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At last... (Audiolab) - part II

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MI55ION said:
John,

Is there any way to adjust brightness of the display?
Click to expand...

Press the MENU button, browse through the items using |<< & >>| and you'll arrive at Display Brightness. Press >|| or SEL up/down to adjust.

Or just hold the DISPLAY remote button for a few seconds and the brightness settings will pop up, press the button to step through the Low/Middle/High settings.

In case you have an 8200CD from early production, you won't be able to adjust the brightness as this feature was first implemented in the CDQ software.
 
John & Dominik

Thank you both for that. Just one other thing, have I understood correctly the first batch of CDQs will not have a 12v trigger out but subsequent units will?

How soon are we likely to see units that have this feature enabled?
 
John and Dominik

It is really good to see your involvement and interest in your customers/followers and I have already fully paid for my CDQ and eagerly await delivery. My desire for the CDQ was created by this thread and your involvement in it.

My question is regarding wasapi vs asio. I use wasapi as I was led to believe it has the best SQ with win7 and I settled on Media Center by J River (which I am really happy with and paid for).

Can I continue to use this setup with control from the CDQ or do I need to move to Foobar and asio4all?

The thought just occured to me that if just 2% of the 140,000 or so readers of this thread have, like me, decided to purchase a CDQ - then based on the UK price this thread has generated over £2,500,000 of sales. I hope you are on a commission.

Thanks again for your involvement with us.

Norrie
 
Hi John, noted with thanks.

Not letting go of my CDQ even without the 12V trigger. :D

JohnW said:
CS,

As you suspected, it's not possible via a firmware update to convert the IR loop to a 12V Trigger, in fact they are interfaced directly to the IR circuit / uP BUS.
Click to expand...
 
After getting involved in the thread earlier (thanks for picking up the DC trigger and HT passtrough suggestions), I'm quietly awaiting the arrival of the 8200DQ...

Just want to say compliments to John and Dominik for their great communication and involvement with the potential users. And your hard efforts to refine the designs ever further are amazing!
And for sticking your neck out in providing possible for sale dates, always a risk seeing the supply chain, production resources and priorities in the organisation. I appreciate that you're trying to keep us as informed as possible, and I wouldn't be too bothered by people who are disappointed when expected for sale dates are not reached.

Keep up the good work!!!
 
MI55ION,

First CDQ's with 12V trigger are on the production line now, so it appears its takes about 3-4 months before they filter out onto the dealers shelves - I know Dominik was working on the updated software last week (to handle control of the 12V trigger).

gypsykirk,

Nothing on the drawing board yet for 192/24 Async. USB - really waiting until the Window's drivers stabilise.

norriemal

Dominik’s best to answer your question, but so long as wasapi is "Bit Accurate" then we can recommend it. As for the Media player control via the USB HID extensions, again I understand that most of the latest software now supports it - but you know how computers are - you only really find out when you try it!

Bolle,

DQ's with your Trigger boards are making there way down the production line with the DQ's sometime this month. So they should be shipped at the end on the month - from recent experance with the first CDQ's, it can take up to 4 months before they appear on the shelves...
 
norriemal said:
My question is regarding wasapi vs asio. I use wasapi as I was led to believe it has the best SQ with win7 and I settled on Media Center by J River (which I am really happy with and paid for).

Can I continue to use this setup with control from the CDQ or do I need to move to Foobar and asio4all?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. WASAPI does the job of delivering the data in bit accurate manner. J River works fine including remote control from our handset.
 
John/Dominik, just wondered how easy would it be to provide a DIY mod to add the 12V trigger to an early CDQ ?
 
TimR,

There’s more to the 12V trigger option then meets the eye:-

1. To prevent ground loops, the 12V trigger should be isolated from the Audio Ground, this necessitates the use of isolated 12V supplies & opto-coupled control signals.

2. Each trigger output needs to be Current limited - we rate the outputs at 12V 100mA each - current limit operates at nearer 150mA for each output.

The "Update" required:-

1. New Mainboard (with connections to the uP to "Enable / Control" the individual outputs).

2. New Mains transformer (which required recertification) for the isolated 12V lines

3. New Software

4. New Chassis

5. The Trigger PCB itself

So as you can see, although it only appears a "minor" addition, almost every item required updating!

