jkeny
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Post by jkeny on Dec 21, 2010 1:06:19 GMT
Leo, if you need any help with info about the Hiface mods - give me a shout!
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Will
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Post by Will on Dec 21, 2010 10:23:15 GMT
I must admit, that untilI heard Syd's multiface (modded by John), I thought USB to spdif was second rate to spdif from a sound card. Now I think that they are both an equal option in getting a spdif signal out of the computer (I'll leave i2s for the moment) and into your dac. Both will be affected by the noise of the smps in the PC, but both can be improved by powering them from a linear supply. The modded hiface is ahead of my current sound card, and I put this down to the fact that it is removed from the PC 5V (the same reason, I feel, for the usb pen playback) I'm looking at something like this linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=10312 to make it easy to feed linear supplies to my current sound card, without hacking the soundcard to pieces. They are two approaches to getting a spdif out of a computer, with both of them needing that diy touch to get the best from them, like many things!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2010 10:35:09 GMT
Will An interesting feature about the Asus Xonar D2X that I am using, is that it has 2 separate power supply feeds. I think the additional feed is for the relays etc.
Alex
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Will
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Post by Will on Dec 21, 2010 10:50:37 GMT
Will An interesting feature about the Asus Xonar D2X that I am using, is that it has 2 separate power supply feeds. I think the additional feed is for the relays etc. Alex That's a definite step in the right direction by the manufacturer, and a nice touch. It'd be great to see more sound card alternatives, like the one that Leo linked to earlier in the thread, with just a dedicated spdif output, and also easy access to i2s. Pop in some jumpers for easy access to supply lines, and they'd sell loads to us bodgers
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Post by gommer on Dec 21, 2010 12:04:14 GMT
I wonder, why bother about the power supply in the PC? As soon as the audio is ripped properly, it would be enough to have a DAC with it's own power supply to be safe. You'll need one more property of the DAC in order for it to be clean and separate from the noisy PC: reclocking. It doesn't matter what interface you use, either USB or S/PDIF is fine.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2010 12:10:16 GMT
I wonder, why bother about the power supply in the PC? As soon as the audio is ripped properly, it would be enough to have a DAC with it's own power supply to be safe. You'll need one more property of the DAC in order for it to be clean and separate from the noisy PC: reclocking. It doesn't matter what interface you use, either USB or S/PDIF is fine. That's so far from the real world, not what is taught at Uni, that it is almost laughable. You aren't by any chance another hard line objectivist EE ? P.S. Try telling that to John Kenny, Will, Leo,Syd,Phil, or the many other members who construct and modify DACs etc. and often use things like the expensive Paul Hynes regulators to further improve the power supplies. Ask our resident muso Ian ("rabbit"), or DaveK etc. if power supplies make any audible differences with ripped files etc. , even when uploaded !!!
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Post by gommer on Dec 21, 2010 12:31:12 GMT
That's so far from the real world, not what is taught at Uni, that it is almost laughable. You aren't by any chance another hard line objectivist EE ? Now don't scare me away, will you . EE: admitted objectivist: admitted hard line: no. I'll admit the unexplainable as soon as i can hear it. P.S. Try telling that to John Kenny, Will, Leo,Syd,Phil, or the many other members who construct and modify DACs etc. and often use things like the expensive Paul Hynes regulators to further improve the power supplies. Ask our resident muso Ian ("rabbit"), or DaveK etc. if power supplies make any audible differences with ripped files etc. , even when uploaded !!! I've only been here a few days, so forgive me for the lack of background information. But are these rips done with something like EAC in paranoid mode, reading and re-reading until the majority of the reads agree on what a bit should be? PS. you're not into snake oil on AC power cords, are you?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2010 12:55:25 GMT
gommer It's almost my bed time, so I will be brief, but I feel sure that John Kenny and others here can bring you up to speed with what MANY members here have found.Files with identical check sums can sound different (PSU induced Jitter ?). Several hundred comparison .wav files with identical check sums have been uploaded and listened to by many members here during the last 2 years or so.These days, many members can hear the improvement with recent rips without the need for additional comparison files. If you read a few recent posts you will find that USB to a DAC can cause noise (mainly hum) problems. The "Hiface"is commonly used to markedly improve the USB to SPDIF implementation. John Kenny goes much further with his own mod to the Hiface which mainly uses Lithium batteries to supply critical areas of the Hiface (includes 2 precision Xtal oscillators also) to gain even further improvements, as does the use of a SPDIF attenuator in many cases. Test results have been published , and John can provide a great deal more information. I get markedly improved results using EAC, by ripping from a 3M 2552 anti vibration tape dampened LG BR writer,directly to a Corsair Voyager GT USB stick and playing from there. The editor of Computer Audiophile forum is on record as saying that "spinning HDDs muddy the waters". That was also verified at a recent C.A. Symposium where the attendees unaminously preferred SSD over HDD. Surprisingly, powering the USB stick by a VERY clean Linear +5V supply givesa a further marked improvement, which can be still heard after being downloaded. Ian got his wife to test him out, and scored 100% , because he knew what to listen for. Must close, so I will leave you to the tender mercies of JK. Regards Alex
NO !
