![](\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_9040-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Assembled Alien DAC w\/USB Power (Top)(Click for more photos<\/a>…)<\/center><\/p>\n
I decided that I’m going to build another one of those Millett Hybrid Maxed<\/a> headphone amplifiers, except this time I want to build one using a bit more specialized parts, stick it in a case with wooden end panels, and fit both a USB audio adapter and input switch in the housing. As you can see here, the two PCBs will easily fit in the case<\/a>. (The Elna RFS \/ Silmic II capacitors can also be seen there.)<\/p>\n Today the Alien DAC<\/a> kit arrived from Glass Jar Audio<\/a>, so I set to work putting it together. It really wasn’t too difficult, most of the parts were either through-hole or 1206 \/ 0805 SMT. The SOT-8 voltage regulators were real easy to solder as well, and I had very little trouble with the SSOP28 PCM2702E<\/a>. The board is reasonably well laid out, but there are a couple of things I would have changed. I’m really not sure what the designer was thinking (I think he wanted to save space \/ make things more compact), as hand-soldering SMT IC legs to ground without thermals is a huge pain in the ass. Regardless, it worked out.<\/p>\n
![here, the two PCBs will easily fit in the case<\/a>. (The Elna RFS \/ Silmic II capacitors can also be seen there.)<\/p>\nToday the Alien DAC<\/a> kit arrived from Glass Jar Audio<\/a>, so I set to work putting it together. It really wasn’t too difficult, most of the parts were either through-hole or 1206 \/ 0805 SMT. The SOT-8 voltage regulators were real easy to solder as well, and I had very little trouble with the SSOP28 PCM2702E<\/a>. The board is reasonably well laid out, but there are a couple of things I would have changed. I’m really not sure what the designer was thinking (I think he wanted to save space \/ make things more compact), as hand-soldering SMT IC legs to ground without thermals is a huge pain in the ass. Regardless, it worked out.<\/p>\nOh, and the bottom of the board can be seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Assembled Alien DAC w\/USB Power (Top)(Click for more photos…) I decided that I’m going to build another one of those Millett Hybrid Maxed headphone amplifiers, except this time I want to build one using a bit more specialized parts, stick it in a case with wooden end panels, and fit both a USB audio adapter\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","category-making-things","category-moved-from-livejournal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24617,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970\/revisions\/24617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_9036-scaled.jpg\"){kind=link}
![bottom of the board can be seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Assembled Alien DAC w\/USB Power (Top)(Click for more photos…) I decided that I’m going to build another one of those Millett Hybrid Maxed headphone amplifiers, except this time I want to build one using a bit more specialized parts, stick it in a case with wooden end panels, and fit both a USB audio adapter\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","category-making-things","category-moved-from-livejournal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24617,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970\/revisions\/24617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_9042-scaled.jpg\"){kind=link}