Try I2S with e.g. a simple TDA1543 with passive IV (post #51). You will forget SPDIF soon.
If you want to upgrade, replace the clock first.
Patrick
If you want to upgrade, replace the clock first.
Patrick
computer based transports do great things until you get a cd94 modded as a transport or wadia 3200 and then you realize that it sounds ordinary imho.
i2s out of a cd94 or wadia 3200 with mods no computer transport comes close
i cant say regarding computer based from ends as ive never heard a high tech one,but what i can say is that ive heard a modded squeezebox duet playing wav files from eac and running through a half decent dac and that brought home the message regarding cd players/transports where dead,in my opinion of course,oh and my friend who promptly went on and sold his amr777 cd player to buy the said product after hearing it😀
for me sound quality is first...end of story,i love the old marantzs and sonys/denons,i have afew tucked away along with a stash of replacement laser assemblies and thats the thing with them...the best players are just getting to old now to be reliable,by that i mean the laser and transports could fail one day and unless you have a secret stash you havent got a hope in hell of replacing them, the ultimate source becomes nothing more then a expensive paper weight,so those things have to be factored into the scheme of things too...audio is always a compromise some way or another😉
all the best
smithie
for me sound quality is first...end of story,i love the old marantzs and sonys/denons,i have afew tucked away along with a stash of replacement laser assemblies and thats the thing with them...the best players are just getting to old now to be reliable,by that i mean the laser and transports could fail one day and unless you have a secret stash you havent got a hope in hell of replacing them, the ultimate source becomes nothing more then a expensive paper weight,so those things have to be factored into the scheme of things too...audio is always a compromise some way or another😉
all the best
smithie
anyway sorry guys ive taken this thread off track,didnt mean too.
look forward to reading some more on this intresting product.
all the best
smithie
look forward to reading some more on this intresting product.
all the best
smithie
Smithie,
Good on you for putting the question to us all, its a fair question.
You are forgetting that the QA-550 and other memory players are just transports.
The DAC is just as important in the equation and is the other half of "the sound".
Wadia etc. top sounding CD players are an all in one solution, with a tailored "house" sound. You should read around the various forums a bit more you will find that there are so many audiophiles swapping over to computer, network streaming, and SD card players because they really are a better source than the top CD players. Just like a pre/power amp combination is better than an integrated due to the dedicated power supplies for each gain stage etc.
A transport and DAC combination often is better for the same sort of reasons.
I personally think that memory playback devices are such ruthlessly accurate transports that easily reveal the limitations of 44.1khz sample rate (redbook CD).
I think its likely that people who say their CD player is better compared to memory players are expressing their preference for the sonic signature of their player (output stage?)
The associated DAC plays a major role here.
If you are a guy with a big wallet who can afford a Wadia etc. You would be well advised to spend the pennies on a QA-550 or logitech squeezebox or WD live (with mods) or eGreat and see what its all about.
Good luck and best wishes.
Good on you for putting the question to us all, its a fair question.
You are forgetting that the QA-550 and other memory players are just transports.
The DAC is just as important in the equation and is the other half of "the sound".
Wadia etc. top sounding CD players are an all in one solution, with a tailored "house" sound. You should read around the various forums a bit more you will find that there are so many audiophiles swapping over to computer, network streaming, and SD card players because they really are a better source than the top CD players. Just like a pre/power amp combination is better than an integrated due to the dedicated power supplies for each gain stage etc.
A transport and DAC combination often is better for the same sort of reasons.
I personally think that memory playback devices are such ruthlessly accurate transports that easily reveal the limitations of 44.1khz sample rate (redbook CD).
I think its likely that people who say their CD player is better compared to memory players are expressing their preference for the sonic signature of their player (output stage?)
The associated DAC plays a major role here.
If you are a guy with a big wallet who can afford a Wadia etc. You would be well advised to spend the pennies on a QA-550 or logitech squeezebox or WD live (with mods) or eGreat and see what its all about.
