New pi stuff

[sq225917]

Loads of new bits coming from one of diyaudio's most prolific designers, IanCanada.
There's some Twisted Pear parts in the last image, I'll be building Pi, Fifopi reclocker-DOP boards, A123 battery psu, ESS9038qm dual mono dac and ess controller board and both the Lundahl balanced traffo output and the op-amp boards.

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/attachments/group-buys/718920d1543528399-ian-asynchronous-i2s-pdif-fifo-kit-buy-fifopi_1-jpg
Fifopi, reclocker board, dual XO, swapable clocks, multiple local reg stages.


https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/attachments/group-buys/718923d1543528399-ian-asynchronous-i2s-pdif-fifo-kit-buy-es9038q2mpidualhat_2-jpg
Dual 9038qm ESS dac board with DOP/DSD and pcm to 768khz


https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/attachments/group-buys/718922d1543528399-ian-asynchronous-i2s-pdif-fifo-kit-buy-esscontroller-jpg
ESS dac controller board


And the daddy pi PSU.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4845/32433294568_a8c24b0ce3_o.jpg
Multi-rail, smart charged LiFePO4 battery supply.




and what do you make with it all....!!!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4857/46348649441_53e87b8bb5_o.jpg


It's going to be a busy new year.

[ReggieB]

and what do you make with it all....!!!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4857/46348649441_53e87b8bb5_o.jpg


I'm not sure it would look quite as impressive with Duracells. I presume you'll have a mechanical connection to bring a connection to that pot at back left, to the front.

Overall - rather lovely

[sq225917]

I think he's just slapping things down wherever at the minute. There's two displays, one for the battery board and another for the ESS controller. The ESS controller board can be offloaded via an IDC cable and the battery board display on 2.5mm headers.


I'm not expecting any change from £600 for this lot inc the Lundahls and a case.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Blimey, just bloody blimey! Impressive!

[Mr. C]

Still do not understand why they are using batteries?, how much inducted noise by flying leads?, I could go on lol

The boards look nicely laid out in fairness, and anyone wanting to play about with a PI it would help no end plus massive scope for tinkering the ddac BOYS HAD BETTER WATCH OUT!

Pretty soon you will be looking at an all in one in a single box for threepence hep-nee which will sound not to shabby at all.

Ebay mentality, just a thing of the past, you will all be speaking with a Yorkshire accent :lol:

Just feeling mischievous for once!

[sq225917]

He's using batteries because they're lower noise than lt3045 regs when done right. Being off-grid helps with coupled noise as well, small currents, low voltages I'd assume the short cables add bigger all, but layout is optimised for a vertical, double pi width stack.

I'm keen on it largely due to the dop board and it in output stage. If its good enough it'll replace the Brooklyn.

[Starterman]

I've been watching those threads over on DIYAUDIO for a whie and this looks a very interesting project.
What's not at all clear though is what the commercial details are: prices, GB closing dates, is the list of names an interest check or a commitment to buy?

[sq225917]

Prices will be sorted based on potential sales, so when he has a number he'll know. People usually drop out and jump in, so it evens out. He usually judges it just right so he has a handful of bits left over. I'd expect he'll get indicative pricing in a couple of weeks, then announce a confirmation request and close date, final pricing at that point and payment from then. It's not his first rodeo, I think this is his third annual group buy, it must be a massive task; 100+ guys wanting gear from a selection of 10 items to various locations across the globe.

I'd imagine that a fifopi, ess dac board, output board, controller and psu board is going to be around the $450-500 mark + shipping etc. But that's a wild guess.

[Starterman]

Thanks Simon. Yes, it must be one hell off a task and I don't want to be one of the ones that drops out.

I really cannot make my mind up on this. It could be great and certainly looks good on paper, but digital seems to be something of a lottery.

[sq225917]

I run a Mytek Brooklyn DAC currently. I expect this to be better in every measurable parameter, the PSU will crap on the Brooklyn, the dac chips, clocks and input options are more flexible and its not knackered by MQA.

What dac are you currently running, anything left field?

[Starterman]

I run a Mytek Brooklyn DAC currently. I expect this to be better in every measurable parameter, the PSU will crap on the Brooklyn, the dac chips, clocks and input options are more flexible and its not knackered by MQA.

