Hello, I am sharing my new setup, which consists of two separate stacks: a steamer and Dac with Fifo connected by I2S over HDMI.
Streamer
RaspberryPi3 - powered by LifePO4 6,6V regulated to 5V, 3,3V, and 1.8V through dedicated regulators from www.ldovr.com (original regulators on the RPi board have been desoldered)
IsolatorPi II + HDMIpi MKII - powered by LifePO4 3,3V + UcConditioner 3,3V
DAC
ReceiverPi DDC - powered by LinearPi 5V + UcConditioner 5V
FifoPi Q7 + MonitorPi Pro + SC-Pure clocks - powered by UcPure MKIII 3,3V (Continuous Output)
Dual Mono MKII DAC - shares UcPure with FifoPi Q7 (Switched Output)
OPA861 I/V Stage - powered by LinearPi MKII Dual + 2xUcConditioner 5V
Each power supply runs on a dedicated winding from a transformer. In total, three toroidal transformers with double windings, plus a little one regulated to 5V, which is for Master Control. Power supplies are constantly connected to AC power and switched ON via Master Control.
Over time, I have gone through various DACs: S.M.S.L SU-9 Pro, Topping D90SE, Denafrips Ares 12TH, and several older chips in DIY setups like TDA1543, AD1865, and AK4493. My last ready-made DAC was Gustard A26, which was quite decent. I felt that, overall, it was better than all I had used before. But later on, I got better sound with an old AK4493 run from LifePO4/LinearPi/UcConditioner supplied with I2S through an isolated connection from the JLSounds board with Crystek CCHD-957 clocks and run from LifePO4 power supply. So, I decided to try the DIY approach with Ian Canada parts.
How does this setup sound in my system? Initially, I was not impressed at all. It sounded just OK. I have spent some time double-checking everything and ensuring DAC settings follow Ian's recommendations (TrueSync, DPLL). No improvement. Now, it is 72h since the SC-Pure clocks have been powered up, and I have to admit that things are very different today. I can hear a significant improvement between yesterday and today. It is not subtle. I started to appreciate how it sounds. It is unlike anything I have used before. The sound is full of culture in its character. Nothing is exaggerated yet at the same time, there is plenty of details and good separation. I still feel there is a little lack of spaciousness of the scene and dynamics in low frequencies, but I try to remain patient waiting until things stabilise.
One thing that was very noticeable was when I changed the power supply for FifoPI Q7 from LifePO4+UcConditioner to UcPure. UcPure does provide an improvement which, to me was so significant that is worth the burden of having such a monster.
Marcin
Streamer
RaspberryPi3 - powered by LifePO4 6,6V regulated to 5V, 3,3V, and 1.8V through dedicated regulators from www.ldovr.com (original regulators on the RPi board have been desoldered)
IsolatorPi II + HDMIpi MKII - powered by LifePO4 3,3V + UcConditioner 3,3V
DAC
ReceiverPi DDC - powered by LinearPi 5V + UcConditioner 5V
FifoPi Q7 + MonitorPi Pro + SC-Pure clocks - powered by UcPure MKIII 3,3V (Continuous Output)
Dual Mono MKII DAC - shares UcPure with FifoPi Q7 (Switched Output)
OPA861 I/V Stage - powered by LinearPi MKII Dual + 2xUcConditioner 5V
Each power supply runs on a dedicated winding from a transformer. In total, three toroidal transformers with double windings, plus a little one regulated to 5V, which is for Master Control. Power supplies are constantly connected to AC power and switched ON via Master Control.
Over time, I have gone through various DACs: S.M.S.L SU-9 Pro, Topping D90SE, Denafrips Ares 12TH, and several older chips in DIY setups like TDA1543, AD1865, and AK4493. My last ready-made DAC was Gustard A26, which was quite decent. I felt that, overall, it was better than all I had used before. But later on, I got better sound with an old AK4493 run from LifePO4/LinearPi/UcConditioner supplied with I2S through an isolated connection from the JLSounds board with Crystek CCHD-957 clocks and run from LifePO4 power supply. So, I decided to try the DIY approach with Ian Canada parts.
How does this setup sound in my system? Initially, I was not impressed at all. It sounded just OK. I have spent some time double-checking everything and ensuring DAC settings follow Ian's recommendations (TrueSync, DPLL). No improvement. Now, it is 72h since the SC-Pure clocks have been powered up, and I have to admit that things are very different today. I can hear a significant improvement between yesterday and today. It is not subtle. I started to appreciate how it sounds. It is unlike anything I have used before. The sound is full of culture in its character. Nothing is exaggerated yet at the same time, there is plenty of details and good separation. I still feel there is a little lack of spaciousness of the scene and dynamics in low frequencies, but I try to remain patient waiting until things stabilise.
