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Sorge  
#1 Posted : Friday, July 23, 2010 9:04:59 PM(UTC)
Sorge

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Russ,

About one year ago there was info on the DIY board that you are preparing a multichannel version of the dac. Is there a chance to see it soon? Think

Power to you! Applause
Sorge  
#2 Posted : Sunday, August 1, 2010 7:17:28 PM(UTC)
Sorge

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Hm,bump.
Russ White  
#3 Posted : Sunday, August 1, 2010 7:31:19 PM(UTC)
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Here is the thing. I could design a PCB very easily based on the current buf-II. It would be simple. But Honestly we only have so much capacity right now. So I am trying to prioritize things. Brian is an awesome guy. He works way beyond the call of duty. I just am trying to keep things manageable right now. Let me talk it over with him and we will together decide if it is something we can squeeze in between everything else.

Edited by user Sunday, August 1, 2010 7:33:46 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

shokoladas  
#4 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2010 7:51:04 AM(UTC)
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Hello Russ,
Maybe some news about multichannel buffalo? It is the first thing in my wish list:)
Russ White  
#5 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2010 9:52:34 AM(UTC)
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I may do it at some point, but I actually don't have that much interest in because once you use the ES9018 with only one differential DAC per output channel performance wise (DNR and THD) the DAC really becomes not much better than anything else out there. Really to get exceptional performance you have to use it in 1 or 2 channel mode.

You can very easily do a superb multi-channel DAC with the Buffalo II. Just use more than one buff II module (3 or 4 for 5.1 or 7.1 respectively). Then you get multi channel with no compromise in results compared to stereo.

Edited by user Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16:55 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

lwi  
#6 Posted : Thursday, December 23, 2010 2:45:13 AM(UTC)
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Hi,

I am interested in this solution. Is it possible to put three buffalo dac in parallel on one i2s bus ?
Will it be possible to put three buffalo on the i2s out from the XMOS USB module ?
Thanks !
stephen1212b  
#7 Posted : Thursday, December 23, 2010 2:21:22 PM(UTC)
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Can the Buffalo 2 be modified to support more than two I2S addresses?
Russ White  
#8 Posted : Thursday, December 23, 2010 6:27:45 PM(UTC)
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lwi wrote:
Hi,

I am interested in this solution.

1) Is it possible to put three buffalo dac in parallel on one i2s bus ?
2) Will it be possible to put three buffalo on the i2s out from the XMOS USB module ?
Thanks !


1) Yes, the only part that will be parallel is the bit clock and work clock. And that is no problem. You will have three data lines one to each DAC
2) No the XMOS module will be stereo.
Russ White  
#9 Posted : Thursday, December 23, 2010 6:34:51 PM(UTC)
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stephen1212b wrote:
Can the Buffalo 2 be modified to support more than two I2S addresses?


I2S does not have adresses. Do you mean i2C?

Each DAC can only have one of two I2C addresses for control, but you can very easily use more than one bus. :)
LeonvB  
#10 Posted : Friday, December 24, 2010 10:45:46 AM(UTC)
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I'm curious: how does the DAC know which channels it has to decode? There's no onboard switch for it, I take it somehow one would have to program a custom firmware or set the registers using an external controller.
Russ White  
#11 Posted : Friday, December 24, 2010 8:17:12 PM(UTC)
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It knows because it is input via I2S. :)

You would need to pull the I2S from a decoder of some sort.

Something like this (would need to be hacked a bit)
http://www.allaboutadapters.com/hddodtsdihdo.html

I have been thinking of hacking one of these just for fun. Most all blu-ray players can be set to do LPCM output for all channels.
lwi  
#12 Posted : Tuesday, January 4, 2011 2:47:05 AM(UTC)
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Ok so for two buffalo you need two I2S.
I thought we can have two or three channels on the same I2S bus. That is an important clarification.

1) What are the different solutions to get multi I2S from USB or spdif ? (apart from the hdmi device, i have a computer as source)
2) Going spdif to two buffalo, do i need two spdif ?
3) if spdif is multi channel how to tell to each buffalo which channel to decode ? (one spdif in parallel for two buffalo)
4) XMOS USB being stereo, is it a firmware limitation and can it be upgraded later with the same board ?

Thanks a lot.
Happy new year to all !
glt  
#13 Posted : Tuesday, January 4, 2011 9:04:54 AM(UTC)
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- I2S is only 2 channel. For 8 channel, you need 4 I2S sources
- Buffalo II is only stereo or mono, so it can only take one I2S source. In mono, you connect the single source to both DACs
- Multichannel I2S? I don't know. There maybe hdmi or spdif to I2S converters out there but I haven't looked
- To connect one spdif to two Buffalo II Dacs, you daisy chain: spdif input and comparator ON on DAC 1, take the signal from D1 and connect to D1 in DAC2 with comparator off
- For multichannel spdif you will need a decoder first (like a DTS or Dolby decoder?) But I don't know how the DAC handles multi-channel SPDif (I would like to know too)

Hope this helps
rxetera  
#14 Posted : Tuesday, January 4, 2011 9:23:18 AM(UTC)
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My understanding is that you don't want to use I2S for long runs. SPDIF is better for that. I also thought about a HDMI solution, then read about how the audio design is an afterthought (no dedicated clock). Therefore, unless a multi-channel XMOS USB solution is realized, I'm planning on using multi-SPDIF for my goal, which is to use a PC as a three way active crossover and digital room correction device. Currently the best solution I've found is to use a Lynx AES16e card, then feed each AES/EBU line to a separate transformer circuit to convert to SPDIF. That is then run to a separate Buffalo DAC. I'm likely going to run each DAC in stereo to save on cash, but I'd love to eventually go the dual mono route for each channel.
lwi  
#15 Posted : Wednesday, January 5, 2011 5:25:35 AM(UTC)
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Thanks all for the information.
I don't want to use I2S for long runs, i want an usb input to the dac with just one coneverter to I2S directly coupled to the buffalo dac, so I2S line less than 2 centimeters.
Ok, the idea is to have two or three spdif or I2S lines out from USB and pro soundcards have that.
Now I need to find a cheap usb or firewire soundcard with two or three digital out. If it has spdif, it would be possible to hack them to have I2S before the two or three spdif conversions. This seems interesting only if the converter has really clean I2S as shown by the work of glt, until that (that is hack precise clocks to the converter) it should be good enough to stick with spdif.
Another solution would be to use three usb->spdif like for three modded hiface with one buffalo for each. Then we need to aggregate the three hiface as one soundcard on the computer (easily done on mac).
ccclapp  
#16 Posted : Monday, March 19, 2012 8:17:37 PM(UTC)
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Hi

I am also trying to do this and am NOT an expert.
1) Am I correct the exaU2I board solves this problem?
2) with a soundcard like Lynx or RME AES16 can this also work as follows:

a) RME/Lynks can output via AES/EUB 2-ch per "wire" for a total of 8-ch
b) I believe somehow this can be converted to I2S (not really sure what that is, but know is goes into B-III nicely if short distance) and TPA Teleporter can transmit I2S and DSD digital streams long distances to B-III and re-converts a few cm from DAC input.
c) I think this means, I need separate B-III per 2-ch (4 for 8-ch)and each B-III would receive 1 wire from the teleporter representing 1 x 2-ch stream.

Initially, I would prefer NOT to use multiple B-III's. If using the sound card solution, am I correct I need multiple

DACS?


Thanks
--Caleb
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