What dac are you currently running, anything left field?

Don't laugh... I'm running a Pi2B and IQAudio DAC+.
I bought it after reading Marco's "Analogue Dinosaur" thread and was shocked how good it was. Prior to that nothing had beaten my old TDA1541 based CDPs, including Auralic Vega, Benchmark DAC2, Audiolab MDAC and a few others.
The Pi/IQ combo is very sensitive to its PS and I tried quite a few types and configurations. Oddly enough (digital lottery!) I prefer the IQ powered by the (supposedly nasty) 5v to 3V3 switcher on the Pi to being separatley powered by a fancy linear PS. I had to overcome some expectation bias durring that listening test!
I bought a KALI & Piano2.1 set and seem to be the only person who thinks they sound poor, except for one guy on Allo's website reviews who gave he combo 1*. The Allo stuff sounded very "mechanical" to me. I tried loads of power supply options and combinations, including shorting the onboard inductors. Nothing could fix the sound. On paper the Allo stuff should be much better.

This is why I am so cautious of buying stuff unheard.

[Starterman]

Simon, you might be interested in my battery tests:
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/power-supplies/327105-develop-ultra-capacitor-power-supply-lifepo4-battery-power-supply-40.html#post5645442

[sq225917]

I'd seen them.

I have an lt1083 feeding a quad of parallel lt3045 into my Brooklyn, it sounds a little bit better than the internal smps. A triplet of non protected 18650, Samsung 3400mAh sounds quite a bit better. So I have no worries about Ian's supply, even if he is lacking his usual measured follow through.

When you say quite fancy linear psu did you buy it in or build it? I tried a couple well regarded Chinese linear psu, they were crap way off spec for noise. Very disappointing.

The lodvr dx power should also be very good, state of the art numbers.

[Starterman]

Actually I shouldn't have written "fancy" it's actually quite prosaic.
It's one of these:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultra-low-Noise-40-V-Adjustable-Voltage-Regulator-Module-1-25-20V-1-5-Amp/161492352376?_trkparms=aid%3D555017%26algo%3DPL.CA SSINI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20180221162023%26meid%3D396 b4c6d234d434cab2e1fbc70ea49f9%26pid%3D100642%26rk% 3D1%26rkt%3D1%26%26itm%3D161492352376&_trksid=p2045573.c100642.m3226

It is important NOT to use a toroidal transformer to power it. I use a 30VA split bobbin type.
Use full wave centre-tap recification - which needs two of the diodes to be removed and use of the 0V connection.
I don't use C-RC snubbing (actually i went through my entire system adding these and it took me quite a while to figure out what caused the poorer sound).

I have also tried a few standard regs, a Coffin superreg (with AD825) and an MRAVICA TPS7A4700 regulator.

[sq225917]

How had you calculated and applied your C-RC snubbers? Quasimodo style?

[Starterman]

Yes.
Once again, expectation bias got the better of me for a while. That lovely critically damped waveform provides lots of peace of mind!

I wonder if the C-RC snubber has some downsides when the transformer is "terminated" with a rectifer and smoothing caps - which is rather different to the way the transformer is tested in isolation.

[sq225917]

I test mine in situ, just without voltage going through the traffo. But maybe you're onto something.

That said I've never heard a downside but then again they are before a CLCRC with 10,000uf caps, a 1H choke and a 10r resistor. it's all pretty smooth out the back of that.

[Starterman]

Back on topic... at least the snubbers are irrelevant for the LiFePO4 supplies.
It looks like they are much lower ESR than my cycling batteries and as long as they are <10mOhms or so, should be fine. I ought to buy a couple and test them.

[Bigman80]

This thread had litle meaning to me a few weeks back but now i am reading with interest.

I have been speaking to Ian about his Isolator board. It will fit my Pi3+ and Allo dac but i dont understand how to power it? It doesn't have the Micro USB port so how would it be done?

The PSU i will be using is this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25VA-Ultra-Low-Noise-linear-power-supply-output-DC-5V-3A-upgrade-Raspberry-pi-3/142731699776?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Any help is appreciated.

[sq225917]

See that green connector, thats dc in.

[sq225917]

Ferrite core inductors, horrible noisy things, replace with air cores in that psu.

