I can see no problem apart from the length of wires connecting between them.
Physical layout - Analogue Domain.
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Acko, do you have any news / test reports / anything that will brighten our days about ES9018K2M board ?
Hello Acko,
I have been enjoying tremendously your DAC that works without a glitch since I completed it. It sounds outstanding.
As you know through my email, I am trying to make the second project where, unlike in the first one I did, I will try to complete 4 channels of digital crossover. With the first one I decided on digital front and analog crossover. With this project I would like to achieve full 4 channel digital crossover.
I am planning to use Titan LightHarmonics multichannel USB to I2S board with two of yours ESS9012 DACs. I was looking and reading about your turbo clock, and would like to know if I could use that to provide master clock to all units, including Titan and achieve synchronized operation. Titan board is capable operating in slave mode, but will not automatically change its sampling rate to a given signal. It does that in master mode but in slave mode it needs that info given from outside. I am assuming / hoping Turbo Clock will do that? Is there possibility for turbo clock to send MCK to three places: two DACs ( possibly inverted MCK) and to the Titan Board?
I have few other units, between them your buffered clock board that can provide 4 MCKs out, but I do not think that will do what is needed. I also have Ian's SI570 board, but I am also not sure it will do all that ether. Please let me know.
Thanks
Vladimir
I have been enjoying tremendously your DAC that works without a glitch since I completed it. It sounds outstanding.
As you know through my email, I am trying to make the second project where, unlike in the first one I did, I will try to complete 4 channels of digital crossover. With the first one I decided on digital front and analog crossover. With this project I would like to achieve full 4 channel digital crossover.
I am planning to use Titan LightHarmonics multichannel USB to I2S board with two of yours ESS9012 DACs. I was looking and reading about your turbo clock, and would like to know if I could use that to provide master clock to all units, including Titan and achieve synchronized operation. Titan board is capable operating in slave mode, but will not automatically change its sampling rate to a given signal. It does that in master mode but in slave mode it needs that info given from outside. I am assuming / hoping Turbo Clock will do that? Is there possibility for turbo clock to send MCK to three places: two DACs ( possibly inverted MCK) and to the Titan Board?
I have few other units, between them your buffered clock board that can provide 4 MCKs out, but I do not think that will do what is needed. I also have Ian's SI570 board, but I am also not sure it will do all that ether. Please let me know.
Thanks
Vladimir
Qusp already asked this question many months before me, so here it is again, as it is explained in a better way. We have the same board, so it would be the same solution. If I could make this question more clear.
Thanks AR2,
I have checked the details and as long as you have the slave version of Titan USB, it can be driven by the Turbo Clock AKX701. So, yes, two DACs and the Titan can be controlled this way. The CKSEL line from Titan determines which of the two XOs on AKX701 are active as required by its processing unit.
Re: AKX701. The MCK to DACs will be 98.304MHz or 90.3168MHz and the corresponding SCLK to Titan will be 49.152MHz or 45.1584MHz as selected. Essentially puts the DAC into Synchronous Clocking mode. Concept is similar to what has been done with the Amanero and you should get the same benefits. Keep interconnection of the clock lines as short as possible
BTW, Titan was my preferred transport at that time but without any further oem or diy version it dropped out of sight. Take care of the unit you have now
I have checked the details and as long as you have the slave version of Titan USB, it can be driven by the Turbo Clock AKX701. So, yes, two DACs and the Titan can be controlled this way. The CKSEL line from Titan determines which of the two XOs on AKX701 are active as required by its processing unit.
Re: AKX701. The MCK to DACs will be 98.304MHz or 90.3168MHz and the corresponding SCLK to Titan will be 49.152MHz or 45.1584MHz as selected. Essentially puts the DAC into Synchronous Clocking mode. Concept is similar to what has been done with the Amanero and you should get the same benefits. Keep interconnection of the clock lines as short as possible
BTW, Titan was my preferred transport at that time but without any further oem or diy version it dropped out of sight. Take care of the unit you have now
Thanks AR2,
I have checked the details and as long as you have the slave version of Titan USB, it can be driven by the Turbo Clock AKX701. So, yes, two DACs and the Titan can be controlled this way. The CKSEL line from Titan determines which of the two XOs on AKX701 are active as required by its processing unit.
Re: AKX701. The MCK to DACs will be 98.304MHz or 90.3168MHz and the corresponding SCLK to Titan will be 49.152MHz or 45.1584MHz as selected. Essentially puts the DAC into Synchronous Clocking mode. Concept is similar to what has been done with the Amanero and you should get the same benefits. Keep interconnection of the clock lines as short as possible
BTW, Titan was my preferred transport at that time but without any further oem or diy version it dropped out of sight. Take care of the unit you have now
BINGO!
Thank you Acko, you are one of a kind!
This is outstanding. Yes, this is exactly I was hoping to achieve. It is crystal clear that TITAN has to be in the slave mode. Larry Ho from LightHarmonics is extremely helpful when it comes to support with his product. All I need to do is send the board to him and they will change the configuration. Last time I was hoping to do that, I was not able to do it because there was nothing out that would send two frequencies - 49.152MHz and 45.1584MHz to the Titan in addition to sending 98.304MHz and 90.3168MHz to DACs. Now with Turbo Clock that is exactly the missing piece in the puzzle. OK, lets move on, I cannot wait.
