• These commercial threads are for private transactions. diyAudio.com provides these forums for the convenience of our members, but makes no warranty nor assumes any responsibility. We do not vet any members, use of this facility is at your own risk. Customers can post any issues in those threads as long as it is done in a civil manner. All diyAudio rules about conduct apply and will be enforced.

Hi-end DSP based multi-channel integrated Preamp/Crossover/DAC project

Greetings

This is my latest DSP Productt based around an Analog Devices 4th generation SHARC DSP and ES9038PRO Sabre DAC.

All updated information and details along with specs available at our new website by clicking here

Details and Specs for the Ultimate-Preamplifier Plus is available by clicking here

Details and Specs for the Ultimate-Preamplifier is available by clicking here

Pre-Order page for the Ultimate-Preamplifier is available by clicking here

Regards
David

Ultimate_Processor(Rev-C).png
 
Last edited:
It depends on how much interest there is as this board has to built in quantities and can't be built by hand except for one off prototypes but don't expect minidsp prices !!

There are eight other support boards some of which are simple through hole boards and some are more complex surface mount boards.

I will post some of the other boards when I have completed them.

cheers
 
This is great but is like 10 times more DSP than most people would ever need. But, you know your target buyer better than me! Add up the need for a 5 way crossover, limiters, EQ, time correction for a surround sound system and bet there will be about 90% of the DSP cycle time left over.

Good luck with this though!
 
This is great but is like 10 times more DSP than most people would ever need. But, you know your target buyer better than me! Add up the need for a 5 way crossover, limiters, EQ, time correction for a surround sound system and bet there will be about 90% of the DSP cycle time left over.

Good luck with this though!

But the game changes as soon as you start talking about FIR filters or linear phase filters for use in group delay correction or room correction etc. Then every clock cycle counts ;) This is why most of the lightweight DSP's have trouble doing decent size FIR filters and usually they are limited to low sampling rates of 48KHz with not much room for any other processing, because every time the sampling rate doubles the number of taps per sample interval halves !! So at 96KHz or 192KHz all of a sudden you have run out of taps before the next interrupt and your filter can no longer be processed. Then to compound matters you may need an FIR filter for the other stereo channel or 7 channels and then you are in real trouble so you end up have having one dsp board per channel and what you thought was a cheap solution has blown out the budget !!

Even with simple IIR filters you'd be surprised at how many clock cycles are chewed up for even a medium complexity crossover filter so in this case more is better and for the extra $$ of a SHARC DSP over a Sigma DSP it is well worth it ;)

cheers
 
Last edited:
It depends on how much interest there is as this board has to built in quantities and can't be built by hand except for one off prototypes but don't expect minidsp prices !!

There are eight other support boards some of which are simple through hole boards and some are more complex surface mount boards.

I will post some of the other boards when I have completed them.

cheers

Again, the hardware described here looks to me like the best I've seen so far but I would point that the software/firmware will be as crucial as the hardware to get the benefit(success) of it.

And to answer to someone else, pointing that the power is too much for the home use, I'm running active loudspeakers for the past 20 years or so and yes FIR filters and first room modes corrections need a lot of DSP power.

JC
 
Again, the hardware described here looks to me like the best I've seen so far but I would point that the software/firmware will be as crucial as the hardware to get the benefit(success) of it.

And to answer to someone else, pointing that the power is too much for the home use, I'm running active loudspeakers for the past 20 years or so and yes FIR filters and first room modes corrections need a lot of DSP power.

JC

This is true. The hardware and its revisions are one milestone in the design process but is usually complete after one or two revisions. On the other hand software is an ongoing process which is never quite finished. As long as you work within the limits of the hardware the firmware is what defines the product capability and functionality.

cheers
 
We should work together.... I have discrete R-2R DAC modules and will follow up with reference ADC modules, no sigma delta here....

I'm strong at hardware and manufacturing, but no nothing about DSP programming.

Btw, exactly what DSP are you planning to use ?

I was tossing up whether or not I should have the DAC and ADC on a separate board that plugs into the DSP board using a suitable header. But having it all on the one board means simplified distribution of the ultra-low jitter master clock. This is why I chose the ES9018 Sabre DAC which has 8 DAC channels in one compact package ;)

There is the possibility of having another more universal design where the DAC is on a separate daughter-board allowing different DAC's to be used. I will add this to the to-do list ;)

I am using the Analog Devices ADSP-21489 DSP ;)

cheers
 
Member
Joined 2009
Paid Member
What about those other 8 boards you were talking about ?? My R-2R board can take a balanced LVDS clock directly into the FPGA, so clock quality should not be a problem....

On the other hand, I'm mostly interested in additional DSP power, good software and an user interface, so I could then easily make a board with the same DSP, and then modular DAC and ADC modules :) Assuming you're interested in sharing DSP code, on DIY or commercial basis....

Btw, what are you planning for there, commercial project, open source or combinations ?
Are you planning for actual production, assuming enough interest ?