Sunday evening, somewhere in the Netherlands, after some serious soldering, a man hooks up his new Buffalo II. The lock light comes on, sound flows effortly into the room. The man turns of the equipment, makes somes changes to the setup, puts it on again..no lock. Panick! 😱 He tries a different cable, lock light flickers, tries another cable lock light comes on again. But then...after another power cycle...no lock 😕. He tries this, he tries that, but can't get it to lock again.
Finally on monday evening, the man tests the mux device; also no lock. Ah 🙄, faulty SPDIF out. The man gets another CD player, hooks it up, and oh the glorious flow of electrons making the air move like velvet. Picking out the instruments on a totally black background. Airiness, control, blablabla etcetera, just pure joy!
Brian, Russ, thanks for developing such great products. Totally happy camper over here. Just like AcidBrain, my setup is stil in 'dust collector mode', so I'll have to get busy on a case. But still; oh joy. Also thanks to MrMajestic for making some very nice toroid boards.
Maarten
Finally on monday evening, the man tests the mux device; also no lock. Ah 🙄, faulty SPDIF out. The man gets another CD player, hooks it up, and oh the glorious flow of electrons making the air move like velvet. Picking out the instruments on a totally black background. Airiness, control, blablabla etcetera, just pure joy!
Brian, Russ, thanks for developing such great products. Totally happy camper over here. Just like AcidBrain, my setup is stil in 'dust collector mode', so I'll have to get busy on a case. But still; oh joy. Also thanks to MrMajestic for making some very nice toroid boards.
Maarten
Another Buff2 completed - it sounds very good!
I had a Buff32S with the same placid setup before, the Buff2 is smoother in the mid and hf and provides more realism if that makes any sense. Very happy with it.
Looking forward to the new legato and AC2 when available.
Well done Russ and Brian,
Cheers,
Luke
I had a Buff32S with the same placid setup before, the Buff2 is smoother in the mid and hf and provides more realism if that makes any sense. Very happy with it.
Looking forward to the new legato and AC2 when available.
Well done Russ and Brian,
Cheers,
Luke
Nice build 🙂 I'm assuming you have the aluminium bottom plate, right? How warm does it get with the placids connected to it?
Really nice construction, Luke. Is that case from modushop?
Can we see a picture from the backside?
Regards,
Regi
Can we see a picture from the backside?
Regards,
Regi
Thanks for compliments guys,
Yes the case is the 1 U slimline from the modu shop. It's the all aluminium version with 3mm thick top and bottom covers and 3mm rear panel. I like the look of the case, it's easy to build and good value.
The bottom ali plate barely gets warm with the top cover off and only a little warmer with the top cover on. Overall case temp is very low as long as it has space around it. If you stack other gear on top it does get a bit warmer but nothing to worry about.
Yes the case is the 1 U slimline from the modu shop. It's the all aluminium version with 3mm thick top and bottom covers and 3mm rear panel. I like the look of the case, it's easy to build and good value.
The bottom ali plate barely gets warm with the top cover off and only a little warmer with the top cover on. Overall case temp is very low as long as it has space around it. If you stack other gear on top it does get a bit warmer but nothing to worry about.
Looks fantastic, all you need now is a new AC pwr cord. Maybe an audiophile 500$ cord would be enough 😀
That's a reference build! 
Case layout can be much better now.
Very symmetric and short leads.
Power supply semiconductors on the case. Very nice.
Case layout can be much better now.
Very symmetric and short leads.
Power supply semiconductors on the case. Very nice.
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Your quite welcome. We enjoy them very much ourselves. 🙂
Good work getting it all together.
Cheers!
Russ
Luke, you did a wonderful job on your build. Good work!!!
Legato and AC2 won't be long now. 🙂
Cheers!
Russ
Just a revision. I just have some things I wanted to change about it, so I figured I would called the next revision AC2. 🙂
Excellent & very professional work, congratulations.
I want to know wich hook up brown balanced analog cable are you using, seems the same than the used externally with the XLR connectors?
Thank you - the cable is Van Damme XCE Star Quad microphone cable, its used by Bryston for their OE interconnects and apparently they tried quite a few cables before settling on this.
I am very pleased with it, I doubt you need to use anything more exotic - but there are whole threads dedicated to that subject so i wont go there...
Dual mono configuration with SDHC memory card player
I configured two pairs of Twisted Pears Buffalo II & IVY III into "Dual mono".
Its source is a prototype version of SDTrans192 and I2S signals are distributed to those Buffalo II.
Original Crystek 950 80 MHz Oscillators on board are replaced with 100 MHz Bipolar amplifier oscillators produced by FIDELIX.
We listened five 2L DXD audio files and other high resolution files as well as ordinary 44.1 kHz / 16 bit WAV files at Feastrex Listening Room in Nirasaki Japan. ( Feastrex is a Japanese fullrange speaker driver manufacturer.)
The owner of Feastrex company commented,
"This is the best digital audio sound I have ever listened.
The sound is very stable, accurate and detailed. Moreover, it is not too delicate but very rich and fresh. I favor this profile. We are very happy to obtain such a new good source device that can bring a high performance from our drivers."
My only concern is an unintended output level difference between two channels. (I have not found any causes yet.)
Anyway, we all much appreciated the great efforts by Brian and Russ to deliver their new products. They have made us cheer and happy.
I configured two pairs of Twisted Pears Buffalo II & IVY III into "Dual mono".
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.
Its source is a prototype version of SDTrans192 and I2S signals are distributed to those Buffalo II.
Original Crystek 950 80 MHz Oscillators on board are replaced with 100 MHz Bipolar amplifier oscillators produced by FIDELIX.
We listened five 2L DXD audio files and other high resolution files as well as ordinary 44.1 kHz / 16 bit WAV files at Feastrex Listening Room in Nirasaki Japan. ( Feastrex is a Japanese fullrange speaker driver manufacturer.)
The owner of Feastrex company commented,
"This is the best digital audio sound I have ever listened.
The sound is very stable, accurate and detailed. Moreover, it is not too delicate but very rich and fresh. I favor this profile. We are very happy to obtain such a new good source device that can bring a high performance from our drivers."
My only concern is an unintended output level difference between two channels. (I have not found any causes yet.)
Anyway, we all much appreciated the great efforts by Brian and Russ to deliver their new products. They have made us cheer and happy.
Impressive work, the secret to get best sound? IMHO look for an discrete active I/V stage try design like Pass (don't have) or Erno Borbely (I have & use), also look for discrete shunt/series regulator to supply the I/V.
Link to Pass I/V:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/154866-new-take-classic-pass-labs-d1-ess-dac.html
Link to regulators to Simplistic Salas low voltage shunt regulator V1.2 post 1893:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/powe...-voltage-shunt-regulator-190.html#post2103465
What kind of Tx & PS are you using?
Thanks to share.
P.S. Alternative to active I/V: passive I/V 200R signal to ground in each phase & after a capacitor to avoid DC, sounds lower than active opamp/discrete I/V but the sound it's better than with opamp.
Link to Pass I/V:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/154866-new-take-classic-pass-labs-d1-ess-dac.html
Link to regulators to Simplistic Salas low voltage shunt regulator V1.2 post 1893:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/powe...-voltage-shunt-regulator-190.html#post2103465
What kind of Tx & PS are you using?
Thanks to share.
P.S. Alternative to active I/V: passive I/V 200R signal to ground in each phase & after a capacitor to avoid DC, sounds lower than active opamp/discrete I/V but the sound it's better than with opamp.
As Feastrex people have their own policy, they are now building their original ones. At present, they are tentatively using versatile liner regulated power supplies by Cosel Co., LTD.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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