Yes it's possible to do all of this.
Currently I am ordering components and finalizing the pcbs. Has anyone used pcbway.com to fabricate boards ?
cheers
Yes the board has EEPROM on board for configuration and current user state settings.
Configuration is achieved through the USB port and there is a spare port that could be configured for serial or even connected to a WiFi server.
Yes this is possible.
Yes
One of the reasons I chose the ES9018 Sabre DAC was because of it's 32 bit digital volume control being on par with the best analog volume controls. See http://www.esstech.com/pdf/digital-vs-analog-volume-control.pdf
The Digital IO board has an isolated PS Audio style HDMI I2S interface.
cheers
.
And this configuration is written to eeprom immediately upon changes so that after power is lost and restored it will be in identical state?
A spare USB port? Or just a GPIO? Anything connectable to an SBC that presents either a spi, i2c, uart or serial port (maybe even over usb) and a protocol for configuration would solve my problem.
Fair enough, I agree 32bit would leave enough headroom for this to never be a problem.
Again, count me in. Any closer to an estimated price?
Currently when you leave the menu page or when the screen saver activates after 10 seconds then parameters are automatically written to the EEPROM. I could have it write the EEPROM after every change but that would be pointless and a waste of write cycles especially when fiddling with the volume control.
There is already a USB interface that is used to configure the board and I talk to it like it is a COM port.
And it avoids further post processing after the DAC.
Will know this after I get the prototype going and submit the design to the assembly house.
Great. every 10 secs should be more than enough. The thing with the Najda is that you first have to save the config to a preset, then shut down the config application and put the device to standby and back, for the config to be saved. Which I find tedious. This sounds better!
Using serial over USB is the same thing as with the Najda (1Mbps d2xx), but what I'm missing is the *additional* port (so that I can control it from USB on a windows pc AND from an SBC/µC without switching cables). But from what I understand you've got that covered. Thumbs up!
Currently the menu switches to the screen saver after 10 seconds of user inactivity. It only does this once and not repeatedly so it's only saving data once after any new user activity. You would have to have a power failure in this interval for the updated settings not be saved which is a highly improbable scenario
The audio USB interface for audio is independent of the supervisory USB interface used to control the board so there is no need to switch cables. Having said that, the audio USB interface is isolated but the supervisory USB interface is not.
cheers
Lots of things going on in the background. Have added more functionality to the front panel user controls including mute and standby switch. Previously these were only accessible via the remote control and the board I will be using to test the prototype does not have them either but the final board will.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Yes this is a good idea and solves the problem of wanting to use more exotic navigation controls such as the Navimec control. I will split the board into two so that it is easier to use different navigation controls
regards
David
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HDMI, $$$$$, USB and some Hope...
I still have not heard back from HDMI, not that should be of any surprise to anyone. They are heavily licensed and into the big $$$$$, I was way out of my league even contacting them.
So I am going to eat some crow here, and apologize if I have mislead anyone with my excitement on post #59.
As I more then likely will never hear anything from HDMI, I have dug a little deeper myself on various HDMI Receivers and Transmitters...
First of all, if HDMI signal is encrypted with HDCP, then the HDMI receiver and transmitter will need to be HDCP compliant. There are a lot of stand alone HDCP compliant boards that are designed for the AVR market. Many of these offer extracted, unencrypted I2S lines that can be plugged into this pre-amp. But, I am not sure if these big corporations would be willing to deal with this. Yet, the potential demand in the market for a pre-amp like this is large enough that there is $$$$$ to be had for any of these board manufacturers willing to take a leap of faith.
Some examples:
http://www.grandbeing.com/product/HDMI%20Audio%20Extractor.htm
2nd Generation HDMI Repeater/Switchers with Audio Extract - Momentum Data Systems
As it stands, if the HDMI input Tranquility has designed in this pre-amp is not HDCP compliant, there is no guarantee it will work for decoded Movie based 7.1 audio. It might work with the OPPO Blu-ray players, as they have two HDMI outputs were the audio can be split off, but I am not sure if the HDCP encryption is removed. I will need to do some more research to see. I am sure Oppo will communicate with me, they are good folks.
