ackoDAC based on ES9018

[acko]

Originally Posted by Joe Rasmussen

125MHz SAW XO ...The current drain is mid 20's mA.

This must be the XO module current consumption . What about the DAC chip itself especially the digital core 1.2V supply and others?

[acko]

Originally Posted by Joe Rasmussen

I would love the TFL to be tried on your DAC and sure we could work something out, at least to do it on a trial basis, that should not be hard to do - and it will come with a SAW XO.

But trying the TFL with your DAC is something that I would love to do. I could set one up in "outrigger" mode - done that before, but it would work best if you could bring your DAC here and I could get it ready. The way I have in mind it can be done quickly if here in my workshop and you looking over my shoulder. And it would be OK by me to take it away for appraisal - but first have a listen in a pretty interesting system here.

So... let's do it, no need to put monetary impediments in the way first.

Cheers, Joe R.

Hi Joe,

After discussing with the rest of the team it was decided that further details on pricing and availability of your TFL clock for DIY use is needed before going forward. Even a ball park figure based on your previous products would do at this stage and must be available for purchase for this project if we find it beneficial. This option will be posted on my blog. There are a number of enquiries already.

Hope this is not too much of an imposition but this project is non-commercial really and anyone with commercial interest who wish to contribute must make their intentions clear. From previous experience someone with vested interest tried to engage us with promising contributions but cooled off suddenly after realizing that this DAC could easily cannibalise their own $10K product. So we wasted a lot of time running around for them. As your are in business with Oppo mods there could be similar conflict of interest.

So we need pricing, availability and technical details as indicated above please ... Hope you understand our position.

Cheers, Acko

[acko]

Originally Posted by Joe Rasmussen

Just checked with my other tester and he has even tried 133MHz XO, and it worked without any issues. But he said the 125MHz SAW XO sounded much better.

You are probably browning the chip already!

I see what you are trying to do: push the frequencies higher to get into the sweet spot of SAW technology. Lets take this further - to take advantage of synchronous clocking beyond 100MHz, we are looking at a 196.608MHz SAW XO. The AKX-701 can be made to 'spin' at X16 to match but the DAC will not be able to take it anymore. So we may have to wait for ESS to release a 200MHz part, hopefully

[acko]

Folks,

I am getting the AKD16 series (9016 chip) ready for fab. Several models from the basic model shown to various integration and options (combo versions).

[Bunpei]

Hi, acko,

May I ask one detailed question on your "TURBO Master Clock 100M - AKX 701 "?

I assume this board has two separate clock out interface pins for sending divided clock signals to a transport and accepts a clock selection control logic signal from the transport side. If one of two clocks is selected, does another non-selected output pin remain at a high-impedance state?
The reason why I ask this is that two clock input pins are internally tied together in the case of SDTrans. It expects a high-impedance of non-selected side.

Thanks a lot in advance.

[acko]

Hi Bunpei,

The slave clock outputs of AKX701 are actually identical. All division and selection are already done on board. So for the SD Trans that has only a single clock input you can use any one of the slave clock outputs. For other types of transport that usually have 2 inputs or XO both slave clock outputs can be use.
As I get things arranged for tests I will post more details on different types of connection.

[Boggy62]

Hi Acko,
Regarding your card 9023 DAC Products, can i connect an xmos usb to i2s card directly to it and have a dac without adding another clock or something else ( except power supply)

Thanks a lot

[hochopeper]

Boggy62, absolutely, this is exactly my plan!

[acko]

Originally Posted by Boggy62

Regarding your card 9023 DAC Products, can i connect an xmos usb to i2s card directly to it and have a dac without adding another clock.

Yes, you can source master clock directly from the MCLK of xmos usb-i2s. The max clock freq from these type of transports is usually 24.576MHz. Simple, saves costs and works fine with the DAC right up to 192kHz. Also puts the DAC into synchronous mode for better jitter performance.

For this DAC the jitter reduction improves further with higher MCLK so getting this to the max 50MHz and still keeping it synchronous is most beneficial. This is where the external Turbo Clock (AKX-501) comes in. It is pricey and requires transport mods to suit but gives ultimate performance.

[Boggy62]

Hi,
The plan is to use lorien card, who recommand your products
WaveIO | Luckit. I hope the reference is ok, if not, i will erase it.