723 and did it as follows.
I got a double layer copper clad board from local market and drew tracks with perment marker.
I made some extra pads as at some point,upper and bottom layer has to meet.So drilling holes through and soldering jumper would do the job.
Then did Etching and board looked like below-
Then removed the marker ink with isopropyl alcohol and board turned to-
Lastly did solder parts and final PSU is ready-
I am quite happy with final sound quality.
Making DIY PCB at Home was fun.
Thanks for readind.
I got a double layer copper clad board from local market and drew tracks with perment marker.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I made some extra pads as at some point,upper and bottom layer has to meet.So drilling holes through and soldering jumper would do the job.
Then did Etching and board looked like below-
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Then removed the marker ink with isopropyl alcohol and board turned to-
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Lastly did solder parts and final PSU is ready-
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I am quite happy with final sound quality.
Making DIY PCB at Home was fun.
Thanks for readind
.
After few days of listening put back the old lm317 power supply and tell us your impressionsI have been using Subbu V3 DAC for quite sometime,but I always used to feel that analog sound that I am getting was not the best.Reason I found was the powersupply.I did not have groupbuy PSU and was using local LM317 make.even tried LM723 on raw PCB board.The sound out has edgy treble(I prefer smooth ,rounded treble).Bass sounds loose.After reading ,I decided to make a double layered PCB for LM723 and did it as follows.
I got a double layer copper clad board from local market and drew tracks with perment marker.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I made some extra pads as at some point,upper and bottom layer has to meet.So drilling holes through and soldering jumper would do the job.
Then did Etching and board looked like below-
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Then removed the marker ink with isopropyl alcohol and board turned to-
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Lastly did solder parts and final PSU is ready-
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I am quite happy with final sound quality.
Making DIY PCB at Home was fun.
Thanks for readind
I have tried DIY LM317 psu-
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Even I had made LM723 PSU on raw board,but even trying different wiring(cat6, earthing),sound was not up to group-buy PSU-
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Finally dedicated pcb made sound better.
I will get opportunity to compare with LM317 PSU on dedicated PCB soon.
Will tell my comparison later.
Got a chance to compare dedicated LM317 and mine LM723 psu connected to same system.
Source -Pioneer Bluray player
Preamp - Pass B1 clone
Power amp - Rotel RB890
Speakers - Energy RC50
We compared both power supplies with different types of music.
LM 317 sounded clean and musical as first impression.But when we did listen some variety of tracks,we felt something missing.Some of the instruments were played as if they were kept behind curtain.Some string were hiding and need to search for.
So we changed to LM723 PSU,we found little bigger sound stage and vocals appeared clear,distinct and in center. Dynamic level was up by 15% or even more.Separation between two instruments were much better.
We heard music for more than 4 hrs.
Finally we liked LM723 PSU over dedicated LM317.I am happy with my DIY LM723 PSU.One thing I would like to mention that transformer used in LM317 PSU was local but good make.
rest parts were good.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
The SUBBU DAC is a great little DAC and I've been enjoying mine for years now. If you want to try out another DAC consider looking at the AK4490 USB offering by JLSOUNDS. I put one together using dual power supplies, sounds very nice for the money, or any money for that matter. The Subbu's high end is different than a lot of DACs, very detailed, but can sound a little "glassy" on certain material. The AK4490 is warmer sounding. It depends on your system and it's deficiencies which you would like better. Dull room/less detailed equipment loves the Subbu, live room/detailed equipment loves the AK4490. The downside, if it really is one, of the JLSOUNDS DAC is that it is USB only. The USB on the JLSOUNDS uses XMOS and sounds as good as coax, or optical spdif, I can't tell a difference. I tried out another readily available XMOS module to modify another DAC of mine for USB input and found that the SPDIF input sounded better, than the XMOS USB input. Unfortunately the JLSOUNDS XMOS card doesn't easily lend itself to upgrading other DACs, it is purpose built for JLSOUNDS DAC.