My DIY ES9018K2M DAC

[rasikaraja]

Hi - has anyone managed to get the ES9018K2M Dac (I'm using a chinese sourced board) working directly with the RPi GPIO i2s pins? I get it working on some inputs (through Moode - e.g. radio and 24/88 from NAS) but lots of noise and distortion on other inputs. I'm not keen on putting another link in the chain (USB to i2s Xmos etc) unless I have to. Thanks Adrian

Hi Adrian, yes I managed to get it work. I also use a chinese board bought from Aliexpress. I use RPI 2, i2s output from it using Volumio.

Pin connections for I2S from RPI2 to the ES9018K2M board are :

PIN39-GND, PIN40-DATA, PIN12-BCK, PIN35-LRCK

Not sure if the above is the info you needed.

However I have a problem. Able to play only 320Kbps MP3 on Volumio through this board. FLAC gives heavy noise and output from only right channel of the ES9018K2M board. So not able to play FLACs. Have not tried DSD.

Any ideas as to the source of the above problem?

 

[marlonqpa]

Hi

I also have those chinese board. My Moode is set to RPi-DAC and everything is working except DSD files.

 

[adrian311]

Working - but limited....

Hi - I use various Rasberry Pis, and use Moode (v2.7) as the software, with this DAC set as the basic RPI-DAC through i2s. If you look on the Moode thread, you will see comments on the same problems about getting th Dac to play, but only at lower bit rates etc. The consensus seems to be that unless we get an open source driver from ESS suitable for this chip, then we will be limited in using or unable to use the 9018k2m features (hardware volume control, programmable filters, higher bit rates, DSD, etc). I currently get very good sound on 24/96, but it is very frustrating that we cannot access the other features. Regards Adrian

 

[Juzzy]

VCCA pin

Hi
Does anyone know power supply requirements for 9018k2m pin 17 (VCCA)? Should I feed it from digital,analog or oscillator primary power source? I have two dual-rail PS now, one for AVCC_L,R and one for DVCC,VCCA and NDK crystal generator. All of them 3.3v. I connect VCCA to osc power line. It works, but.. is that right?

 

[spiri]

The VCCA draws only a few mA. I connected PIN 17 with DVCC (PIN18) and feed the oscillator with an separated 3,3V regulator. If one regulator for AVCC and the oscillator is used I would recommend a decoupling with beads.

 

[SteB]

Does it require an output stage or just use a cap like ess9023 for 2v output?

 

[Juzzy]

Does it require an output stage or just use a cap like ess9023 for 2v output?

It requires some kind of I/V stage. Examples are in es9018 datasheet, parameters are the same, i/v resistor 2.32k

 

[radu.bacrau]

It requires some kind of I/V stage. Examples are in es9018 datasheet, parameters are the same, i/v resistor 2.32k

Apparently TI has an appnote that targets a "popular audio DAC": http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/tidu672c/tidu672c.pdf.

 

[marekocska]

Hi All!

Anybody knows if the analog output of the ES9018K2M can be forced to work as a current output (like in ES9018) by loading it with a resistor of 50 - 100 Ohm?

 

[abraxalito]

ES9018K2M internally has switched resistors fed from a reference supply. To make resistors behave like current sources you need to keep the voltage across them perfectly constant. Which means a 0ohm load and a 0ohm impedance for the reference supply.

Short answer - no.

 

[marekocska]

ES9018K2M internally has switched resistors fed from a reference supply. To make resistors behave like current sources you need to keep the voltage across them perfectly constant. Which means a 0ohm load and a 0ohm impedance for the reference supply.

Short answer - no.

Thanx a lot. But could you please tell me how can I perform it for example on the DAC board of diyinhk (ES9018K2M XMOS DSD DXD 384kHz USB DAC with Bit-perfect volume control and SPDIF input - DIYINHK)? Or your short answer means that ES9018K2M can't be switched to current output mode at all?