Assembling the smd is a challenge, fiddly and time-consuming - some of the parts are very small. I've been thinking about whether I could have done it with one arm behind my back - possibly but it would be very difficult and would be reliant on having a hot-air station, hot plat or reflow oven to flow the solder - there's no way I could do it with a soldering iron with only one hand.
If I get something sorted for reflow soldering I could be inclined to offer to do the soldering for you but I think it would be better to speak to Richard (Abraxalito) if your interested as I know he does sell some kits with most smd parts already soldered by the PCB fabricator, for example his Abbado kit is available as a built and tested board. It has lots of paralleled DAC chips and no op-amps on the output.
I've been off work today - I've had a stinker of a cold since Saturday - but managed to spend an hour or so hooking up the Dorati DAC in its new enclosure and gave it a quick listen to check it out - all good so on with the front and rear panel fabrication so I can button it up.