One thing that was very noticeable was when I changed the power supply for FifoPI Q7 from LifePO4+UcConditioner to UcPure. UcPure does provide an improvement which, to me was so significant that is worth the burden of having such a monster.
Marcin
Make sure everything is connected. It's very easy to miss or miss align the gpio pins. Also make sure the orientation is correct where pin 1 is to pin 1. The back of the monitor pi pro has an arrow that corresponds. To pin 40. Make sure you have led for on for the dac and or FIFO board.
Need to know what your stack is off. Go back and make sure everything plugged in. Is your cable plugged into the back of the monitor pi and running to FIFO if using or to ddc if using ect? Monitor pi needs power and the cable hooked up correctly.
Need to know what your stack is off. Go back and make sure everything plugged in. Is your cable plugged into the back of the monitor pi and running to FIFO if using or to ddc if using ect? Monitor pi needs power and the cable hooked up correctly.
Nice build I have similar. I just recently put a quad ucpure on the FIFO and dual ucpure on the dac and that made another significant difference.
I also noticed the same thing day one was just okay... Day three way better. After 7-10 days of being on 24/7 it really really improved.
I also have ucpure running the i/v board as well... But I never tested it without the uc pure. I only use the uc conditioner on my pi and FIFO dac stack 5v.
I ran two ucpure boards off one linear power supply... I know it's vudu but I had one so I tried it and it did sound better so I left it.
Interesting if it was because you have split power supply such that FiFo Q7 and DAC have their own supplies or because Quad UcPure for Fifo Q7. There could be just one of the factor for the "significance" of a change.
Do I understand that you have stacked two UcPure boards on each other?
@Spacejack
Your project looks awesome! Really nice indeed. Congratulations!
I like the remote RPi concept. It's a great help to reduce the overall RPi EMi noise.
If I have time, I'll design a HdmiPi remote, all-in-one HDMI HAT with built-in isolator, so that to make it much easier to build a remote RPi streamer.
After your system gets stable, I highly recommend you to upgrade the +/-5V power supply of OPA861 by two UcPure 5V. According to my own experience, it will make another deference. I'm looking forward to having you new updates.
BTW, I like the pictures you took. By your cellphone? Which one?
Good luck to your project!
Ian
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One all-in-one HAT would be convenient. I plan to move the Isolator + HDMI board combo away from RPi, connect them to RPi with a GPIO extender and put grounded shielding between RPI and them.
I'd buy that right now. Take my money! Biggest limiting factor current isolator pi limited to dsd 512
Once I can get a 90mhz sc-pure ill be off...
I power everything from a toroidy supreme audio grade transformer that's electrically shielded between layers, magnetic shielding, best tested cores, potted in epoxy, then in a polished stainless steel for further projection and I oversized to 300va when the pi and 5v for the dac stack is all that's pulling constantly... All ucpures click on and off.
I had 5 total windings off this trandofmer (they custom made for me took like 35 days to get) and I only have one for linear pi, so I ran two ucconditioners both with the maxwell s19 (by far the best lowest esr 300-600 farad cap I could find... Half the esr of most) off this linear pi and the improvement is there. There isn't ground continuity from pi ucconditoner and ground off the dac stack ucconditoner... That may be due to the meter not being able to detect thru the large caps but each end is "seeing" an ultracapitor negative terminal which, when seperated, will have a lower potential and thus better grounds to each.
The difference I heard with the ucpure unfortunately I can't easily test 2 vs 4 here... Where both powered by seperate 2 cap ucpures. I don't want to mess taking apart with charge in them... Not worth the risk imo and a pain to drain them all Lowe enough.
I will swap dac to quad capacitor ucpure and FIFO to dual cap ucpure to see what is better soon.
My build isolates every single section, every ucpure (I have 10 3400F Eatons on my board) every ucconditioner, linear pi ect is housed in seperate wood enclosures that have pure copper plates on them, 1/4" copper plates. Everything is grounded. My wires are all in conduit, grounded. My build has multiple layers of sorbothane for isolation. The entire thing is then going to be housed in a custom made pure grainte case with 5" diameter 1" thick sorbothane ring footers x3 (1" is important to get the sorbothane natural resonance low enough to be effective at 10hz.)
End game Ian Canada build. Pics to come.
