[Magirush]

I'm not really sure what to title this thread, or if this is in the right section or even website.  I've been reading these forums for awhile, though I wouldn't consider myself a big audiophile.
 
Anyway, I have come into the possession of some pioneer dj hardware.  More specifically, the pioneer cdj2000s and the pioneer djm 2000.  Which are great for their purpose, really no complaints there.  However, I've also found that the players and the mixer have some really high quality DACs and amps on them.  If I put some lossless files on a thumb drive and plug them into the player, and use the headphone amp on the mixer it sounds really amazing. 
Now, the mixer also connects to my laptop via an ethernet cable.  You can do some neat things with this like sharing files around, but what I'm interested in is the link monitor function.  This allows you to play music in pioneer's "Rekordbox" software, and then digital audio is sent over ethernet to the mixer, where it gets DACed and then played back through the mixer's headphone amp.  
My question:
Since the mixer is capable of doing this, why can't it play all audio from my laptop?  I know this feature is specific to the Rekordbox software, but would it be at all difficult to mod or tweak windows so that audio is sent over ethernet in a way that the mixer can decode it?  I don't have really high hopes for this; it seems likely that pioneer have developed their firmware so that it will only decode signals given by Rekordbox.  Still it seems like all the limitations are on the software side, so someone knowledgeable about how the software works could be able to accomplish this. 
I'm also considering asking over at Pioneer's website, but I don't know if they would approve of this.  So if anyone has any input it would be much appreciated.  And it would save me a couple hundred bucks by solving all my pc audio needs

 

[anwaypasible]

chances are,
the ethernet signal has a packet header.. and inside that header is the password to get the pioneer hardware to accept and allow the data flow.
 
but really..
a person would need to packet sniff the data connection to see if the password is header based for ONE time, or if there is some form of 'keep alive' (which is sending the password more than once throughout the data connection to keep the function alive).
 
as for your question..
you really didnt specify if you wanted the headphone amp to play all the music, or if you were trying to say something about the pioneer hardware outputting the audio through the preamp on out to the amplifier to the speakers.
 
if only the headphone amp will output the ethernet music, then maybe it is because there isnt any physical connection on the circuit board to send the audio to the main outputs.
 
it seems confusing here because why on earth would you want to send audio through the ethernet cord for the headphone amp?
just to preview a song and find a timestamp to cue, then load the song in whatever DJ software you are using?
 
are you asking because you think the audio quality is better from the headphone amp, and you want to share that improved audio quality through the speakers?
 
if that is what you want, you would need to emulate the situation of plugging in some headphones into the output jack.
that means getting the same resistance.
an electronics engineer would probably suggest a little box that is the same ohm as the headphones on one side, the isolate the other half of the circuit to match with the resistance necessary for the amplifiers.
(typically that means getting the ohms right, as well as the voltage, as well noting the timing, as well as noting the slew)
 
because in a situation of trial and error,
what happens when sending more audio information than the pioneer components can handle?
what happens when matching the ohms? (what about raising or lowering the ohms?)
what happens when matching the voltage? (what about raising or lowering the voltage?)
same for time, since the clock rate is basically like playing a game of 'pass the sandbag' with the electron worms, where going faster or slower changes the strength of the arms passing the sandbag (and maybe changes how much the next person is willing to grab the bag .. or even let go of the bag).
 
as it stands,
if the pioneer software will send audio through the ethernet port.. you kinda said the pioneer software wont play all of the audio on the computer, and that doesnt make any sense .. unless you've got some specific audio formats (like .flac maybe) that you want to play but the pioneer software doesnt support.

 

[mich41]

To put it simply - somebody would need to find out how to talk to this box and write a driver.

Probably it won't hurt to ask Pioneer, but IMO if they had such driver, they would include it with the device.

 

[anwaypasible]

pioneer might say something like 'if you can write the software to include the special header.. you've probably already got the setup to find out what information needs to go there'
but
computer programming from a beginning principle doesnt require the setup to learn the header information.. because you simply put in what you want, then program the password again into the chip and call it done, because when you pick the chip.. you pick whichever one is big enough to read & hold the password.
 
it isnt entirely impractical to find any computer programmer that knows how to write such a piece of software to simply be given the information and program the specifics for you.

 

[Magirush]

Sorry for not being clear, and yes I know it was a bit of a long shot.  What I meant is- I can "stream" music from rekordbox through the dj mixer's superior headphone amp, but not any other sound from the pc.  I'm trying to take something made for professional use and also use it for simply listening to music normally.  As in, I would like to be able to hear high quality streaming audio (premium pandora, spotify perhaps) through the pioneer equipment, as well as music played back through the foobar dolby headphone config which is seriously brilliant. 
 
Anyway thanks, and it looks I will be researching a good dac/headphone amp pretty soon.

 

[mich41]

You may look for something mentioning "audio streaming" in foobar output plugins, but honestly I'm not aware of any widely used protocol for pushing audio streams to DACs over network which could be implemented by both foobar and this mixer.

