• Disclaimer: This Vendor's Forum is a paid-for commercial area. Unlike the rest of diyAudio, the Vendor has complete control of what may or may not be posted in this forum. If you wish to discuss technical matters outside the bounds of what is permitted by the Vendor, please use the non-commercial areas of diyAudio to do so.

Introducing the Hermes-Amanero

At Pin 6 (MCLK), I get just over 0.8V when everything is connected and attempting to play music, which is half what it should be (according to Domenico). The LEDs on my Tridents etc, dim slightly when I start to play the track, presumably indicating something is happening, but still no lock.
The master clock would be a square wave and the higher frequencies would undoubtedly be missed by a DC volt meter so readings will always be quite low compared to a scope.

Be sure all voltages are proper and don't sag, this includes the 5V as well as all the regulated voltages that follow from it. Current demand varies greatly with sample frequency and jumps up when actually playing music compared to idle. If using any shunt regulation be sure to set the shunt current under the conditions of highest sample rate that you expect to use and actually playing or trying to play music. As you are mute start with 44.1K before trying higher rates.
 
IF you only need one clock, AND the one you have is the correct frequency for the signal, then Cronus doesn't help.
I assume the Amenero does that, while Hermes isolates it from the Amenero's power rails, as recommended.

[IMO] PC -> DAC is from 'the bad old days' - that setup has been long surpassed.
Only if you don't use a PC as a central computer for many tasks. Other setups add unnecessary steps and time, then.

There are benefits to isolating the I2S signal (Hermes) and there are benefits to clocking the synchronous signal without splitting cycles (Cronus). These two methods have driven widespread improvements to the quality of rendering in digital audio. It remains for you to decide which technologies you 'need'. Why not test with your intended output stage and headphones, etc. and let the ears decide? :)
Well, that what I'm wondering. As to why not just try and decide? Because I know I'm as prone to the placebo effect as anyone else. I can see situations where it would provide objective advantages. I also don't claim to know 100% of what's going on inside the Amenero, nor at its I2S outputs, which are way too fast for my scope. The Amenero has two quality clocks, and both it and the Cronus should need to select from them and divide them for the various I2S data frequencies - that's my understanding, at least. However, I don't have deep knowledge of all of the Amenero's inner workings, and potential shortcomings.

Having a good clock is a no-brainer. My first foray into that was a bit expensive at the time, for me (BBB, Hermes-BBB, Opus, Metronome, MiniDSP's USBStreamer, with a little hacking, though the details escape me now, and various PSUs), but I can tell the difference with bookshelf speakers, or lowly PortaPros. That in itself is on the level of over or under driving outputs, or significant EQ differences.
 
Last edited:
IF you only need one clock, AND the one you have is the correct frequency for the signal, then Cronus doesn't help.

The Cronus will not improve a single clock, but that is not its purpose.

I assume that you mean a single time base for instance all source material is 44.1k PCM files or everything is going to be resampled to some other constant rate.

If you are using I2S there will still be 3 signals required, bit clock, L/R clock, and data which you could think of as a "musical clock" or realize needs to be locked to the other clocks to work. This is true even if you only install one crystal and only use one sample rate. The combination of the Amanero in slave mode asynchronously pulling the data from the computer referencing the (as good as you want to make it), (I.E. better than the clocks that come with the Amanero), time base clock on the Cronus which also resynchronizes the three "clocks" will definitely help improve the sound. The Hermes isolation helps clean up the power and grounds allowing all the clocks to perform at thier best.
 
gif problem
We designed Hermes Amanero around our own DACs and most others that only need the PCM/DSD signals - not flags - not that particular DAC (DSC2) you are using :)

I might do a REV2 that allows more flexibility for people who need it :)

Cheers!
Russ

Just flashed the Amanero with the 4 channel firmware. Ready for the new REV 2 that isolates and re-clocks both PCM streams.
 
Last edited:
Cronus/Hermes basically just pass through and re-clock of the clock and data lines - no flags - they don't modify anything about the clocks or data itself.

Russ,
How can I verify that a 24-bit input to Amanero by USB is reproduced bit-perfectly at the Amanero/Hermes/Cronus I2S output?

Is there some objective test you can suggest that is not a listening test?

