John, whilst it might offend Gregs audiophile sensibilities, if you just want a to dip a toe in the water before you mod your Mambo by cutting traces, drop me a PM with your address and I'll send you a HIFIMEDIY board with a jumper so you can switch between on-board 50MHz Foxconn and external MCLK (from Kali Pin 29).
Attachments
Sensibilities not offended, John, if you take this offer up I'll be very curious to hear what you have to report.
Greg in Mississippi
Simon and Clive, thanks for the quick response, i will try the 2-pin header.
Bart
Bart, for future reference, you can pick up adapters fairly cheaply to convert your 5.5/2.1 to 5.5/2.5. eg. STOREINBOX 8 Universal AC DC Power Charger Adapter Converter Tips for Laptop Notebook PC ACER ASUS HP
In the first mambo DAC ( not dedicate HAT board ) it was possible to chance external or internal oscillator source , but in a dedicate for RPI there is no reason for something like that , practical there is not reclock or something ... in the street
not even master clock .. from RPI
The synchronous " way " its always prefer ... but the master oscillator mast have good specification
kisses in the face !!!
not even master clock .. from RPI
The synchronous " way " its always prefer ... but the master oscillator mast have good specification
kisses in the face !!!
That's a very nice offer Clive, and clearly Greg didn't fall into a faint
, so I'll send you a PM.John
That's a very nice offer Clive, and clearly Greg didn't fall into a faint
John
Hey, I'm glad for you two to try it first... very curious how it goes. To be truthful, I have never personally run an ESS DAC in sync mode... I've got a couple of projects near completion where I'll be doing that, but I keep getting sidetracked onto these easy projects. So I am VERY curious to hear how it goes.
VASILIST, glad to see you are still watching here. I have plotted some extreme mods to my Mamboberry and will post what I am planning along with some questions for you in Soundcheck's MBLS thread when I get some time in the next few days.
I'm hoping to take it up a couple of notches.
Greg in Mississippi
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Another day...another delay from TI. We apologize to everyone that has a Piano 2.1
Latest communication from TI
As an update I have pinged our legal department again today and am still awaiting a response. There is an internal corporate approval process for such requests and so unfortunately it is currently out of my hands until I get a response. I have stressed the importance and so hopefully hear back shortly. Thanks for your patience. Thanks, J.
Latest communication from TI
As an update I have pinged our legal department again today and am still awaiting a response. There is an internal corporate approval process for such requests and so unfortunately it is currently out of my hands until I get a response. I have stressed the importance and so hopefully hear back shortly. Thanks for your patience. Thanks, J.
Today i received the Kali reclocker, after ordering it last monday @ the Volumio webshop. Hooked it up this evening and was blown away by first results, but more on the soundquality side of things later. For now just a short list of my config, because i think others can bennefit from the things i learned.
I'm running piCoreplayer v3.02 on a rpi2, stacked with kali reclocker. Linear 5v, 1Amp power to kali and pi through kali, connected to the +/- pins next to the regular power barral. I2S signal goes from Kali GPIO to an I2S over HDMI module that's powered by its own 3.3 V 1Amp linear powerline. The hdmi module is connected to my external Pink Faun I2S dac via a short hdmi cable. To only audio output driver in piCore that works is the I2S GENERIC. I'v tested material from basic mp3's to 24bit 192khz, all without any problem.
First impression: wider, more layers, nice piece of hardware.
I'm running piCoreplayer v3.02 on a rpi2, stacked with kali reclocker. Linear 5v, 1Amp power to kali and pi through kali, connected to the +/- pins next to the regular power barral. I2S signal goes from Kali GPIO to an I2S over HDMI module that's powered by its own 3.3 V 1Amp linear powerline. The hdmi module is connected to my external Pink Faun I2S dac via a short hdmi cable. To only audio output driver in piCore that works is the I2S GENERIC. I'v tested material from basic mp3's to 24bit 192khz, all without any problem.
First impression: wider, more layers, nice piece of hardware.
'Nuff said! It's the best you've had from the Pi, using a board based on the TI PCM5xxx junk.
What's the problem with the TI DACs?
Must admit I'm impressed with the sound of my IQ Audio DAC+, so I was interested to hear what sort of concerns people had. Whether it was hardware, support from TI or SQ or whatever.
I am tempted to go with the Kalo and Piano 2.1 because I would like to implement a 2nd order 120Hz high pass and an 80Hz 2nd order + 120Hz 2nd order low pass in the DSP. Does anyone know if the extra 2nd order filter in the low pass will cause a latency problem compared to the high pass?
I am tempted to go with the Kalo and Piano 2.1 because I would like to implement a 2nd order 120Hz high pass and an 80Hz 2nd order + 120Hz 2nd order low pass in the DSP. Does anyone know if the extra 2nd order filter in the low pass will cause a latency problem compared to the high pass?
I find that in terms of sound quality, the Kali+Piano 2.0 definitely betters the IQAudio DAC+.
John
Don't disagree with that. The thing is that more (rather than less) people who have compared ES9023 boards/HATs to the PCM5xxx stuff, usually end up with a preference for the former.
I can pick out a PCM5xxx DAC in a blind listening test, just from listening to cymbals.
I listen to music for maybe 12 hours a day every day. I find listening to PCM5xxx series DAC's fatiguing, to the point where I've had enough of listening to music after a couple of hours and would rather sit in silence.
And before anyone points out that it's all about the impl, not the DAC chip...... I've listened to cheap, I've owned expensive, I bought into the "gotta up/oversample to 8x rates to get rid of the crappy built-in FIR"....... I probably have every PCM5xxx RPi HAT/board ever made. (And a couple that other people have never heard, because they never went on sale.) I have yet to hear anything using a PCM5xxx series chip that I would describe as a "keeper" in either my main system or the much cheaper system I often listen to while I work. YMMV.
Having listened to Kali+Piano 2.0 for a few days I'll give the Mambo LS another go for a while and report back.
John
Different people, different tastes. I don't expect anyone to agree with me, other than me!
I know some people really rate the TI PCM5xxx series. That's fine. They are entitled to their opinion. I just find it a shame, that considering the heritage, BB, stuff like the PCM1704 and even PCM1794, that I do have a lot of time for, I find myself using the words PCM5xxx and the word junk, in the same sentence.
BTW John, didn't get to the PO yesterday. Will post on Monday morning.
Thanks for explaining your comment.
Just shows doesn't it... every ESS DAC I have tried (from peanuts to £3K) has been underwhelming in a hifi-but-no-music sort of way. I must admit I haven't tried an ESS with the RPI though.
I find the RPi & IQDAC+ combo is very sensitive to the power supply and surprisingly the transformer and rectifier combo seems to make more difference to the sound than the actual reg used. But done right it's a very fine sounding combo that I can listen to all day, it certainly passes the "just one more track" and "just a bit louder" tests.
WRT the filter settings on the 5122, I cannot hear any difference between any of the settings (in Moode). Maybe I'm deaf, but I do hear significant differences in PS arrangments.
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