[motorcitym3]

One of the best DAC's I've ever heard is now for sale. Only the SPDIF/BNC inputs are operational for the best sound.  I've decided to go to a simplified USB setup.  See below for the description from Wayne himself.  Looking to sell for $2300 shipped to the lower 48. 





The project is finished. I did not have the time to take any photos before shipping it off to Lou Hinkley to put the final finish on the case. I have asked him for a photo or two before he packs it up.

Many mods and variations were pursued and dropped in the production of this unit.

In the end, what I thought gave the best sound was to use a completely separate section to feed the DAC chip. It has it's own transformer, Stealth rectifiers, smoothing caps, pre-regulator, reservoir caps, Bybee Music Rail, Film cap storage and then multiple Paul Hynes regulators on the main circuit board to feed the DAC chip.

The same sort of design was used for the op-amps. Separate transformer, Stealth rectifiers, smoothing caps, then two Paul Hynes Regulators. One each for the positive and negative voltages. Storage caps, film caps and Bybee Music Rails. The op-amps were changed to custom built LME49990 duals for the I/V section and singles for SS output.

The stock transformer was retained to supply AC to the high voltage and filament only. Paul Hynes regulators were used for those voltages. The K&K CCS modules were used to maintain a constant current into the Pavane output tube.The tube circuit values were changed to lower output impedance and maximize signal flow. Output coupling caps in the tube circuit were changed to Sonicaps with bypasses. Output connectors were changed to WBT Silver NextGen. RCA input is also WBT Silver NextGen. BNC is 75 ohm Canare. XLR is Neutrik silver plated. I did not use the USB or optical inlets as I do not consider them to sound very good at all.

AC inlet, fuse and fuse holder are all ACME Audio Silver Plated, Cryo-Treated. The power supplies are all point to point wired on 1/8" thick PCB material. Wiring in power supply is all NITRO. Output wiring is cryo-treated solid core copper. Digital input wiring for BNC and Coax is 75 ohm coax.

This represents about as far as I care to go with the EE MiniMax DAC. It should end up sounding exceptional after extended break-in.

This was a one off, custom unit. There will be no more like this. The EE MiniMax DAC is no longer available in the US. If you own one or buy one used and want something like this level, we can talk. Lou might be willing to build another case, maybe. I can say the parts cost keeps going up. For something like this one, figure well north of $4k for my end of things. That is not including the DAC or the case.

Here are some more poor photos.

This is the back panel. Analog outputs and coax input are WBT NextGen Silver. BNC is Canare 75 ohm and XLR is Neutrik silver. AC inlet, fuse holder and fuse are all ACME Audio silver plated and cryo-treated.






Here is what the EE DAC board looks like after a few Hynes regulators are added, caps changed, new op-amps and a few things done to the tube circuit.



Here is a fuzzy shot of the whole shebang. The additional board at the back of the case has the transformer, pre-regulator circuit and Bybee Music Rail that feeds the four Hynes regulators used to send power the the DAC chip. The board on the left side has another transformer just for feeding the op-amps. Two Hynes regulators feed a positive and negative Bybee Music Rail




The other transformer is the stock unit to provide the high voltage to the tube, through a Hynes regulator, the filament voltage through the last Hynes regulator and 5 volts to operate the relays.