Just realised that the Re-clocker board for Amanero (AKL-AMN-S03) is more general purpose than originally thought. It could be used for the Titan as well. Simply connect the Clock and I2S lines from Titan to AKL-AMN-S03 and get the same functionality as the Turbo Clock AKX701
Attachments
Even in multichannel mode? Man where is Qusp to enjoy all this good news? Thank you Acko! Would that have the same quality of clocks and powers supplies for it?
Actually for 2CH only. Thought this would be good for your 2CH project with the Titan and available as bare board for you to tweak or experiment
AKL-AMN-S03 is Turbo Clock and 2CH re-clocker all combined on a single board with similar power supplies and XOs (AKX701 has higher specs though with pecl XOs/ouputs and clock inversion capabilities-supplied as finished product only)
Multi-channel version of the re-clocker can be developed if there is sufficient interest to cover costs.
Acko, that is really great news. I am sure that there might be many people interested in having a clock / re-clocker board that could do few channels. For anyone that attempted this journey they will know that is the biggest stumbling block - having one clock for all units and having a proper wiring and termination. Otherwise you are stuck with several clocks all working on their own and wired who knows how.
As for my projects - I am tackling three projects, two multichannel ones and one stereo. All together 4 Ackos DACs. One multichannel one is the one I did before when I gave up digital crossover for the very reason I explained above, so I finished with analog crossover. Now I will just correct that. The second one will be new multichannel system, and the third one is stereo based on Amanero.
I cannot wait to have it all done. As I type I am listening my first system with your DAC based on 9012, and it is such a great sound. I have been experimenting with transformer outputs, and I am extremely pleased what I am hearing, particularly in upper octaves.
Digital Crossover
AR2, thank you for your feedback. It looks like a great project and I am sure you will succeed this time with the new plans. As for digital crossover, most would favour a single 8Ch 9018 Dac and allocate channels accordingly. This is based on the feedback from other interested parties so far. Also, only a single master clock is required and multi-channel reclocker suit. So this type of design is easier to roll out and more cost effective.
The use of dual DACs as in your case is a bit more elaborate and would require fan-out buffers on all the clock and signal lines to distribute them to two physically separate DACs. This would require a special build for you and the associated costs as proposed in my email. Of course you will get higher performance from the combined channels. Regardless, I will continue to explore options for you.
AR2, thank you for your feedback. It looks like a great project and I am sure you will succeed this time with the new plans. As for digital crossover, most would favour a single 8Ch 9018 Dac and allocate channels accordingly. This is based on the feedback from other interested parties so far. Also, only a single master clock is required and multi-channel reclocker suit. So this type of design is easier to roll out and more cost effective.
The use of dual DACs as in your case is a bit more elaborate and would require fan-out buffers on all the clock and signal lines to distribute them to two physically separate DACs. This would require a special build for you and the associated costs as proposed in my email. Of course you will get higher performance from the combined channels. Regardless, I will continue to explore options for you.
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Hello Acko!
When will this be avalible? Also what power requirements are there for the ES9018K2M? Is there built in I/V or do you use external? Is there any digital volume control like the ES9018 avalible?
Can you please make the XO-pads working with Crystek-XO's as well
Hi Roumen,
UFL-w.fl cable assemblies are hard to come by unless special order in quantities from suppliers like Gradconn as indicated in the manual
Alternatively, you can mount w.fl receptacles on the U.fl pads of Ian's Clock. I believe there are empty U.FL pads on the underside on the Si570 board and can be used for this purpose. I know someone else who has done it this way and reported success.
The next model of AKD12 will have U.FL connectors instead
UFL-w.fl cable assemblies are hard to come by unless special order in quantities from suppliers like Gradconn as indicated in the manual
Alternatively, you can mount w.fl receptacles on the U.fl pads of Ian's Clock. I believe there are empty U.FL pads on the underside on the Si570 board and can be used for this purpose. I know someone else who has done it this way and reported success.
The next model of AKD12 will have U.FL connectors instead
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Hello Acko!
When will this be avalible? Also what power requirements are there for the ES9018K2M? Is there built in I/V or do you use external? Is there any digital volume control like the ES9018 avalible?
Can you please make the XO-pads working with Crystek-XO's as well
Gents,
The roll out of ES9018K2M board has been delayed till next year. Priority at this stage for new models of 9018 DACs (AKD12 series) before the end of this year.
But briefly, the ES9018K2M series has only single dac core per stereo channel compared to 4 cores for the 9018 but somehow ESS have tweaked the performance to impressive levels and with some interesting flexibility. The chips are very tiny though and need full factory fab even for prototypes so I am making sure to get it right the first time to go straight into production models.
XLR IV is on board (can be bypassed for external types if preferred)
Has digital volume control. MCU on-board or external hasn't been decided yet.
XO is custom built sync frequency type on a single module. No options for other types.
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