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Hi Guys and @iancanada I have a question, with all the new components released. I'm moving to apple music for streaming and hence only viable option is to use iPhone or iPad as a source. I would like to leverage the new SCPure clocks. My dac does not have a I2S input, so i would like to use the SPDIF coax input of my Dac to be able to use external clock signal. So the final setup would be something like
IPhone/IPad -> USB -> DDC -> SPDIF coax -> Dac.
If possible i would like to avoid RPi (one less component).
What components should I use to create such an DDC with the new clocks released? I would like to use some of the better power supplies available as well.
IPhone/IPad -> USB -> DDC -> SPDIF coax -> Dac.
If possible i would like to avoid RPi (one less component).
What components should I use to create such an DDC with the new clocks released? I would like to use some of the better power supplies available as well.
@NeoTheOne
Please refer the application example 1 and 3 in the TransportPi DDC user's manual.
They should be what you want
https://github.com/iancanada/DocumentDownload/blob/master/ReceiverPi/ReceiverPiDDC/ReceiverPiDDC.pdf
Good weekend.
Ian
FlagshipDDC
FlagshipFullSizeDDC
Please refer the application example 1 and 3 in the TransportPi DDC user's manual.
They should be what you want
https://github.com/iancanada/DocumentDownload/blob/master/ReceiverPi/ReceiverPiDDC/ReceiverPiDDC.pdf
Good weekend.
Ian
FlagshipDDC
FlagshipFullSizeDDCHi Ian,
thank you for advise.
My question would be: what I/V stage would be best to drive Headephones (70 Ohms) directly?
thx
I have installed Amanero Combo384 (original) on the StationPI PRO, in order to test also the DDC function with my FIFOPI Q7 and HDMI PRO. I Have successfully tested it with the default firmware (PCM384 and DSD256 DoP) and then decided to flash it with CPLD_1081_SWAPPEDSD and firmware_2006be11.
After this the Amanero is recognized/detected by remote OS (tested it connected to the RPI/Moode and Roon Rock) and also I see the Native option in Roon. I have however no output and I have noticed that D1 led ("USB connected") does not lit up (to be honest I did not check if it was lit with the initial firmware). Tried to switch back to original firmware (according to Amanero CPLD_for_1080 and firmware DSD512x48x44), however now I have the same behavior - no sound and D1 not lit.
(all tests were done with J14 PIN7 and PIN8 shorted; leaving PIN7 and PIN8 open I can play from RPI without issues)
Any ideas?
After this the Amanero is recognized/detected by remote OS (tested it connected to the RPI/Moode and Roon Rock) and also I see the Native option in Roon. I have however no output and I have noticed that D1 led ("USB connected") does not lit up (to be honest I did not check if it was lit with the initial firmware). Tried to switch back to original firmware (according to Amanero CPLD_for_1080 and firmware DSD512x48x44), however now I have the same behavior - no sound and D1 not lit.
(all tests were done with J14 PIN7 and PIN8 shorted; leaving PIN7 and PIN8 open I can play from RPI without issues)
Any ideas?
@iancanada , please confirm if the MonitorPiPro can switch between all the 5 inputs: ReceiverPiProII (OPT/RCA/I2S), RPi GPIO and AmaneroUSB card. Thank you!I have a good news.
MonitorPi Pro can also be used as StationPi Pro controller.
MonitorPi Pro is so powerful. This could be another important feature. That's really great.
How to make it?
1. Install a ReceiverPi Pro II into StationPi Pro
2. Short pin3 and pin7 of StationPi Pro J14 by a jumper wire
3. Connect the control cable from J6 of the MonitorPi Pro to the J13 of ReceiverPi Pro II
4. MonitorPi Pro can be installed to the front panel through a GPIO extender to the non-isolated GPIO of a FifoPi.
In this case, MonitorPi Pro becomes an integrated control center. No longer need the tough screen controller.
MonotorPiProStationPiController
Hello to all,
I just purchase LinearPi dual MKII, and plan to use 5v and 12v confingurations. (5v with ucconditioner).
I will also order a transformer. I am interested in what values should be the branches of the transformer?
I see that Ian mentioned that the 6vac option works well for the 5v configuration. and the manual says it needs 9v ac.
For 12v, it says that I need a 12v ac branch.
Thanks
I just purchase LinearPi dual MKII, and plan to use 5v and 12v confingurations. (5v with ucconditioner).
I will also order a transformer. I am interested in what values should be the branches of the transformer?
