[S Clark]

Just got this home last night and thought I'd post a couple of pictures.  I'll be hooking it up today and will have my impressions posted over the next few days. 





At this time, I don't know of another one of these.  Gary was assembling this for me, and discussing power supply options.  We decided to try batteries and this is the result. 

[TRADERXFAN]

Very interesting. Looking forward to hearing about your experience with it. Thanks.


-Tony

[HT cOz]

What a treat that must be!!! Is it the Sabre32?  Can't wait for your impressions.

 

[Jon L]

What a treat that must be!!! Is it the Sabre32?  Can't wait for your impressions.

 

Same here, especially if the op-amp output stage was replaced by something discrete  aa

[Nick77]

Scott what a nice new play toy, cant wait to hear your impressions. What will you be comparing it to?

[S Clark]

OK, here are the prelim impressions.  I spent several hours today with this installed in my second system: two custom Dodd/Eico integrated 6qb5 mono amps, a rather mid fi Marantz cd5400, Electra cables, and GR Research AV-3's in a large, bright room with modest treatments.

  Everything improved several levels.  First of all is the greatly improved detail.  Vocals that I had thought might have been mumbled a bit became clean.  Fingering of guitar notes left clearly audible mechanical sound.  Even some instruments appeared that had been indistinctly in the background.  Percussion had much cleaner initial attack and rapid, clear decay. 
Soundstage depth dramatically increased.  Instruments took up space.  Reverberations became clearer (or in some cases appeared where they had not existed before), defining space cleanly.  In this case, the effects were huge.  Initially, the Buffalo DAC is everything that the hype says it is.  The battery power in theory should make it more noiseless, and so far, everything is dead quiet.  The cheap Marantz with the Dodd/Buffalo out performs my Cambridge 640C.  I am a very happy fellow. 

I'll set it up in my main system tonight late hooked up to my Cambridge 640 cd. With a Dodd battery pre in the circuit, I'll really be listening for quiet passages.  Currently the amp is an old Knight KB-85 6L6GC amp with 35 wpc driving  the GR Research Neo2X and the older GR sub.  Cables are Electra all around.   Other accessories will be a nice bottle of red.    

[carusoracer]

Good to hear initial impressions. BTW, what is the price of the unit?

[S Clark]

Good to hear initial impressions. BTW, what is the price of the unit?

Well, I said that it was an only one in the world kind of thing.  Gary did most of the work as a favor and out of curiousity to see what it could do.  He was very impressed and was checking to see if it would be feasible to offer this.  If you are interested, drop him a line at http://doddaudio.com/default.aspx

[poseidonsvoice]

What a treat that must be!!! Is it the Sabre32?  Can't wait for your impressions.

 

+1

Anand.

[S Clark]

What a treat that must be!!! Is it the Sabre32?  Can't wait for your impressions.

 

This is the version that came out around last Christmas.  I think that there is another version now, but it includes the power supply and is more $$.

By the way, in a bright room, I never found it fatiguing... even with the extra detail. 

[zimonsays]

Wow, that sounds very cool I just picked up a kit myself. What kind and volt batteries are you using? Any picks of the inside and the rear panel? Enjoy

[S Clark]

Wow, that sounds very cool I just picked up a kit myself. What kind and volt batteries are you using? Any picks of the inside and the rear panel? Enjoy

It's powered by two 12V lead/acid sealed batteries, the same as the ones in my Dodd battery preamp.  I won't be posting pictures of the inside until Gary tells me that it's ok.  Sorry. 

Continued review. 

After a couple of hours comparing the battery Dodd/Buffalo dac to my Cambridge 640 there were notable differences, however not of the magnitude evident with the first comparison.  Surprisingly, there were a few things about the Cambridge that I prefered.  The Buffalo is known for detail, but I actually preferred the Cambridge in the upper/mid registers.  However, the bass clearly belonged to the battery Buffalo.  Very clean, very powerful, very controlled. If this was supposed to be a weak area in the Buffalo dac, the battery power seems to have solved that problem.   Clearly a step up from the Cambridge.  Vocals, I give a close call to the Buffalo.  Soundstage, clearly the Buffalo was the better unit. 

So, surprise, surprise -- another dilemma where a unit provides some of what I want, but not quite everything. So until the perfect unit shows up, this dac is a sizeable step up in most areas and clearly stays in the main system for now.

Who are the other Buffalo Dac users here at AC?  What are your impressions?