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Introducing the Hermes-Amanero

Amanero Hermes

Hopefully last question:

It looks like from various posts is that to connect the Amanero Hermes USB module you need to just:

Add the header pins
Stack the three boards
Connect the 5.25v power supply
Connect the outputs to the buffalo iii dac
Connect the USB input

Correct?

Thank you

Kris
 
Hi,

I replaced my Hermes-BBB (and bbb) with a Hermes-Amanero (With Amanero) yesterday.

It works good with the exception that files greater than 192KHz seem to distort. The weird thing is that they played fine on the bbb with the same cronus setup.

Things that haven't changed:
- cronus with 1:2 clock divider and 45/49 family of clocks
- dac
- osf bypassed for files > 192 khz

What has changed:
- location of the cronus in the chassis
- hermes-amanero instead of hermes-bbb
- amanero instead of bbb

I do not get it, why would it sound without distortion on the bbb and with distortion on the amanero. The amanero is fed by the same bbb using squeezelite. I can see the dac report all correct sample rates, it is just that 352/384 sounds lightly distorted.

Could this have something to do with the location of the cronus in the chassis and possible interference on the i2s wires to my dac?

Thanks!
 
Sorry, newbie here. I am trying to assemble my Amanero-Hermes-Cronus, when I got to the Cronus, I was totally blank. Where can I find information on how to put together the Cronus unit? I dont want to guess as I do not want to ruin the board. Can not find any guide as to how to put this together. Please help! Russ...Anyone....

Alex
 
Hi,

I replaced my Hermes-BBB (and bbb) with a Hermes-Amanero (With Amanero) yesterday.

It works good with the exception that files greater than 192KHz seem to distort. The weird thing is that they played fine on the bbb with the same cronus setup.

Things that haven't changed:
- cronus with 1:2 clock divider and 45/49 family of clocks
- dac
- osf bypassed for files > 192 khz

What has changed:
- location of the cronus in the chassis
- hermes-amanero instead of hermes-bbb
- amanero instead of bbb

I do not get it, why would it sound without distortion on the bbb and with distortion on the amanero. The amanero is fed by the same bbb using squeezelite. I can see the dac report all correct sample rates, it is just that 352/384 sounds lightly distorted.

Could this have something to do with the location of the cronus in the chassis and possible interference on the i2s wires to my dac?

Thanks!

Don't OSF bypass - ever unless you have another digital filter.
 
Possibly? Have a look at the firmware configuration options for the amanero - for sure it would not be isolated.

Thanks Russ.

I have been looking at the available settings;

QiTaL54.png


and eyeing up using Pin 1 for clock selection releasing pin 11 for muting. The initial problem is that the Pin 1 option would generate a 'high' signal when the 22/45MHz clock is required but the Cronus will expect 'high' for 24/49Mz; it shouldn't be too difficult to reverse the logic at pin 1 to go 'low' but will the Cronus clock switching work on that basis (I'm assuming Cronus requires 3.3V on its clock selector pin to lock the higher rate clock 'on')? Something ought to be achievable electronically but perhaps a more elegant alternative would be to ask Dom at Amanero if he could modify the Amanero firmware to make Pin 1 go high for the higher rate clock?

Does that all make sense?

Assuming the above hangs together, the standard Amanero Hermes board would obviously need to be modified and adding some additional isolation for the mute signal should be simple enough.
 
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Thanks for responding Russ.

Why do you want the mute signal in the first place?

Because I want to experiment with a Hermes/Cronus isolator/reclocker in front of a version of a Signalyst DSC1 DSD decoder, which requires a mute function during DSD data changes.

You really should keep the CS signal the same as default as that is what hermes/cronus expects...

That is what I plan and tried to set out in my earlier post, perhaps not very well. My understanding is that 'out of the box' Cronus requires high (3.3V) to be maintained on its CS pin to utilise the 24/49MHz clock and going low (0V) on the CS pin utilises the 22/45MHz clock?

Assuming so the problem would be that if you use Amanero pin 1 as the clock selector (releasing pin 11 to use for muting) it goes high to select the 22/45MHz clock, the opposite to what I believe Cronus expects so a mechanism to reverse that logic would be needed; simply swapping over the clocks on the Cronus board would seem to be the simplest approach?

I'll be using a second stock Amanero/Hermes/Cronus combo later on a Buffalo 3SE-Pro project I'm planning.
 
What I recommend is that you ask for custom firmware from amanero and utilize the pin that is not currently being used for CS. The polarity of CS is not that important - you can swap the Rhea modules as needed.

Most of all I would strongly suggest getting your project working with the amanero alone in master mode before you attempt anything else. This will give you a baseline.
 
Hi, little bit off topic... Do I need this Cronus (any advantage of useCronus Reclocking) if connected with Soekris 1021 as it has own reclocker? I am in progress with Streamer+DAC. So far I ordered Soekris dan1021 and I am going to use original amanero board. As a source I will use Thinker Board (by Asus) in the same box or my PC trough USB. So do I need any reclocker? If yes which tu choose as there are so many on this page...
thank you
 
It depends on if you ever want to try some other source with a Hermes module - like a BBB or an RPI :)
No, only Ttinker Board (with Volumino+Tidal) which I am going to put in same case connected trough i2s to dam1021. As far as I know Asus TB is best for this purpose. Additionally I will sometimes play music from (Windows) PC trough Amanero connected trough i2s to Soekris. I will also try some CD transports (trough SPIF or Coaxial) but this signals will go directly to Soekris. I cant see any other options for now.
 
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DSC1 - Amanero vs Amanero/Hermes/Cronus

Because I want to experiment with a Hermes/Cronus isolator/reclocker in front of a version of a Signalyst DSC1 DSD decoder, which requires a mute function during DSD data changes.

There is something very interesting about Amanero and DSC1 - it works perfectly, but any other combination with DSC1 - doesn't. That includes other XMOS-units or Hermes/Cronus.

ppy who implemented the improved version was under the impression that it is because of XMOS doing something different, but I can confirm that if I put Hermes/Cronus between Amanero and the DSC1, the noise is back, so nautibuoy - don't keep your hopes high.

I did some experimentation, as in I connected all 20 pins of Amanero directly to the DSC1 and started pulling them one by one until I was left with 3,4,5,7,[8,9,10],13,14 and 15. Without 11, there are pops, but they are bearable. Without 7, it falls apart, so I connected 10 to 7, to mimic the situation with Cronus.
The above worked fine.

However, when I introduced the Hermes/Cronus to the chain (and refreshed Amanero with the slave firmware), I got the same noise (roughly as loud as the music) as I'm getting with BBB/Hermes/Cronus or the JLSounds XMOS-based USB

I was initially hoping that BBB/Hermes/Cronus was the issue (or my configuration of it), so I bought the Amanero/Hermes combination (kept the same Cronus).

There must be something Amanero is doing different than XMOS or Cronus, but I don't understand enough to venture with a hypothesis.
This is the reason I post here and not in the DSC thread - I feel there has to be a setting in Hermes/Cronus that would mimic Amanero and allow the DSC1 the same way.

DAM1021 by the way works perfectly with the same Hermes/Cronus combinations.

Any ideas? Input would be much appreciated!