I see that Ian mentioned that the 6vac option works well for the 5v configuration. and the manual says it needs 9v ac.
For 12v, it says that I need a 12v ac branch.
Thanks
It's the
Yes, I confirmed that a MonitorPi Pro can switch between 5 Input: OPT/RCA/HDMI/RPi/USB. Please enable DDC in the MonitorPi Pro settings.
Ian
Yes, I confirmed that a MonitorPi Pro can switch between 5 Input: OPT/RCA/HDMI/RPi/USB. Please enable DDC in the MonitorPi Pro settings.
Ian
Hi,
I made three changes to my setup. Each of them led to improvements.
1. Moved the IsolatorPi II + HDMIpi MKII away from Rpi and installed a copper shield between them.
This was an educational experience. I connected the shield and Raspberry Pi ground to the ground cable, but I forgot to connect the cable to the actual ground in the socket. This has deteriorated the sound. Once I connected the ground cable to the ground, the sound improved. Moving Rpi away from the rest of the stack and/or shielding is worth the effort.
2. Added dumping to the ScPure clocks using Moongel as described in this post
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...eapon-to-fight-the-jitter.192465/post-7479537
I have used one layer below and three layers on top of the clocks. This was a jaw-dropping experience. Just try it.
3. I saw advice from @badd99 (and others), that two separate UcPure power supplies for Q7 and Dac board provide improvement. This reminded me of a post I read about the noise that can spread from DVCC rail: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/es9038q2m-board.314935/page-346#post-6512356. I did a test. Since the Dac board runs in True Sync mode, it can run without power supplied on the VCCA rail, so I removed the J9 jumpers. AVCC is the most critical power rail, so I left it running from UcPure 3.3v (shared with FifoPi Q7) but have connected the "noisy" DVCC to a separate LinearPi + UcConditioner 3,3v (after removing J8 jumpers). To me, this is an improvement in SQ.
Maybe the experience of the SQ getting by running FifoPi Q7 and Dual Mono Dac from two separate UcPure relates to eliminating the noise from DVCC rail influencing the operation of FifoPi/Clocks? At least it is easy and not expensive to try.
I made three changes to my setup. Each of them led to improvements.
1. Moved the IsolatorPi II + HDMIpi MKII away from Rpi and installed a copper shield between them.
This was an educational experience. I connected the shield and Raspberry Pi ground to the ground cable, but I forgot to connect the cable to the actual ground in the socket. This has deteriorated the sound. Once I connected the ground cable to the ground, the sound improved. Moving Rpi away from the rest of the stack and/or shielding is worth the effort.
2. Added dumping to the ScPure clocks using Moongel as described in this post
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...eapon-to-fight-the-jitter.192465/post-7479537
I have used one layer below and three layers on top of the clocks. This was a jaw-dropping experience. Just try it.
3. I saw advice from @badd99 (and others), that two separate UcPure power supplies for Q7 and Dac board provide improvement. This reminded me of a post I read about the noise that can spread from DVCC rail: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/es9038q2m-board.314935/page-346#post-6512356. I did a test. Since the Dac board runs in True Sync mode, it can run without power supplied on the VCCA rail, so I removed the J9 jumpers. AVCC is the most critical power rail, so I left it running from UcPure 3.3v (shared with FifoPi Q7) but have connected the "noisy" DVCC to a separate LinearPi + UcConditioner 3,3v (after removing J8 jumpers). To me, this is an improvement in SQ.
Maybe the experience of the SQ getting by running FifoPi Q7 and Dual Mono Dac from two separate UcPure relates to eliminating the noise from DVCC rail influencing the operation of FifoPi/Clocks? At least it is easy and not expensive to try.
@roncad, your screen on your MonitorPi Pro indicates you have no clock, the 0.000MHz in the bottom right of your screen. Which Fifo board do you have? You should check power to the Fifo board and make sure your crystals were installed correctly.
@iancanada - I'd like to add an HDMIpi to this stack to send I2S over HDMI to other DACs that will have their own fifo reclocker with high quality clocks. I have a spare Q3 and reclockpi. I believe HDMIpi PRO requires a fifo while HDMIpi does not. If the target DAC has good clocks already, is an HDMIpi PRO worth it or fine to go with HDMIpi? I may swap the Q3 + reclockpi to use here (with SDK clocks) and then the receiving DACs would use Q7 + SCpure and Andrea dac with drixos.
In other words, is HDMIpi PRO with Q3 and reclockpi better than HDMIpi with no fifo if receiving DACs are reclocking anyway with high quality fifo and clocks?