Monat: September 2018

Volumio at V2.457 / Dietpi V.6.16 / mympd / upgraded ES9038Q2M decoder board I2S

3 Kommentare

so, 😉
after searching today for some new ES9038Q2M-boards/-infos, i´ve found also this “Upgraded version of ES9038Q2M decoder board I2S input OPA1612+AD8397ADRZ” (it was also mentioned in these diyaudio.com-forum)->Link

it costs only about 42$ (incl.shipping), and interesting is (besides all the disadvantages like the 5V-9Vplug, the only-headphone 3,5mm jack and so on) that they use “OPA1612” for the AVCC-section and some “AD8397ADRZ” for the “output”-section..

i´ve googled immediately for “AD8397ADRZ” and according to this post/article->https://www.head-fi.org/threads/audio-gd-discrete-op-amps-reviewed-opa-earth-opa-moon-opa-sun-v-2.397691/ its only in the “Category 2 – nice but incomplete sound” 😉  (posted the link+excerpts also in the forum here->Link)

the author there also said, that for him (and thats interesting for me) the AD797BRZ (i have the AD797ANZ here) are the only ones in the “Category 5 – complete sound traveling in the clean air” 
“..roughly, it’s like the AD79ANZ with all advantages of the OPA627BP added” and as u know, i just wanted to buy lately an OPA627 (the “Bugatti Veyron” on the OP-Amps) to “finalize” my op-amp-experiences..
so i guess i have to check-out these AD797BRZ some time too 😉

another thing is that they are now at Volumio V2.457 (PI Kernel bump to 4.14.69 and some fixes), i´ve tested it immediately with the ES9038Q2M and the “Allo-Katana”-setting, and it was, as said in an earlier post, “massive” (ES9038Q2M+2*AD797) again !!

 

this time had the chance to test it before with the ES9028Q2M-option (in Volumio) and some minutes before also with the i-sabre-k2m option in Dietpi V6.16..

last time i thought it could also be by the changed footprint/pi-kernel-bump but today i would say the “Allo Katana”-overlay is more specialized on the ES9038Q2M-core->

finally, at present, i must really say that i have the best sound (on all distros) with the newer Volumio (V2.452 and up) + “Allo Katana”-settings on an ES9038Q2M+2*AD797 !! (okay, its really tight between them but Volumio is absolutely easy to handle at present)

DietPi is now at V6.16, i just wanted to set up the new “mympd”-(fork of ympd), ran into trouble, theres a workaround now and its fixed in DietPi V6.17..(“Allo Katana” works NOT on DietPi (with the ES9038Q2M) but with the “i-sabre-k2m” overlay i got 32/384..)

more to come, greets for now 😉

 

Raspi-AK4137 single-HAT for 2/3B/3B+ Pi (30$) ; “Sonore” ISO2DSD v7

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so, 😉
thx to this phenomenal (post) in the diyaudio.com-forum->https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/314935-es9038q2m-board-278.html,
we have now here our AK4137 as a single HAT for the Pi !! 😉
as said in earlier posts, we have to improve the signal-quality(lower jitter and so on) over I2S->http://essabre-90xx-rpi.sfb2.com/2018/06/srcs-ti-4192-ak4137-volumio-update-foo_dsd_asio/


it costs only 30 !! $ and u can get it here->LINK
“..The main function of this board is to improve the quality of the Raspberry Pi I2S signal and reduce jitter. And make up for the Raspberry Pi I2S output without MCLK! The original I2S output of the Raspberry Pi does not have MCLK and most high-performance DACs require MCLK to work. And the AK4137 reconstruction clock reduces the Raspberry Pi output signal jitter enhancement.
This board supports Raspberry Pi 2B 3B 3B+”..
so, as also posted earlier the AK4137 has 768khz (PCM) + 12.288 MHz DSD and DR: 186dB !! ● THD+N: -150dB ->AsahiKasei(AKM) datasheet->Link

(u use it between the Pi and our ES9038Q2M for example..a really long explanation on the other functions of this HAT is in the ebay-description above)

by that i came by chance (and according to the previous post) about this “Sonore ISO2DSD“-converter (a GUI for the sacd-ripper) + “Sonore DSD2FLAC“->


u can download both from here:
https://www.sonore.us/iso2dsd.html
https://www.sonore.us/dsd2flac.html

many greets for now !! 😉

Little (Win)-exkursus -> foobar2000-alternative – Teac Hi-res Editor / ASIO-DSD / Win 384k

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so, 😉
by searching for the right settings to play real, native-DSD i came by chance about this tool->TEAC Hi-res-editor (WAV/DSD/DFF)
->https://teac.jp/int/product/teac_hi-res_editor/top

very interesting was, and thats why i post it here mainly, is because i couldnt play (flacs) above 192khz in VLC for example in Win8.1 (Win10) with the XMOS(Skysong)-USB-bridge and our lovely chinese-sabre-boards (ES90xx..)
i could select 24bit/384khz in sound-properties (XMOS-USB-Audio), could “generate” a test-tone, but playing flacs in 384khz by example was not possible..
I´ve installed this “Teac-Hi-res-editor” and surprisingly i had my 384khz (VLC) in Win8.1(Win10) !!
think it had installed some driver from which i was not aware of before..
second, the main very interesting feature of this Teac-Player/Editor that u can select the different DSD-rates (DSD64-2.8M,DSD128-5.6M and DSD256-11.2M) via the “play-frequency”-dropbox and it switches/plays through it->the Skysong(XMOS-USB)-bridge “clacks”-through and changes the LEDs accordingly to it !!

wonderful and absolutely easy !! (i had the ES9018K2M connected and have unfortunately a white noise at these rates (the PCM-rates up to 384khz are working well), but will test it with the ES9028Q2M and the ES9038Q2M)..
anyway, absolutely simple and very prolific !! 😉
(u must change the audio-driver in the audio-driver settings to “ASIO” of course-> see pictures..but soo easy, great)(if u have no “ASIO->(XMOS USB)”-option try to install the xmos-driver V4.36 or V4.45 again (here singxer/skysong-driverpack))

greets for now !! 😉

Volumio (now at V2.452) did it->DSD/Lock light on ES9038Q2M / Alsamixer Archphile XMOS USB Audio etc..

2 Kommentare

so, 😉
after i tested “Archphile” with the Skysong-Xmos-USB-interface and still don´t know how to limit the DSD-rate to the DAC/-combo (it uses 705600 but the ES9038Q2M doesnt support it, i got only a heavy white noise), tried everything in the /etc/mpd.conf; i used again “Volumio” as it said in one of their forums something about their DSD-native/DoP-compatibilty..
so let it run and hooray, the DSD-Led on the ES9038Q2M + the DSD-indication on the skysong-bridge were lit !!

(hadn´t got the DSD-indication before afaik).

wonderful, true DSD/DoP-sound !! 😉

had used foobar2000 with the Asio-driver/DSD-processor, the singxer audio-panel said:”Asio active(PCM-mode)-352800khz sample-rate”, see 2 posts before, but meanwhile i think it was converted !! to PCM- (with soxr by example) >because i hadnt got the DSD-led on and it wasnt not such a great improvement to “normal” PCM..
now with volumio it sounds absolutely fantastic, absolutely real DSD-“sound” !! (“real” DoP)

by that i´ve think meanwhile “Archphile” is for the really high-end USB-DACS->384khz,768KHz (and above); think its about the “Arch-linux ARM”-kernel/core..
also u got a wonderful “Alsamixer-volume and master-clock”-mixer for the XMOS-USB-audio interface (with the command “alsamixer”)->

also interesting in Volumio is that if use the “resample-option” in the settings it affects also the “DoP-chain”->set at 384khz resample/sox/very high, got my red light (PCM) on the bridge on and no DSD-light on the ES9038Q2M..
interesting II. is that u can resample up to 768khz (in Volumio) and u can hear something (but heavy white-noised) on the ES9038Q2M although somebody posted it can only play/(is capable of) up to 384khz in “asynchron-mode”; but i heard here something..->


greets for and more to come !! 😉

“Archphile 0.99.73 Alpha” + XMOS USB-Bridge (Skysong)->768 khz !!..

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so, 😉
in trying to play finally some real/Native DSD on some (our “lovely” 😉 ) chinese ES-Sabre-boards i came by chance about the “Archphile”-distro->https://archphile.org/ (knew about it , but hadnt got the time to test it till now)

it uses mainly the mpd-subsystem and i´ve read some days ago that it also could be a driver problem/xmos-usb-driver thing on linux to get DSD-native to work..!!
so and today after imaging the archphile-archive, and first i must say its really hard/difficult to “understand this archphile-distro”, because u got only a MPD-user interface with almost no settings (for the DAC for example and so on), u have absolutely to work over SSH in first place..
so but the really interesting thing is this->
first picture is the output of the “alsacap”-command (its Arch-linux)->
absolutely super fantastic !!! it says that the XMOS-USB-device (Skysong) can handle up to 768khz (via linux usb-driver)!!!

(a problem could (may) be that it didn´t show the “DSD_U32_BE” sample-format which is normally a clear point/-“ means that this DAC supports Native DSD in Linux“.)
but anyway absolutely fabulous !!
and much more fantastic is that it sends 705600 !! to the xmos-usb !!!->(with the “perfcheck”-command)

by that, “Archphile” has a very good/clean sound; sounds better than the picoreplayer for example (IMO), really,really clear !!

but got a really “destroyed/white noise”-tune with these 705600 on the ES9018K2M(and didn´t find a way here right now to lower it down to 352000 for example); have it really hard  to work it out here at present; (the ES9018K2M has lower capabilities DSD-wise than the ES9028Q2M or the ES9038Q2M for example).

flacs (all up to 24/192) are playing very,very well..but anyway as said, really,really great news !!

more to come !! -> greets for now !! 😉