ES9018K2M XMOS DSD DXD 384kHz
Hi at all!
Please can someone help me?
I need to know exactly all pinout of my dac pcb becouse i need to connect it by i2s with my old philips cd transport and with usb/i2s converter.
And i need to know were to connect power supply and were to connect to withdraw the current output to be sent to my i / v converter.
Here is my converter:
I2SoverUSB - I2S over USB Audio
and oscillator:
Oscillator board - I2S over USB Audio
Thanks in advantage i hope to know, i hope tosolve my problem.
Hi at all!
Please can someone help me?
I need to know exactly all pinout of my dac pcb becouse i need to connect it by i2s with my old philips cd transport and with usb/i2s converter.
And i need to know were to connect power supply and were to connect to withdraw the current output to be sent to my i / v converter.
Here is my converter:
I2SoverUSB - I2S over USB Audio
and oscillator:
Oscillator board - I2S over USB Audio
Thanks in advantage i hope to know, i hope tosolve my problem.
Attachments
Hi i have tried this converter (coax to TTL) and the output level is reduced from about 3vdc to about 0,5vdc once connected to the dac board. When I remove only the connection to input of SPDIF input on dac board the output of the converter gives back the 3vdc....
Has anyone successfully connected an SPDIF input to this dac board ?
Thanks
Fab
Hi,
I plan to use the ES9018k2m to build a no preamp battery battery supply DAC.
Questions ...
I use Logitech media server and an etalon streamer with squeezelite. I don't think it implements volume control over I2C. Which controller or system could i use to manage volume ? (I don't want to use an attenuators).
This card http:
//www.diyinhk.com/shop/audio-kits/58-xmos-dsd-dxd-384khz-high-quality-usb-to-i2s-pcb.html#/xmos_option-xmos_384k_pcb
is out of stock... Is it a problem if i don't use the I2C bit perfect volume control ?
Other questions : output stage voltage is give at 12V. Do you know if it can work lower ? Do i have to change output components for this ? (I will use lifepo4 battery and voltage will go under 12V with a 12V battery)
The XMOS usb to I2S card with isolator is out of stock. There is a DAC card with an isolator instead. Do you know if it is reclocked after isolator ? I will need and additional PSU if i take this board ?
Thank you for your help
Bernard
I plan to use the ES9018k2m to build a no preamp battery battery supply DAC.
Questions ...
I use Logitech media server and an etalon streamer with squeezelite. I don't think it implements volume control over I2C. Which controller or system could i use to manage volume ? (I don't want to use an attenuators).
This card http:
//www.diyinhk.com/shop/audio-kits/58-xmos-dsd-dxd-384khz-high-quality-usb-to-i2s-pcb.html#/xmos_option-xmos_384k_pcb
is out of stock... Is it a problem if i don't use the I2C bit perfect volume control ?
Other questions : output stage voltage is give at 12V. Do you know if it can work lower ? Do i have to change output components for this ? (I will use lifepo4 battery and voltage will go under 12V with a 12V battery)
The XMOS usb to I2S card with isolator is out of stock. There is a DAC card with an isolator instead. Do you know if it is reclocked after isolator ? I will need and additional PSU if i take this board ?
Thank you for your help
Bernard
Last edited:
Fab, coax consumer spdif should be at 0.6V, TTL level is 3.3V. A coax to TTL adapter should actually amplify the signal from 0.6 to 3.3V. If your coax is putting out 3.3V then it should work directly with the dac.
I have used a twisted pear optical board for optical spdif input to a diyinhk k2m board and it works fine. The spdif input pads were the opposite way to what I thought they would be in that the square pad is ground and the other pad is signal also if you don't use a microcontroller you will need to jumper or switch the spdif selection pads to force spdif input.
Any i2c volume will need to use code specific to the sabre chips in order to utilise the hardware volume control on the chip
You can use whatever i2s card you like but if you don't order one from diyinhk with i2c volume firmware then you will need to control the volume in another way.
You can do this with an arduino and the hifiduino code or use the digital volume control in your software player, as long as it uses more than 24bits to control the volume you should have a reasonable range before it degrades the signal.
The opamp used in the I/V runs off a bipolar 12V supply +/-12V. To get this voltage you can use two 12V batteries or you will need a charge pump circuit to generate the negative voltage. You can run the opamp at lower voltages but it will reduce performance and will reduce output voltage swing due to the lower rails. You could also split the 12V battery supply to get +/-6V. You will also need regulators for the 3.3V volt DAC supplies and dropping 12V to 3.3V will generate quite a lot of heat.
There are other output stages that can be used from simple passive I/V or transformers, these will not require any external power supply voltage.
I am not sure it works that way with squeezelite. I am quite sure that if i reduce volume on 16bit stream, It will be a 16 bit stream (with volume reduction) that will be sent to DAC?
