As far as I know, the chips cost around $60 in small lots. The twisted pear board, with a what looks like $25 of SMT components and a PCB added, costs $180, and takes a while to get. Not that I'm trying to say it's a bad deal or Russ shouldn't charge that much - he can charge what he wants considering it's his design. But I'm thinking about looking elsewhere to get my hands on the chip. Anyone in for a group buy?
TimmyMac said:
Yikes, you have neglected to account for quite a few other costs (both time and money)!
Stencil, Assembly, Testing, Packaging, Support, just to name some. When you add it all up the Buffalo is a very good value.
Availability is now much improved since we have begun to stock higher quantities. We still have Buffalo modules available which will ship Dec. 8th.
Ross, Thanks for the good word.
Brian and I are always conscientious to offer a solid value for the money.
Cheers!
Russ
TimmyMac said:
Well, with this as an explicit reason, anyone ... well, has a good reason.
Now, start looking for breadboards for SMD, or design your own PCB and let it stuff elsewhere.
Indeed an awsome project ...
But what makes me respond is the fact that the offer/question for a group buy is done in this very thread. I thought it was not the most nice thing to do ...
Peter
XXHE said:
Well, with this as an explicit reason, anyone ... well, has a good reason.
Now, start looking for breadboards for SMD, or design your own PCB and let it stuff elsewhere.
Indeed an awsome project ...
But what makes me respond is the fact that the offer/question for a group buy is done in this very thread. I thought it was not the most nice thing to do ...
Peter
I think mention of a group buy is fine in this thread. We have our own vendor thread for our DAC. Thanks though.
Oh, of course I'm not pretending you guys don't do a lot of work on the thing, as well as money beyond what the PCB and parts cost, and I definitely respect the offering you've made to the community. Of course $180 for the board is a good value - the reference board as stated costs $350, and your boards have been in huge demand. All I'm suggesting is that I'd like to get the chip in my hands to see what I can do with it.Russ White said:
Yikes, you have neglected to account for quite a few other costs (both time and money)!
Stencil, Assembly, Testing, Packaging, Support, just to name some. When you add it all up the Buffalo is a very good value.
Availability is now much improved since we have begun to stock higher quantities. We still have Buffalo modules available which will ship Dec. 8th.
Ross, Thanks for the good word.
Brian and I are always conscientious to offer a solid value for the money.
Cheers!
Russ
Minimum buy is 5 pieces of the ES9008 DAC chip from Bryan Shaw, the distributor in Texas.
If you want to build your own by hand, you need to practice soldering SMT chips. The LQFP64 chip has very fine pitch surface mount pins.
I have soldered 3 of them so far. I solder all the pins and then use copper braid solder wick to remove the excess solder that shorts the pins. It is certainly not a job for a beginner.
If you want to build your own by hand, you need to practice soldering SMT chips. The LQFP64 chip has very fine pitch surface mount pins.
I have soldered 3 of them so far. I solder all the pins and then use copper braid solder wick to remove the excess solder that shorts the pins. It is certainly not a job for a beginner.
Yeah, I've e-mailed Shaw about it before, but I don't especially want to buy 5 chips for myself. Group buy thread is up if anyone is interested.
Out of interest, do you know the pin pitch? Can you compare to chips like PCM2702 in SSOP28? I've always done small pitch SMT in the same way, flooding and wicking away the extra, and I'm fairly confident in my soldering ability.
Out of interest, do you know the pin pitch? Can you compare to chips like PCM2702 in SSOP28? I've always done small pitch SMT in the same way, flooding and wicking away the extra, and I'm fairly confident in my soldering ability.
Ok, Russ and Brian are too polite. Yes, this is the thread to talk about the chip and it's cost. However, I think it is in bad taste to make comment to the high cost of the Buffalo when the next available DAC's(not prototype board) price is $7500.00. I know, why don't you guys at Twisted Pear put it in a nice $500 case and charge $6000. Then it would be a deal! I hope you are all picking up on the sarcasm. I find the same thing happens when I do my furniture work. If I spray something and charge $1000, people bitch. When I charge $10000 and do 20% more work, they are always happy. The general way of thinking is that if it costs that much it must be art or the best! Sometimes people don't take you seriously unless you charge more.
I am one who is waiting for the Buffalo's next shipment and was more than happy to pay the price. It went up a bit and while I groaned about I was still happy it was still inexpensive. If Russ and Brian were to follow standard marketing schemes for electronics they would have charged as much as five times the price for a while to allow for new tech insertion pricing. Being the first is supposed to be worth something. Then, like VHS tanked with DVD's appearance causing the price of VHS machines to plummet to the actual intended base market value(TP$). While this happened I pay $700(insertion pricing) for my first generation DVD player that is now worth $70(TP$). TP put their **** on the line for a couple of bucks so we could share in their hobby and the cost of that and is priceless. We need more people that are generous with their time in this world like the boys at TP.
I applaud Twisted Pear for keeping prices low when they have every reason in proper business conduct to charge loads more. I personally think that they are either a little "Twisted," or just really nice guys! If you are a nice guy in this day and age everyone thinks you are crazy anyway. Keep up the good work and I look forward to listening to my new Buffalo very soon!
I am one who is waiting for the Buffalo's next shipment and was more than happy to pay the price. It went up a bit and while I groaned about I was still happy it was still inexpensive. If Russ and Brian were to follow standard marketing schemes for electronics they would have charged as much as five times the price for a while to allow for new tech insertion pricing. Being the first is supposed to be worth something. Then, like VHS tanked with DVD's appearance causing the price of VHS machines to plummet to the actual intended base market value(TP$). While this happened I pay $700(insertion pricing) for my first generation DVD player that is now worth $70(TP$). TP put their **** on the line for a couple of bucks so we could share in their hobby and the cost of that and is priceless. We need more people that are generous with their time in this world like the boys at TP.
I applaud Twisted Pear for keeping prices low when they have every reason in proper business conduct to charge loads more. I personally think that they are either a little "Twisted," or just really nice guys! If you are a nice guy in this day and age everyone thinks you are crazy anyway. Keep up the good work and I look forward to listening to my new Buffalo very soon!
What I don't unerstand is why the commonly used words in my post were "*****"? "Groan" is like a moan. "****" is exactly that and not profane. We will place a few definitions in case the thought police get this one too.
The first word is a five letter word that starts with the letter "g," ends in an "n," and is a noise associated with complaining.
The second word is a four letter that is a slightly more polite way naming what you are sitting on now. Coincidently, the word "gas" rhymes with the three letter profane version and it also eminates from there after eating turkey! The turkey was aimed at our American neighbours who I am sure were enjoying eating turkey and sitting on their **** passing gas while being too stuffed, let out a *****. He he, see how trivial all of your editing labours are?
The first word is a five letter word that starts with the letter "g," ends in an "n," and is a noise associated with complaining.
The second word is a four letter that is a slightly more polite way naming what you are sitting on now. Coincidently, the word "gas" rhymes with the three letter profane version and it also eminates from there after eating turkey! The turkey was aimed at our American neighbours who I am sure were enjoying eating turkey and sitting on their **** passing gas while being too stuffed, let out a *****. He he, see how trivial all of your editing labours are?