Natural Sound
New member
Very cool! I think I was order 14 or 15 so I'm hoping that I'm in the second wave. ;D
DAC crowdfunding now in progress
- Thread starter Doc B
- Start date
tsingle999
New member
Wow they came out really cool looking! Great Job!
Four are boxed up for Monday's mail. Four more are burning in over the weekend, and should be ready for Tuesday's pickup.
It has been sort of tough to burn in more than 4 or 5 at a time, so we will be shipping lots of small clumps quite frequently.
It has been sort of tough to burn in more than 4 or 5 at a time, so we will be shipping lots of small clumps quite frequently.
I am being picky enough to make the guys a little crazy. I am listening to and signing off on each and every DAC at all sample rates before it goes in the box. It does end up taking quite a bit of time, particularly when there are so many other things going on around here at the same time. Listening ran a little late on Friday and we missed the pickup cutoff time.
Woodenboat
New member
Doc, knowing that you will be personally listening to and assuring the quality of the first DAC I have ever owned goes a long way in bolstering my belief I have made the right choice in buying the Bottlehead DAC. Thank you!
After nearly four years of working through a host of unforeseen challenges (like that last minute XMOS ID number thing) I'm going to play it safe and not say " DAC number X will ship at Y hour on Z day". We will take the same care with each and every DAC that we did with the first group that shipped today. We have a pretty thorough and efficient system for break in and final testing worked out (basically Josh has set up computers and DVD players all over the place so we can run some DACs on USB while others run on TOSLINK and still others run on coax S/PDIF), and we will continue to work on them every day until they have all shipped.
One great bit of news is that the rest of the Supra USB cables we promised to those who ordered early arrived today from Sweden via the distributor who is, conveniently, in Seattle. Thanks Lars!
One great bit of news is that the rest of the Supra USB cables we promised to those who ordered early arrived today from Sweden via the distributor who is, conveniently, in Seattle. Thanks Lars!
denti alligator
New member
Congratulations, guys! Can't wait to hear from those who purchased one.
caffeinator
New member
I just happened to go home for lunch and saw the big brown truck was turning onto my street. I was just popping lunch into the microwave when there was a knock on the door and my DAC was waiting on the front step. I'm feeling very fortunate to be in the first wavelet of the first big wave 
I've just enough time to plug it in and get it warming before I come back tonight and plug it into my Sex Amp for a listen and then to get my Mac Mini sorted before taking it up to the main system.
My dumb questions:
-I will be obliged to initially connect with a long USB cable - any issues or concerns (other than maybe noise, etc.) with that?
-I presume the DAC is hot-pluggable - is that right? If not, would one plug in USB w/ DAC power off, then DAC power on? Or all cold, DAC first then PC?
thanks,
David
I've just enough time to plug it in and get it warming before I come back tonight and plug it into my Sex Amp for a listen and then to get my Mac Mini sorted before taking it up to the main system.
My dumb questions:
-I will be obliged to initially connect with a long USB cable - any issues or concerns (other than maybe noise, etc.) with that?
-I presume the DAC is hot-pluggable - is that right? If not, would one plug in USB w/ DAC power off, then DAC power on? Or all cold, DAC first then PC?
thanks,
David
fullheadofnothing
Moderator
Gaahhhh! I thought I had a bit more time.
I'll email you the manual in a second.
I'll email you the manual in a second.
caffeinator said:
How long is long? I doubt it matters functionally, you may be able to hear a difference.
The DAC is hot-pluggable. In some cases, you may want to flip the selector switch if you're hot plugging USB. Sometimes a power cycle is useful when hot plugging USB, but most of the time that hasn't been necessary.
caffeinator
New member
Hey PB,
Thanks for the prompt reply.
The USB cable is, I think, roughly 10 feet long; it will run across the room from the PC just to try out the DAC. I think it came with a printer or something like that, so I doubt it's any great shakes as an interconnect (though, who knows - might be the sleeper tweak of the century).
The selector switch is a good idea; I'll do that.
I'm presuming that with no source connected, a display readout of 8.8.8 (kind of all segments lit) is normal.
thanks,
David
Thanks for the prompt reply.
The USB cable is, I think, roughly 10 feet long; it will run across the room from the PC just to try out the DAC. I think it came with a printer or something like that, so I doubt it's any great shakes as an interconnect (though, who knows - might be the sleeper tweak of the century).
The selector switch is a good idea; I'll do that.
I'm presuming that with no source connected, a display readout of 8.8.8 (kind of all segments lit) is normal.
thanks,
David
Yes, the display readout is a bit random with nothing connected.
I was using the prototype with what was probably a 15 foot or longer USB cable at Paul Stubblebine's studio. It worked up thru 96k very well. It may have been the cable, or it may have been that the Mac we were using had an issue that wouldn't let it send 192k to the DAC. Didn't have time to sort it out.
John Swenson
New member
I've had trouble with long cheap cables working reliably with high speed devices (such as the BH DAC). In every case changing to either a shorter cheap cable or a decent long cable fixed the problem.
John S.
John S.
As of this afternoon all of the DACs ordered thru the first day of pre orders have shipped. That is one fifth of all that have been ordered. We seem to be able to get four units tested and packed each day. We're trying to run each DAC in for a couple of days before that. I think PB said that the plan was to ship the next group on Thursday. If we can maintain the pace we should have all the DACs shipped in a couple/three weeks.
