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MDAC First Listen (part 00111011)

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So the MDAC box is not a TARDIS and the extra things most people didn't want won't fit, who would of thought that?.
Speak for yourself. It is difficult to know that most people want. Only that everyone do not want the same.

Personally I like the fact that it will be a discrete DAC using transformers,tube advanced clock etc. And not forgetting the streamer is build in. Is RoonReady and will supports MQA.

The only thing I am not enthusiastic about is the reuse of the MDAC chassis. But I can live with that knowing that I can upgrade to the full with FDAC later :cool:
 
All I want is a DAC, all I’ve ever wanted from this is a DAC. I don’t care if it’s wrapped in a cornflakes packet as I can fix that.
Sadly we still have nothing.

Zip. Zero. Nil. Nowt. Nothing.

My prediction is this time next year it’ll still be Groundhog Day. I sincerely hope I’m wrong.
 
PCB's for the digital / software development board arrived last week
2 or 3 years ago the layout design of the Analog board was almost complete and 'only the much simpler' digital board left to be designed.
Now we are waiting for the arrival of a development board that will be used to design the analog board, am I getting that right?
That means, 3 years ago the novel was almost written, but now we are waiting for paper and pen to arrive to write a new one. Doesn't it?

But now with tubes (fairies) in it.

This should really be made into a major comedy movie.
 
Maybe today the Camera parts should arrive and I can take pictures of the Dummy unit
Are we really to believe that Lakewest Company has no digital camera or Mobile phone accessible other than a defunctory Apple product that needs repair parts which arrive only after several weeks? Only that one mobile phone in the household? No old digicam with 2 MP? No laptop or pad?
Come on!

On the other hand I am not sure what pictures of a dummy would be worth anyway.
 
Are we really to believe that Lakewest Company has no digital camera or Mobile phone accessible other than a defunctory Apple product that needs repair parts which arrive only after several weeks? Only that one mobile phone in the household? No old digicam with 2 MP? No laptop or pad?
Come on!

On the other hand I am not sure what pictures of a dummy would be worth anyway.
It is real. I have seen it and touched it and the new front and back looked finished.
 
Thanks Rune, nice to hear that. I’d love to have attended Munich High End myself ...maybe next year :)
 
It is real. I have seen it and touched it and the new front and back looked finished.
Hm, so after 6 years of development you saw an empty case? I'm sorry that I don't jump up and down excitedly because of that.
Besides, because of new positions for valves, as I hear, even that empty case will not be final, right?
And no one with a functional camera in the whole city of Munich, what a shame.
 
Speak for yourself. It is difficult to know that most people want. Only that everyone do not want the same.

Personally I like the fact that it will be a discrete DAC using transformers,tube advanced clock etc. And not forgetting the streamer is build in. Is RoonReady and will supports MQA.

The only thing I am not enthusiastic about is the reuse of the MDAC chassis. But I can live with that knowing that I can upgrade to the full with FDAC later :cool:

I think you are missing the point, people thought they were funding development of a DAC and if John had just done that there would have been happy investors and some people might have funded an upgraded version but trying to do everything at once has just annoyed a lot of people with the delay and non appearance of what was promised. In fact given the delay and the fact we seem to be back at square one in development terms he would be better off just shipping something without the multimedia options, transformers and valves at least some people would be happy and the faithful can pony up for the dilithium crystal version, knowing at least the DAC section works.
 
Hm, so after 6 years of development you saw an empty case? I'm sorry that I don't jump up and down excitedly because of that.
Besides, because of new positions for valves, as I hear, even that empty case will not be final, right?
And no one with a functional camera in the whole city of Munich, what a shame.

The chassis mechanicals are final (a few tweaks to tighten tolerances) - the unit is being built for the software house to start the Ui development - its NOT just an empty case - it now has a functional front panel / digital section to allow software development.

Have an SLR somewhere but would need to be charged, I just dont have the time to mess about searching... waiting instead for replacement camera / battery to arrive for the iPhones... I'd expect parts to arrive this week...

BTW. components arrived today for the development boards so will build them up this week.

The software house first job is to split the Rpi framebuffer to allow independent displays for the internal front panel / external HDMI displays, a good year ago I contacted Rpi asking for there help to work on the drivers...

