[KoshNaranek]

I'm actually interested in using the RPi for an endpoint or a streamer, so I don't think it necessarily holds quality back. I just need to get off my lazy butt and start putting one together. I don't think this would ever end up being a commercial product from us (a fancy Pi streamer), but I'm always interested in what's happening on the bleeding edge.

I'm seriously considering doing one more engineering chapter--this one on "a celebration of DIY," describing what's happening there and linking out to some very interesting DIY projects and products. Because I think the forefront of audio really starts there. In DIY, there's freedom to explore, freedom to say, "What if?" freedom to take new ideas or old ideas or both and mash them up, rather than worrying about what feature set your next generation of product should have, or how your measurements compare to the competition, or what the reviewers will say when they get their hands on the gear.

I mean, just as a few examples off the top of my head: Soekris got started in DIY, and still sells DIY modules. Nelson Pass is extremely active in DIY and has some very cool and innovative designs out there. John Broskie at Tubecad has more crazy ideas before breakfast than I have in a year--it was Cordell and Broskie talking about constant-transconductance output stages that led to me doing Continuity for Lyr 3. Andrew Russell at Hifisonix has really good CFA amps, and more in-depth discussion of amp design. And on and on.

So if you'll tolerate one more engineering chapter, I may turn next to DIY...

Jason, I have been Raspberry pi as a source for some years. Hifiberry digi pairs well with Mike'work. It sounds better than an Esoteric SACD player. It so easy that even I can do it. You will not be sorry.

PM me if you want to outsource it me. It is the least I can do for you.

 

[CAPT Deadpool]

Small batch (40) avail now (502DAC), just fyi. Honestly think this is the best. A 4 layer board-- Michael knows digital ground layout. DigiOne is serious also, and isolation done more in the digital domain.

--oops preorder, end of aug to ship

I'm going to repost this on the other thread. Also How do you think it compares (at least on specs) to the ApplePi and the Hifiberry DAC + Pro XLR (or RCA)?

 

[CAPT Deadpool]

Deleted

 

[the finisher]

Now, would Continuity be as good as a Class A push-pull stage, all else being equal? I don't know. Depends on the implementation. It may even be better, because the Class A push-pull stage does not inherently address the N and P device mismatch problem. I know it works very well in Lyr 3, and in larger prototypes.

This will be worth waiting for.

 

[Mike Foley]

All hobbies can be expensive. I married mine!

Here’s something for all t’northerners hearabouts.

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news...ditional-topic-of-conversation-20171113139023

 

[HotChile]

2018, Chapter 8
How to (Maybe) Succeed in Engineering (Without Going Insane)

As a licensed engineer in 18 jurisdictions, thank you. Spot on advice I give my teams (structural engineering instead of electrical, but still.)
PS: Differential Equations are evil.

 

[Paladin79]

This was not my idea for a coaster amp but I went along with it cause the Chicago Bears play tonight in the Hall of Fame game in Canton Ohio and I figured I could make use of some orange and blue. There are supposed to be some flashing LED's around the edge but I only have 4.5 hours till game time and there are snacks and refreshments to consider.

I know everything I need to make a snow globe using a coaster amp, I guess I should but I would never be able to easily adjust the volume.

 

[Oveja Negra]

I came within days of quitting engineering when I thought it was going to be "all differential equations, all the time." I was seriously, seriously thinking about changing majors, and then, literally a few days later, my engineering professors introduced the concept of s- and jw-domain simplifications, and I was, like, literally, "oh thank you god!"

Ahhh, Laplace Transform (Z too) is one of the coolest things that I remember from those learning years. Since I've always been a Sci-Fi fan, moving from the time-domain to the frequency one to solve a much easier equation was the equivalent to me to travel back in time via a worm hole to attack the root cause of a problem and then coming back to the present just to see everything is fixed!!! Simply beautiful.

I forgot to comment in my previous post about engineering being humbling:

It's not like I got out of my university being an arrogant prick, but for sure after all those years at my uni, I was convinced I had a damn good amount of tools under my belt to face any problem (oh boy, ignorance is bliss). So at my first job I was working as a training engineer at a copper mine, redesigning parts of all the conveyor system (mostly changing the PLC program) but also doing maintenance and clearing faults, which happened almost in a daily basis.

During one of those faults I was in the field with the senior engineer, trying to solve a nasty comm problem in the PLC panel. We tried everything and nothing worked, which was very frustrating cause when you clear a fault immediately, nobody claps at you since it's your job, but if you fail to solve the problem, the entire company knows you're a hack. Then, out of nowhere one of the technicians said "I think the problem is blahblahblah". We looked at each other and said "Ah, whatever, let's try that since we ran out of ideas". We did what the technician said and voila... the damn thing began to work flawlessly.

I tried my best to keep a poker face but internally I was like...

...thinking: "We just were schooled by an old fella who never went to any university, he never studied anything, but worked in these conveyors for like 2 centuries so he knew them inside out".

After that, every time I went to clear a fault, even if I had a good idea of what was going on, as soon as I arrived I used to say "Does anyone have a theory about what the hell is going on here?" (you just need to be careful cause it's normal to have an extremist that wants to rip apart the entire control panel hahaha).

