I've been looking at DACs, with a headphone amp for a while - although the new koi pond is taking the time, this is on my list of 'make something'.
It's impressive because it takes digital audio and outputs analogue without using a DAC chip. Instead it uses valves to implement a DAC taking in PCM or DCD depending on the implementation. The natural extension is to then add a tube headphone amp stage. Mine are 55ohm so this is a challenge given valves like high ohm), an extension would be to drive some sensitive desktop speakers.
The main build threads are here: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/308860-valve-dac-linear-audio-volume-13-a.html
Windows needs some drivers for higher-quality DSD, OSX has PCM output inbuilt but the options in the build is to use a beaglebone board to act as a music server. However I'd like to make the system take OSX output so it can be used with OSX apps.
It's impressive because it takes digital audio and outputs analogue without using a DAC chip. Instead it uses valves to implement a DAC taking in PCM or DCD depending on the implementation. The natural extension is to then add a tube headphone amp stage. Mine are 55ohm so this is a challenge given valves like high ohm), an extension would be to drive some sensitive desktop speakers.
The main build threads are here: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/308860-valve-dac-linear-audio-volume-13-a.html
Windows needs some drivers for higher-quality DSD, OSX has PCM output inbuilt but the options in the build is to use a beaglebone board to act as a music server. However I'd like to make the system take OSX output so it can be used with OSX apps.