How did you test the I2S output when you were designing Cronus?
Jon
 
Hey everyone,


I decided to switch to an USB input through an Amanero-Hermes-Cronus to feed my BuffaloIIIsePro38. Unfortunately, after connceting everything as described in the first post I get no sound and the lock led of the Buffalo shows no light. So, here are a couple of questions:

1) I ordered the Amanero from TP. Does it already have the right firmware and configuration (slave mode) to run it with the Hermes and Cronus?

2) I only have access to a Linux machine. Does the Amanero work out of the box with Linux or are there any known issues?

3) I attached a picture of my wiring of the Cronus and the Buffalo. Are there any obvious flaws?

4) Any advice what I could test to check the correct functionality of the Cronus? Anything I could measure? I already had problems to make it run with a BBB-Hermes combination and I start believing the problem might lay in the Cronus (Problems with BBB-Hermes-Cronus for Buffalo-IIIsePro38 build.)

5) Is it possible to shortwire the Cronus to check if everything else works fine?

Cheers
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20200730_224717.jpg
    IMG_20200730_224717.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 397
Hermes / Cronus compatibility with the new Amanero Combo384SE

Hello, greetings to everyone from Poland.

I have a question. I would like to purchase a Hermes / Cronus combo for Amanero. I already have a new version of Amanero Combo384SE, equipped with SPDIF. SPDIF is on a separate connector, but pinout on the main Amanero connector are slightly different too.

Will this be a problem if I mount Hermes / Cronus on it?

Please see, here is specification of both:

standard: http://www.amanero.com/drivers/combo384-D.pdf

new: https://www.amanero.com/drivers/combo384SE.pdf
 

Attachments

  • Różnice wejść stare nowe Amanero.png
    Różnice wejść stare nowe Amanero.png
    550.6 KB · Views: 372
Hi! After some initial setup issues (see my posts in Cronus thread, for this issue I think this thread is more appropriate) I am able to run 44.1x multiple audio without a problem. 48x audio sounds lower pitch, it is not using the correct clock.

Findings:
Pin 11 on the Amanero never changes to 3.3v, it stays at 0 no matter the audio sample.

This is my setup:
Volumio -> Amanero -> Hermes -> Cronus =>2x Teleporter => 2x B3SE

My flashing process (running Windows in Parallels on Mac):
1) Plugin USB
2) Clear flash on Amanero
3) Replug USB Amanero
4) Flash CPLD
5) Replug USB Amanero
6) Flash CPU
7) Replug USB Amanero
8) Flash configuration bits

In the Cronus thread I was told to put a jumper on HMCK_SEL, what does this jumper do? I do not get sounds when doing that.

I have tried a couple different firmware settings.

Slave_For_1080 && jumper on HMCK_SEL
No sound for any frequency

Slave_For_1080 && no jumper on HMCK_SEL
Proper sound for 44.1x music. Slow sound for 48x music.

Cpld_For_1080 && configuration set && (jumper on HMCK_SEL || no jumper on HMCK_SEL)
Sound on all music, however no change on pin 11 (stays at 0).


I currently run the last config, but I think this uses the clock from Amanero. What can this be? Maybe the config bits aren't set properly? Can I check this?

For 44.1x music it sounds really good. I had not expected it to be such a big difference from WaveIO thanks for such a great product!
 
I now see in the manual I forgot a step, after flashing CPLD you need to unplug&replug the USB, wait 4 seconds, take it out and put it back again. I did that just now but that didn't make a difference.

And as a test I also set pin 1 to clock selector and see if that would change when playing different files. It does not.
 
I now see in the manual I forgot a step, after flashing CPLD you need to unplug&replug the USB, wait 4 seconds, take it out and put it back again. I did that just now but that didn't make a difference.

And as a test I also set pin 1 to clock selector and see if that would change when playing different files. It does not.

It really seems like the flags are not being set, but not sure why, as it sounds like you are setting them.
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2021-03-15 at 10.49.20 AM.png
    Screen Shot 2021-03-15 at 10.49.20 AM.png
    13 KB · Views: 310
Cronus reclocking Modul jumper position Need some kind help please

Hello all ,sorry to bother.

I have 2 Buffalo SEiii Dac boards in dual mono connected to a Mercury card i .

My question is could someone help me find what jumper configeration i need on the Cronus reclocking module that has Amanero-Hermes-Cronus Combo - 45.1584/49.152MHz Clocks feeding 2 SEiii dacs .
I want to first get it up and running in Async first and later try sync without the Tridents .
Thanking anyone who could be so kind and help me .
Thank you all again .
Regards Shaun .