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Cronus - It's about time.

Has anyone discovered other SBCs that could be made compatible with cronus (that accept an external clock signal)? I saw an older post saying it's limited to BBB, but I'm hoping someone has since stumbled upon others. The BBBs single core on really limits what you can do on the device.

It would be nice to use the Beagleboard X15 since it includes a dsp chip, but I haven't even found any references to i2s support in the specs.
 
Hermes for RaspberryPi might be available very soon. Unless you need native DSD, then it could be a very good option.

That might work. The clock rate's lower, but it is at least quad core.

Alternatively, I was thinking about running brutefir etc. on my linux laptop, then sending it to cronus via usb. Although I need several channels for my tri-amped speakers, and it seems Amanero is limited to stereo.

Has anyone connected a multichannel USB interface (i.e. ones from diyinhk or minidsp) directly to cronus without a hermes module?
 
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Alternatively, I was thinking about running brutefir etc. on my linux laptop, then sending it to cronus via usb. Although I need several channels for my tri-amped speakers, and it seems Amanero is limited to stereo.

Two thoughts:
1) I believe you are limited to stereo with RPi unless you use the HDMI output, which would likely require other means of reclocking than cronus. Perhaps someone with more RPi experience would confirm.

PCM sound on HDMI output: Support higher sampling rates up to 192 kHz, 24 bit depth, 5.1 channels by soundg33k * Pull Request #1834 * raspberrypi/linux * GitHub

2) If you are running a 3-way active crossover, you might be able to pull something off with the latest RPi and BruteFIR, but probably only for PCM up to 48KHz. ...and I have not found a way to make Linux BruteFIR adapt to changing PCM sample rates. But if you can overcome that, I bet the new Pi could run a multichannel IIR crossover in ALSA after 2-channel BruteFIR phase pre-compensation. That might be serious geek fun. :D
 
2) If you are running a 3-way active crossover, you might be able to pull something off with the latest RPi and BruteFIR, but probably only for PCM up to 48KHz. ...and I have not found a way to make Linux BruteFIR adapt to changing PCM sample rates. But if you can overcome that, I bet the new Pi could run a multichannel IIR crossover in ALSA after 2-channel BruteFIR phase pre-compensation. That might be serious geek fun. :D

Oh, brutefir does have a fixed sample rate. I haven't used it much yet.

It'd be pretty easy to write a script that would kill the process and reload a samplerate-specific config file. Except there'd be a delay while the program loads

Alternatively, you could run several instances of brutefir for common samplerates and reroute the audio stream with jack/alsa. That approach would have greater memory overhead, but the cpu usage for the other filters would (probably) be acceptable while they're idle.
 
Actually - with a little driver work 8 channels should be very doable, but the initial Hermes RPI is stereo.

There are a couple of 8 channel PCM (GPIO not HDMI) drivers already out there on the raspbian github.

Yeah, I was under the impression that the Pi only had 2 i2s data channels, but then saw an 8-channel dac hat that somebody put together. Maybe they re-purposed some of the GPIO pins.
 
So, just got the board, and I've been searching, in vain so far, for the manual.

I can see that there are places for jumpers, and from searching "jumpers" I can see that they're for dividing. I have 7 resistors, whose purpose is unknown to me, and I'm wondering if I populate all of them. What are the two ufl connectors in the middle of the board for?

Was this information ever collected in one place? (I would be willing to practice the secret handshake if that is required. ;-) )
 
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There are basically two questions. The correct divider setting depends on the clocks you chose and the two uFl connectors are only for off-board master clocks. Choose the divider jumper to give you 22.5 & 24.5 MHz from whatever clocks you are using. The outputs are appropriately labeled for a B3se. What else?
 
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One other little item: In the past some people have not had a strong signal at the DAC using the uFl wires, but remedied that by soldering (short wires) directly from Cronus to the DAC. The culprit would seem to be the little connectors, which IMHO are made to be primarily undisturbed. They have worked fine for many users. If you use uFl connectors out to the DAC, maybe make your connections and just leave them - minimizing plug-in/unplug cycles.

Frank
 
Looking for some help with my Amenero/Hermes/Cronus feeding a dual-mono Buffalo II.

This combination was working fine last time I used it a few weeks ago with my MacBook Pro. I turned it on this morning and now it only works with the Audirvana playback, it won't work with YouTube or iTune - I get loud static noises.

I've tried a few different CPLD and CPU firmware combinations but have not found one that works. Most of them work fine with Audirvana but none works with iTune or YouTube. My Audirvana is version 2.6.5.

I suspect this is caused by Mac updates (I am running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6). But I tried playing YouTube music on an old Windows laptop and ran into the same static noise problem.

Can anyone shed some light on this issue? Is it possible something was damaged on my Amanero/Hermes/Cronus or the Buffalo II DAC?

Thanks!
 
Looking for some help with my Amenero/Hermes/Cronus feeding a dual-mono Buffalo II.

This combination was working fine last time I used it a few weeks ago with my MacBook Pro. I turned it on this morning and now it only works with the Audirvana playback, it won't work with YouTube or iTune - I get loud static noises.

I've tried a few different CPLD and CPU firmware combinations but have not found one that works. Most of them work fine with Audirvana but none works with iTune or YouTube. My Audirvana is version 2.6.5.

I suspect this is caused by Mac updates (I am running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6). But I tried playing YouTube music on an old Windows laptop and ran into the same static noise problem.

Can anyone shed some light on this issue? Is it possible something was damaged on my Amanero/Hermes/Cronus or the Buffalo II DAC?

Thanks!

My apologies. False alarm! it's not a firmware issue as I first suspected. I fixed the problem by making changes to both the Mac's Audio Midi and Audirvana setup.

Although truth be told, I do not know exactly what's the cause of the problem, how it got started in the first place and what I did that actually resolved it.

The problem appears to go away when I changed the format of the Combo 384 Amanero from the default 44.1KHz to 192KHz in Audio Midi. The strange thing is that the problem did not repeat when I tested changing it back to 44.1KHz.

I would very much appreciate an explanation from someone knowledgeable in this domain.
 
Output impedance on the potato semi?

If i am not mistaken the output impedance of the Cronus is the same as the Potato Semi chip + resistor values in the slots R1-R7.

The manufacturer spec sheet does not share any info on the impedance of the chip. Anyone around here know?