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=108&t=120541&p=1254121#p1254121

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=216399

Once we have the frame buffer split then we need to import a memory "light" browser as we currently use Chrome which is very resource heavy, and we don't have the free RAM to run two browsers (one for the internal display, one for the external display). Volumio has its own OS build with many dependencies stripped out (some missing dependencies are required for the light browser) - we also will have to update Volumio to the latest Linux OS (I'm not sure of the names here "Buster" or some such) - just listening to the software guys discussing the project development path.

Once this is completed then we can work on the actual UI design - I decided on HTML based (rather then QT) as it then allows anyone with Web design experience to customize the UI / functionality of the DAC. The Control APi command set that communicates with the MDAC2 hardware will be published to make this possible.

While this is going on, I'm continuing the design of the Analogue PCB - when he works on this project, Jarek's working on the digital + Modulator boards & 3D modeling (to insure its all going to fit in such a small package - we recently discovered a clearance issue between the Tubes on the lower PCB and the above mounted Modulator PCB that requires alittle bit of a sideways slip-in and "wiggling" to install).

I cannot stress more that I'm very heavily invested in completing the MDAC2 ASAP.
 
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Good news from Petr our software guy, he has the dual display Frame buffer working - so I have meeting at 9.30 to discuss the next steps which is to basically work with the Volumio Kernel to add the dual Frame Buffer (now that we have some experience of getting it working with the standard RPi Raspbian Kernel).

Also, yesterday the custom NDK VC-DTCXO's I ordered from Japan in December arrived so I can now work further on refining the clock circuit - only 100pcs so that's the build limit of the Advanced Clock option units 1 & 2 units. Even 100pcs custom made where crazy expensive...
 
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Is there going to be an option to disable second (HDMI) frame-buffer to offload CM3 cpu?
I believe there would be lots of us which won't hook our MDAC2 to TV but rather use web UI on our tablet/mobile phones.
 
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Is there going to be an option to disable second (HDMI) frame-buffer to offload CM3 cpu?
I believe there would be lots of us which won't hook our MDAC2 to TV but rather use web UI on our tablet/mobile phones.

The Video GPU is about 90% of the CM3 Die area - the ARM Quad CPUs are tiny and its the ARM CPU overhead we care about while the GPU overhead has no impact on our "audio" CPU power so no need to worry about frame buffer overhead.

The fact is the GPU is hardly used in current applications, we are just expanding the use of the GPU power.

For advanced option 2 (These will be limited build numbers, the use of external monitor will almost be mandatory to excess the advance system features). The basic advanced option One can be operated via smartphone / tablet.
 
We have just fitted NDK SDA crystals to our new DACS. :)

The only custom part of the exercise being my hand soldering of the 2mm x 2.5mm parts with 4 solder pads...

NDK are not such a bad company to deal with (considering they are Japanese) - with a minimum MOQ of 100pcs for custom parts :)

I'm using a AFC controlled temperature compensated part just for longer term frequency reference - its short-term phase noise too high for our Audio Master Clock.

Time for you to buy a microscope :) - I'm just working on a PCB section on the MDAC2 that uses a 1.8mm x 2mm IC with 16 pads !!!! I was just complaining Jarek that I have the PCB CAD software at it Max. Zoom and I'm still struggling to work with it comfortably at this package scale AND I'm working on a 32" monitor in front of me!
 
This week I have been soldering ndk sa and the much easier crystek cchd clocks to little boards. The clocks arent bad, the .8mm caps however...
 
You make DACs? Didn’t know, which ones? :)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/135181977@N06/45914001962/

:)

More assembled and tweaked than made, Ian Canada did all the heavy lifting.

But the options are all there, Op-Amp rolling or Lundahl transformers on the output stage
Supercaps and/or 3 rail voltage to the dual mono DAC board.
Crystek or NDK crystal clocks.

As Allo have found with their Katana, optimising for best measurement performance does not always provide for best sound enjoyment, as such they have 2 output stages available.

The beauty of the Ian Canada DAC being that you can tweak the sound by using different parts, at a cost. The Crystek clocks are £40 /pair and the Lundahl transformers £ 200/pair.

Also as Simon has found once you add streaming/Wi-FI/ software to the equation you open a whole new can of worms.
Having said that the sound quality is the best I have yet had by a good margin and with a 1TB SSD on board the system is very self contained and versatile, once I find why my artwork appears/disappears depending on the format I use on my SSD :rolleyes:
 
John
Sorry we didn’t get a chance to meet up again in Munich. I tried to contact you on the Sunday but unfortunately you’d already left.
I.
 
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