Hi Rheinhard,
I envy you a lot, what a journey!
Drooling all over.........
This proves, again, that the Japanese have the best taste in audio.
They make money selling cheap electronics all over the world and than spend that money buying the best vintage audio like Western Electric, Klangfilm, Siemens/Halske and Telefunken.
I think nowadays there is more WE stuff in Japan than in the USA.
Maybe they have interest in my collection Klangfilm and Siemens/Halske tubes 😉
Help with Rpi and Volumio
Could do with a little help guys 🙂
Just set up a single deck DDDAC with 12V supply running from an RPI. I know both are good as I mave measured the output from the PSU and I have heard the deck running at the previous ownners home.
I can't get any output from the DDDAC. I assume that if I have a valid data stream the leds on the DDDAC would light up so I am guesing my settings need done in Volumio.
I have checked and re-checked the I2S wiring between the RPI and DDDAC and all looks good.
The RPI access the USB drive and I can browse the albums in Volumio.
Previously I have used this version to drive the PiDac on the RPI.
Would appreciate some troubleshooting/settings for the Volumio software. I tried Generic I2S setting but no output 🙁
Could do with a little help guys 🙂
Just set up a single deck DDDAC with 12V supply running from an RPI. I know both are good as I mave measured the output from the PSU and I have heard the deck running at the previous ownners home.
I can't get any output from the DDDAC. I assume that if I have a valid data stream the leds on the DDDAC would light up so I am guesing my settings need done in Volumio.
I have checked and re-checked the I2S wiring between the RPI and DDDAC and all looks good.
The RPI access the USB drive and I can browse the albums in Volumio.
Previously I have used this version to drive the PiDac on the RPI.
Would appreciate some troubleshooting/settings for the Volumio software. I tried Generic I2S setting but no output 🙁
Alan, as you know I know bugger all about RPI implementation but what leds are you referring to on the DDDac? The only ones on mine are on the Wave board??
Where are you getting the MCLK signal from? The RPi does not provide that signal and I believe that the DDDAC requires that as it is not async. like an ES9018. Or I could be completely off base.
It's Working!
I downloaded the latest Volumio version and set the device to HifiBerry and it is working beautifully. I did not have any luck with any other device driver so I am guessing that the DDDAC likes the HifiBerry driver 🙂
The led's I referred to in my last post are the line of Led's on the main board that (I assume) indicate the bit rate.
I downloaded the latest Volumio version and set the device to HifiBerry and it is working beautifully. I did not have any luck with any other device driver so I am guessing that the DDDAC likes the HifiBerry driver 🙂
The led's I referred to in my last post are the line of Led's on the main board that (I assume) indicate the bit rate.
As far as I know the LEDs are only for use with the waveio board. I've not seen them light when using rpi and i2s.
Thanks for that info, all my music is the same bit rate anyway so no real advantage to having them work 🙂
Exactly, the leds conect to the Wave IO electrically, so no Wave no lit up leds
Glad you fixed it!
Which bit depth and sample rate are you using?
I had some problems in the past with volumio (default installation with hifiberry driver) and dddac. When playing redbook format (16bit / 44Khz) I got only mono output. When doing a resampling within volumio to 24Bit / 44Khz I got stereo output. I think dddac needs the I2S signal with 24 Bit. At the moment I'm running WAVE I/O and I have always stereo (independent of source material). If I have understand the WAVE I/O documentation correctly, this board always provides a 24Bit I2S signal to DDDAC.
I had the same issue and edited by hand /etc/modules and added the set of drivers used by the old volumio installs I used on my ddac, it seemed to solve the problem for me:
snd_soc_bcm2708
snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s
bcm2708_dmaengine
snd-soc-pcm1794a
snd_soc_rpi_dac
I don't know which of these drivers are still there or even which of these are really needed, but since the sound came back ok I didn't pursue the issue any further.
I'm soldering my Hermes-Cronus, hope this will work this week end !
Both hardware and software challenge wrapped in one piece.
The lack of documentation looks a bit confusing, but crossing topics and with Supersurfer's + Chanh's pictures, it may turn into something...