[Bigman80]

See that green connector, thats dc in.

Ok, I knew that bit. so I'd have to make cable to go from the 5v output on the LPSU to the green blocks?

[DarrenHW]

This thread had litle meaning to me a few weeks back but now i am reading with interest.

I have been speaking to Ian about his Isolator board. It will fit my Pi3+ and Allo dac but i dont understand how to power it? It doesn't have the Micro USB port so how would it be done?

The PSU i will be using is this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25VA-Ultra-Low-Noise-linear-power-supply-output-DC-5V-3A-upgrade-Raspberry-pi-3/142731699776?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Any help is appreciated.

Does the PSU have 2 x 5v outputs?

[Bigman80]

Does the PSU have 2 x 5v outputs?Yes.

[DarrenHW]

Thanks for the response :thumbsup: just what I was hoping for.

I was thinking of building my own using an R-core, but at that price it doesn't seem worth the effort.

What turned you on to this PSU? It looks pretty well built.

[Bigman80]

Thanks for the response [emoji106] just what I was hoping for.

I was thinking of building my own using an R-core, but at that price it doesn't seem worth the effort.

What turned you on to this PSU? It looks pretty well built.It was recommended to me buy Antonio here. I asked Firebottle his advice and he said it wouldn't give 3A, nearer 2.7/2.5a. That's fine for the pi.

[jonners]

This thread had litle meaning to me a few weeks back but now i am reading with interest.

I have been speaking to Ian about his Isolator board. It will fit my Pi3+ and Allo dac but i dont understand how to power it? It doesn't have the Micro USB port so how would it be done?

The PSU i will be using is this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25VA-Ultra-Low-Noise-linear-power-supply-output-DC-5V-3A-upgrade-Raspberry-pi-3/142731699776?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Any help is appreciated.

You will need a cable with a power connector on one end that plugs into the PSU, and wires with bare ends on the other that go into the green terminal block on the isolator board. Make sure that you get + and - the right way round!
But if you have an Allo DAC why not get the Allo Isolator?

[Bigman80]

You will need a cable with a power connector on one end that plugs into the PSU, and wires with bare ends on the other that go into the green terminal block on the isolator board. Make sure that you get + and - the right way round!
But if you have an Allo DAC why not get the Allo Isolator?It's expensive.

[jonners]

It's expensive.

I can't remember what I paid for Ian's Isolator Pi, but I don't think it was a lot less than the $57 that Allo are asking for their Isolator 1.2

[Bigman80]

I can't remember what I paid for Ian's Isolator Pi, but I don't think it was a lot less than the $57 that Allo are asking for their Isolator 1.2I'll have a look. Unfortunately, all the funds are now allocated for something else now so it will have to wait.

[DarrenHW]

It was recommended to me buy Antonio here. I asked Firebottle his advice and he said it wouldn't give 3A, nearer 2.7/2.5a. That's fine for the pi.

Indeed.

Thanks for sharing, I'd be interested in your thoughts compared to the standard SMPS, when it arrives. I've heard the Spotfire so trust your ears :)

Sorry for the thread drift.

[Bigman80]

Indeed.

Thanks for sharing, I'd be interested in your thoughts compared to the standard SMPS, when it arrives. I've heard the Spotfire so trust your ears :)

Sorry for the thread drift.No apologies necessary! It's all related. I'll update the pi in the sky thread I made.

[Starterman]

Dilemna time :scratch:

I've done some tests on A123 cells and they seem close to ideal as a power source. I cannot test the noise performance but output impedance and load transient response is "more than adequate".

I lashed 6 cells together to provide +/-10V for my active crossover and had a listen. The resulting sound is boring and bland. Where did all the dynamics go???
Now, I admit that I didn't remove all the decoupling as some are prescribing. But I've been through decoupling experiments with this kit before and as far as I'm concerned the standard engineering method (local small electrolytics with reasonable ESR and a 0.1uF ceramic as close to the load as possible) works and sounds best.

Once again I find I'm alone in my conclusions. :violin:
Actually I'm OK with that. My system only has to please me.

I've put my name down for the GB for al Ian's battery powered stuff and I don't know whether or not to bottle it now :scratch: