MicroSD Memory Card Transport Project

Upgrade example by Sunacchi

I'd like to introduce Sunacchi's example here today.
His blog pages, Ama Ama Audio Visual, in Japanese are
SDƒJ�[ƒhƒvƒŒƒCƒ„�[“ó�†‹@: Ama Ama Audio Visual
SDƒJ�[ƒhƒvƒŒƒCƒ„�[“ó�†‹@�i‚»‚Ì‚Q�j: Ama Ama Audio Visual

His system consists three boxes.
sdcard2-1-thumbnail2.jpg

In a main box, he put his SDTrans192, two Buffalo II DAC boards and a Japanese I/V stage.
sdcard2-6-thumbnail2.jpg

The SDTrans192 has two NDK oscillator chips. Original LCD display is replaced with "Non-back light type". Two Buffalo II DACs are configured into "Dual mono mode" respectively.
His discrete I/V stage is a kit distributed by a Japanese well-known kit designer, Mr. Fujiwara. The item code of the board is "A7-DiscAMP" on the following page.
http://www20.tok2.com/home/easyaudiokit/distr/distr.html
Its manual is here. Though it is written in Japanese, you can look at schematics.
http://www20.tok2.com/home/easyaudiokit/manual/A7-discAMPmanual.pdf (The kit is already sold out.)

Sunacchi pursues high-quality power supplies.
In his second box, power supply regulators for +-12V, +5V x 3 are located.
sdcard2-5-thumbnail2.jpg

His power source is not a commercial AC power line, but batteries! In the third box, one 10A silicon battery is allocated for +3.3V and +5V and two 5A sealed Pb batteries for +12 and -12V.
sdcard2-3-thumbnail2.jpg


Just last weekend, he replaced original Crystek 80 MHz Oscillator devices on Buffalo II DACs with Fidelix 96 MHz bipolar amplifier oscillators so that he could listen to DXD WAV files on the system without noises. (Small stamp size boards wrapped with copper foils are the oscillator modules.)
sdplayer2-1-thumbnail2.jpg

For this upgrade, he added regulators for +3.3V in the second box.
sdplayer2-2-thumbnail2.jpg


I heard that he was now much enjoying sounds obtained by this system.
 
Fidelix Caprice vs. Buffalo II / IVY

Dear Raymond,
We appreciate your detailed explanation very much.
This week I am listening to the JFET power rugulatored and NDK oscillator upgraded SDTrans192 Rev. 2.1. This is the best SDTrans192 among I experienced.
Apart from the topic, I'd like to report the use of I2S interfacing on LVDS/HDMI connectors & cable. As some of you may know, PS Audio employs "I2S through HDMI connection" as an interfacing method for connecting their PerfectWave Transport to PerfectWave DAC. This specification is open and a Japanese audio vendor, Fidelix, provides a transmitter module (the smaller board at upper in the following picture) and a receiver & digital isolator module (the larger one at lower).
I2S-HDMI%20PCB.jpg

These module uses National Semiconductor, DS90LV047 (Tx) and DS90LV048 (Rx) & IL715 (digital isolator).
I2S-HDMI.gif

I listened to sounds by connecting our SDTrans192 to their CAPRICE DAC through this transmitter & receiver module with 1m HDMI cable for playing WAV files ranging from 44.1 kHz/ 16 bit to 352.8 kHz/ 24 bit. I thought it was fully feasible and I did not detected any distinct degradation of tones.
Chiaki is planning to incorporate a transmitter module with a HDMI connector in the next version of SDTrans192 Rev. 3.0.
Bunpei

Dear Bunpei,

please would you shed some light on the sonic differences of these two configurations:

1.) SDTrans192 with Fidelix Caprice
2.) SDTrans192 with Buffalo II / IVY

Which do you prefer ?

Thanks

matthias
 
I2S on LVDS/HDMI ( differential I2S )

Apart from the topic, I'd like to report the use of I2S interfacing on LVDS/HDMI connectors & cable. As some of you may know, PS Audio employs "I2S through HDMI connection" as an interfacing method for connecting their PerfectWave Transport to PerfectWave DAC. This specification is open and a Japanese audio vendor, Fidelix, provides a transmitter module (the smaller board at upper in the following picture) and a receiver & digital isolator module (the larger one at lower).
As I received a PM requesting a recent status of this Fidelix "I2S on LVDS/HDMI" modules, I report this.

The company, Fidelix, has stock and they can sell the modules.
Their regular prices for end users are;
Transmitter : 5,000 JPY/piece
Receiver with Isolator: 10,000 JPY/piece

If you are interested in the modules, please contact to Bunpei. He will support communications between you and the company.
(The company has no experience of direct oversea marketing and sales.)

Bunpei has connected SDTrans192 and Buffalo II DAC using the interface modules with 1m HDMI cable and confirmed that the interfacing was perfect even on 352.8 kHz/ 24 bit PCM data transfer.
 
He will announce new features soon. However, we'd like to ask your patience for a while.

Chiaki announced an outlook of his new design of SDTrans192 Rev.3.0 two days ago on a BBS attached to his web site.
•ú‰ÛŒã‚Ì“dŽq�H�ì�@ŒfŽ¦” (In Japanese)

I translate his announcement and post them here.
-----------------------------------------------
Main objectives for the coming update are;
1. Improving sound quality
2. Providing better connectivity to peripheral devices

For Objective 1.,
A. Adopting NDK low phase noise crystal oscillator modules
B. Improving power supply circuits to obtain low noise profiles
C. Improving signal line print patterns

For Objective 2., the following interfaces will be on board
(in addition to such existing interfaces as I2C, I2S (single end, logic level),
S/PDIF
A. I2S on LVDS/HDMI connector & cable (PS-Audio spec)
B. Serial interface for outputting necessary file and play information
C. External master clock signal input connectors
D. External operation switch signal input connectors
 
Version 3.0

Bunpei - thank you for the outlook for Version 3.0.

I think that Mr Chiaki has two very good objectives, and I consider nr 1 "Improving Sound quality" to be very important.

I also like that there will be "External operation switch signal input connectors". Is that via a remote control? Will it then be possible to control the Play, Stop, Pause, Previous Song buttons?



Regards,
Ingemar



Chiaki announced an outlook of his new design of SDTrans192 Rev.3.0 two days ago on a BBS attached to his web site.
•ú‰ÛŒã‚Ì“dŽq�H�ì�@ŒfŽ¦” (In Japanese)

I translate his announcement and post them here.
-----------------------------------------------
Main objectives for the coming update are;
1. Improving sound quality
2. Providing better connectivity to peripheral devices

For Objective 1.,
A. Adopting NDK low phase noise crystal oscillator modules
B. Improving power supply circuits to obtain low noise profiles
C. Improving signal line print patterns

For Objective 2., the following interfaces will be on board
(in addition to such existing interfaces as I2C, I2S (single end, logic level),
S/PDIF
A. I2S on LVDS/HDMI connector & cable (PS-Audio spec)
B. Serial interface for outputting necessary file and play information
C. External master clock signal input connectors
D. External operation switch signal input connectors
 
I also like that there will be "External operation switch signal input connectors". Is that via a remote control? Will it then be possible to control the Play, Stop, Pause, Previous Song buttons?

Dear Ingemar,

I'm very sorry for my late reply.

SDTrans192 has four switches on board for Mode, Rew, Fwd, Play/Stop.
We will provide terminals to which you can add external dry contact switching mechanism in parallel. We hope you to add your remote control receiver that has digital dry contact switching capabilities by yourself. We hesitate to add any remote control receiver device on a standard board because we want to avoid a cost-up and high frequency noise sources.

Best regards,
 
As I received a PM requesting a recent status of this Fidelix "I2S on LVDS/HDMI" modules, I report this.
The company, Fidelix, has stock and they can sell the modules.
Their regular prices for end users are;
Transmitter : 5,000 JPY/piece
Receiver with Isolator: 10,000 JPY/piece
If you are interested in the modules, please contact to Bunpei. He will support communications between you and the company.
(The company has no experience of direct oversea marketing and sales.)
Bunpei has connected SDTrans192 and Buffalo II DAC using the interface modules with 1m HDMI cable and confirmed that the interfacing was perfect even on 352.8 kHz/ 24 bit PCM data transfer.

Dear Bunpei,

what about a 230V version of FIDELIX CAPRICE ?

KR

matthias
 
... do you know if they are considering doing another run of kits for the IV module?...

Do you mean Mr. Fujiwara's "Discrete I/V stage with balanced input/SE output"?
http://www20.tok2.com/home/easyaudiokit/IVCmanual.pdf
(In Japanese. You can look at schematics, patterns and pictures.)

Yes, it is on distribution now. They say price for the board with chip ceramic capacitors is 2,100 JPY. (No other parts are included)

Are you interested in this?
 
ahh, yes thats what I meant. I was just wondering about availability. so only SE output? that would rule it out for me for now. if there were a balanced in/out version I would snap it up. I suppose it could be used for a summing stage for a dual differential dac (I will be adding a second dac board soon), is that what your friend is doing? BTW i'll email you about the XO if that offer is still extended.
 
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... so only SE output? that would rule it out for me for now. if there were a balanced in/out version I would snap it up. I suppose it could be used for a summing stage for a dual differential dac (I will be adding a second dac board soon), is that what your friend is doing? ...
I browsed his product page and found no balanced in/out version.

As you pointed out,however, I think we can use two boards for Buffalo II Dual Mono Mode. In this case, two usual SE outputs on one board can be used as a single balanced output in the same manner in IVY III.
Recently updated picture by Sunacchi shows this configuration.
sdplayer4-1-thumbnail2.jpg

He says he is satisfied with its performance.