Other output stage on the same kit or i just need do modify it myself ?
I have no solution for volume output at this times except to use my actual preamp.
Thanks for your help.
Bernard
I don't know much about squeezelite but if you are running it on linux then via alsa you can set the output bit depth to 24 or 32, try it and see what happens.
The opamp output stage included on the pcb performs I/V and differential to single ended conversion.
There are also pads on the board to bypass this output stage and go directly from the differential outputs of the DAC. You can then use a passive I/V or transformer based output if you want.
This page has quite a lot of information on ES9018 output stages.
ES9018 USB DAC - Hi-Resolution System*
The k2m is not the same as it doesn't have 8 internal channels but the principal is the same.
Is there a reason why you want to use a battery as this DAC is not really setup to work off a single 12V supply.
This DAC will need a micro controller or specific firmware to send the correct i2c commands otherwise volume control will need to be external. You can always use a pot before your amp if you can't get anything else to work.
I am going to investigate. I don't know if volume treatment is done by linux driver or squeezelite.
Yes, i want to power everything except my power amp on battery. At this time i have my optical bridge and my player on two lifepo4 batteries (Huge improvement), i will remove the preamp and so only the DAC is missing.
I just buy a DAM1021 kit. Everything i need...
Bernard
Lower levels is where you can start to hear the degradation from digital volume controls. 24bit can manage 30 to 40dB of attenuation before the signal is obviously worse. For every 6dB you attenuate you effectively lose 1 bit of resolution from the converter and every dB of attenuation reduces signal to noise ratio by the same amount.
Sabre's inbuilt volume control is 32 bit and has a few other tricks so it is very usable over a wide range of attenuation.
Type ess digital volume control into google it is the top listing, the document is too big to attach here are the link doesn't seem to work when it has been pasted.
I don't know what you mean by bit perfect management, no digital volume control can be bit perfect unless it is at 100% volume.
Software based volume control will work with any DAC the higher the bit depth the better it works. To use the inbuilt volume control of the DAC you need i2c control, I don't know of any software player that has that ability and it would still need a hardware connection to the i2c bus.
It seams that ess9018 does it.
It is hardware controled in the chip.
I am going to investigate.
B.
The document you will find from that google search is from ESS and explains how digital volume control works in general and covers specifics of the sabre implementation.
The volume control is hardware based and works through changing registers in the DAC, it is very sophisticated and works very well. To me 'bit perfect' means that what went in is what comes out, once you change the level it isn't the same anymore, no digital volume control can overcome that.
Hi
I received the no isolated combo kit yesterday.
I have made some test and i don't understand the DAC behavior, may be you can help me.
I did not allready received the supply for output stage, so i have made a test supplying 3,3V digital and 3,3V analog only, and i take the output on the differential output.
I have a single ended test amp, so have took DACL+ / ground for left channel, DACR+ / Ground for right channel.
I have sound, but ...
The DAC is working with the digital 3V3 supply only.
When i plug the 3V3 analog supply, i have a strong DC offset to the amp.
With the 3,3V digital supply only, i have mesured 1,8V DC on the analog supply input.
I am doing something wrong ?
What can be the problem ?
thank you
Bernard
I received the no isolated combo kit yesterday.
I have made some test and i don't understand the DAC behavior, may be you can help me.
I did not allready received the supply for output stage, so i have made a test supplying 3,3V digital and 3,3V analog only, and i take the output on the differential output.
I have a single ended test amp, so have took DACL+ / ground for left channel, DACR+ / Ground for right channel.
I have sound, but ...
The DAC is working with the digital 3V3 supply only.
When i plug the 3V3 analog supply, i have a strong DC offset to the amp.
With the 3,3V digital supply only, i have mesured 1,8V DC on the analog supply input.
I am doing something wrong ?
What can be the problem ?
thank you
Bernard
There isn't a problem you are just not using the board as it was designed.
You will need to use both of the 3.3V supplies for the DAC to work properly you can always wire them to the same 3.3V supply for initial testing.
If you don't use the opamp based output stage you will need to use something else instead.
If you use the raw differential output there will be DC offset of half the AVCC voltage, you can use a passive I/V or just a capacitor to block the DC for testing. Have a look at the audiodesign guide page I linked you to before that has some information that might help you understand.
You will need to use both of the 3.3V supplies for the DAC to work properly you can always wire them to the same 3.3V supply for initial testing.
If you don't use the opamp based output stage you will need to use something else instead.
If you use the raw differential output there will be DC offset of half the AVCC voltage, you can use a passive I/V or just a capacitor to block the DC for testing. Have a look at the audiodesign guide page I linked you to before that has some information that might help you understand.