If Pioneer created their own protocol and their software cannot be configured to emulate a soundcard for foobar, receive SHOUTcast stream from foobar or do something like that, you won't be able to send anything from foobar to this mixer.

This Pioneer's protocol is probably quite simple and one could reverse engineer it and write plugins for media players, but this requires some networking knowledge and access to the device. Unfortunately, few people have both.

 

[anwaypasible]

i've heard of other types of software sending audio through the ethernet port.. and really, if any of those were able to be customized to include the packet information the pioneer hardware wants .. the issue would then be stuck at the audio software sending out the audio, because the option is a player of files or hooking into the audio mixer to play all the sounds from the pc (if not hooking into the audio mixer, then creating a custom software emulation of a soundcard kinda like virtual audio cable)
 
i would guess most of those pieces of software start as simply a file player.
and for the cost of getting it programmed, it might be cheaper to go with a new piece of hardware.. especially considering any patches that might come along and break the functionality of whatever you had custom programmed.
 
i question what really makes the headphone amplifier and headphones sound good..
is it really low distortion?
or
maybe something to do with the way the electrons coming out of the headphone amp are possibly a really solid match for the headphones you are using.
 
another option, if you are really wanting to succeed at it with the pioneer hardware, is to get a broken pioneer hardware.. let the electronics guy do a comparison between the one that works and the one that doesnt .. then let the electronics guy literally remove the headphone amplifier and create a custom functioning piece of electronics inside a generic box.
but
the biggest worry is snipping the circuitboard out from the rest, and then matching up all of the resistances to try and simulate the same connections.. only to find out there is something wrong with the rate of the worms flowing.
resistance, phase, amplitude.. match those to start & then see if it sounds the same as it did.
if there is a DAC helping the headphone amp sound its best.. well there are people out there that know how to get 'em working again.
i dont know if the signals are all exactly the same, they might be the same data.. but again the resistance, phase, amplitude of the digital signal might prove to be what helps keep the character the same as the original.
but
as far as you are concerned.. you would simply need to say you've got one that works and one that doesnt, and you want to cut out the headphone amp and make it work in a generic box.
 
hell..
maybe if the size is right and the electronics person is savvy, you might be able to get a generic box with a battery pack as an alternative option to be able to use the headphone amp as a portable device for mp3 players or whatever.
 
it might be one those times when the result comes easy, and it all goes smooth and almost effortless.
but
maybe it is a thing to tinker with to get right and that might be what brings things to the 'expensive custom.. just had to have it' category.
and i figure maybe some people will want it, simply because of the DJ atmosphere and pioneer hardware being a 'match' or 'kit' that is highly regarded in people's lives.
 
kinda like maybe somebody that got into video games with the ps3 and instead of tossing it into a box to save, they are using it as a cd player to keep the memories alive.
 
hey..
if you are desperate, i've got an idea that might work..
take those headphones with you to some game convention with a bunch of computers and ask people to let you hook up the headphones to try out different soundcards and see if you find a match that closely resembles (or is better than) the pioneer hardware.
that way you would have the chance to try a bunch of different soundcards (one would think) instead of buying whatever is left in stock at the store and returning it because it wasnt a match.

 

[KiruDub]

I realized that this post doesn't fit with your needs, but can't delete it

 
HDBaseT is a recent tech that allows for transmission of HD video, audio, and power over a dedicated cat5e or Cat6 cable.
 
It's geared toward having a central source of HDMI data that can be routed to different zones. 
Some big tech players are already on board (Samsung, Sony, LG), so I wouldn't be surprised to see integrated HDBaseT inputs on TVs and receivers in the near future.
 
 
"HDBaseT uses a proprietary version of Pulse Amplitude Modulation to pass the HD video and audio (and more) up to 100 meters or 330 feet without any loss of quality over a standard Cat5e or Cat6 cable.
 
HDBaseT can pass:
Uncompressed High Definition Video including 3D and 4K resolution (up to 10.2 Gbps)
Standard HD audio formats
100Mb Ethernet
Power over Cable (up to 100 watts)
Various control signals including IR, RS232 and CEC
 
As of early 2012, HDBaseT is mainly being used as a way of sending HDMI over a single Cat5e/6 cable and in HDMI switchers but will hopefully one day be included directly into A/V devices using the standard RJ-45 connector."
 
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1384980/the-unoffical-source-for-everything-hdbaset
 
Probably overkill for most folks, but I'm keeping an eye on it as it matures.

 

[Magirush]

Thanks again everyone, but I have an update.  I feel really stupid, but I forgot that my cdjs have a usb port.  Which means full midi control, and through some complicated driver stuff I can now essentially use the cdjs as a soundcard.  And it sounds amazing, and exactly as I imagined it.  Thank you everyone for your input, and I hope someone else can find use of this information.