Twisted Pear Audio Buffalo II dac

bikerboy

I finally installed the trident regulators properly and now I have sweet music. I have the Mux coax switcher outputting I2S (PCM) to the Buffalo II and the tridents. The I2S out instead of spdif makes are big difference in the sound. Much clearer and less sibilance. Led Zeppelin III-Tangerine and Bron-Y-Aur Stomp on the digital remaster never sounded so good. Listening to LCDSoundsystem now. Nice sounds from the 2.3s. The caps have finally settled in. SDAS rock!

headrott

Do you have some pictures of your Buffalo setup? I am in the process soldering the components to the tube output boards, and am awaiting the chassis arrival as well as the Buffalo II itself. I think I am going to get a MUX as well, as I would like to be able to use the AES input for a balanced jack. I will post some pictures when I have it setup.

Greg

bikerboy

:biggrin:Hi Greg,
I will post some pics tonight. The Mux is nice to have, no more switching inputs. I have a computer and 2 transports for digital sources. What type of case are you doing to use? I thought about a tube output but have used what TPA made instead. What tube are you going to use? I need to order a new placid bp because the one I have is bad. One dead placid and soldering the tridents into the wrong locations caused some major headaches for a while. I am using a LCDBPS for now. The Placid really sounds better. :biggrin:

headrott

I am using the BUD industries rackmount aluminum enclosure. I got it because it's big and I can fit everything I need in one level without having to stack components in it. I won't actually be using it in a rack, but will put some feet onto it. Here is the link: http://www.budind.com/view/Aluminum+Enclosure/Rackmount+Chassis

That's the great thing about the tube output boards I have is that you can use a wide variety of 9 pin tubes simply by flipping a switch. I am planning on trying some Valvo 45 degree 12AX7 tubes in it at first, but can use 12AT&'s 12AU7's and their variants. Also, I can use a variety of Russian tubes like the 6n23p, 6n2p 6n1p, etc. I will have to try many tubes to find the best sound.


Is your i2s input coming from your computer? What power are you using for the MUX, the LCDPS? Can you post some pictures?

Greg

dorokusai

bikerboy wrote: »

Listening to LCDSoundsystem now. Nice sounds from the 2.3s. The caps have finally settled in. SDAS rock!

Sweet....love LCDS.

bikerboy

LCD Soundsystem is my fav as of late. Clean recordings. Great lyrics.

Here's some pics of the BuffII. I am currently using the IvyIII and a LCBPS since I need to fix the Placid and or Legato. Need to test the Legato still. Stack the boards if you can to keep the lines as short as possible. But if you are using a tube output stage you need to seperate the tx from the BuffII. Looks like a good solution for the tube output. Make room for the new usb input coming out someday. That case will be plenty big. The smallest is 5.5" tall? I am loving the BuffII with the tridents. The Buff24 sounded good while I used it in the past. But the BuffII is in another league and its not the bush league. I am sooo happy to have the BuffII working again.

ben62670

Nice. Thanks for the link to bud cases. Excellent job on the power supplies. How do you cut the hole for the toslink port?
Merry Christmas
Ben

bikerboy

The back of the case is 3/8" plywood, so I used a chisel. I just installed a 200k ohm bypass resistor in the ldr preamp. Nice improvement in the imaging. This setup is really soundig sweet. Both the computer source and the shigaclone are sounding so much better in the bass. Before the computer was always light in the bass. Listening to Rolling Stones-Exile on Main St digital remaster. Very cool cd.

headrott

bikerboy wrote: »

LCD Soundsystem is my fav as of late. Clean recordings. Great lyrics.

Here's some pics of the BuffII. I am currently using the IvyIII and a LCBPS since I need to fix the Placid and or Legato. Need to test the Legato still. Stack the boards if you can to keep the lines as short as possible. But if you are using a tube output stage you need to seperate the tx from the BuffII. Looks like a good solution for the tube output. Make room for the new usb input coming out someday. That case will be plenty big. The smallest is 5.5" tall? I am loving the BuffII with the tridents. The Buff24 sounded good while I used it in the past. But the BuffII is in another league and its not the bush league. I am sooo happy to have the BuffII working again.

What are you referring to when you say "separate the "tx" from the Buff II" for a tube output stage?

That's a nice setup. That's the good thing about using the IVY with the Buff II is that they are made to be integrated together. I am still working on the layout of the boards in the chassis to make the lines as short as possible, but still be able to fit everything in one layer. I am still soldering the tube PCB's components onto them. I recieved the XLR, RCA out jacks as well as the Kimber Kable FRCA digital input jack today. As I said, I will post some pictures when I get all things mostly situated.

Greg

bikerboy

Tx is transformers. Just saying to keep the txs away from the tube and dac components. I'll get the usb module when it becomes available. Looks like a big improvment in sq and will process 24/192 with I2S into the BuffII.

ben62670

Quick DAC question. What happens if you hook it up to a DVD player and the movie only has 5.1 ouput and not stereo? Does it down mix all the data to two channels, or do you end up with missing audio information? Sorry about the off topic question.
Merry Christmas
Ben

FTGV

Very nice DAC build BB I bet it sounds very good.RW designs some excellent DIY products.

ben62670 wrote: »

Quick DAC question. What happens if you hook it up to a DVD player and the movie only has 5.1 ouput and not stereo? Does it down mix all the data to two channels, or do you end up with missing audio information? Sorry about the off topic question.
Merry Christmas
Ben

It will only process 2ch linear PCM data,not the DD or DTS bitstream.

praedet

Man, I keep looking at doing one of these and running it on a battery...

bikerboy

It should be doable. Have you looked at the TPA forum to see if others have done a battery powered Buffalo? I know my current setup would draw at least 800ma. So that could be a problem unless you use a large battery. I sure like how good it sounds so I recommend them highly.

praedet

^There are a few folks that have done it. I have a 1500 CCA, or 96 AH bettery that would run the dac among other things

bikerboy

I replaced about 12" of jupiter copper wire with solid silver on the output of the dac. I like it, more action on the cymbles. Its still very solid and tight. Its amazing what little changes will do to the sound. These 2.3s are a big improvement over the sdaIIs! They are becoming more refined compared to a month ago. Maybe 600 hrs on the new caps, ect. I still need to mortite the right speaker. I also bypassed the input relays on the ldr preamp and made it a single input passive preamp. Very short, simple clean signal path. Im going to run it for a while and then add the input relays back into the circuit and see if I can hear a difference. LZIII-Since I've been loving you, and Hats off to Roy Harper sure sounds sweet. Listening to Beastie Boys-The in sounds from the way out. Its still a reference cd and it very there right now. Who'd a thunk the Beastie Boys could learn how to play instruments by 1996!