Signalyst DSC1

[nautibuoy]

I found this and have ordered one;

DSC1 DAC DSD decoding hardware decoder suite supports Italy Amanero XMOS | eBay

Schematics look the same as those on Jussi's website. Not sure if the different layout will make a difference, but I'm unlikely to find out anyway, unless it's a complete disaster!

I plan to hook it up to a BBB/Botic?NAA, which I now have running at DSD512 with a Buffalo 3SE DAC.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/twisted-pear/258254-support-botic-linux-driver-182.html#post4776058

Ray

 

[nautibuoy]

I guess there are some silent followers, within 24hrs of my posting the link to the Chinese DSC1 PCB the remaining stock has sold out.

Ray

 

[nautibuoy]

I'm waiting for my DSC1 PCB to arrive with some trepidation at the amount of smd soldering required!

Thinking beyond that though, how are people controlling volume with their DSC1 builds? I've previously used HQPlayer's volume control but had a lot of noise (I'm typically upsampling from 16/44.1PCM to DSD256 or DSD512) so have been using an analogue volume control (Silk TVC) with my simple nodac LP filter experiments.

I don't use a separate pre-amp so my DAC build will need to have a volume control capability, possibly with a following buffer; would it be possible to use the TVC between the DSC's LP filter and buffer stages?

Thanks

Ray

 

[jborden]

Ray,

It's a great intro SMD project.

I just use HQPlayer volume control but there are many options. You may not have noise issues with this.

 

[nautibuoy]

It's a great intro SMD project.

I'll keep telling myself....

 

[shoom]

I'm waiting for my DSC1 PCB to arrive with some trepidation at the amount of smd soldering required!

Thinking beyond that though, how are people controlling volume with their DSC1 builds? I've previously used HQPlayer's volume control but had a lot of noise (I'm typically upsampling from 16/44.1PCM to DSD256 or DSD512) so have been using an analogue volume control (Silk TVC) with my simple nodac LP filter experiments.

I don't use a separate pre-amp so my DAC build will need to have a volume control capability, possibly with a following buffer; would it be possible to use the TVC between the DSC's LP filter and buffer stages?

Thanks

Ray

just ordered myself one of these to use with HQP.

The SMD work does not look so bad but let's see.

thanks for the heads up Ray.

BTW could you point me to some info on your BBB/Botic NAA?

 

[nautibuoy]

After watching some smd soldering tutorials on YouTube last evening it doesn't seem quite as challenging now.

There's a whole thread about BBB/Botic over on the TwistedPear forum;

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/twisted-pear/258254-support-botic-linux-driver.html

But for the NAA relevant stuff maybe pick it up at this post;

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/twisted-pear/258254-support-botic-linux-driver-180.html#post4773437

An image of my BBB is available here;

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/twisted-pear/258254-support-botic-linux-driver-181.html#post4774305

You need to download, unzip and copy to your microSD card (the etcher tool I linked to will unzip and copy in one pass). Put the microSD card into the slot on the BBB and power up while simultaneously holding the boot button down for a few seconds. The image will copy itself to the BBB's eMMC (about 10mins). When the LEDs stop flashing, powerdown, remove the micorSD and power on again. Should boot up as an NAA device and be detected by HQPlayer, provided they're on the same network. As the image is flashed to the eMMC you may want to back up anything you already have on it. Also, don't expect to get high rate DSD without using external clocks (and an isolator) - I use Acko's SO3 but TwistedPear's Cronus/Hermes will work too. Sorry if I've just taught you to suck eggs!

Oh, and DSD256 and DSD512 will use about 24Mbps and 48Mbps of your Ethernet bandwidth so you don't want to use the NAA on a busy netwok - I have a network dedicated just to HQP/NAA with wireless access to drive HQP via Muso using a tablet.

Hope that all makes sense.

Ray

 

[Greg Stewart]

A related and on-topic, but not core question... In answering a question on the new Sonore uRendu a couple of months ago, John Swenson posted that he has had better reliability using an SD card as the repository for an embedded computer's op sys than any onboard flash drives (like the BBB's eMMC). His post is here:

Sonore microRendu - Page 27

My question is whether anyone has noticed any sonic differences between having the load image on the SD card or on the eMMC? I'm close to getting a couple of BBB-based sources running and want to hear experiences.

AND many thanks to Miero, Ray, Jussi, and others for all the development work on this concept and getting it to work on the BBB. I look forward to playing with this in my own systems.

Greg in Mississippi

 

[nautibuoy]

A related and on-topic, but not core question... In answering a question on the new Sonore uRendu a couple of months ago, John Swenson posted that he has had better reliability using an SD card as the repository for an embedded computer's op sys than any onboard flash drives (like the BBB's eMMC). His post is here:

Sonore microRendu - Page 27

My question is whether anyone has noticed any sonic differences between having the load image on the SD card or on the eMMC? I'm close to getting a couple of BBB-based sources running and want to hear experiences.

AND many thanks to Miero, Ray, Jussi, and others for all the development work on this concept and getting it to work on the BBB. I look forward to playing with this in my own systems.

Greg in Mississippi

Thanks and you're very welcome Greg, though I think miero and jussi are the heroes, I'm just a pain in the proverbial who keeps asking questions.

With regard to your question, I haven't detected any differences with either reliability or sound quality between the uSD and eMMC.

