I'm conscious of intruding on Latteman's thread and don't want to hog the attention but it's been a long time since I saw a post from someone who's traveled a similar path so I got a bit carried away!
Anyway, I was asked so here are some more pics from the build. The CDPro2M build was in 2005 and started as a pile of bits on the desk to prototype and test the modules:
I went a bit overboard on power supplies but they always say that separating the analogue and digital is a very good idea. So then I went with the idea of a spaceship and originally I wanted it to be round but that was too difficult so I went with the Schaeffer panel making place in Germany to create the parts for a cube-like version that would fly like a brick.
The top and bottom sections are separated by a hunking 3 layers of ali, which I'd hoped would shield the mech in the top section from RF from the controller board.
The CDPro2M is a jukebox mech, built like a brick ****house. Only problem is, being made for a juke all you get is a magnetic hub and a puck to clamp the CD on. Plus the laser points upwards and could be looked at when no CD is on there so for safety I have a microswitch operated by a pin on the lid so the laser is disabled until the lid is shut and even if no CD is in the laser will be shielded by the black aluminium on the lid.
When I built the CD transport I was using a Hawk Audio MP-DAC:
https://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/hawkmpdac_e.html
In the never ending quest for "the next thing" I got to talking to a very knowledgeable guy who goes by the label "multibit" who got me into the old TDA1541A DAC chip and specifically designs from Pedja Rogic. I bought a pcb from Pedja and built his DAC, together with the buffer amp section from the Hawk DAC. This proved to be a very nice combination.
Again, totally over the top power supplies but I didn't want to have to have a special transformer made for all the power rails that the DAC board required. The case design was meant to try to complement the CD transport.
That lasted a couple of years and then I went over to the dark side and started using Squeezeboxes. Initially I used an SB3 board, ripped out of the box and tied into the I2S points on the pcb. The only issue here was that the SB3 format for the I2S wasn't a match for the TDA1541A so I had to use the CPLD board to do some re-arranging of the bits! Many thanks to Nick Gorham for his help there on the coding!
In the case there also is a super-regulator to power the SB3, Xilinx and reclocker.
It worked fine but then later along came the Squeezebox Duet and as it turns out they had changed the I2S format back to what the TDA1541A could accept with no messing about so I ripped out the Xilinx and SB3 and replace it with SB Duet board. Since then I've also replaced the Tent Labs reclocker with one that I can't remember the name of but it will also handle more than just 44.1Khz. That is how it has stayed for the last few years but I don't have a current photo.
There! Sorry you asked now?!