 

[Ripper2860]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...bable-start-up.701900/page-2128#post-14201133

This is where the Continuity amp is talked about, it will maintain some class A bias and be listed that way.

Well, I stand corrected for several posts ago where I stated Continuity / Class A was related to new Asgard. You know what hey say goes first with old age. (and No -- it ain't that!!)

 

[Ripper2860]

This was not my idea for a coaster amp but I went along with it cause the Chicago Bears play tonight in the Hall of Fame game in Canton Ohio and I figured I could make use of some orange and blue. There are supposed to be some flashing LED's around the edge but I only have 4.5 hours till game time and there are snacks and refreshments to consider.

I know everything I need to make a snow globe using a coaster amp, I guess I should but I would never be able to easily adjust the volume.

Hmmmm. I checked my inbox and SPAM folder, but I guess it's in your drafts and you thought you sent me my invite. That's cool, happens to me all the time when I'm distracted while crafting an e-mail. No Harm/No Foul -- happens to the best of us.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

And even more rewarding is that when you look at your first implementation a few months/years later and you realize that you can, current moment, do a better solution than you previously made.

I think that's one of the hardest things to internalize, though, for people who aren't engineers.

I get asked all the time, "Why didn't you make it (this better way) from the start? Why didn't you include (this super-obvious feature) from the get-go?"

Well, there are only two answers to that question:

1. I biffed it ("no engineer is always right...not even you.")
2. The technology wasn't there yet.

#1 is absolutely possible. I miss things, I make mistakes, I slap myself on the head and say, "What were you thinking?" It's part of those "worst days." In addition, the more engineering I do, the more I learn. What I'm designing now is based on a lot more knowledge than I had when I started. This doesn't make it better all the time, but it can help you avoid some boneheaded mistakes. And, some things aren't so obvious until you hear from a whole lot of customers with different "use cases," to use fancy corporate terminology. So fixing mistakes, more knowledge, and more data all contribute to progression over time. Or at least you hope so.

#2 is like asking Apple "why didn't you start with the iPhone X, why'd you start with the crappy original iPhone, that was a horrible device with a low-res screen and slow processor?" Even on the analog side, technology advances. We can do a lot more these days with surface-mount devices, matched arrays, super-low-noise regulators, and (yes) even switching supplies, or (eeeek) GaN Class D. A lot of this stuff didn't exist a few years ago. And, of course, on the digital side, we get more processing power for less all the time. So yes, as technology develops, we can do more.

Please bear with us while we work through #1, and bear with, well, the world, as everyone works through #2. Hopefully with enough capacity to avoid parts shortages...

 

[Paladin79]

Hmmmm. I checked my inbox and SPAM folder, but I guess it's in your drafts and you thought you sent me my invite. That's cool, happens to me all the time when I'm distracted while crafting an e-mail. No Harm/No Foul -- happens to the best of us.

I could have sworn I sent you an invite, I was hoping you would make margaritas!

As far as Apple, I once read they had plans for the Ipad before the Iphone but until people got used to the idea of a small device being so capable, it would have been a hard sell to do it the other way around.

Many things in electronics are a process and some of it has to do with the technology that is accepted at a certain time. Why were headphone amps not around in the 70's or 80's? We needed the evolution of the home computer, storage devices, and even headphone engineering.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

We tried everything and nothing worked, which was very frustrating cause when you clear a fault immediately, nobody claps at you since it's your job, but if you fail to solve the problem, the entire company knows you're a hack. Then, out of nowhere one of the technicians said "I think the problem is blahblahblah". We looked at each other and said "Ah, whatever, let's try that since we ran out of ideas". We did what the technician said and voila... the damn thing began to work flawlessly.

I tried my best to keep a poker face but internally I was like...

...thinking: "We just were schooled by an old fella who never went to any university, he never studied anything, but worked in these conveyors for like 2 centuries so he knew them inside out".

After that, every time I went to clear a fault, even if I had a good idea of what was going on, as soon as I arrived I used to say "Does anyone have a theory about what the hell is going on here?" (you just need to be careful cause it's normal to have an extremist that wants to rip apart the entire control panel hahaha).

This is great advice. There's nothing like painstakingly calculating the compensation on an amplifier...and having it turn out more like a power oscillator than an amp, until someone like Ed Miller sticks a finger in it, watches the scope trace go from 1" thick to a standard sine, and declare "yeah, you need some more capacitance...right there."

(Yeah, I know, that's an oversimplification, but simulations rarely work 100% when taken into the real world. Those parasitics will get you every time. I'm super-paranoid about what layer things are on, whether it's inside the board or outside, what passes under and over it, and if has ground plane nearby or not. And even then, it's "run, test, and tweak" until it's really, reeeeallly right.)

Edit: oh, and if it's a big-power amp running near full power...you may not like what happens to your finger. Be careful out there!

 

[FLTWS]

Non-engineer here, got all kinds a blue-sky "wouldn't it be neat" stuff I think about all the time. Realizing anything is not possible and we don't know if this amp will "go, all, the, way" to product....
Today's thought; is there a way to let a user of this design to know when the amp is leaving Class A for Class A/B?
A bright white LED or something?

 

[Amy D]

Hi Everyone! I just updated the B-stock on the website! Come check it out!