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Post by gommer on Dec 21, 2010 13:09:40 GMT
Thanks for the update. I'll eagerly join the listening sessions once my DAC and Panda are build and running.
Cheers, Marc
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2011 15:21:54 GMT
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2011 16:16:18 GMT
When I oust all the moving/household-diy clobber from what should be my tinkering space, I'll be filing in behind you.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2011 17:09:37 GMT
When I oust all the moving/household-diy clobber from what should be my tinkering space, I'll be filing in behind you. Hi Chris that would be just great you have the xonar so just a few bits to get. I've been surprised how small everything is. i remember when a 10G HDD drew crowds from miles around just to bask in its hiss and chatter. i did work in a shop one which had a computer department but those guys just always looked grumpy (screamed about jumper settings) and never lasted tooooo long in the job. don't forget to have the fire extinguisher hand I've ordered mine in extra large. I'm pretty certain that if i can do it anyone can I'll post as i go but should be making a start within the next few days. take care
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2011 17:23:05 GMT
Hi All I thought I’d get started on some of the groundwork and as you can see I’ve selected some luxury 18mm MDF I had in my store. I could have used some Melamine but I thought that may be more prone to static build up so MDF won out. I’ve marked out some guide lines to give me an idea of the overall size of the computer and also to make things nice and simple when it comes to fitting the mother board, HDD and sockets. So not totally exiting but as I say ‘’we all need to start somewhere. Drilling standoff holes and cutting the Ali angle for the HDD, PSU socket, SPDIF and switch tomorrow. Take care
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 17:45:52 GMT
dearll Well it’s day two and I thought it best to do all of the fixtures and fittings now to save drilling and screwing before fitting the mother board and hard drive. As you can see from the picture I’ve installed the ‘’those joggers look loose you must have lost weight dear’’ bungee for the hard drive. I’ve left my phone in to give some idea of size. It’s just about the same size as a laptop so not going to use much space (yet). I’ve decided to feed Wills BNC fetish and also fitted the momentary on switch. So tomorrow the motherboard, HDD, Ram andsound cardd. Just one question at the moment. ;D I’m going to disable the motherboards internal sound card when I boot her up for the first time. Should I install the Xonar DS after I’ve installed the Operating System or before? Take care
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xerxes
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Post by xerxes on Mar 1, 2011 17:50:12 GMT
I'm just intrigued by the "luxury MDF" and wondering where I can get some.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 19:43:37 GMT
I'm just intrigued by the "luxury MDF" and wondering where I can get some. Hi Xerxes Nice one it's only available from my scrap box unfortunately. I'm thinking of starting a commercial venture selling it if you want some. what i do is save the scraps and forget about them for a year or so and hey presto ''luxury MDF''. ;D take care
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Will
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Post by Will on Mar 1, 2011 19:49:47 GMT
I'm just intrigued by the "luxury MDF" and wondering where I can get some. I have some in my shed if you want, £10 a square inch to you, special mates rates Hi Shaun, Looking good Having it all layed out like that makes it easy to get at and bugger around with. As for your sound card, plug it in to the motherboard, power up, and go into the bios when the boot screen comes up. Navigate to peripheral devices (or whatever it's called, can't remember) and disable sound card. While you are it, you can turn off the serial ports, parallel ports and floppy drive, as you don't need them. There are more, but I need to get at the pc with a monitor to list them out.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 21:19:48 GMT
Hi Shaun, Please keep the pics coming and keep a log of events as you go on - I fancy building one of these myself. Good luck with the project Dave.
