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New FIFO buffer for RPI/SBCs

Cyrilliu,

Of course these are 6 separate supplies, one of which is a +- supply.

See this thread by Ian for info on his IsolatorPi:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-b...-i2s-dsd-isolator-hat-native-dsd-decoder.html

It should be available very soon... I've got a beta-test unit here and very happy with what it does.

You can add your interest for a board here:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/grou...hronous-i2s-s-pdif-fifo-kit-group-buy-48.html

The Uptone Audio LPS-1 UltraCap supplies provide either 3.3V/5V/7V at 1.1A and sell for about $400 USD each... more information here:

https://uptoneaudio.com/products/ultracap-lps-1

And on the Uptone Audio forum on Computer Audiophile.

They provide the benefit of the output power being fed from a source not connected to the AC line, eliminating noise that is transmitted through AC-connected power supplies. PLUS they are good supplies! (though not the best, but to beat them IMHO you're looking at the GREAT, but very high $ Paul Hynes supplies).

4 x $400 starts this at $1,600.

The K&K Audio Low Voltage Power Supplies can be seen here:

K&K Audio | Other kits

and the 12 Watt one sells for about $50.

I DIY'd the +-15V supply using an EBay 50VA RCore (~$50 USD), 4 over-spec'd diodes (~$20 USD), and the 2 47,000 Jensen 4-Pole filter caps (~$180), so about $250.

This gets up to $1,900. Cables, connectors, mountings will eat a bit more, but not much.

Really looking forward to seeing & hearing about your Pulsar adaptation of the Kali!

Greg in Mississippi

Allo will announce a isolator board. They seem to accept my advice.

https://allo.com/sparky/isolator.html
 
Good news, but too bad it's almost as expensive as the Kali board... it makes no sense but than stacking purchases... Hey it's just an isolator but sold as a marvelous funtionality ???? more expensive than some Hat dac ????

It's ok for those whom don't want to buy the Kali, but for people wanting a Kali II I would putt some isolators chips on it if it measures better ! Want to make an antenna for catching things :dead: ?
 
...

Why not just make one board to avoid the uf-l wire which add jitter on its own (around 190 pico second by 1" length, so 0.8 nano second with a classic 4" uf-l cable) ?

...

...

Here the uf-l or sma plugs have a big plus on their own while each inch of cable adds jitter : trade off I surmise and I don't know what is the main poison here if one has to choose between impedance matching or length of cables trade-off?!...

Is there any documentation about this (underlined)?
 
@cdsgames

Would you consider Toslink input for Kali II?
If so then one could connect Chromecast Audio to Kali II through toslink.
Chromecast Audio has best usability, because you can use native apps spotify, tidal from your phone to stream.
Then I could forget about all the hassle related to RPi3/Sparky and Volumio/Runaudio updates.

Another option would be to build Toslink receiver of RPi3/Sparky footprint. Then one could simply replace RPi3/Sparky with such board, put any existing RPi3 HAT DAC on top of it and then connect to Chromecast Audio :) Best, best, best if one uses mostly tidal or spotify for streaming of course.
 
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I took it from a IanCanada manual or post iirc, but it seems things are more complex, look at here the answer of Braxie here : http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...rips-discrete-r2r-multibit-2.html#post5104783

Anyway those cables are among the best at highs frequencies to link two boards : 50 ohms matching impedance so they have their own gnd return path and are shielded as well ! The shorter the conexion seems always the better !
 
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Good news, but too bad it's almost as expensive as the Kali board... it makes no sense but than stacking purchases... Hey it's just an isolator but sold as a marvelous funtionality ???? more expensive than some Hat dac ????

It's ok for those whom don't want to buy the Kali, but for people wanting a Kali II I would putt some isolators chips on it if it measures better ! Want to make an antenna for catching things :dead: ?

The isolator doesn't looks so simple.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/300075-isolator-board-rpi-i2s-i2c-3.html#post5075477
 
I know IanCanada is also making a standalone isolator Pi hat... This is more this fame of multi boards which is borring me... fragile, expensive, certainly EMI trap... maybe not so good for digital stuffs than the feeling the consumer can be an actor of a Lego DIY...

But I see it as an improvement in relation to the usual mortgage hifi ! sold your car for a dac ? No thanks !
 
Even worse, the isolator is not at the most appropriate place.

Currently I use ES9038 DAC, with Crystek CVSS-945 true sine wave output clock, 100MHz async mode.

I'm just curious how the ES9038's internal clock regen performs relative to different diyer reclocker boards.

Anyhow, the old ES9018 double chip DAC board is not in pair with the new ES9038, the newer chip has a new clock regen algorithm. There are also other changes, so better performance is possibly not due to the new algorithm alone.
 
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0 isolator board seems to be just enough. But an isolator chip after the FPGA worth to try. If not good for anyone, it can be bypassed. I suggested this for Kali 2 previously, without any result. OK, if they can sell an isolator board positioned before the noisy FPGA, or a Kali2 without bypassable isolator chip after the FPGA, they do it right.

Note, Twisted Peer Audio has an elegant solution for reclocking, called Chronus board. They do not use noisy FPGA at all, calculation is done in the audio server's Unix layer. They also don't use FIFO. It consists of minimal hardware + a good Botic driver. Though it has a disadvantage: it's limited to one less popular SBC currently.

But the main question is: ESSTECH new clock regen algorithm applied in the ES9038 worth to be replaced with one of the diyers solution?
 
@cdsgames

Would you consider Toslink input for Kali II?
If so then one could connect Chromecast Audio to Kali II through toslink.
Chromecast Audio has best usability, because you can use native apps spotify, tidal from your phone to stream.
Then I could forget about all the hassle related to RPi3/Sparky and Volumio/Runaudio updates.

