Twisted Pear Audio Buffalo 32S high end DAC

By jason, November 11, 2009 on 1:32 am | In projects | 10 Comments

I finally finished another one of my projects. This is a build for a friend. It’s a DAC (digital/analog converter) from the folks at Twisted Pear Audio.

Buffalo 32S DAC for TT
Buffalo 32S DAC for TT

Here are the specs:
INPUTS:
1. Toslink optical
2. USB
3. Coax S/PDIF

OUTPUTS:
1. K1000 balanced
2. XLR balanced
3. TRS single ended
4. RCA preamp

ENCLOSURE:
1. Custom machined Par metal case with solid birch front panel

POWER SUPPLY:
1. +/- 15V Dual mono bipolar power supplies for the analog sections.
2. Dual 5V power supply for the digital sections (Toslink, 4:1 Mux, Buffalo)

MISC:
1. e24 relay circuit triggered by an LED ring Bulgin momentary switch.
2. Man hours: Probably about 100 all told.
3. Birch panel was cut and then routed for the radiused edges and milled for the center stepped hole. The hole was stained with a pecan finish before tung oiling the remainder of the piece and then sealed with a few layers of polyurethane with light sanding in between coats.
4. It sounds fantastic!

10 Comments »

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  1. Nice work! I can’t believe you fitted all that into such a small box.

    I’m also building a 32s with an AMB e24.

    Just not sure what combination of outputs I can manage. Primarily it will power a pair of mono balanced First Watt F5′s.

    Cheers,

    alex

    Comment by Alex — December 9, 2009 #

  2. Nice work! I can’t believe you fitted all that into such a small box.

    I’m also building a 32s with an AMB e24.

    Just not sure what combination of outputs I can manage. Primarily it will power a pair of mono balanced First Watt F5′s.

    I don’t suppose you can post a photo with the lid off? Would be nice to see how you done all that wiring.

    Cheers,

    alex

    Comment by Alex — December 10, 2009 #

  3. Sorry, I don’t have it any more and never did take a picture with the lid off. Let me know if you have any specific questions though.

    Comment by jason — December 10, 2009 #

  4. hi Jason

    very nice work here !
    I believe it’s a version 1 of buffalo
    with direct output from the dac and no IVY evils
    used ?
    Could you post a layout of your dac inside ?
    Here or directly to my email .

    txs alot
    and once again congratulation
    marvelous job !!!

    Comment by greg — March 2, 2010 #

  5. Yes, it is version 1… but the 32S flavor.

    I never did take a picture of the final layout and I don’t have the DAC anymore but here’s an in progress pic that is basically where it ended up.


    I had the e24 circuit pieces on the empty space on the left though.

    Comment by jason — March 2, 2010 #

  6. Hey, Jason, this is impressive. I’m a closet DIY, built some computers but never something like this. While I’ve located the “manual” for Twisted Pear’s new Buffalo II, it doesn’t provide the step-by-step instructions that I would need to really understand what to do. Am I missing something? Did you find any instructions like that? THANKS

    Comment by steve — March 23, 2010 #

  7. Steve – the instructions aren’t great. But there is lots of support on the forums. Let me know if you have questions. Be happy to help.

    Comment by jason — March 23, 2010 #

  8. Jason, could you highlight the major parts/costs – you need to buy more than just the buffalo board, right? Also, of your total man-hours, what part was creating that nicely finished face versus the core electronics build? Trying to get a better sense for whether I should try to take this on – THANKS.

    Comment by Steve — April 12, 2010 #

  9. Total parts cost for an equivalent build today would be about $1000. The front face wasn’t a lot of work if you have the right tools. Cut to length, rout the edges, sand, cut the holes, and finish. Maybe about 3 hours total? The rest of the build was a pain mostly in implementing the MUX, USB, Toslink, and Coax inputs along with the e24 circuit. Maybe 20 hours? For my own personal build, I only have toslink and no e24 circuit. Much simpler and quite a bit cheaper… probably $650 in parts. Hope that helps.

    Comment by jason — April 12, 2010 #

  10. OK, thanks, not so bad; your 100 man hours made me nervous!

    Comment by Steve — April 12, 2010 #

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