Both hardware and software challenge wrapped in one piece.
The lack of documentation looks a bit confusing, but crossing topics and with Supersurfer's + Chanh's pictures, it may turn into something...
This is my small follow up on my experiments with Kemet 0.068uf PPS (Mouser - SMR5683J100J03L4).
I have placed them on the digi as well as on the analog side of my dac and played them for more than 400hrs. hoping they will bring some good. I did try them on two setups of the same power amp.
Sepup A is my amp with Elna Cerafine/Nichicon Muse on audio stage
Setup B is Elna’s Cerafin/Elna on the audio stage
Integration highs and mids were on spot. But, there were some other things which I really didn’t like, that in my opinion/ears disqualify these caps from analog side for good.
Dynamics – I never heard such a dynamics from any dac or cd player in my life. Unnatural dynamics and speed in micro and macro details/scale of the presentation, on Dave Holland’s title Hands I was literally suppressed under constant fire of details coming from all over the place. This was just race of the popping out sounds that were not supposed to be so evident or stay in the back of the stage, but instead were on the first line of attack. Music/musicality was gone, an attack of oversized detail was on. Not a pleasure thing.
Sound stage – As you can guess from previous paragraph, the sound stage was much, much shallower, this reminds me of any mid or low end amplifier from MediaWorld that tries to make up poor presentation with over colorized sound and dynamics placed in one flat line, therefore causing a sort of sound compression. Wideness and 2D instrument placement remained with no changes.
Sound – Sound was washed down from musicality in first place. Was clinical, cold, too fast and too dynamic. When you look for let’s say Maybah, you find yourself in formula 1 cart instead. I was looking for better integration mid-highs this was yes, but all presentation balance was shifted to the upper registry. Especially vocals were pushed and exposed and emphasized a lot.
With setup B of my amp, the dynamics were little more under control as Elna Silmic II in a power amp has this properties of not being dynamic at all. So was little better. But Silmic II also pushes and emphasizes vocals a bit. Sum 1 with 1 and you get Patricia’s Barber mouth of 1,5 meter of diameter when singing in front of you. Seems like she wants to eat you! All instruments are virtually much more behind but still in one line of 2D imaging.
I was thinking where this kind of presentation could be finding some synergy with. I have thrown some minimal and goa trans techno. Nope, still these mids are disturbing. No synergy at all.
I think that Kemet caps having these properties for being so lightning fast and unmerciful with even tiniest details found, may not be an optimum for analog side of the dac, but in my opinion would also be difficult to deny that for digital side of the dac they are maybe the best choice you can get. Here I go 100% with carlsor’s opinion http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...-upgraded-single-board-pcm1794-nos-dddac.html
I’m running on solid state power amps, so I can‘t tell how these caps will perform on valves, but I don’t think there would be a dramatic change. Well this is my opinion with my setup, my room and ears, so it might be that only my equipment gives me there sonic sensations, as I could not compare any other setup with Kemets on the analog side. Please share your opinions on how you find yourselves with these caps so we all can be more educated in that subject.
Anyways I’m coming back to the polyester caps. Before I had Wima 0,68nF MKS polyester caps – charming! and nr 1 for present. Now I will do my last test/trial with old Philips polyester caps.
Here is my test photo log
WIMA 0.022uf FKP2 PP - too harsh on treble (my setup of course), no looking back.
Wima MKS polyester - charming. Champion for now
Kemets - disqualified
now, let's see what future brings!
Yes this is exactly the idea behind it. Never meant as being best possible. My experience shows that this is the first Thing People like to Change and there is taste and rest of Equipment involved.
It is definitively a clever solution and technically there is nothing against it as far as I am concerned. The 120 TDA1543 DAC uses much longer routes for the signals and sounded better than 60, so long wires did not degrade completely. I also tried other things in test set ups with 30cm clip wires and never had the idea it degraded. IF it goes wrong you have digital drop outs and distortion, so you know in a second....
Thanks for your response on this. Sounds likely it will work and possibly even a 2+2 configuration would be ok. I'll report back on the outcome once I've done some more soldering!