AMB Gamma 3 DAC

I'm down to designing the panels now. I'm trying to more or less mimic amb's design with a few changes. I've come up with a logo I'm a bit unsure of, like to see what others think.



Imitation is the sincerest form of...anyway, I'm concerned that my intention won't come across with the logo as is. Looks like EMD, right? I'm going for BMD but liked the symmetry.

 

Awesome logo - see what you are going for with the backward B but def reads as E to me. Either way its cool and looking forward to seeing your final result.

 

Thanks Josh. Here's another try:



Posted it over at amb's forum, and he pointed out that the "AUDIO" might not work out great with engraving at a realistic size. Probably just roll with EMD haha

 

Thanks Hands. I'll probably just go with it, whether it's emd or bmd lol. I think I like the first try better, but I think the second is probably better at the size it'll end up, maybe an inch high.

 

One more (hopefully).



AUDIO getting a bit too small again, but I kinda like it.

 

Coming along quickly. I should have all the boards done minus connectors tomorrow evening, then comes re-inspecting all the solder joints. Soooo with any luck I can finish it up by next weekend (panels arriving next week).

 

$1000 excluding casework, is that inclusive of power supply?

 

Yes roundabout, excluding its casework, too. You could cut 1-200$ off with input/output choices and some parts choice.

 

Finished on new years eve morning lol

Pics at https://picsurge.com/oeMAJ0

Not certain I love the logo, but overall I love the look (which is mostly thanks to amb!). Looks like I managed to scratch up the front of the psu already, unfortunately.

This thing sounds phenomenal. Effortless, resolution in spades, plethora of plankton, dynamic, just awesome. Only other dac I'm curious to hear now is Yggdrasil. Hard to believe it could get any better.

Summary of things I screwed up in case it will help anyone else:

-Pot wiring. Even though the diagram it's labeled bottom side for this, I still viewed it as from the top. I did the same thing with the transistor used to set the reference voltages for the sign as, too =/

-Mounted the mcu on lcduino-1 backwards. Derp.

-Forgot to strip the wire for one of the wires to the ssr trigger before securing it to the ssr. Couldn't figure out how to use the ring terminals. Herp derp.

-Somehow managed to chip part of the silicon for u18 for the backplane off (or it blew off lol). Quick replacement corrected this.

-Mounted a power regulator ic on y24 backwards. Luckily I was able to remove it and solder it back in the correct orientation with no I'll effect.

-Mounted all the ICs on one a24 backwards. I did the ICs on both a24's at the same time and managed to miss that one of the boards was rotated the other way around.

 

Im drooling over here, while you nit pick the logo - I think it looks fantastic. One of the better DIY builds I have seen. More professional looking than many commercial amps I've seen. Now put away the soldering gun and enjoy!

Tons of input / output options, but I dont see USB input. Am I just missing it?

 

Thanks Josh! Yep, it has USB, though my pics barely show it. If you're looking at the back panel, the usb mini input is almost all the way to the right, just before the power umbilical connector. It's actually all I've used...need to take the time to test all the spdif inputs/outputs haha.

Amb deserves a lot of credit for how this thing turned out. It's pretty close to a copy of his design which is very professional looking as you said. It did take some skill to assemble (sure I i could do it faster if I were to do it again, though rushing was probably where most of my problems came from), but it really is secondary to amb's superb work.

 

Looks fantastic, f_f ! How's the TIII with it? I'm wondering how high it scales with DACs?

 

Gungnir Multibit still surpasses AMB Gamma 3?

 

Wait, anyone remember the Ear DAC 4? It's the second best DAC besides Yggdrasil in Marv's chart, it also uses the WM8741s (but in MBit way, still don't know how to make WM8741s into MB....)

 

It scales, for sure. There's a whole lot of awesomeness going on with y3, t3, and modded hd650.

 

Hi Guys, has anybody that Gamma 3 kit ready and can review?
Greetings from Bavaria

 

I am interested in this as well. I hope I can feed it via i2s with an raspberry Pi or equivalent. It seems like a difficult build. It has the reclocker on it.

 

I was all about building this until I priced out all the necessary parts, decided to buy a Gungnir Multibit and haven't regretted it.

 

^Can I ask what your total came out to? I heard this at the SF meet a while ago and have wanted to hear it again...I see $1000 without casework up above.