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How simple can an audio computer be?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ash Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2021 at 9:20pm
Pre-ordered two Hackboard 2 boards with heatsinks. Will be a few weeks before I can have a play with them. Will get on with selling my surplus computers in the meantime. The GPIO will bridge the gap between Intel and RPi-based motherboards.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ash Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2021 at 10:56pm
Pink Faun S/PDIF card arrived today. Cardboard box is a little beat up but the contents are fine. Plugged it into my motherboard powered by Molex and it is recognised as a sound device in Windows 10. I look forward to hooking this up to the Majestic DAC over the coming days.

P.S Graham, CMI8888 Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ash Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Mar 2021 at 6:33pm

The S/PDIF PCIe card. The white area behind it is the area of the Hackboard 2 that I will be pairing it with via one of the M.2 NVMe (PCIe x4) slots. As I have two Hackboards on order, I could try networking them for enormous local storage options. But while I wait for the Hackboards to arrive, I will plug the card back into my mini-ITX and test the dual-coax with my audio system to check that I haven't been foolish with my spend.

Thinking of adding a Pi HAT onto the 40-pin GPIO that offers SATA power and data connectors so that I can hook up a non-USB CD/DVD/Bluray drive to the Hackboard. Will have to learn some Python programming though.


Edited by Ash - 15 Mar 2021 at 6:45pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ash Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Mar 2021 at 8:38pm
https://www.silicondevice.com/file.upload/images/Gid1508Pdf_CM8888DMS_Datasheet_v1.1.pdf

^ Go to page 10

I guess the only way to beat a S/PDIF transport into an external DAC, which is essentially I^2S -> S/PDIF out -> S/PDIF in -> I^2S, is no conversion from I^2S in the first place. But as I^2S isn't a durable transport medium, the transmission distance would have to be very short so the transport and the D/A converter would have to be on the same isolated PCB with a linear power supply. This is beyond my abilities sadly.

Anyone who does the above with a DAC like Graham's is going to absolutely smash digital audio out of the park!


Edited by Ash - 15 Mar 2021 at 8:40pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Graham Slee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Mar 2021 at 10:39pm
Pin 126 is Dout AKA SPDIF at logic level, and if that were connected to a toslink transmitter there would be no I2S at all.

Assuming the card works, as my equivalent did not.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote less Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Mar 2021 at 12:35pm

/Quote (Graham Slee )

 Something I've been discussing with Bob by email was how professionals used to be able to spec up 'preamp system' and in particular using the old Studer catalogue. That was crammed full of every conceivable audio circuit at the time (late 80's... all analogue), and each circuit was on a plug-in eurocard or euromodule. These were plugged into a card frame with roughly 16 slots to 'build' a customised preamp or even mixer system. /Quote

At the risk of upsetting Ash, this is also how some computers were / are built! Choose your cards, slot into frame load os and boot up.

Perhaps Ash that is the sort of solution that might suit you, based on your previous posts.

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Les 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ash Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Mar 2021 at 7:57pm
I do wish computers were even more modular than they are. Plugging in what you want and leaving out what you don't want.

Motherboard computers are just a few things plugged together, simple stuff. The programming that controls it all is the hard bit.
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