John
 
Thanks for the detailed reply John,
Clearly not worth pursuing this one then.

btw, I seem to remember being told when I first became interested in hifi that it was best to leave the electronics turned on - both for SQ and also to reduce stress from constant heating/cooling. Did I get this wrong? If not, then isn't it possible that using a 12V trigger could actually be detremental ? I realise of course that there are advantages from a power saving / environmental point of view.

No sour grapes intended :)

- Tim
 
JohnW said:
MI55ION,

First CDQ's with 12V trigger are on the production line now, so it appears its takes about 3-4 months before they filter out onto the dealers shelves - I know Dominik was working on the updated software last week (to handle control of the 12V trigger).
Click to expand...
Really months? Or weeks? BTW how to identify the CDQ's with 12V trigger? By serial number?

If you don't mind may I repeat in extended form my still unanswered question first posted at #1047...
In the January issue (1/2011) of the German Hifi magazine "Stereo" is an interesting article about CD/DVD laser pickup systems (OPU). Like you once said earlier in this thread even the most expensive so called High-End CD/DVD players from various manufacturers uses cheap industry standard OPU's (e.g. from Sanyo or Sony) - simply because there's nothing else available and these systems are pretty reliable in general (MTTF 10.000h to 150.000h depending on type of the laser diode, the maximum power of the diode [the lower the better] and also the working/ambient temperature [the lower the better - each 10°C less would double the MTTF]). What's new for me is the major influence of the quality of the laser pickup lens itself. In the past (I guess the article said up until the nineties) most if not all high quality OPU's used a glass lens, which would last forever (if not cleaned the wrong way). But nowadays 99% of the manufacturers use a more or less cheap plastic lens, which could get yellow or blind in just a few years (according to the Dutch engineer Casper van Doorne) . Do you have any experience with this? And is a high quality glass lens really so much more expensive than a plastic lens. I mean does it make any sense to equip a high quality CD/DVD/Whatever player that costs more than 1K with a $1 plastic lens instead of a $5 glass lens (just my speculation)? :confused:
Many thanks for your reply in advance. I really love this whole thread and learned a lot. And you can be sure that I will buy a CDQ in the nearer future. :)

Best,
Dick
 
Hi John,

Am still running in the CDQ on disc repeat mode (amp not turned on).

But when I checked back after about an hour, the dispaly shows reading error and the time of the track is not running.

Skip to the next track and it contunued to play. Skip to the next and it shows reading error again.

Eject the disc and load it again. Press play and it is playing without any reading error for the past 40 minutes.

Anything I should be worried about? Fingers crossed.

Thanks,
CS.
 
Hi John.
The up-coming QDAC holds a lot of interest for me a couple of questions,will it have the 12v triger facility and what about digital IPOD conectivity.
Geoff
 
Hi CS,

I'd be interested to see if you encounter the issue again.

The CDQ performs a "Disc calibration" sequence every time the Open / Close the CD tray or power up.

During this calibration sequence the servo system adjusts itself to the OPU (Optical pickup unit) and also calibrates itself to the inserted disk - CD height, CD reflectivity index, Focus mid point position etc.

If powering-up the first instance - due to the large temperature variation from cold (we are dealing with the wavelength of light here, it does not take much thermal expansion to cause things to "drift" out of alignment), the calibration sequence which was performed when cold may not be 100% optimal for a "Hot" unit.... this can result in less then robust disk reading with a poorer condition disc.

Opening / Closing the draw forces the servo to re-calibrate to the disc - it sounds like what has happened with your unit.

If you encounter the issue again, try a different disc - if you still have the same issue then it would appear you have a troublesome unit - but Pls. don’t jump to any conclusions yet until you try a different disc.

We don't see many units with CD reading problems - but they are CD players, and with all CD players the OPU (CD Mech) is normally the single largest cause of warrantee returns (its the same for all CD / DVD manufactures)- don’t worry I will insure any problems you encounter will be swiftly resolved.

John
 
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