Again: The “..there are no differences between Op-Amps”- fable !! (OPA2134-NE5532-Muses8920)

so, 😉
again: i´ve changed the NE5532 on the ES9018K2m today to an “OPA2134” and i hear absolutely great differences..
The OPA2134 is very “airy”,”lively” (in comparison to the NE5532) see this post:->http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/2018/04/op-amps-ne5532-vs-opa2134-vs-muses-8920-02-essabre-link-dietpi-6-5/
and has (brings back) a certain “glance” in the high-middles/highs..and this is all too because its very less “distorted” than a NE5532 par example..
okay, it misses a little bit the “push” from a NE5532->all said and written in the above mentioned post and some other..
(update: for me also too “thin”; but for this we have our lovely “Muses8920” 😉 )
but the main fact is that there are absolutely great differences; okay i have here a Cambridge Audio Azur 540A amplifier and some phenomenal Mission-Cyrus-speaker; so more “monitor/neutral/british”-sound..
but i dont get it, why some people say (like in my “praised” diyaudio.com-forum too) they hear almost no differences and “..there is to be cleared if its to hear at all”
???
are they (some) completely stupid there or what ? 😉
and such crap i´ve read also as i started to read/buy/change the Op-Amps on our lovely essabre-boards too and this “comments” almost hindered me to start it at all..
so, to come back to start:
upshot: there are great differences by the different OP-Amps and u can hear it loud and clear !! 😉

“Allo Katana” on the way->.dts accepted for rpi-mainline-kernel; Diyaudio.com forum

so, 😉
the long promised “Allo Katana“, a “monster triple-dac” hat->controller+psu/dac/output and with 6 Op-Amps from Allo is appearantly in the last stage..
(picture is from here-> http://www.forum-hifi.fr/thread-7848.html and relatively “fresh” and/but i don´t know if this is exactly the promised Katana-DAC/HAT, but looks so..(95%))

by that if u really want some fresh/new audio-(dac-hat) info 😉 go to the phenomenal board diyaudio.com/forums..
absolutely superb there; there are sooo much super interesting threads->for example this http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendor-s-bazaar/310338-dac-allo-ess9028q2m-rpi-35.html or http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/317577-allo-boss-dac-1-2-performance-4.html and so on and on..(some Link is also in the sidebar on the right->links)
this site is absolutely “low-mo” 😉 in regarding/comparison to the super interesting infos there..

by that, as said, the “allo-katana”-.dts was accepted by the rpi-mainline-kernel maintainer->(link maybe later) and i first thought:”yeah, then we finally have our es9038q2m.kos for the chip”, but they said, this .dts adresses the special mcu by Allo which adresses then the ess9038q2m-chip..

anyway, here is (imho) a super interesting excerpt of the code for the .dts file: (sound/soc/codecs/sabre-ess.c and sound/soc/codecs/sabre-ess.h) from here:->https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/pull/2519/commits/e67122b366f539713cf6ef91c63ab00cb269113d
it shows the different register of the es9038q2m (or in this case the allo-mcu but the basics are the same i think) + the adressing->

some user over there is also a few steps before reading out the mcus on our chinese-9038q2m-boards (i tried something similar a few months ago in trying to read out the mcu on a ES9028Q2M via the onboard SWIM-interface and with a ST-Link V2 but with no success)..
so, as said, very interesting, but go and visit these phenomenal diyaudio.com forums !! 😉

Wonderful pics -> DIY-project by Terry (ES9038Q2M+Kali reclocker) + LME49720 impressions + ESP32S

first, 😉
here is some beautiful pic by “Terry” again on his DIY-audio project (an ES9038Q2M+Kali reclocker i guess); wonderfulst !!
also the attached TFTLCD-solution->the layout of the screen and so on..
a treasure chest on ideas for other user in building their own DACs !! fabulous !! so many thx again !! (we´ll maybe get more pictures in future !)

second,
the LME49720 just arrived; i tested it here on an ES9028Q2M (DietPi-ympd, I-Sabre-k2M overlay):
for me too “thin“; it had a lot of air and liveliness/agility but absolutely, as said: “thin”..
after i put my Muses8920 back in i´ve got the feel: thats really hi-fi (with the Muses.)
but meanwhile thats all “whining” on a high level and it really depends on your personal taste (on this high level->one wants to have more “push”, prefered more “rock”, the other one prefered more “classical” music/tune and so on..)..
but nevertheless i would prefer the Muses8920 in comparison to the LME49720 by 15-20% 😉
(had not the possibility here right now to check it against the OPA2134/NE5532)..

third,
the Geekcreit ESP32S arrived here yesterday (Link) (5,50€); 2 cores, wlan b/g/n, bluetooth on board, 4 !! spi-s and so on..think about how to use it for the DAC-control (spi-display,source-selection,filter-settings, HW-volume etc.)..

greets for now 😉

Thoughts about an upgrade to ES9038PRO->too expensive at present+DIY-audio-forum

so, 😉
thought about an upgrade to an ES9038PRO by example..
we´ve had here a post to a “HIFIME UDA38PRO DAC”->http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/2018/02/es9038pro-new-es9038pro-out-hifime-uda38pro-dac-es9038pro-sa9227-219e/, 219€ and now looked today through Ebay and found this one:

roundabout 190$..->LINK
looks very nice manufactored, nice layout, 4 Op-Amps..
very interesting is also that they recommend:
“..default include NE5532*2 + NE5534*2 Op-amp
you can upgrade the op amps :AD797 AND muses8920” (have absolutely the same opinion here too (and also at the “DIY-audio.com-forum”; link at the right..)+ our “fabulous” “OP-Amps recommended by ES-Sabre”-list->Link..

so, but nevertheless i must say that as i heard my combo (“Blue”ES9038Q2M+Muses8920) after a little timely distance it is already a superb fine tune/sound..(but as said, u have to use Muses8920 or AD797 or similar)..

by that, some user at the phenomenal DIY-audio.com-forum->Link at the right link-list also said that he also has the impression that the “Blue”-ones sounded “flat” (as i said/posted before)..

so because it is already a really fine sound/tune here, and this 200 bucks are to expensive  for me right now/at present i guess i will maybe order some “Green” ES9038Q2M (V1.06 or V1.07)->but/and “we” have to be very careful in selecting the right ones, because there are also absolutely great differences on the “Green”-layouts concerning the quality of the layer+components !!)..->selected “Green”-one (V1.06) for now: Ebay 36€->Link
(interesting feedbacks/ratings btw. !!)

i´ve ordered some LME49720 and will test it against the Muses (next step would be to buy some AD797 or 2 LME49710)..

so i think its the best for now to stuck and further “experiment” with the ES9038Q2M !!

(and provide it with some really great “Talema” or something/similar 😉 )

New Picoreplayer is out->V3.5 (24.March 2018)

hi there, 😉
a new picoreplayer is out->V3.5->https://sites.google.com/site/picoreplayer/home/news

new rpi-kernel/firmware, “..Updated to Squeezelite 1.8.7-1052, includes native DSD support.”, got it to work (ES9028Q2M) with the “I-Sabre-9023” “card-control”, checked “384k”, Logitech Media Server is now at: V7.91->http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.9
(nevertheless u have to activate the DSD-plugin under “plugins”))

sounds very “strong”, good, low latencies (thx to the new rpi-kernel+firmware and so on), got DoP with 352k and without any commandline-options like “-e dsd” or “native DSD-patch” and 384k PCM with “X” (command-line-option)..

 

very “fast” (low latencies) as said->absolutely the advantage of a very slim/less resources using system; no disruptive layer/driver..
(but as said, still with a little bit “metallic”-sound; don´t know why..)

Very,very interesting post by Iancanada@diyaudio-forum/ESS-controller…

so, 😉
came by chance about this post in the diyaudio-forum->http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/302687-es9018k2m-es9028q2m-9038q2m-dsd-i2s-dac-hats-raspberry-pi-post5386371.html
its from iancanada@gmail.com, Github->https://github.com/iancanada/DocumentDownload..
Dimdim” from the famous Hifiduino-project is also there and they discuss a project in which the “..Sample rate, clock frequencies, X*Fs, date length, PCM/DSD/DoP format..” could be determined by a “signal format analyzer” (developed by Iancanada) running on the ARM-processor/Raspberry Pi to “run the ES9038Q2M in high-performance-mode” 😉 ..

a lot of really interesting infos !! (i dont write here some more cause i don´t know if i have the “permission” for it..)
also with the pictures..i took only here one or two; hope its okay for Ian..(if not please mail) 😉 (i personally think posting here a lot of pictures from his projects could help him to sell more from it/have more budget to develop !)
a MUST read !! 😉

(interesting is also that he uses some STM32 for his “ESS-controller; we/i´ve made some tutorials/first steps with it here too)

(another interesting topic there is by “Mikett“; he says “..in the end I stuck with the 49720. It sounded slightly better than the 5532. The 5532 seemed to provide better drive but the higher frequencies on the 49720 was better I thought.” and thats absolutely the same as i feel/think about the “drive” on a NE5532 and second about the LME49720 which ESS recommends (see the table in an earlier post)

ES9038Q2M: DAC DSD Decoder Support IIS DSD 384KHz Coaxial Fiber DOP+TFT LCD !!

so, 😉
absolutely fresh:”Our” ES9038Q2M now with the promised I2C/TFT-display..!! 😉

Aliexpress->$79.90 – $96.90 (with and without Apple-TV-remote!!)>
Link-Aliexpress !!  (+NEW: also on Ebay->LINK)
(theres also another link on ebay; but its a little bit confusing because the picture shows “ES9028Q2M” printed on the PCB->Link Ebay (63,66$))
this one from Aliexpress says: “ES9038Q2M VR1.07

(the second and third pictures are from Ebay)
absolutely great for now !! we can maybe use then a greater TFT(over I2C) and it looks that we havent then to read out the Anamero(XMOS-)-boards for the sample-rate+format !!(+it displays the filter-settings of course).
so we have a lot to test out in future !! 😉

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