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| Posted @ Nov 06, 2008 19:47 GMT by Brian Donegan |
0 Replies |
| Announcement: Buffalo DACs |
On Saturday, November 8th, I will begin accepting orders for the round of Buffalo DACs currently under construction (see times below). They will begin shipping the week of December 8th.
After this stock sells out, you will be able to add your name to a waiting list with a small deposit. We will be ordering and building more Buffalo DACs based on the waiting list. When your waiting list order is ready for shipping, we will send you an invoice for the balance. If you are on the waiting list, you can cancel and receive a refund of you deposit at any time.
First round goes on sale 8-Nov-2008 @ 19:00GMT
Second round goes on sale 9-Nov-2008 @ 1:00GMT
Note: Last night (Thursday) and this morning (Friday) there have been some issues with the database server at the hosting company, causing some sporadic issues with the site. I am keeping a close eye in the situation. If they are not 100% confident in a solution by the end of the day today (my time) I will be postponing the sale to avoid the kind of headaches we had last time. Coincidence?
Update: According to the hosting company, the database server problems should be resolved. If you experience any issues with the site throwing page errors, please let me know. Thanks.
Update #2: HIT REFRESH AGAIN. I BORKED THE STOCK COUNT FOR A MOMENT THERE.
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| Posted @ Oct 15, 2008 17:29 GMT by Brian Donegan |
0 Replies |
| The Next Round of Buffalo DACs |
The boards for the next round of Buffalo DACs should be here some time next week, I will be working hard to get them built as quickly as possible. We are calling this round version 1.2, as there is a minor change to the layout for this round to make connection of the Volumite easier. (Volumite will still work with versions 1.0 and 1.1.)
There has been a lot of consternation about the difficulty in obtaining the Buffalos in the past, both for buyers and for us. This time around, I will be trying something old and something new. I will be taking pre-orders for the Buffalo (wait! don't send me an email, just keep reading). We have doubled the number of DACs for this round (as we have for each of the previous rounds), so hopefully we can come closer to meeting the demand.
"You have taken pre-orders before. How is this different?" Excellent question! For one, I will be maintaining the list publicly, so you will be able to see where you are in line. There will be two stages to the pre-orders. First, there will be pre-orders for the DACs we have in stock. For these, you will place your order and pay up front, and the DACs will ship out as soon as they are ready. I will also be taking orders beyond the current stock, the much demanded "Waiting List." For these, we will take a small refundable deposit ($5). This will allow us to better plan how many we need to order for the next round, and we can get a board order in right away. If at any point you want out, your deposit will be refunded immediately.
All of the pre-orders and waiting list will be handled through the web site, so please, please, please do not send me emails asking to get on the waiting list. I will make noise and jump up and down telling everyone when and how it will be ready.
Because of the minor layout change, before I open up the pre-orders, I want to get one of the new boards built and tested. I also need to write some code to handle all this (order list, etc) and still need to work out the details. Please send mail and let us know if you think this is a good or bad idea (feedback@twistedpearaudio.com).
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| Posted @ Oct 02, 2008 5:25 GMT by Brian Donegan |
0 Replies |
| New product update |
First, the big question: When will the Buffalo be available again? We have a large board order in which includes more Buffalo DACs, so we are hoping to have them available in a few weeks. As the dates firm up, I will post more information so everyone has plenty of notice. I will likely sell them in a few smaller batches, rather than all in one day.
The first batch of Counterpoint I/V boards should also be arriving soon. After we get them tested and kitted up, they will be available. It will be available as a complete kit (all through-hole parts) and bare PCB with parts list. Pricing is still TBD.
The Placid power supply will also be available soon. It was designed primarily for use with our linestages, but will work with all of our digital modules as well. It is a dual variable shunt-regulated supply, which can also be used as a bipolar supply by adding a jumper. It is all SMD, and will probably come as a fully assembled module as well as bare board with parts list. Price is also TBD. Performance should be spectacular though.
Also coming in this batch is the Volumite, a tiny controller for adjusting volume. It is designed to be a low-cost controller solution which works in conjunction with the Joshua Tree (replicating functionality of the original JT controller) and the Opus and Buffalo DACs. It consists of panel-mount volume pot mounted to a tiny PCB with a 8-pin A-Tiny microcontroller. It outputs I2C or SPI, which, depending on the installed firmware, controls the JT's I2C Relay Driver board or interfaces directly with the two DACs to utilize their digital volume control. Power comes from the board it is driving. It will be sold stand-alone for each DAC, or bundled with a "Simple Joshua Tree Kit" (no display or remote control). For all the bells and whistles (display, rotary encoders, remote control, multi-device control, etc), we have the Audio Controller 1, for which the revised boards should also be here soon.
We have also ordered a full batch of Sympatico boards. When the initial batch runs out, so will the introductory pricing. There are a few minor layout revisions in this batch, but no circuit changes... just minor nit-picky things to make life easier for Russ and I.
[EDIT: More Items!]
New S/PDIF MUX boards have also been ordered which fix a small error on the prototypes. They should be available a couple weeks after the boards arrive.
We have also ordered prototypes for another new product: the Mesh, which is a replacement for the Twisted-X Driver (TXD). Like the TXD, the Mesh uses an LM4562/LME4972 instumentation front-end for high input impedance, and a fully symmetric THE4131/OPA1632 stage with adjustable gain. There are some important differences between the TXD and the Mesh, however. The Mesh does not expose the feedback loop for external components, but does include spots for optional capacitors and resistors in the feedback loops, allowing it to function as a balanced high-/low-pass first-/second-order active filter. So the Mesh can be used as a basic building block for an active crossover. The kit will come with all the basic parts for a preamp (decoupling and bypass caps, opamps, 0-gain resistors and jumpers). We will also provide a document listing values and part numbers of components for different filtering frequencies so you can configure it as an active filter to meet your application.
[END EDIT]
We have also restocked boards for several of our other kits and modules, so stock levels should be solid.
That reminds me... the Toslink module. I had been using the Toshiba TORX142LF receiver for it's high bit-rate to accommodate 192kHz input. Toshiba has discontinued the 142, replacing it with the TORX147, which has a lower bit-rate. Supposedly it will still do 192kHz, but I don't actually have any high res optical sources, so I cannot test it. If someone has a high bit-rate source (192kHz, 24-bit) and would like to test it for me, I will send one for free.
That's all for now.
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