Asynchronous I2S FIFO project, an ultimate weapon to fight the jitter

@weust Thank you.
The front button is a latched position on/off switch. It is connected to the "external on/off switch" connector of a linearpi, which is the master of the power chain (all power supplies connected in a master/slave cascade chain), so it turns on and off the output of every supply. The other 2 cables are just the power for the LED, it needs 5V and is connected to the ucconditioner output. When the switch is off the output of the linearpi (then ucconditioner) is off, led is off; when switch is on the output turns on and so do the led.
There is also a main switch in the back that connects to transformer's mains, so it open and close the input line of every power supply. It is meant to be able to disconnect the UC charging circuit of the UcPure, so they don't stay charged when no used for long time, no real use for linearpis indeed.
Right, so the front only disables the output of each LinearPi.
I was thinking about this too, because with only the output disabled, the transformer (only one in my case) will still power the LinearPi inputs.

I guess one could set all LinearPi via the onboard switch to On, and use a mains switch in the front, or use two switches in the front and do a manual AC/DC on. But that's kinda pointless imo.

I have seen people use a switch PCB thingy in between mains AC input and the transformer, to stage it more.
Need to look into that.
 
Hello everyone, I want to present you my finished project!
Took a long time, but I think it came out extremely well and I can't be more proud of it 🙂.

It's a IanCanada parts based Streamer/DAC combo.

Main system:
  • StationPi SMT
  • Raspberry Pi 4b 2GB
  • FifoPi Q7 II (old stock clocks, upgrading soon to accusilicon's as318b)
  • ES9038Q2M Dual Mono II DAC
  • OPA861 I/V board
  • MonitorPi Pro (used as fifopi controller)
Power supply section:
  • LinearPi + UcConditioner 5v [to stationPi]
  • 2 LinearPi [to I/V board]
  • UcPure 3.3V configuration + UcBalancer [shared between FifoPi and Dac board]
  • Triad Magnetics transformers, Eaton Supercapacitors, Maxwell Supercapacitors.
Self designed some parts and 3D printed them in petg/pla (Ultracaps+Ucpure support, back socket adapter, MonitorPi Pro front-end and mount support)
Star grounding of all shields.
Needless to say, it sounds fantastic.

Filmed the whole time, from design to final assembly; I'll someday post a video on youtube about my journey through this project, just need to find time to edit an overall and explicated video. Meanwhile, here are some pics collected during these months.

I'm planning to make a transparent upper cover. Spent a lot of time to be mm precise with every detail and I think the internal came out really clean and neat, it's almost a pity to hide it all!
If you want, let me know what you think!
Thank you all.

Mark
That looks really great Mark. Excellent work. I like how you organised everything and how you kept the AC at one side.
I have almost the same setup of Ian components as you in my DAC.
One small recommendation that I found to be one of the best upgrade in my setup was actually the SC-pure clock. I went with only the clock for 44.1 kHz to save some cost.

I look like your two bigger toroidal have dual secondaries. So what is the third transformer for? 🙂
 
@miklau
Thank you! Spent a lot on thinking how to organize everything properly, glad it looks good also to other eyes than mine.

For what concerns the small transformer.
At the very beginning I thought I needed 4x 9V AC rails, so I planned to use two big toroidals (the two big ones you see) and bought them. Couple of weeks later, Ian updated the LinearPi's manual and I read this: "Have to use AC 6V transformer coils when works with UcConditioner 5V/3.3V. UcConditioner can demand very high charging current at the moment before full, higher input voltage can result-in power transistors over heat and have risk of damage."
That was not expected, solved ordering a small 6V AC transformer, 2 independent coils wired in parallel, I needed a single rail so it for sure helped with the form factor. Already bought the other two, so instead of changing one (adding costs for no reason) I just wired the coils in parallel; it results in a quite overdimensioned transformer for what it does, but certainly is not a problem.
 
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What the manual doesn't mention is that as long as the LinearPI if below 85C it's fine.
I have contacted Ian on this because I have 9VAC as well, and UcConditioners for 5V.

I tested mine this week while using a thermometer, and while charging it reached 65C but after that it went down about 15C.
 
the IV outputs moved with a cable to the top right, no longer on top of the ess mk2 dac and therefore no interlinks... last photo.

piece of wood was used because the back no longer looked good due to a lot of moving.
a bit strange layout of the outputs, but it's a wake-up call. Next week I will tackle the right side with wood.
 

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piece of wood was used because the back no longer looked good due to a lot of moving.
a bit strange layout of the outputs, but it's a wake-up call. Next week I will tackle the right side with wood.
I also has this problem thinking for a long time how to make an enclosure for my Purepi II streamer and Stationpi pro Dac with this board and connector layout.

So I decided maybe I will just desolder all the XLR/RCA connectors and use a normal enclosure. For the Pi access just have to cut a bigger rectangle hole and push it as close to the enclosure wall as possible. Only problem is the i2s HDMI Connector which maybe hard to access.

ck
 
Hello everyone,

I have a new/old project that I resumed and kind of got to a finish.

My setup contains:
x fifopi q3
x stationpi pro
x reclockpi
x transportpi mk2
x 3x linearpi's (3.3-5-5)

My current setup fires up, i can see the output in roon once i select generic i2s driver in ropieee but for some reason my fifopi q3 doesn't lock (Fifo Status D2 lights up) but the input status I2S led lights up once i play music via Roon.

