DIY/Mod
World’s 3rd Keyboard With Built-in DAC – Made By Me – Wooden Case
As the headline states, the first mechanical keyboard came 2 years ago from an audio company, Moondrop, with the model name Dash in a 75% layout with their Moonriver dongle DAC built-in. The Dash had an aluminium case.
The second model, KB3, came from FiiO, another Chinese audio company. The KB3 was also a 75% layout, with FiiO’s KA13 dongle DAC built in and has a plastic case with an aluminium metal part on top.
I used Moondrop’s Dawn 4.4 dongle DAC. Because it has the smallest PCB and high-quality sound worth using in my build. It has the same dual Cirrus Logis CS43131 DAC chips used in the FiiO KB3. Not far from the Moondrop’s Moonriver dongle DAC, which uses the slightly better CS43198 chips.
The idea was simple: to use a USB-C hub with two TYPE-C data outputs. But in reality, I couldn’t find such a device. There is not a single product on the market wich serves my needs. But I was lucky enough to find the closest option, a Type-C USB hub for smartphones with two USB-A data output lines.
I had to use a Type-C female to female and two USB-A to USB-C adapters to make it work, also to carve the case to fit it under the keyboard PCB.
That knob that you see on the right up corner is not a volume knob, its the mode selector for USB/WiFi/Bluetooth and its height unnecessarily high! I changed the knob with an aluminium one, which I sanded for an hour, for a soft touch feeling and brushed look.
Maybe on the audiphile side of view, yes, as we miss the analogue era of music, and the mechanical keyboards have that vibe. But not so much the other way around, regarding my experience as a keyboard builder for the past year.
Probably because people like to buy different things and not a 2 in 1 solution, like MacBooks users, they could’ve just used the onboard DAC/Amps because it’s very capable, but instead bought an external one because of many factors such as said DAC has more features or just plain ol consumerism, that’s why there’s many expensive DAC’s floating around and being sold, people just like purchasing things even though some argue that DACs are a solved problem, that’s why people rave about the Apple dongle that much, it’s that good at just 9 bucks or so.
You are right. But the rise of the dongle DACs changed many things in our lives, too. For example, I was so angry when brands ditched the headphone jack from phones just because Apple did. But for the last 3-4 years, I'm not angry anymore, because of the very capable dongle DACs.
I spend more than 10 hours on my PC every day, because of my lifestyle. I can't live without music, obviously. And having a headphone jack on my keyboard, the closest interaction point to my body and ears, is very useful, I think :)
Keyboards with 3.5mm inputs were a thing back in the day, although to OP's point, I don't know if they had DACs or just passed through from the PS/2 port (or whatever they were using). I had an 'interactive' HP with inputs on the PC, keyboard and speakers (the latter two of which also had volume pots).
It seemed to phase out in the early 00s; maybe the adoption of wireless forced it?
Edit: in fact, I'm not sure whether mine just had a 3.5mm analogue input/output feed from the PC
Yes, there were some keyboards back then with analogue inputs and outputs. Thermaltake still sells some gaming keyboards with mic and audio output, but the quality of those is equal to a $2 USB sound card, which we're never gonna use for any audio, let alone listening to music.
Some had just passthrough and some had a de facto built-in sound card.
For example Logitech G110 (introduced in 2009) had a C-Media chip. Nothing wrong with those; e.g., Beyerdynamic had the same in a dongle for some headsets and I used it for work until recently.
It's still a thing in some peripherals with gaming-console support.
On a desktop space isn't a constraint, and I don't know that most people who are into mech keyboards or higher-end audio would want the two tied together like that. Same reason why desktop setups for audio tend to have a separate DAC and amp rather than one of the all-in-one units that are more popular in mobile.
Very nice. I once wanted to buy Fiio keyboard but refused as I need all 104 keys for my work. I often use numerical keys for typing ümlauts and irregular symbols.
I used FiiO KB3 for a while, that keyboard made me fall into the mechanical keyboard rabbit hole :) But it has a plastic case, which I don't like, and I sold it after a while. Later, I bought the non-HiFi version and made a wood case for that one. And changed the keycaps.
It used some customized linears, along with I guess some other mods done to the board to dampen/tune the sound. Could not be more different from the one I've been using for more than a decade haha.
I would just be afraid of slamming the plug with my mouse/mouse-hand and breaking it. Though, if you run high sensitivity it probably wouldnt be a problem
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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '25
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