DIY Audio Analyzer with AK5397/AK5394A and AK4490

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This landed on my desk the other day :)
 

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No, it was not related to the decision to stop the production.

I have continued the development of the analyzer in my spare time and if it ends up being a product I would hate to be held back by the lack of components.
The LME49990 becoming obsolete was bad enough, but it can be managed and I also have some of those in stock. The ADC was a much more critical component, so I decided to buy a reel of them, which was the minimum order quantity for the last time buy.
 
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Hi Jens,
I strongly believe in your analyser being an excellent instrument for both DIY hobbyists, and for commercial use. Of course, you well know that. As long as it is part of Virtins MI, your instrument is extremely powerful. It really is anyway, but the software really leverages the performance into a professional instrument status.

I am so happy with mine. It is used almost every single day, weekends too. You have made it possible for me to do things that were way outside my abilities before getting it. I am looking forward to the day when I can upgrade it (new instrument, trade-in or loyal customer discount program?). No need to right now, but I imagine your analyser line will continue to improve.

Jens, you have a real winner there, but the T&M market is slow and always will be. Hopefully we can support a few man operation so you can continue.

-Chris
 
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OK, time for some feedback on the suggestions and questions.

How much did you pay for 1000 pcs?
I got a resonable price, but still in the double digits in USD, so I could have bought a fairly nice car instead of the box with the 1k pieces :eek:

Was the power supply improvement ever realized?
Yes, but still not tested to a level, where I would be confident to release the design.
A simpler solution is of course to move the transformer to a separate (preferably iron) box, placing the box away from the Analyzer. In both cases you would void the warranty (if still applicable) and regarding safety etc., you would be on your own. There will be no "RTX approved" modification.

Are you thinking to give some of these (with payment of course) to us for future service of RTX?
If the ADC (AK5394A) should malfunction, I can of course deliver a replacement. The likelihood of a bad ADC should be very low though.

Dual mono upgrade boards for the RTX6001 to get rid of the in-chip cross talk ... and you could add an option for easily disabling the digital filter so that one could measure down to DC.
A dual ADC may indeed make sense, if the crosstalk is a real problem for some measurements.

According to the data sheet you can switch that high pass off. The problem is that in the RTX6001 the according pin is hard wired.
It is correct that the high pass filter can be disabled. And yes, it is hardwired. Since the DC precision and stability of the AK5394A is not specified, I have been reluctant to disable the high pass filter as a standard option.

If it helps at all in terms of encouragement, I'd love to purchase an analyzer from you when/if you have it ready. :)
Thanks. Good to know :)

Hi Jens,
I strongly believe in your analyser being an excellent instrument for both DIY hobbyists, and for commercial use. Of course, you well know that. As long as it is part of Virtins MI, your instrument is extremely powerful. It really is anyway, but the software really leverages the performance into a professional instrument status.

I am so happy with mine. It is used almost every single day, weekends too. You have made it possible for me to do things that were way outside my abilities before getting it. I am looking forward to the day when I can upgrade it (new instrument, trade-in or loyal customer discount program?). No need to right now, but I imagine your analyser line will continue to improve.

Jens, you have a real winner there, but the T&M market is slow and always will be. Hopefully we can support a few man operation so you can continue.

-Chris
I am glad to hear that you like your RTX6001.
If I end up making an upgraded model available it will not be through RTX. But I would try to keep the compatibility with MI Pro and hopefully make Virtins add what would be necessary to support the new features.
 
If I end up making an upgraded model available it will not be through RTX. But I would try to keep the compatibility with MI Pro and hopefully make Virtins add what would be necessary to support the new features.

I just hope that this would not be a "Virtins only" thing. In the meantime there are different software tools out there that make use of the RTX6001 interface. It would be a kick in the teeth if any updates / changes to the interface would be available to Virtins only.
 
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Hi mbrennwa,
That would depend on the programmer for other software packages. Virtins went out on a limb and invested the time and money to make the RTX 6001 a native device. The same could be done with any other software package out there, but they have to make the effort as Virtins did. Other software packages would benefit users of this device and I don't think there is any closed system here. Not like Audio Precision for example.

-Chris