Good luck and best wishes.
hi erin
good post and i totally agree with what you have to say😀
i shall defiently be trying some of these various players and hopefully come up with something i like and want to use,im waiting on a product thats due for release first to see what that has to offer then ill make my mind up which ones i want to try or at least short list,the only thing thats holding me back as such on the QA-550 is that it doesnt seem very user friendly,not so much a problem for me but could be a issue for the wife🙂
ill keep you guys posted(if i had the money i would try them all😀😀😀)
all the best
smithie
good post and i totally agree with what you have to say😀
i shall defiently be trying some of these various players and hopefully come up with something i like and want to use,im waiting on a product thats due for release first to see what that has to offer then ill make my mind up which ones i want to try or at least short list,the only thing thats holding me back as such on the QA-550 is that it doesnt seem very user friendly,not so much a problem for me but could be a issue for the wife🙂
ill keep you guys posted(if i had the money i would try them all😀😀😀)
all the best
smithie
I know what you mean by user friendly. I've ditched the screen and have to memorize the tracks on the SD card as everything is done by the remote and I can't see it anyway. Here's its condition so far connected to an ES9018 DAC.
hehe
ive been there with some other audio equipment,thats how i nkow my wifes views on the subject🙂
if it was just me then i would have exactly the same has you have created there...good on you,how does it sound?
smithie
ive been there with some other audio equipment,thats how i nkow my wifes views on the subject🙂
if it was just me then i would have exactly the same has you have created there...good on you,how does it sound?
smithie
Heres one I did a few mods to.
Upgraded the onboard 3v3 LDO regs to Paul Hynes Micro shunts.
Changed the stock XO to a Tent
Changed the SPDIF RCA to a 75R BNC.
Added a SIL pin socket to the I2S pads (not tried I2S out with it yet)
I'm pleased with the results, I've tried the QA-550 with a modded BuffaloII, Monica3 and Audial AYA II.
Upgraded the onboard 3v3 LDO regs to Paul Hynes Micro shunts.
Changed the stock XO to a Tent
Changed the SPDIF RCA to a 75R BNC.
Added a SIL pin socket to the I2S pads (not tried I2S out with it yet)
I'm pleased with the results, I've tried the QA-550 with a modded BuffaloII, Monica3 and Audial AYA II.
nice! how does it sound compared to other sources?
also, do you guys know what the big reg above the angled oscon in leo s picture do? giving 5V to the LDOs and to non-audio related devices?
very tempting this little player.......
also, do you guys know what the big reg above the angled oscon in leo s picture do? giving 5V to the LDOs and to non-audio related devices?
very tempting this little player.......
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It's a 7805 (5V) regulator.
Can anyone tell me the values of the oscons and the smd bypass caps?
is there any way that this thing could be rigged up with a larger SSD drive? I guess there is a good chance that the cpu could not address that much memory. but then if you have SSD, is there really any advantage to having one of these anyway? these are genuine questions, i'm not trying to pick holes in this seemingly great value device, just wondering whether its worth the effort when it would be easy for me to add an SSD drive to my computer system
1.8 ZIF LIF IDE CF Hard Drive HDD SSD to USB Adapter (eBay item 270654305241 end time 24-Dec-10 18:03:43 AEDST) : Computers
Just use this adaptor and use a solid state drive on any wav/flac player like WD mini/live or eGreat or PCH.
there is little difference between the QA-550 and my WD Mini running i2s.
Just use this adaptor and use a solid state drive on any wav/flac player like WD mini/live or eGreat or PCH.
there is little difference between the QA-550 and my WD Mini running i2s.
hi,
did you take the i2s from wd mini?could you tell us more about this process,was it difficult?what are the differences between qa-550 and wd mini running i2s?
yeah I know there are adapters, but that doesnt address the problem of address, I remember being told by a distributor that the 550 could not use larger than 32gb CF because the FW was unable to address that much memory, so would only see 32gb n matter how big the memory was. have you successfully used larger than 32gb?
