Brilliant, that did it.
So,
- I don't need a breakout board. Chips and jumper wires will do fine until if and when I make my own board for the project.
- I definitely need to level shift faster than the 4050. You said the 74LVC245 is good? The whole point of the setup is the speed gain this potentially gives me so I can get the mp3 stream from ether to mp3 chip fast enough for it to play.
Do you know of any other fast level shifters off hand?