Here is the list of parts included in this build. 

Transformers

  

Plitron

Power Supplies

TPA Placid and Placid BP with Caddock resistors and DNM electrolytic capacitors.

Dac Board

TPA Buffalo III with Trident regulators

I/V Stage

TPA Legato 3.1 with Caddock and Z-foil resistors as well as Jensen and AudioNote capacitors.

All the plugs are from Neutrik and the case is from Context Engineering.  Front Panel Express did the front back and top panel cutting and engraving.

It is finished!

After what has seemed like forever working on this project, it is finally done. 

I tried to make the inside look as nice as the outside since the top has cutouts for cooling.  I think it looks pretty good.

It took some time to lay everything out but I finally got it all to line up properly.  I am spending time to get the wiring to look right as well.  These pictures are of the wiring so far.  I have not tied everything up yet but it is getting close to that point.

The Lock LED is in place temporarily.  It will be moved to the front panel along with the selector and power LED's.

Now that I am back from a much needed vacation and have survived Hurricane Sandy here is the latest update.  The casework came back from Front Panel Express and as you can see looks great.  I temporarily put the case together for these pictures.  I am working on wiring all the connectors and putting all the parts in the case.

 The case will be cleaned of all the oil spots once it is closed up the final time.

It took some time but I have an update.  Between Tropical Storm Isaac and some back pain issues I have not been running at full capacity lately.

  

The power supplies are finished.  The big 10,000uf capacitor would not fit int the enclosure standing on the board so I had to improvise.  Everything will fit now but with no room to spare.  

 These are the Z-foil and Caddock resistors with the Jensen and Audionote capacitors for the Legato board.  Once all this was put together and with the above power supplies the Buffalo 3 really came alive in my view.  I have not heard anything like it myself.  I'm still waiting on the USB to I2S converter from exa Devices but with just cd play back it is miles above any of my other gear.

 Here are all the parts on the test board.  The Sidecar is just floating and will be mounted differently in the final enclosure.  The lock LED is just mounted temporarily and will be mounted in the front panel on the finished dac.

I finally got a chance to add some more pictures tonight. 

Here are all the parts that make up the Legato I/V stage.  

  I thought I had this board ready to go but was not getting any sound from the single ended outputs.  After a few minutes I realized that I forgot to install the chokes for those outputs.  Once they were in place it worked perfectly.  I was able to get the DC offset to 0 on both balanced and single ended outputs. 

 This is just to show that I repositioned the relay to make it straight.  I get a little OCD sometimes.

 All the parts for the 4-input S/PDIF board.

 Completed(for now) S/PDIF board.  Inputs 1 and 2 are setup for 75ohm BNC or RCA and input 3 is ready balanced AES/EBU.   Input 4 is left open as it will be used for the exaU2I i2s converter that should be here in a couple of weeks.

 All the parts mounted together on my desk ready for testing.

I did have an issue with it not locking and clicking from both sides.  After some searching I found that the voltage needed to be set to around 4.8v.  Once that was done it worked perfectly.  No lock issues and no clicking.  Thanks to all the guys at the Twisted Pair forum for posting about this.

I'm hoping to have the Plitron transformers in the next day or so and will post more when I have them hooked up.

As the name implies this blog is about audio.  More precisely the audio gear that I build.  Whether it be for myself or someone else I will be putting all my builds up here.

I'm starting off with a couple of dacs(digital to analog converter).  One is for myself and the other is a commissioned piece.  They are both Twisted Pair Audio Bufallo III dacs.  While waiting for some of the upgraded parts for the commissioned one I started putting mine together.  It is a pretty straight forward build and TPA supplies good parts in their kits.  I'll quit talking now and show some pics.

The first two pics are what the TPA kits look like when they arrive.  Each kit is in a bag with all the parts needed for that particular kit.  

 This is all the parts for the Placid power supply laid out.  Notice that each part is labeled.  It makes the assembly of the boards pretty straight forward.

 Here is the completed Placid prior to testing.  The solder joints still need to be de-fluxed and the store here has no Isopropyl alcohol.

Here are the parts for the Placid Bi-Polar power supply.

And here is the completed Placid BP.

All the parts for the Sidecar.  

Completed Sidecar.  One relay is crooked and will be fixed now that I have some new solder wick.

Here are the parts for the Legato I/V stage.