Wasn't sure whether this should go to the headphone circle or the cheap and cheerful circle since it could really be either one. Massdrop has the O2/ built-in ODAC combination unit for $199. This is a pretty good deal (actually a
very good deal) if anyone is interested.
It's an especially good deal since the unit offered has the rear panel power and input connectors, which are normally extra cost options from the builders that offer them.
The one thing that's puzzling about this is that the amp is in the standard size enclosure but has a quarter inch headphone jack. Those of you who are familiar with this amp will know that there is no room on the circuit board for a board mounted quarter inch jack. So apparently they either altered the board layout (which would violate the open-source license, but apparently nothing is going to bring NwAVGuy out of hiding so probably not a problem) or found a way to kludge a panel mounted jack in there.
The amp looks a lot cleaner with the power and input connections removed from the front panel. I was considering joining the drop and selling my O2 and MODI DAC but after that initial rush of upgraditis settled down, I'm not sure it bothers me
that much. I would say the performance of the ODAC and MODI are fairly comparable (I've heard both) so I doubt there's much if any performance incentive to do it. It was tempting to clean up my set desk set up a little bit though. If I was starting from scratch I would definitely go this route.
You can't look at the deal without a Massdrop account or save the photos but here are a couple screenshots I took which show what this version looks like.
