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The Asynchronous USB Audio class 2 module.

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Looks great. I am looking forward to testing it when it is awailable.
However, one tweak done to the exa card is to cut the 5Vusb and apply 5V from the dac`s supply. This has a big effect on the sound and I hope this will be possible on your module as well. In other words external power to both the usb-side and the audio-side. If there is need for regulation I would also like to have the option of using tridents instead of normal off the shelf chip regs.
 
Hi Russ,

I would love to have this capability, with the endgame objective to be able to utilise the volume control of the Buffalo (2) directly from within windows, without having to use an arduino or similar.

Really glad it's finally all coming together :D

Cheers,
Phil

Hi Russ,

I'd love this too, but a bit modified:
"I would love to have this capability, with the endgame objective to be able to utilise the volume control of the Buffalo 2+3 directly from within Linux (and other OS), without having to use an arduino or similar."
 
Great product

Hi Russ,

Just wanted to add my support and interest in this product.
For me the holy grail features of DSP filters and Buffalo volume control would make this a dream product.

Thanks in advance and hope your 2013 makes up for 2012...

" Within every adversity lies the seed of an equal or greater benefit"

All the best
Derek.
 
Hi Bunpei, of course I meant you to respond privately, because I simply do not agree in many respects with the people you refer to. :)

I understand very well how both the XMOS and ESS I/O schemes work.

https://www.xmos.com/download/final...1718eee0a56586d0e502ff9855&px-time=1362678408

With the ES9018 the effects of the 400Mhz skew on I2S would not matter as everything is asynchronously re-sampled (not merely re-clocked), but even if you are of the mind that it would matter, re-clocking each signal to the audio master clock solves this issue very nicely. :)

I will say that if someone credible can definitively show a direct analog effect (at the DAC output) of the 4ns jitter on anything other than a master clock on the analog audio signal (not digital) I will gladly change my view, until then that idea holds no water for me. :)

Cheers!
Russ
I believe Bruno looked into this, ref post below.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendors-bazaar/190434-hypex-ncore-199.html#post2900076
 
Tough...

Am I correct that sound quality of a PC based music server will not benefit from a special USB card like the SOtM tX-USB PCI to USB Card? Or can one expect better sound quality still from such a USB card?

Peter

This is a complicated question. I use an SOtM USB output card in my music server, and for further benefit, I power the SOtM USB card from a dedicated, low noise, low impedance power supply.
With a USB receiver with well implemented "isolation", the tendency would be to believe that what goes on in the server will not matter, but my experience suggests this to be untrue.
I very much suspect that even Russ' USB receiver board will benefit from using the SOtM USB card in the server (especially when powered by its own low noise supply), but until TPA releases the receiver card, and we get to try it, we will not know for sure. Russ' card does use the USB power for the XMOS processor side, so it may be an advantage to have a clean USB power supply, the SOtM card may have theoretical advantage here. In any case, I will be using my SOtM card with the TPA USB receiver to be sure I am getting the best possible performance.
 
This is a complicated question. I use an SOtM USB output card in my music server, and for further benefit, I power the SOtM USB card from a dedicated, low noise, low impedance power supply.
With a USB receiver with well implemented "isolation", the tendency would be to believe that what goes on in the server will not matter, but my experience suggests this to be untrue.
I very much suspect that even Russ' USB receiver board will benefit from using the SOtM USB card in the server (especially when powered by its own low noise supply), but until TPA releases the receiver card, and we get to try it, we will not know for sure. Russ' card does use the USB power for the XMOS processor side, so it may be an advantage to have a clean USB power supply, the SOtM card may have theoretical advantage here. In any case, I will be using my SOtM card with the TPA USB receiver to be sure I am getting the best possible performance.

Hi Barrows, thank you for your reply.
I am thinking in the same direction. Since power supplies in music servers do have an audible effect on sound quality, high quality USB cards with dedicated power supplies will have an audible effect too. No matter how good the USB signal is treated afterwards.
Yesterday I was at a friend’s house. We put a 800VA isolation transformer with DC blocker in the mains connection of his mini mac music server. It was really surprising what an improvement that gave!
Peter
 
Hi Barrows, thank you for your reply.
I am thinking in the same direction. Since power supplies in music servers do have an audible effect on sound quality, high quality USB cards with dedicated power supplies will have an audible effect too. No matter how good the USB signal is treated afterwards.
Yesterday I was at a friend’s house. We put a 800VA isolation transformer with DC blocker in the mains connection of his mini mac music server. It was really surprising what an improvement that gave!
Peter
I wonder about this.

At this point in the data flow – that is, at the the USB port exiting the computer – we're still operating fully in the digital domain. The audio data is functionally indistinguishable from file system or network data.

If it were true that a dedicated power supply improved the robustness of digital data transfer, wouldn't we want to employ such power supplies when transferring *any* data via USB?

I have a digital file that includes sensitive financial data. And yet, I don't think twice about relying on my computer's power supply when backing up said file to an external hard drive.

How is audio data any different?
 
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