Nice (and cheap) 24/96 Network Transport!!

JDUBS · « **Reply #40 on:** 14 May 2009, 12:09 am »

Quote from: mgalusha on 13 May 2009, 05:18 pm

Quote from: ashok on 13 May 2009, 01:58 pm
I think it is a nice solution for music playback. I suppose we can now start to debate about whether the digital output is "audiophile" quality and how the jitter on the output affects the quality of the sound, etc. (Just kidding of course, , I am very happy with its performance.)

Being that I can't leave anything alone I already ordered a top quality isolated BNC jack and have some precision coax to wire it to the board. I will likely try it with and without an output transformer but adding a transformer is tricky without the gear to measure what is happening.

Glad to hear your investigating mods already, Mike! I think there is a lot of potential here and I look forward to hear what you find out.

The caps for my other Felix arrived today, now just waiting for a "spare" power supply.

-Jim

JDUBS · « **Reply #41 on:** 14 May 2009, 12:18 am »

For anyone thinking about the ioBox / Popcorn Hour, there is a hardware choice you need to make. To stream or not to stream. I prefer no moving parts in my listening room, so I went with the former.

I still wanted to be able to use all the great applications that exist for these players, so I needed something. I went the route of the CF card and CF -> SATA adapter. This is cheap and absolutely silent. I've got a 2gb CF card and not even close to filling it, so space isn't an issue. You can pick up the adapter off of eBay for a few bucks and the CF card itself you can buy from most retailers. I like the Transcend 2gb 266x myself as its been proven in these players (some CF cards may have issues). This is the one I'm talking about:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Transcend-2GB-266x-Compact-Flash-CF-Memory-Card_W0QQitemZ310136377304QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDigital_Camera_Memory_Cards?hash=item4835918fd8&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Mike went another route with an SSD, also great as it, too, is devoid of moving parts.

-Jim

JDUBS · « **Reply #42 on:** 20 May 2009, 02:15 am »

For anyone considering a CF card in lieu of a hard drive, check out this link:

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/index.php/CF_Alternatives_to_HDD

Good commentary on working adapters and cards.

-Jim

JDUBS · « **Reply #43 on:** 22 May 2009, 02:57 am »

They're making the installation of MPD even easier. Its now a part of Community Software Installer:

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=13161

-Jim

JDUBS · « **Reply #44 on:** 24 May 2009, 03:05 am »

Guys, got the parts for my Felix-squared (Felix->switching ps->Felix in one box) and will post my impressions when I finish it and have a chance to listen to it.

-Jim

ashok · « **Reply #45 on:** 24 May 2009, 10:25 am »

Quote from: JDUBS on 24 May 2009, 03:05 am

Guys, got the parts for my Felix-squared (Felix->switching ps->Felix in one box) and will post my impressions when I finish it and have a chance to listen to it.

That would be interesting, Jim.

I have a couple of completed Felix boards waiting to be commissioned. I will install these in my home-brew BPT unit, hopefully in the next few days.

Ashok

mgalusha · « **Reply #46 on:** 24 May 2009, 01:29 pm »

I just made a bunch of current draw measurements for those interested in using a linear supply.

It pulls .59A at idle and worst case (so far) was .7A when playing streaming video off the web. Playing music was .65A. The PS output voltage was 12.09V and measurements were made using a 5mOhm precision current sense resistor using a Kelvin connection and a Fluke 8050A meter. This is with a Crucial brand 32GB SSD installed. I'm certain the current draw would be higher with a conventional spinning disk drive.

IMO a linear supply should be designed for at least 1A and 1.5 would be better as everything will be less stressed.