Now there is another option for PC based users. One can use a USB interface to transmit decoded 7.1 audio to an 8 channel USB interface. Tranquility has designed this pre-amp with the Amanero Combo 384 which is only two channel, but it works up to 384 kHz sampling rate. Most USB 8 channel interfaces only go up to 192 kHz, so that is the trade off.
One can use the MiniDSP USBstreamer and run at least one of the I2S (stereo) lines into PSAudio interface. I am not sure if Traniquility has designed this board to run the various inputs simultaneously. For example with a LPCM 7.1 signal: inputting the front channels into the PSAudio interface, running the side channels via USB, back surrounds via SPDIF and Center and Sub via SPDIF. I would not do this my self, but wondering if the possibility is there.
So I hope this helps clarify things a little better. I may still have some of this wrong, but I think there is some hope for multi-channel Dolby and DTS applications.
Allen
I still have not heard back from HDMI, not that should be of any surprise to anyone. They are heavily licensed and into the big $$$$$, I was way out of my league even contacting them.
So I am going to eat some crow here, and apologize if I have mislead anyone with my excitement on post #59.
As I more then likely will never hear anything from HDMI, I have dug a little deeper myself on various HDMI Receivers and Transmitters...
First of all, if HDMI signal is encrypted with HDCP, then the HDMI receiver and transmitter will need to be HDCP compliant. There are a lot of stand alone HDCP compliant boards that are designed for the AVR market. Many of these offer extracted, unencrypted I2S lines that can be plugged into this pre-amp. But, I am not sure if these big corporations would be willing to deal with this. Yet, the potential demand in the market for a pre-amp like this is large enough that there is $$$$$ to be had for any of these board manufacturers willing to take a leap of faith.
Some examples:
http://www.grandbeing.com/product/HDMI%20Audio%20Extractor.htm
2nd Generation HDMI Repeater/Switchers with Audio Extract - Momentum Data Systems
As it stands, if the HDMI input Tranquility has designed in this pre-amp is not HDCP compliant, there is no guarantee it will work for decoded Movie based 7.1 audio. It might work with the OPPO Blu-ray players, as they have two HDMI outputs were the audio can be split off, but I am not sure if the HDCP encryption is removed. I will need to do some more research to see. I am sure Oppo will communicate with me, they are good folks.
Now there is another option for PC based users. One can use a USB interface to transmit decoded 7.1 audio to an 8 channel USB interface. Tranquility has designed this pre-amp with the Amanero Combo 384 which is only two channel, but it works up to 384 kHz sampling rate. Most USB 8 channel interfaces only go up to 192 kHz, so that is the trade off.
One can use the MiniDSP USBstreamer and run at least one of the I2S (stereo) lines into PSAudio interface. I am not sure if Traniquility has designed this board to run the various inputs simultaneously. For example with a LPCM 7.1 signal: inputting the front channels into the PSAudio interface, running the side channels via USB, back surrounds via SPDIF and Center and Sub via SPDIF. I would not do this my self, but wondering if the possibility is there.
So I hope this helps clarify things a little better. I may still have some of this wrong, but I think there is some hope for multi-channel Dolby and DTS applications.
Allen
Looks like a winner!
I've been looking at an active crossover/ DSP for my system for a long time. I've considered various ones like the DCX2496 through to the DEQX (way too expensive but probably the best).
I need to learn a lot more about the various programs used to create filters and DSP in general.
I don't know if it's still beneficial but is it possible to use multiple power supplies to each stage?
What are you considering for the analogue output stage/s and their power supplies?
Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions but I've been away from electronics DIY for quite a few years and need to catch up. Last thing I built was an Audio synthesis DAC (PCM63K) which uses over 12 power supplies.
I've been looking at an active crossover/ DSP for my system for a long time. I've considered various ones like the DCX2496 through to the DEQX (way too expensive but probably the best).
I need to learn a lot more about the various programs used to create filters and DSP in general.
I don't know if it's still beneficial but is it possible to use multiple power supplies to each stage?
What are you considering for the analogue output stage/s and their power supplies?
Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions but I've been away from electronics DIY for quite a few years and need to catch up. Last thing I built was an Audio synthesis DAC (PCM63K) which uses over 12 power supplies.