Ray

 

[nautibuoy]

List of fixes I have made (I'll update the documents when I have time):
1) Either change I/V feedback resistor R1/R2 to 1 kOhm (this is what I did), or drop resistance of the network (8k network would be optimal).
2) IC11/IC12 non-inverting input pin 3 should be the point where DGND and AGND are connected, I added jump wires to the pin. While doing this I cut the AGND-DGND R18 (bead) connection on PSU board.
3) IC11/IC12 output pin 6 should be connected to AGND with 100k resistor, I connected from C520/C530 input side.

I'm looking to order parts to build up the Chinese DSC1 PCB when it arrives. It comes with 15K0 1% resistors for the filters but I thought it would be worth improving these to 0.1% types. Also referencing Jussi's published fixes above, I plan to leave R1/R2 as 500R and use 8K resistors in the network, like these;

ERA8AEB8061V PANASONIC ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS, SMD Chip Resistor, Thin Film, AEC-Q200 ERA Series, 8.06 kohm, 150 V, 1206 [3216 Metric], 250 mW | Farnell element14

Sensible choice?

Sorry for the simple questions but I'm learning about this stuff.

I'll check the PCB for the other fixes when it arrives.

Ray

 

[shoom]

Hi Ray

Thanks for the nicely detailed post which is a little more than I deserve looking at the links that you posted in 241.

But well spotted

I am indeed a little new to BBB which I purchased for the botic Buffalo but never got round to it so the information that you’ve provided will help plenty.

I’ve been using HQP for a month or so now @DSD128 into an IFI IDAC2 (but it’s not diy is it ) and it sounds good enough to explore the possibilities further. So a little DIY will be nice and something that I’m more used to. My buffalo 3 does not seem to benefit from DSD in quite the same way as the IFI and prefer it with PMC (DXD) being served.

So a DIY approach should be fun.

I noticed that those resistors that you linked to also come in 0.05% types which may work well for the filter.

What do people think?

Anyhow the board is on order so let’s see what we get quality wise.

Fingers crossed

 

[nautibuoy]

I noticed that those resistors that you linked to also come in 0.05% types which may work well for the filter.

What do people think?

I reasoned that, as people seem to be getting good results with 2% tolerance resistor networks, 0.1% tolerance might be worth trying while maintaining a reasonable cost compromise point; the 0.05% resistors would cost three times as much (roughly $33 for 0.1% versus $100 for the 0.05%).

Let me know if you have any problems loading the BBB with the image and I'll try to help, or I could send you a ready to go microSD card.

Ray

 

[shoom]

Good point Ray

It may well be worth waiting to see what the implementation on the board looks like before shelling out to much cash.

Let's see how things pan out.

I may initially use one of my waveIO for first testing as it involves less outlay and then got to the botic solution if things work out.

I'll be back for the botic advice as things move along.

 

[jborden]

I'm looking to order parts to build up the Chinese DSC1 PCB when it arrives. It comes with 15K0 1% resistors for the filters but I thought it would be worth improving these to 0.1% types. Also referencing Jussi's published fixes above, I plan to leave R1/R2 as 500R and use 8K resistors in the network, like these;

ERA8AEB8061V PANASONIC ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS, SMD Chip Resistor, Thin Film, AEC-Q200 ERA Series, 8.06 kohm, 150 V, 1206 [3216 Metric], 250 mW | Farnell element14

Sensible choice?

Sorry for the simple questions but I'm learning about this stuff.

I'll check the PCB for the other fixes when it arrives.

Ray

Several issues. Depending on how many mods you want to make, you need to consider what will fit on the PCB you ordered.

There is an inexpensive SMD ladder board that was posted to OSH park earlier in this thread which uses the excellent and reasonably priced Susumu 0.05% 15k resistor. Are you intending to order these PCB boards so you can use the SMD resistors?

 

[Greg Stewart]

Ray,

Check out the Susumu RG series resistors. I've heard them favorably compared the nude Vishays for sound quality and have used them to good effect in my recent builds.

Greg in Mississippi

 

[nautibuoy]

...you need to consider what will fit on the PCB you ordered.

I'm looking for 1206 size smd resistors to suit the pads on the PCB I've ordered.

But where to get the 0.05% Susumu RG resistors; Farnell, Mouser, Digikey all have them as non-stock with a min order of 1000?

I'm tempted to stick with the Panasonics for now as they're easy to get and, if I master this smd soldering, I can always use a hot-air device to swap them out later.

 

[nautibuoy]

I seem to have started something, these Chinese DSC1 boards are selling like hot cakes.

DSC1 DAC DSD decoding hardware decoder suite supports Italy Amanero XMOS | eBay?

 

[nautibuoy]

I hate to bring this up but I've started putting together a parts list for the Chinese board and there seems to be one fewer IC device compared with the Signalyst board, BOM and schematic. The eight shift registers are all there but there's only one SOIC-14 device on the input - I can't tell which it is but I'm guessing it'll be the 74HC04D.

Thoughts?

Ray

Postscript: It's difficult to be sure from the images but I think the other device might have been replaced by several 'smaller' gates.

 

[jborden]

I'm looking for 1206 size smd resistors to suit the pads on the PCB I've ordered.

But where to get the 0.05% Susumu RG resistors; Farnell, Mouser, Digikey all have them as non-stock with a min order of 1000?

I'm tempted to stick with the Panasonics for now as they're easy to get and, if I master this smd soldering, I can always use a hot-air device to swap them out later.

Ok, Mouser has reasonable prices on the RG series but that size isn't in stock (I've used 0604), so the 0.1% should be fine at $0.18 / 100

 

[nautibuoy]

Ok, Mouser has reasonable prices on the RG series but that size isn't in stock (I've used 0604), so the 0.1% should be fine at $0.18 / 100

OK, thanks.