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Post by clausdk on Mar 1, 2011 22:39:11 GMT
I'm just intrigued by the "luxury MDF" and wondering where I can get some. I have some in my shed if you want, £10 a square inch to you, special mates rates Way too expensive I can deliver at 5£ shipped, if you buy more than 100..
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 23:20:18 GMT
Hi Will Perhaps I am missing something here, but how will he then be listening ? Via onboard sound, or M/B SPDIF ? Surely not USB ! Regards Alex
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 23:55:48 GMT
I'm just intrigued by the "luxury MDF" and wondering where I can get some. I have some in my shed if you want, £10 a square inch to you, special mates rates Hi Shaun, Looking good Having it all layed out like that makes it easy to get at and bugger around with. As for your sound card, plug it in to the motherboard, power up, and go into the bios when the boot screen comes up. Navigate to peripheral devices (or whatever it's called, can't remember) and disable sound card. While you are it, you can turn off the serial ports, parallel ports and floppy drive, as you don't need them. There are more, but I need to get at the pc with a monitor to list them out. Hi Will thanks You trying to undercut me on the big L MDF. i do just hate that when someone has an idea and then it gets pinched and claimed as original. anyway on with MY hifi computer. the layout well I've been breadboarding amps for years so if i messed this up then just shoot me now. i did need to move the switch,BNC panel forward as i had it to close to the mother board but thats the point of doing things this way i guess. i connected up the whole thing in about 20 Min's (bloody ell) and yours now looks quite a bit like mine. it all only plugs in one way so no mistakes possible unless i take a hammer to the RAM and leads to drive them home. I'll post some more pictures tomorrow but so far so errr far i now have this gnawing feeling that that bit was sooooo simple there must be a headache coming soon. Will a list of things to be shut down would be most useful. i have used DOS (god i remember when thats all computers had) and have clean installed OS before but i did not have much idea of what was going on. just pressed yes and err yes. one thing i would like to discuss at this stage is boot options. the motherboard is USB boot enabled i think 1) would be Flash Drive 2) can i boot from a USB external DVD writer as i have one to hand ( my XP has drivers for basic ROM drives) . or would it need the drivers first. also operating system choice is there one OS that stands out as good for music?No MAC or Klingon please. also I'd guess that i would install the full Monty and then pair it back to just run music. i noticed a widows 7 light option which seems to be for note books. would that work as it's much cheaper £50 or so. 32 or 64 bit? sorry about all of the questions thanks again take care
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 23:59:49 GMT
Hi Shaun, Please keep the pics coming and keep a log of events as you go on - I fancy building one of these myself. Good luck with the project Dave. Hi Davek yes more pictures will be coming tomorrow and if i get through this then I'll stick around and help any one interested. it's an interestig project and not tooooo expensive. if i can do it anyone can. take care
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2011 0:03:18 GMT
I have some in my shed if you want, £10 a square inch to you, special mates rates Way too expensive I can deliver at 5£ shipped, if you buy more than 100.. Hi Claus yep then someone finds a way to do it cheaper and before we know it the products down market and cheap imitations appear. i bet you have four year olds making yours take care
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2011 0:13:24 GMT
Hi Will Perhaps I am missing something here, but how will he then be listening ? Via onboard sound, or M/B SPDIF ? Surely not USB ! Regards Alex Hi Alex i was thinking turntable I'm going to be using the ASUS Xonar DS pci 7.1 sound card to provide SPDIF via it's internal header (picking up the lingo) to BNC to DAC. Will and i think Chris use it and rate it pretty well. a good price too for what it does. i think that i put that in the list of ingredients but maybe i should have made that a bit clearer. I'll post the list in a more user friendly way at the end of the build. ;D BTW your USB PSU and flash drive idea is one of the things I'm keen to try so if all goes to plan I'll be pestering you again before to long. I hope things are good with you take care
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Post by clausdk on Mar 2, 2011 0:16:04 GMT
Way too expensive I can deliver at 5£ shipped, if you buy more than 100.. Hi Claus yep then someone finds a way to do it cheaper and before we know it the products down market and cheap imitations appear. i bet you have four year olds making yours take care How did you know Arthur (my son) is 4 years old ?? he he
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