Squeezebox Duet

[jkeny]

Ah yes PS has more significance than we give it credit for - we just don't know yet all the various PS distortions/perturbations & their effects at various parts of a circuit digital & analog.

Hence my attempt to investigate PS in my Sabre tweakers board with individual battery PS's - I believe a clean PS is more important than the sub-optimal routing of a protoboard!

I had heard that the Sabre sounded different with different sources so there's either more at play here than jitter or the "jitter eliminator" does not live up to the marketing departments claims. Still, does it do a better job at minimising the sonic effect of jitter than other SRCs?

[leo]

I'd say it does a better job than the external ASRC chips I've tried which did more harm than good, even the ones which are claimed to have the feature of pass through

The Sabres are very impressive technically , just like other dacs I've tried though, they won't suit every system

[jkeny]

Thanks Leo,
Very good information!

[Covenant]

Hi Leo,
Just wondered if you have got any further? I am probably going to ask Tirna (who do the 4032=capacitor upgrade for the 7520) to quote for doing some of the mods you suggest to my SB3 but only in the digital domain and nothing that involves loosing wireless reception.

[leo]

Hi Jerry,

I've been holding off until I can get some better regulation like Paul Hynes's to replace the one for the Hex inverter (replace the little one I knocked up) in the spdif circuit and maybe for the internal dac, I'd like to see what I can get out of that as well as the digital output


Theres a few other things I want to try too, soon as I get time I promise to post some details

You could add a few of the simple things to start you off which is cheap
The cap on the DC input socket is certainly worth replacing to a low ESR (especially if using the standard external SMPS), an Oscon or Panasonic FM works ok
Also if you don't want to risk a seperate reg on the hex inverter in the spdif adding a parallel Oscon across the ceramic bypass on the supply pin would be a cheap and easy tweak to help filter noise

EDIT
Bugger, just noticed you have a SB3 which is different, these mods will also be able to be transferred to a SB3 but the person doing the mods will need to know the unit internally because the layout etc is different

[Covenant]

Hi Leo
What is your view on the mods done here:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/nuukspot/decdun/sb3.html
Seems OTT to me

[leo]

Hi Jerry,

DD is a great little site, believe it or not its what first got me into diy several years ago after just browsing the net,
First thing I ever tried diy was a Gainclone

If your using an external dac just a few things helps, you don't have to go mad, things to help control the noise and crud floating around on the circuit brings the biggest gains

[jkeny]

Hi Leo,
I know that this has been dormant for a while but I'm interested in how this eventually turned out?

Did you ever go the I2S route to an external DAC?
I'm looking to buy one of these & this would be the way I'd want to go along with batteries for 3.3V & 1.2V (I don't think I need anything else if using it on a wired network & I2S out?)
I just got an Itouch & don't want to wait for a SBTouch!

[leo]

Hi Leo,
I know that this has been dormant for a while but I'm interested in how this eventually turned out?

Did you ever go the I2S route to an external DAC?
I'm looking to buy one of these & this would be the way I'd want to go along with batteries for 3.3V & 1.2V (I don't think I need anything else if using it on a wired network & I2S out?)
I just got an Itouch & don't want to wait for a SBTouch!

Hi John,

The Duet is not bad after some modding, getting rid of that awful switcher helps IMHO, I've not tried batteries yet although it should also be a good way of powering the thing.
The main limitation is that it can't output the high res stuff so your stuffed if you want to try 96,176.4 and 192.
I have tried feeding the Sabre I2S direct which worked fine, main reason I went back to s/pdif is because of the distance I have the Duet away from the dac, also as you know I'm toying about with the Musiland USB to spdif converter so using spdif is the quickest way to compare things

I doubt I'll be bothering with anymore of the SB based products, not until it offers higher res output anyway

[leo]

Hi Leo,
I know that this has been dormant for a while but I'm interested in how this eventually turned out?

Did you ever go the I2S route to an external DAC?
I'm looking to buy one of these & this would be the way I'd want to go along with batteries for 3.3V & 1.2V (I don't think I need anything else if using it on a wired network & I2S out?)
I just got an Itouch & don't want to wait for a SBTouch!

Hi John,

I noticed on diyaudio you was having a few problems with the Receivers dac, I've just had a quick look at the datasheet, Isn't the voltage on Vmid pin controlled by the Enable pin?

Have a look at page 12 under Hardware control modes, its seems they do this so it acts as a slow start up so the digital section is given chance to start up first

Cheers,
Leo