Another option would be to build Toslink receiver of RPi3/Sparky footprint. Then one could simply replace RPi3/Sparky with such board, put any existing RPi3 HAT DAC on top of it and then connect to Chromecast Audio :) Best, best, best if one uses mostly tidal or spotify for streaming of course.

Yes we are
 
Even worse, the isolator is not at the most appropriate place.

Currently I use ES9038 DAC, with Crystek CVSS-945 true sine wave output clock, 100MHz async mode.

I'm just curious how the ES9038's internal clock regen performs relative to different diyer reclocker boards.

Anyhow, the old ES9018 double chip DAC board is not in pair with the new ES9038, the newer chip has a new clock regen algorithm. There are also other changes, so better performance is possibly not due to the new algorithm alone.

Completely different tech... ess sabre is asynch but extremly well implemented with lots of math wizardry ..but in the end still asynch. Kali is bit perfect. As simple as that.
 
Originally Posted by sckramer View Post
<SNIP>Also as a quick aside, I like the Boss in certain ways, but this sounds much better to me... something about it's bass grates on me after awhile (meat grinder to my ears). I'd like to see a FR chart on it, it's so different!

Scott, I just wrote this on another thread, but in case you haven't run the Boss 24/7 for 2-3 weeks, you might want to put it in a test setup and do that and listen again... here's what I said:

"Do note that like all capacitors that I've used, these Supercaps take some time to form and settle in. For the 1st 2-3 weeks of on-time (I leave my gear on 24/7 when I don't have any fear of thunderstorms), bass will be over-emphasized & there is an overall 'hashiness' to the backgrounds. In my experience, these both diminish in that third week and they seem totally settled after that. But depending on your setup and your own tolerance for this characteristics, you may have to grit your teeth at times during this period.

So far, IN MY SETUPS AND TO MY EARS, I have used them and liked them on the power leads to RPis and Allo Kali's & Boss and Piano DACs, and installed them on the main DAC (and where appropriate clock) power supplies on a Mamboberry & a couple of Sony HAP Z1-ESs.

After settling, IN MY SETUPS AND TO MY EARS, I still hear enhanced bass power, deliniation, and depth along with an overall enhancement in instrument & voice 'solidity'... and an increase in perceived dynamics."

About 1 week into the break-in time on my Boss, I started planning an extreme series of modifications to fix the issues I was hearing. But I held off on execution because I knew it was still breaking in.

After a bit more than 2 weeks constant run time, I started liking it.... and now at 3 weeks, I'm pretty darned happy with it (see my comments on it here:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-b...e-cheap-dac-hat-raspberry-pi.html#post5083801 )

SO if yours did not have that amount of runtime, you may want to do that and give it another chance. OTOH, I can see that it won't be everyone's cup of tea due to system differences and personal preferences... as always, YMMV!

Greg in Mississippi

I try to keep up Greg :) but gonna be a bit tough on the BOSS, because they're aiming for the fence. It's the way to go if just plugging it in and not worrying about it... and it's delicious on my headphone setup (tubes and solid state). Here's a pic, I'm running them 24/7 before back to the big system! I hope the bass settles in. Trust me, moved my speakers practically into the center of the room, different speakers, ml decent subs off/on/tuned etc...!!! But that was only with about ~24 hours play time on them.

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Completely different tech... ess sabre is asynch but extremly well implemented with lots of math wizardry ..but in the end still asynch. Kali is bit perfect. As simple as that.

Both sync & async has it pros and cons. I remember how sync systems depends on the cable used to connect clock, when clock is relatively far from the DAC chip. While easy to find cables providing bit perpect transfer, the sound is different with different cables. Maybe audio can't be simplified to the bit perfect question.
 
Hi.

Quick update.

Allo is still working on getting "the patch" into the kernel git.

I was a bit surprised though to learn last week that that early dual-mono patch
I received was supposed to be it!?!?

I had issues with it and on top I gave feedback related to the Piano21 documentation, terminology, DSP files and additional features.

From my perspective the whole project required an overhaul.

The response I received last week: "We look into it."

Bottom line, the way forward will look like this:

1. Allo needs to get their stuff together
2. The RPI kernel git sources needs to be updated accordingly ( using patches - speaking for Moode - is a NoGo )
3. The new kernel sources need to be integrated and tested by the OS maintainers
4. The new functionality associated to e.g. selecting the new dual mono modes need to be integrated
tested and documented by the OS maintainers (e.g. Tim would have to update the GUI)
5. And then that new functionality needs to be launched within one of the next OS releases

Speaking for Moode, all that can take a while, especially if bullet "1." is still outstanding.
PcP and the other OSes won't do it much differently. Some might introduce "quick and dirty" early stage patches.

Allo should develop an awareness that they are at the beginning of the chain and a success of a product highly depends and getting things right exactly at that point.

Cheers
 
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Hi everyone,

I posted on another thread, but I think I better try asking here.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...1-fifo-universal-i2s-pcm-driver-board-89.html

Recently, I assembled a dac with the following hardware combination with no luck.

Volumio - Rpi3 - kali reclocker - ian pcm board - AD1865/PCM1702 board - opamp IV

I did checked for dc offset at the output before inputting a 400hz signal (from youtube thru volumio). The frequency measured thru DMM doesnt show a 400hz, but it shows frequency fluctuating at a few thousands hertz. Out of curiosity, I connected it to my amplifier & speaker, only to hear pink noise.

Assuming i2s data (with mclk) is a standard, I wonder if anyone have tried connecting kali to ian pcm board?

I have no problem connecting the kali i2s data to TDA1543/passive IV. It is playing music, but the output level is low.

Regards,
Cheng
 

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