What's the greatest bargain in DAC's these days?

I built a Buffalo IIIse into my 26 tube preamp, using the 26 tube fed by Lundahl LL1676 transformers as its output stage, and added a Sonore asynchronous USB board in there as well. Salas Reflektor-D regulators supply power for the DAC and USB board, fed from a choke input LCLC power supply. So now I can plug S/PDIF, USB, and six conventional sources all into the same box and switch between them. The combination of the Buffalo IIIse with 1920's tube technology is very nice, indeed!

If you already have a tube preamp with some room in the chassis and some DIY skills, adding the Buffalo IIIse board for $279.00 (with TP regulators included) is a great bargain! Excellent sound as well.

The Preamp that became a DAC

Ait, thanks. Amazing the various approaches taken by DIYers with the Twisted Pear kit.

I'm also using a transformer output from a battery-powered BIIISE, a 1:2 Audio Consulting Silver Rock transformer into balanced SS buffers. I may try a balanced 300b buffer as an alternative to SS. I have a Paul Hynes master regulator chassis on order to compare to battery power and to provide more rails for transition to CPU audio.

I was unaware of the Sonare USB board. What is its current requirement?

Hey Rebbi,

I like what Melbguy1 shared about the Vitus product. Upgradability and versatility are where its at. On the lower budget side of things...a good friend uses an FX in a second system with great results. Rolled in some better tubes and it sounds very dimensional and natural with good dynamics for the $$. The downside is it needs to be on for 10 hrs before sounding its best. I recently bought a brand new Music hall dac myself from CL because it was such a good deal. 15.2 model for $100. w/box perfect. It really didn't sound very good except... it had better than average resolution, huh.
I will have to add to this story later...need to stay after another project here. It has a very happy ending!

After_hrs,
Yeah, I have to say that I'm not the world's biggest fan of Music Hall's stuff. I have their CD 25.2 CD player, which I now use as just a transport out to my DAC. It's fine for what it is, but when the remote died Music Hall was of no help. I eventually found a guy in LA who sold me a remote from another Music Hall unit that works with my CD player. But good luck getting service on their stuff.

Dgarretson,

The Sonore board was designed with the Buffalo DAC in mind. It accepts both PCM and native DSD, completely isolates the USB side from the clean side, has its own oversampling filter (optional to use) which they claim is superior to that on the ES9018 chip (I'm still evaluating that), and can be run synchronously with the Buffalo board if so desired.

Here's a link:

http://www.rendu.sonore.us/USB.html

It requires ~300mA to run and can be used with either a 5V supply fed into its own on-board regulator, or with a 3.6V supply bypassing its on-board regulator. I'm using a Salas Reflektor-D regulator set at 3.6V for mine. Sound is very, very nice...I especially like DSD so far.