ackoDAC based on ES9018

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Hey Joe R, I see you back again - I gave you some ESS info privately & asked about your IV stage but got nada in reply - is your mail system broken or what?

PS. if you look at the files contained in ACko's zip your answers are already there.

I did a search of my Inbox and only your LEM enquiries showed up. Not sure what's happened?

But you got info, I got interest. :)

Acko is here in Sydney and that heightens my interest further. When he is ready I would love to hear it and compare with reference stuff here.

BTW, nice to see guys using the real names. Makes searching my Inbox easier. :D

I mean, this could well turn out to be a killer DAC is all the T's are crossed and all the I's are dotted. The devil is in the detail.

Cheers.

Joe R.
 
Contact the ESS distributor for your area !


USA | China | Hong Kong | Taiwan | Korea | Japan | Singapore
France | Belgium | Netherlands | Luxembourg | United Kingdom | Germany
Austria | Switzerland | Scandinavia | Spain | Italy | Turkey | Greece
Israel | Tunisia | Morocco | Algeria | India

Maybe they confuse Australia with Austria.

Cheers.

Joe R.
 
Hi Everyone,

I am nearing completion of the new DAC version and also all the support modules required to build up a complete system. See attached files for preview. All these will go for fab next week and boards should be ready by mid-Jan for assembly/test and then release. Happy New Year!
Acko

Cool Project. Any plans to do a USB or firewire input board for the system?
 
USB Input

Cool Project. Any plans to do a USB or firewire input board for the system?

The DAC system is modular so you can attach external USB-I2S or USB-Spdif to the Digital Inputs. As JKenny pointed out the HiFace USB-Spdif is an excellent choice and this can be connected via coax cable to the Spdif Receiver as shown in the preview. The DAC has 8 Spdif channels (D1 to D8) so could be used to easily switch from PC to CD player (with spdif/AES out)

What about similar USB to I2S as this would be more direct in the conversion?

Regards, Acko
 
Asynchronous USB to I2S would be the obvious choice. I don't know why SPDIF even exists anymore.

It would be nice not to have modify another product. Modifying the Hiface is risky because it's so small and delicate.

Having it's own USB input module, the power supplies and such could be designed with the module in mind.
 
Asynchronous USB to I2S would be the obvious choice. I don't know why SPDIF even exists anymore.

It would be nice not to have modify another product. Modifying the Hiface is risky because it's so small and delicate.

Having it's own USB input module, the power supplies and such could be designed with the module in mind.

For the Teralink X2 convertor in my earlier post, designer plan to add a FIFO buffer in that converter to get lower jitter
Did you try Musiland Monitor 01 USD;Asynchronous and 24/192 (using xilinx chip)
I am wondering performance of it comparing to HiFace USB-Spdif
 
Last edited:
Looks great and it is for sure going to mate well with a hacked up hiface. I think given the state of USB Async there is no point in trying to include it unless it comes licensed from Hiface/Wavelength Audio, all the other solutions seem to have issues and at some point you need to just get the product out.

How is the ETA looking Acko? :)
 
Jkeny has both the Hiface and Musiland. He says there is no comparison. The Hiface is much better.
Yep, labjr, but just to clarify - The MODDED HiFace is WAY better than the MODDED Musiland. The stock HiFace is about the same as the Musiland AFAI can remember :). But when the HiFace is modded with a clean supply to the clocks & a separate clean supply to the IO part of the Xilinx CPLD chip, then it really sings :)
 
Jkeny has both the Hiface and Musiland. He says there is no comparison. The Hiface is much better.

Probably implementation dependent.

For many, hiface vs musiland will depend on soldering skills (I myself would destroy the hifice if I attempt to mod it)

In addition, the ess chip will throw away the master clock and resample the data, so the difference in clock implementation between musiland and hiface may or may not matter. I think jkenny was going to repeat his experiment with the asrc enabled with a proper clock.

There was comment in my blog about an implementation of using the i2s from the musiland to a BurrBrown DAC and it was an improvement over his previous implementation using an resampler with a tent clock.
 
Probably implementation dependent.
Yes, glt, I forgot about the Musiland's clock putting out 128fs & this not being optimal for your Opus WM DAC or my ESS DAC. Whereas the HiFace puts out 256fs from 32 to 96KHz, which is fine! BTW, Does the Musiland use 128fs at all samplerates? This might be another reason though to favour the HiFace & I2S or use SPDIF as you have done?

For many, hiface vs musiland will depend on soldering skills (I myself would destroy the hifice if I attempt to mod it)
Yes, the HiFace is not very DIY friendly - it's a very tight fit but I have to say that all the critical supplies are exposed & accessible so they can be optimised given a good magnifier& steady hand.

In addition, the ess chip will throw away the master clock and resample the data, so the difference in clock implementation between musiland and hiface may or may not matter. I think jkenny was going to repeat his experiment with the asrc enabled with a proper clock.
Yes, my report is based on using the I2S MCLK which comes from the transport so the transport clock's jitter & noise is important. I haven't tried the 50MHz clock in asynchronous mode on the ESS DAC. I'm not sure what Valeriano is using?

There was comment in my blog about an implementation of using the i2s from the musiland to a BurrBrown DAC and it was an improvement over his previous implementation using an resampler with a tent clock.
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.