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Another option...

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Charlie G

(A)

In Reply to: Re: USB input and "market" considerations posted by Dave Davenport on November 3, 2004 at 17:00:26:

There is another, vastly superior way to get good sound out of a PC.
It would require the purchase of particular sound cards (PCI, and affordable, $100 range), but the cost of the add-on board inside the DAC would probably be reduced, and it would work perfectly as an add-on board to the existing RAKK DAC. Also it eliminates the need for a fancy PLL reclocker (in fact, it takes it's place sort of), and supports 24/96.

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Re: Another option... - Dave Davenport 13:24:45 12/02/04 (2)
Hi Charlie,
Would you please elaborate?
Thanks,
Dave
- Re: Another option... - Charlie G 14:07:33 12/02/04 (1)
  Hmm... a tent-link for use with computer soundcards?
  I guess that's the clearest way to put it. Put a local clock inside, send it back to the computer, computer synchs to it and sends data out. Use a 'dummy' SPDIF transmitter sending digital silence run off the local master clock, send that back to the computer so it can synch up.
  That way the system clock input of the DAC chip can be operated directly off the local crystal, in synch but without any particular phase relationship to the bitclock coming from the receiver. (Which is OK if you check the DAC datasheets).
  Pros/Cons:
  Pro:
  All the normal advantages of having a local high-quality master clock, which is a SERIOUS advantage over USB.
  Only requires two SPDIF cables, nothing fancy.
  No length restrictions on cabling, in fact we can use TOSLINK without concern, because timing doesn't matter at either end. Thus we can split ground from the computer, no real connection required.
  Should pop into the board in place of the tent reclocker circuitry, just disconnect the SCLK of the 1794 from the receiver chip and look it to the new master clock... done.
  Con:
  Locked into one sampling rate. It's possible to have it adjustable but it gets pretty complicated really fast. However, a person could CHOOSE if they just want to use 44,100 or have foobar2000 or whatever upsample everything to 96,000 (or whatever).
  Requires a particular sound card that supports it, about $100 for a PCI model, firewire/usb devices that support it are very expensive.
  
  I was fiddling with this for a long time (was planning on using a PCM1974 too! heh!) but I'm not really up to snuff on analog DAC design so I've been planning on doing it as a module for a RAKK dac on my own, but if you think it is a viable product lets do it together.
  - Another huge advantage. - Charlie G 14:13:14 12/02/04 (0)
    The sorts of 'semi-professional' soundcards you'd be using (Audiophile 2496 and the like) also fully support ASIO (works with some playback software) or custom WDM drivers (for use with foobar/winamp/everything) that let you completely bypass the windows sound system & mixer, giving you bit-perfect playback, which I dont' believe is possible with most USB audio devices.

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