[abartels]

Yes, I know them, but they are not comparable with Ian's fifo reclock. Still, they are a good choice to use too!

 

[robertsong]

Originally Posted by b0bb 
  When you get your DDC open it up and take a few photos and post it here, the information about the XO is written on the top of the metal can.
 
How the XO is mounted will depend on the DDC.

 
 
 
 
 
Actually, what I think he is talking about there is the USB clock. Even more difficult to upgrade. Either enjoy what you have or get a better DDC in my opinion. I'm really enjoying my WaveIO with NDK's. Sounds very much like the DXIO Pro3A but I'm just going from memory here.
 
From Romania:
 
http://luckit.biz/product/waveio/
 
Still not sure why I'm the only one to have one of these. DIY is VERY minimal and I'm not even good at it.
 
?????

 

[b0bb]

  Actually, what I think he is talking about there is the USB clock.
 

I do not see any benefit in changing the 12MHz XO/clock, it controls the rate at which data is clocked in from the USB host/computer.
 
There is rate matching between the USB audio device and the host at the protocol level so there is no need for hyper accurate clocks.
The DDC regularly updates the USB host on the rate differences so it will stay in sync, assuming USB 2.0 enhanced audio mode.
This is 2 way communication handshake.
 
XMOS goes into more details
http://www.xmos.com/fundamentals-usb-audio
It is about half-way down after the picture of the USB dac.
 
The ones that really matter are the audio bit stream clocks (Crystek/NDK recommendations), there is no 2 way communication between the SPDIF transmitter (the DDC) and receiver (the DAC) unlike USB.

 

[hgpsemaj]

  Yes, I know them, but they are not comparable with Ian's fifo reclock. Still, they are a good choice to use too!

 
It offers two options, either re-clocking with 45.1584/49.152MHz, or 22.5792/24.576MHz.

 

[b0bb]

  Yes, I know them, but they are not comparable with Ian's fifo reclock. Still, they are a good choice to use too!

The Cronus was the result of the discussions on DIYAudio into the limitations of the existing solutions including the FIFO reclocker.
The main difference is that Cronus does everything at the PHY layer but the FIFO reclocker looks into the bitstream and reconstructs it.
 
This makes the Cronus simpler, I have one of these.
 
The downside of the Cronus is that it did not include a galvanically isolated I2S input, this leads to the problem of having too many single function modules connected together, makes my DAC look like a LEGO set.

 

[abartels]

  makes my DAC look like a LEGO set.

 
Hahahahaha, yes indeed, it really looks awkward, but the Ian Jin (IanCanada) solution doesn't look better, same LEGO style

 

[b0bb]

   
Only thing I really would want to try is the Ian (IanCanada) FiFo II Reclocker and Dual XO clockboard. I am very sure this would be the best achievable SQ. But for now I am

 
One other thing to consider, the Soekris DAM 1021 R2R DAC at 195 USD  comes in about the same as either of the TP or IanCanada Reclocker boards
plus it gets around all the annoying little RPi issues as it has an isolated I2S and reclocking FIFO
 
A feature Soekris added recently is DSD, the FPGA will convert DSD to PCM on the DAC.
 
Performance wise, with the powersupplies you already have, it will run rings around just about any mid range (<1500 USD) Delta-Sigma DAC out there.
 
https://soekris.com/products/audio-products/dam1021.html

 

[abartels]

 

   
Only thing I really would want to try is the Ian (IanCanada) FiFo II Reclocker and Dual XO clockboard. I am very sure this would be the best achievable SQ. But for now I am

 
One other thing to consider, the Soekris DAM 1021 R2R DAC at 195 USD  comes in about the same as either of the TP or IanCanada Reclocker boards
plus it gets around all the annoying little RPi issues as it has an isolated I2S and reclocking FIFO
 
A feature Soekris added recently is DSD, the FPGA will convert DSD to PCM on the DAC.
 
Performance wise, with the powersupplies you already have, it will run rings around just about any mid range (<1500 USD) Delta-Sigma DAC out there.
 
https://soekris.com/products/audio-products/dam1021.html

 
Hi B0bb,
 
Thanks for the precious info! I did look into the Soekris a long time ago, didn't know it had DSD capabilities already by now!
Btw, my DS dac already runs rings around much more expensive dac's 

 
But, to be honest, I am looking into a new project which seems VERY interesting. It is based on DSD, directly from I2S, and NO dac needed.
See the link below, it's VERY promising!
 
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/273474-best-dac-no-dac.html
 
Any thoughts?

 

[Caper]

My DDC will arrive next week I guess.
Looking at Luckit driver package and see a waveio.exe(inslaller I guess) in the package.
That´s not included in the standard driver.
What is that waveio and do I need it?

