DIY CD Transport DesignDecisions

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Hi folks

After having the transports fail in three players in the last year, I decided no more, I'm going to build my own CDP with a CD-ROM drive that I can simply replace if it fails.

I've got a suitable chassis and IDE CD-ROM, I've bought an IDE CD controller board and have a good idea of how I'm going to put it together; however, there are still some decisions I need help with.

1. Power supply, how bad are SMPS? I have a small one from a 1U server that has the requisite 5 and 12v outputs that seems suitable, but would this compromise the performance of the transport and it would be better to use a transformer with linear regulated supply and cap bank?

2. How to get the SPDIF output of the CD-ROM to talk to an external DAC. I read that the 3 pin SDIF connector on the back of the CDRM unit puts out SPDIF at TTL level - 5v, whereas normal SPDIF works at 0.5v, so some circuitry is required to transform the 5v SPDIF? Then what else is needed to implement either a coaxial or TOSlink output to interface to a DAC?

3. I'm sure I'm forgetting something else...
 
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Here is how you do it using a pulse transformer. (googled for it)
 

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