Pars

which ones?

I personally prefer the no feedback discrete current conveyor type I/V stage (ala Jocko and variants... rbroer, cetoole's is one as well and looks good). To be honest, I haven't tried passive mainly because it sucks, at least with a TDA1541a which doesn't have the current to really drive a resistor. Iout on a DAC really wants to see a dead short, and any resistor, particularly one large enough to give you the output voltage needed isn't going to be close to that. I have also not tried transformers, as they are quite expensive. I think you can build a better discrete stage than a zapfilter as well. I have done quite a bit of opamp rolling, and other than the THS4031/4032 which I never got around to trying, I would not consider going back to them... discrete just kicks them too badly. Is the IVY a discrete stage or is this the one using a THS4031? Or another really high speed chip?

Well, they aren't 800V, but I thought one of you could make something really dangerous with some of these...

Thinking about it a bit more, I think you need floating supplies for this (where the - is not ground referenced). Kevin could show you how these are done, I'm sure. I could do it with my bench supply (well, not the 400V part), but as Nate mentioned, your normal Tread/Steps/sigma are ground referenced, so the - of the top supply is going to short out the + of the bottom one, leading to some potentially spectacular results

After my last couple of TVs, I think I am on about my last product from these guys...

Changing lasers out sometimes is quite easy. It depends upon any alignment, etc. being required. The Philips CDM4 I have is just a drop in, and I have two spare. The mech for this one (Sony SCD-1) however is rather expensive at $215+. You would need to either track down a service manual for this or know someone who knows how to do it. Point is a failed mech doesn't automatically mean new transport/player time.

Maybe I'm not thinking thru this correctly, but if you stack two supplies to achieve your 800V, won't the "ground" (i.e., the filter cap - and case, etc.) of the upper supply effectively be at +400Vdc? Just like stacking caps? Or will the - terminal of the upper supply short out the bottom supply? Need more coffee

Congrats! Yes, you and your bride look warm!

x3 (or 4, whatever its up to now). Kittens are so much fun (well, other than with speakers )

And what's that in the rack

Probably stupid, but whatever My kids have ipods, and I've used them a bit. I've built a couple of docks for them, and we have one of the sendstation (IIRC) docks which also has USB on it. With that USB, could you hook an iPod up to a Pico and play thru that, or is it only for data transfer (itunes)?

Maybe I misunderstand iMods, but isn't their sole purpose to bypass some crappy SMD output caps with some <insert boutique cap here>? Since said caps obviously won't fit inside an iPod if you want to get the lid back on, they spawned the iMod Dock biz (caps in dock instead of inside ipod). They do not tap the digital out AFAIK...

Oh yeah, drinkin' the kool aid... If you're going to take the time to stamp them, make em double crowns (S2s?)

It's getting to be challenging to come up with one TDA1541a, let alone 8 (non-fake) of them. All the world needs is DACs that use 8 or 16 of them at once

You could mod a CDP or a transport to accommodate this function as well. Probably the best way to do this is via a TentLink... expensive but apparently works very well.

I think I'm going to buy some Dynamicaps for my Counterpoint SA5.1 pre (1uf/425V and 0.47u/425V) shortly. Might be better out there, but these are what Mike Elliot of altavistaaudio uses (former chief designer/CEO of Counterpoint). He claims to have tested everything else, and since he uses these, if I ever go to sell it modded with same parts he uses shouldn't hurt me... If you would like to test these, I'd send you one to test and return when done...

Yeah, it was better when the dollar and euro had a bit more parity (still expensive to me at $2k+). But, I was asking if anyone had heard it. I wouldn't be surprised if it competed quite nicely with $10K+ players.

Unlikely, but thought I'd ask anyway... Has anyone heard Guido Tent's CD player? I would be surprised if this didn't sound really good, but I don't think there are many knocking around, at least outside of Europe.

Oooohhh, but they're 15% off til the end of the month (partsconnexion).

Mogami 2534 is a jacketed star-quad? no braiding required?

I don't think your analogy really fits, and don't get me wrong, I wish you the best in your CanJam warped me quest. A more fitting analogy: Suppose I throw together two really large and expensive speaker rigs, claiming one is my classical rig and the other is my rock rig... but I'm still a minimalist

Probably not going to see those in $50 DVD players, ya think $3K each in 50pc lots? FuckingOUCH

Is that the thing your fun with Molex conectors harness was for? Good job.

Yeah, its too bad that someone can't step up and build a really good transport mech that is capable of both CD reads and DVD type reads (for hi def) that is reliable, easily repairable, etc. Maybe something along the Philips line but better made, and actually supported The recycled DVD mechs that seem to be used these days just don't cut it. How has the reliability on that TEAC drive (VRDS or something like that) been?

I'd agree. The laser in my Rotel went 15+ years at least, and is still probably good (was getting a few disc errors, but those may be from a couple of caps I need to change).