ESS Sabre Reference DAC (8-channel)

[Bunpei]

According to "FUNCTIONAL BLOCK DIAGRAM" in data sheet of ES9018, DSD signal is processed in "OVERSAMPLING FILTER" block.

1. My interpretation is "no oversampling is applied to DSD data signals in this block".
Do you think it is correct?

2. In the case of I2S input, "OSF=ON or OFF" affects the effective magnitude of DPLL Bandwidth parameter. Even in the case of DSD input, does the setting "OSF=ON or OFF" affect the DPLL behavior?
As for a clock to which DPLL is subject, BCLK is said to be selected for I2S. How is for DSD? Is BCLK of DSD used for DPLL input?

[Bunpei]

Chiaki achieved a successful play of DSD256 sources on ES9018 implemented on Japanese Fidelix CAPRICE DAC. The transport used was Chiaki's SDTrans384 with Sync option. Oversampling mode was ON and DPLL Bandwidth Parameter was the "LOWEST". A synchronous master clock of 90.3168 MHz was employed.

[AndriyOL]

Do you mean DSD 256fs? Does it exist? Was ES9018 in phase mode?

[Bunpei]

Yes, its DCLK frequency is 44.1 kHz x 256 = 11.2896 MHz.

The DSD256 file was not prepared by any actual recording. I created it based on the method shown by flemming3520;
exaU2I - Multi-Channel Asynchronous USB to I2S Interface

The D1 and D2 signals given to ES9018 are of "DSD Normal mode".

[glt]

Hi Bunpei,

I've tried OSF bypass with 80MHz clock.

- It only works if the incoming sample is 384KHz.
- Any less and the dpll cannot lock when music is playing. It locks when there is no music playing.
- The value of the dpll is /64 (I was expecting /8)

Are there any other register to adjust when using the OSF bypass?

Thanks...

[Bunpei]

Originally Posted by glt

I've tried OSF bypass with 80MHz clock.

- It only works if the incoming sample is 384KHz.
- Any less and the dpll cannot lock when music is playing. It locks when there is no music playing.
- The value of the dpll is /64 (I was expecting /8)

Are there any other register to adjust when using the OSF bypass?

Hi, glt!

To my regret, I have no experience of playing 384kHz/32bit PCM on 80MHz ES9018.
The behavior seems very strange for me.
I think no other register setting is required for an OSF bypass.

Bunpei

[perra_e]

Originally Posted by Russ White

Since I have received a few emails asking how its done here is how you get DSD from any SACD player which uses the PCM1791 like the Denon DVD-2910.

Pin 1 is DATA R
Pin 3 is DATA L
Pin 5 is the bit clock.
Then you just need GND.

Cheers!
Russ

I found this old description of how to get the DSD from a Denon DVD-2910. I just wonder if any one knows if all tone controles, incluing volume, are bypassed when selecting "source direct" in the player so the pure DSD stream is captured when picking it from the DAC.

--Per

[Bunpei]

I found Dustin's name here
DSD via USB, Toward An Open Standard | AudioStream
with his company name, "Independent".

[Bunpei]

Some ES9018 users including Hifiduino users may read 32 bit DPLL_NUM value through a series of four byte-by-byte access to register #28,#29, #30 & #31 via I2C. No latching method of the four register values is shown in ES9018 datasheet.
Does anyone know whether a latching mechanism is provided or not?

Without such a latch, we can not read an exact value of DPLL_NUM in some typical cases.
For example, in the case of applying a synchronous MCLK of 90.3168MHz, DATA_CLK of 2.8224MHz is represented as the value 0x08000000 in DPLL_NUM. However, in actual situations, it fluctuates to some extent, for example, 0x07FFFFFF – 0×08000001. While we read out register #28 – #31 values one by one, the whole value changes and each byte changes. In the worst case, an obtained value of DPLL_NUM indicates 0x08FFFFFF or 0x07000000. (We usually get a result of random shuffles.)

[SoNic_real_one]

Originally Posted by perra_e

I found this old description of how to get the DSD from a Denon DVD-2910. I just wonder if any one knows if all tone controles, incluing volume, are bypassed when selecting "source direct" in the player so the pure DSD stream is captured when picking it from the DAC.

--Per

Denon says that in Source Direct (50kHz or 100kHz filter), the DSD stream goes unaffected into the DAC inputs. The filters are actually analog filters inside the DAC, so they won't affect the DSD stream. Selection is done with some 74LVC157 - easy to check (DSD_SEL). Same system is inside DVD-2930 too.