 

[Jerryfan]

Shenzhen audio says new melodious is coming soon

 

[murphythecat]

   
Hi B0bb,
 
Thanks for the precious info! I did look into the Soekris a long time ago, didn't know it had DSD capabilities already by now!
Btw, my DS dac already runs rings around much more expensive dac's 

 
But, to be honest, I am looking into a new project which seems VERY interesting. It is based on DSD, directly from I2S, and NO dac needed.
See the link below, it's VERY promising!
 
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/273474-best-dac-no-dac.html
 
Any thoughts?

 

   
Hi B0bb,
 
Thanks for the precious info! I did look into the Soekris a long time ago, didn't know it had DSD capabilities already by now!
Btw, my DS dac already runs rings around much more expensive dac's 

 
But, to be honest, I am looking into a new project which seems VERY interesting. It is based on DSD, directly from I2S, and NO dac needed.
See the link below, it's VERY promising!
 
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/273474-best-dac-no-dac.html
 
Any thoughts?

get the new dac from this thread :
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/79452-building-ultimate-nos-dac-using-tda1541a-570.html

 

[b0bb]

   
But, to be honest, I am looking into a new project which seems VERY interesting. It is based on DSD, directly from I2S, and NO dac needed.
See the link below, it's VERY promising!
 
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/273474-best-dac-no-dac.html
 
Any thoughts?

 
That is an interesting project, are you one of those on the waiting list ?
 
I have been looking at the one from ACKO
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/group-buys/280763-direct-drive-dsd.html
 
The same concept  plus it has an integrated isolator and reclocker that allows me to use the high stability XOs like the Crystek and NDKs.
 
 
PCM is the main stumbling block and required very high quality conversion to mask the artifacts from the lossy conversion to DSD.
I use JRiver and only convert at 256fs or higher.

 

[abartels]

 

   
But, to be honest, I am looking into a new project which seems VERY interesting. It is based on DSD, directly from I2S, and NO dac needed.
See the link below, it's VERY promising!
 
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/273474-best-dac-no-dac.html
 
Any thoughts?

 
That is an interesting project, are you one of those on the waiting list ?
 
I have been looking at the one from ACKO
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/group-buys/280763-direct-drive-dsd.html
 
The same concept  plus it has an integrated isolator and reclocker that allows me to use the high stability XOs like the Crystek and NDKs.
 
 
PCM is the main stumbling block and required very high quality conversion to mask the artifacts from the lossy conversion to DSD.
I use JRiver and only convert at 256fs or higher.

Yep, I'm on the waiting list 

 
It's only about GBP10, so this can't go wrong 

 
Yes, I prefer with isolator and fifo reclocker too, Nautibuoy pointed me to BeagleBone Black with Acko S03, probably will try that too, seems better to me.
 
At least, those are very nice projects 

 
For the moment I stopped using rpi with dac+pro, compared to SinglePC (one pc died last week) server 2012R2 /AO / JPlay, and I must admit, SinglePC is much more airy.
I had troubles with previous DualPC setup, seemed the old AMD (12yo) didn't perform as expected. SinglePC (i7 16Gb RAM) performs a lot better.
 
Will try HQPlayer, I am not very fond of Jriver's DSP modules. Trials are available.
 
 
Regards,
 
Alex

 

[b0bb]

  For the moment I stopped using rpi with dac+pro, compared to SinglePC (one pc died last week) server 2012R2 /AO / JPlay, and I must admit, SinglePC is much more airy.
I had troubles with previous DualPC setup, seemed the old AMD (12yo) didn't perform as expected. SinglePC (i7 16Gb RAM) performs a lot better.
 
Will try HQPlayer, I am not very fond of Jriver's DSP modules. Trials are available.
 

I was surprised and impressed you managed to get the dac+pro far as you did, the PCM5122 in the dac+pro is a low cost mass market dac, the worst aspect of the implementation is the voltage output is the only option and the price is paid for using the internal opamp, compressed dynamics and narrow sound stage.
 
I don't use JRiver's DSPs except for the DSD convertor, they put a lot of work into it and the effort is paying dividends.
It is slightly better than the Weiss Saracon, one of the common tools used by the studios when converting DXD masters to DSD.
 
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2015/04/analysis-dsd-decoders-2015-windows-mac.html
 
This the review of JRiver's previous DSD conversion, it shows the rapid progress they made
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2014/04/analysis-comparison-of-dsd-encoders.html
 
The SQ difference between the current version JRiver and HQplayer is not sufficient for me to give HQPlayer's developer any money, now if they start supporting ALAC, that may change but for now I will keep renewing my JRiver licenses.

 

[b0bb]

  Yes, I prefer with isolator and fifo reclocker too, Nautibuoy pointed me to BeagleBone Black with Acko S03, probably will try that too, seems better to me.
 

 
Use the Botic driver with this, also get the power sequencing cape/board for the BBB if you go down this route. TP and ACKO sell them.
 
BBB has a tendency to blow-up and die if the power-up sequence to GPIO connected devices is done incorrectly .