I started to have a play around with one of these just out of inquisitiveness. The board is a Rev 3.0 (2009) & looks a bit different to Leo's pic. I tapped I2S out of it. I'm running i into a Sabre ES9022 DAC. The sound in between clicks & buzzes isn't stunning, by any means! I'm using the MCLK from the QA550 into the Sabre, ie. synchronous, I will try the Sabre DAC in asynchronous format to see if it helps things. But the convoluted length of the I2S traces from the PIC chip is not optimal. This may account for the bad I2S signal or it may be the relationship between the clocks - the MCLK is 256fs, isn't it? (LRCK 44.1kHz, MCLK 11.2896MHz)
I2S is also fed into the CS8405a DIT - no buffer between this & the I2S outputs on the board. This could give rise to problems also.
Euvl, is the sound feeding I2S into ES9022 as good as you say? Are you just using a stock QA550 or with mods? It might be my ES9022 that's at fault - I'll try another one!
I2S is also fed into the CS8405a DIT - no buffer between this & the I2S outputs on the board. This could give rise to problems also.
Euvl, is the sound feeding I2S into ES9022 as good as you say? Are you just using a stock QA550 or with mods? It might be my ES9022 that's at fault - I'll try another one!
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My QA550 is very first generation, box standard, no mods. I used TDA1543 at the beginning direct from QA with I2S. No problems at all. Sound is good, typically TDA1543. Not far from my Meridian 508 modded.
My ES9022 has 49.xxx MHz clock local, and does not use the MCLK from QA. In my opinion (with no proof), ESS's jitter reduction technique only works properly with high clock rate. This is why they have to use up to 80MHz for ES9018. Anyhow, sound is better than TDA1543 (which is for me a touch too soft) and very close to the Meridian. It is also confirmed by tolikas who is a happy owner of one of my modules.
Whether your problem is due to low clock rate or whether your QA is not functioning properly, I cannot tell. But easy enough to test it with a TDA1543 with 8V supply, 2 caps and 2 resistors.
Pictures of both versions of my DAC's you can find in earlier posts.
Patrick
My ES9022 has 49.xxx MHz clock local, and does not use the MCLK from QA. In my opinion (with no proof), ESS's jitter reduction technique only works properly with high clock rate. This is why they have to use up to 80MHz for ES9018. Anyhow, sound is better than TDA1543 (which is for me a touch too soft) and very close to the Meridian. It is also confirmed by tolikas who is a happy owner of one of my modules.
Whether your problem is due to low clock rate or whether your QA is not functioning properly, I cannot tell. But easy enough to test it with a TDA1543 with 8V supply, 2 caps and 2 resistors.
Pictures of both versions of my DAC's you can find in earlier posts.
Patrick
I didn't think the QA550 was too bad used as a SPDIF source, I've tried much worse. The one I'm playing about with isn't mine, still not tried its I2S output yet.
Hi Patrick,
Is your ES9022 same as circuit shown in manual but with added 50mhz XO? I only tried ES9022 tapped into a modded Squeezebox Duet receivers I2S (including its 11.2896MHz MCLK). ES9022 circuit was based on page5 of ESS manual. The whole thing is pretty small wired on vero allowing it to be ran close to the source. Sound was ok
Hi Patrick,
Is your ES9022 same as circuit shown in manual but with added 50mhz XO? I only tried ES9022 tapped into a modded Squeezebox Duet receivers I2S (including its 11.2896MHz MCLK). ES9022 circuit was based on page5 of ESS manual. The whole thing is pretty small wired on vero allowing it to be ran close to the source. Sound was ok
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Not exactly, especially with power supply decoupling.
But you can already tell from the photos.
And you should try QA with I2S. 😉
Patrick
But you can already tell from the photos.
And you should try QA with I2S. 😉
Patrick
Hi tolikas,
Please see my post here about extracting i2s from the WD mini
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...-want-stand-alone-high-end-hdd-source-14.html
I don't believe from memory there is any significant difference in sound between the WD mini and the QA-550. The WD mini is cheaper to buy but requires an external monitor. ($30 off fleabay)
.wav files sound better than .flac on the WD mini. USB stick sounds better than using a spinning HDD.