Thanks for the hint, but none in stock...
They will have some in about a week. You can actually get it on Amazon too, but at a hefty markup.
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Yes, just listen.
Seriously, if you wish to provide that bit of evidence for us all to consider by all means please... For the rest of us, hey its a hobby, and if it does what you want and it sounds great what else of is there? I am confident such a solution would measure well but I don't need that before I proceed.
If you have some issue with ESS claims, you should take it up with them. I am not their advocate. I just enjoy the fruit of their labor.
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Russ, I'm not debating. I'm merely asking. Don't take offense at a simple question or read more into it than was stated or intended. I guess the answer to my question is "we haven't measured". That's an answer of sorts, and means that for now there is not 'objective' verification of what is heard.
Also, I made no mention of USB and neither stated nor implied a comparison. I have no axe to grind for one approach vs the other vs any other approach.
Also, I made no mention of USB and neither stated nor implied a comparison. I have no axe to grind for one approach vs the other vs any other approach.
Brian
From my humble perspective to really investigate the (perfectly valid) question you raised re phase noise, you'll be needing access to a very expensive bit of test kit. Very expensive. To measure what's coming out of a $50 computing card.
If you have access to the test rig, great. I'm sure many people would like to see the results.
The benefits of using something like a Pi or a Beaglebone is that they don't run a million housekeeping threads, don't have noisey and complex legacy architectures, make easily managed demands on power and - most importantly - output audio on an inherently low jitter I2S header. This means that you are not contending with USB jobs, or worrying about the various buffers involved in asynch usb audio, nor deriving a clock ref from a noisy SPDIF interface. And you can mount your dac and the computing board so close together that you don't have to worry so much about RFI and other electrical gremlins.
And you will never have to join the debate on whether you can hear a difference between USB cables!
Subjectively (which is all I can judge by) this recipe is yielding truly impressive sonic results. Compared to a PC with the latest software players, using linear power, over asynch USB into a WaveIO XMOS interface and then to the Buffalo via isolated I2S, this little Pi appliance is richer in detail and microdynamics and big punchy macrodynamics, rhythmically on the beat and really compelling to listen to for as long as you like.
I lost interest in jitter specs after the first tune.
From my humble perspective to really investigate the (perfectly valid) question you raised re phase noise, you'll be needing access to a very expensive bit of test kit. Very expensive. To measure what's coming out of a $50 computing card.
If you have access to the test rig, great. I'm sure many people would like to see the results.
The benefits of using something like a Pi or a Beaglebone is that they don't run a million housekeeping threads, don't have noisey and complex legacy architectures, make easily managed demands on power and - most importantly - output audio on an inherently low jitter I2S header. This means that you are not contending with USB jobs, or worrying about the various buffers involved in asynch usb audio, nor deriving a clock ref from a noisy SPDIF interface. And you can mount your dac and the computing board so close together that you don't have to worry so much about RFI and other electrical gremlins.
And you will never have to join the debate on whether you can hear a difference between USB cables!
Subjectively (which is all I can judge by) this recipe is yielding truly impressive sonic results. Compared to a PC with the latest software players, using linear power, over asynch USB into a WaveIO XMOS interface and then to the Buffalo via isolated I2S, this little Pi appliance is richer in detail and microdynamics and big punchy macrodynamics, rhythmically on the beat and really compelling to listen to for as long as you like.
I lost interest in jitter specs after the first tune.
Hi
There are of course many, many mini pc (SoC) to choose from. BBB looks very interesting.
The Wandboard quad at 129USD with quad core A9, 2GB RAM, mini SD, wifi, bluetooth, sata might also be interesting to look at...?
Wandboard - Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 Opensource Community Development Board - DOWNLOADS
Cheers
There are of course many, many mini pc (SoC) to choose from. BBB looks very interesting.
The Wandboard quad at 129USD with quad core A9, 2GB RAM, mini SD, wifi, bluetooth, sata might also be interesting to look at...?
Wandboard - Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 Opensource Community Development Board - DOWNLOADS
Cheers
Great news Denis, that's encouraging. I've been searching for the BBB i2S pin out, but not found a definitive, clear view of that yet. I'll have a poke around the Angstrom Linux in the meantime.
Mark
I downloaded the BBB manual from CPC and it looks like all the i2S (and i2c) outputs are available on the expansion ports. Perhaps a simple cable could be made which would not only convey music via i2S but allow full control of a Buffalo via i2c. I assume (hope) that this is the sort of idea that Russ and Brian are working on.
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The wandboard is really nice but way overkill for our application. From my point of view, 4 core are not necessary for simple audio output, a single core will do fine and consume less power.
Having wifi and Bluetooth board might be useful for some folks, but they might also a complexity increase which introduces more noise in the system. The great thing about the BBB is that it is really simple, no unnecessary belts and whistles!
The TI Guide syas "Multiple sample rates support (8KHz, 16KHz, 22.05KHz, 32KHz, 44.1KHz, 48KHz, 64KHz, 88.2KHz and 96KHz) for both capture and playback"
No 192KHz or am I missing something.
maybe too ignorant to even try this
I just back-ordered a BBB from Mouser, and am happy to use the time until it gets here to get a bit up to speed on how one interfaces with it. I'm a bit less concerned (at least at first) with whatever electronic connections need to get made between this and the dac—its even more basic than that—does this wire into a PC and then you can program it (or add lines, etc. ) using the PC screen and keyboard, or?
I think what I am asking, is can someone guide me to a site that has very basic information about using these? Really basic, starting from scratch...
I just back-ordered a BBB from Mouser, and am happy to use the time until it gets here to get a bit up to speed on how one interfaces with it. I'm a bit less concerned (at least at first) with whatever electronic connections need to get made between this and the dac—its even more basic than that—does this wire into a PC and then you can program it (or add lines, etc. ) using the PC screen and keyboard, or?
I think what I am asking, is can someone guide me to a site that has very basic information about using these? Really basic, starting from scratch...
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