-Tried to run the setup on a stationpi smt and got the same results;
-Tried to run the setup without the reclockpi in between the fifopi q3 and the transporti mk2 but had the same results;

In both cases i connect the transport mk2 mclk cable to the fifopi output as suggested by mister Ian over email

I've noticed some other members have described having the same issues before but never seen a solution, that i could follow/apply so far.

Please excuse me if this has been answered before.

Any suggestion/advice/idea is very much welcomed 🙂

Thanks
 
Hello everyone,

I have a new/old project that I resumed and kind of got to a finish.

My setup contains:
x fifopi q3
x stationpi pro
x reclockpi
x transportpi mk2
x 3x linearpi's (3.3-5-5)

My current setup fires up, i can see the output in roon once i select generic i2s driver in ropieee but for some reason my fifopi q3 doesn't lock (Fifo Status D2 lights up) but the input status I2S led lights up once i play music via Roon.

-Tried to run the setup on a stationpi smt and got the same results;
-Tried to run the setup without the reclockpi in between the fifopi q3 and the transporti mk2 but had the same results;

In both cases i connect the transport mk2 mclk cable to the fifopi output as suggested by mister Ian over email

I've noticed some other members have described having the same issues before but never seen a solution, that i could follow/apply so far.

Please excuse me if this has been answered before.

Any suggestion/advice/idea is very much welcomed 🙂

Thanks
I just solved the issue: when you use 3 liniars you need to use the following startup sequence.:

1- fifo pi 5v

2- fifo pi 3.3v

3- rpi 5v

Maybe it will help someone else.
 
For quite some time I didnt use my streamer because i was working on the rest of the audio chain.
Then I just restarted using the streamer with Tidal. I noticed now on Tidal i get just 44.1K/32Bit, i know Tidal recently changed their delivery of the stream.
Is this normal when using Tidal to see 44.1K when you using high resolution? Few months ago I could see higher resolution that this. Do I have a setting i put wrong on FIFO?
 
Hello everyone, I want to present you my finished project!
Took a long time, but I think it came out extremely well and I can't be more proud of it 🙂.

It's a IanCanada parts based Streamer/DAC combo.

Main system:
  • StationPi SMT
  • Raspberry Pi 4b 2GB
  • FifoPi Q7 II (old stock clocks, upgrading soon to accusilicon's as318b)
  • ES9038Q2M Dual Mono II DAC
  • OPA861 I/V board
  • MonitorPi Pro (used as fifopi controller)
Power supply section:
  • LinearPi + UcConditioner 5v [to stationPi]
  • 2 LinearPi [to I/V board]
  • UcPure 3.3V configuration + UcBalancer [shared between FifoPi and Dac board]
  • Triad Magnetics transformers, Eaton Supercapacitors, Maxwell Supercapacitors.
Self designed some parts and 3D printed them in petg/pla (Ultracaps+Ucpure support, back socket adapter, MonitorPi Pro front-end and mount support)
Star grounding of all shields.
Needless to say, it sounds fantastic.

Filmed the whole time, from design to final assembly; I'll someday post a video on youtube about my journey through this project, just need to find time to edit an overall and explicated video. Meanwhile, here are some pics collected during these months.

I'm planning to make a transparent upper cover. Spent a lot of time to be mm precise with every detail and I think the internal came out really clean and neat, it's almost a pity to hide it all!
If you want, let me know what you think!
Thank you all.

Mark
Very very nice. Thanks so much, this really helps those of us new to this particular DIY. I plan on something similar. I was able to get some parts on the4 swap meet, and I just ordered the q7 yesterday, and I plan on doing the DAC too. It didn't occur to me, you could stack the linear power supply. It's kinda obvious now that I see you did it, but it's always a plus to see what other people have done. Thanks so much for sharing. Just waiting to sell an old amp to buy the rest of the components I need to start the DAC project.
 
Hello everyone, I want to present you my finished project!
Took a long time, but I think it came out extremely well and I can't be more proud of it 🙂.

It's a IanCanada parts based Streamer/DAC combo.

Main system:
  • StationPi SMT
  • Raspberry Pi 4b 2GB
  • FifoPi Q7 II (old stock clocks, upgrading soon to accusilicon's as318b)
  • ES9038Q2M Dual Mono II DAC
  • OPA861 I/V board
  • MonitorPi Pro (used as fifopi controller)
Power supply section:
  • LinearPi + UcConditioner 5v [to stationPi]
  • 2 LinearPi [to I/V board]
  • UcPure 3.3V configuration + UcBalancer [shared between FifoPi and Dac board]
  • Triad Magnetics transformers, Eaton Supercapacitors, Maxwell Supercapacitors.
Self designed some parts and 3D printed them in petg/pla (Ultracaps+Ucpure support, back socket adapter, MonitorPi Pro front-end and mount support)
Star grounding of all shields.
Needless to say, it sounds fantastic.

Filmed the whole time, from design to final assembly; I'll someday post a video on youtube about my journey through this project, just need to find time to edit an overall and explicated video. Meanwhile, here are some pics collected during these months.

I'm planning to make a transparent upper cover. Spent a lot of time to be mm precise with every detail and I think the internal came out really clean and neat, it's almost a pity to hide it all!
If you want, let me know what you think!
Thank you all.

Mark


What housing / cover are you using over the transformers?
 
I think I figured out the issue with Tidal. It looks like when you are using Tidal connect they limit the steam to 44.1. I tried Qobuz and i can get higher resolution stream. I didnt try Volumio to play Tidal, I will give it a try although I dont like the idea of paying Volumio subscription on top of Tidal subscription.
I am testing Qobuz through a picoplayer, the interface is not great but is workable. I am curious if somebody found a better way to play Qobuz.