Mike

jkeny · « **Reply #47 on:** 24 May 2009, 03:20 pm »

Mike,
Great to see mods starting on this unit - can I suggest the following linear supply by John Swenson which was originally designed for the Fit PC or Squeezebox, which takes 5V or 9V at @ 2A - it can be scaled up to 12V. There are some tricks in this schematic, such as RC filter across transformer secondary which significantly reduces trafo ringing, small first cap after the Schottky diode bridge cuts out any RF noise & the choke which is what makes the circuit so quiet. See here: http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=pcaudio&m=42853

mgalusha · « **Reply #48 on:** 24 May 2009, 04:24 pm »

I had something very much like that in mind with the addition of some 1R resistors after the diodes to reduce the charging current a bit and thus noise a bit more.

jkeny · « **Reply #49 on:** 24 May 2009, 04:59 pm »

Yep, that should be nice - let's know how the PS improves the sound - what did you buy, an ibox?
Obvious other areas for mod consideration are low jitter clock & separate clean PS and external DAC (but inside the box) fed from I2S signal tapped off the Sigma chip

mgalusha · « **Reply #50 on:** 24 May 2009, 09:10 pm »

Well I finally had time to mess with the ioBox today. First it was the current draw measurements then trying to get the SSD to work. It appears the SSD I bought is not compatible with the ioBox. I kept looking for the install NMT apps to the HD and it wasn't there and finally figured out that if the HD isn't recognized it won't present the option, which of course makes sense but is not readily apparent.

I finally put the SSD in my PC and the machine saw it right way, so the disk was good. Then installed a regular WD 500G SATA drive in the iobox, it saw it immediately and let me install the NMT apps. Thanks to Jim for the tip on the NMT Community Installer now supporting MPD. It's installing, at least it says it is. Even if not, I have it happily browsing my music collection on the server and an playing a little Brian Bromberg as I tinker.

Definitely going to have to get another SSD, even though the WD is quiet it's plenty audible in my listening room and the box is pretty warm. I haven't re-measured but I'm sure it's drawing a lot more current and my earlier measurements are likely invalid since the SSD was not being recognized. Hard to say as it might have been drawing power but until I can get another I won't know for sure. The OCZ are listed as compatible on the NMT wiki, so I'll be ordering one of those. Anyone need a 32G SSD? Brand new, works great as long as it's not in an NMT.

jkeny · « **Reply #51 on:** 24 May 2009, 10:03 pm »

Mike,
Why not keep it for the soon to be released (I hope) lossless SD player here: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=140538&highlight= if you want to buy another toy?

mgalusha · « **Reply #52 on:** 25 May 2009, 01:03 pm »

That looks pretty cool but this is not an SD card but a SSD with the same form factor as a 2.5" hard drive.

Quote from: jkeny on 24 May 2009, 10:03 pm

Why not keep it for the soon to be released (I hope) lossless SD player here: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=140538&highlight= if you want to buy another toy?

jkeny · « **Reply #53 on:** 25 May 2009, 01:44 pm »

Oops! In that case, how much are you selling it for?

mgalusha · « **Reply #54 on:** 25 May 2009, 03:16 pm »

Quote from: jkeny on 25 May 2009, 01:44 pm

Oops! In that case, how much are you selling it for?

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=68285.0

mgalusha · « **Reply #55 on:** 25 May 2009, 05:39 pm »

Quote from: JDUBS on 22 May 2009, 02:57 am

They're making the installation of MPD even easier. Its now a part of Community Software Installer:

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=13161

Big thanks to Jim for pointing this out. Worked perfectly and was much less painful than trying to do a manual install.

I used the community installer to install the telnet daemon first and then MPD, both worked perfectly. I had previously added a SMB network share to the NMT pointing to the box where I have my music stored. Once I had telnetd and MPD installed I created a symbolic link in the default "Music" directory on the NMT pointing to the share so that I didn't have to reconfigure MPD and I can just click the Update button in the Minion client to have it look for new music on my server.

/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/Music # ls -l lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 May 25 06:55 tunes -> /opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/tunes

This shows up as /tunes in Minion.

Since I haven't used an external DAC in a few years I borrowed a Musical Fidelity A324 from a friend until I get my Buffalo put together. It sounds much better than I expected and of course allows me to play my 24/96 files without down sampling. I need to get either a compatible SSD or a CF card setup as I can hear the HD but I'm very happy with the current setup. Now of course I'm wondering what difference a liner PS might make.

A bit thanks to Jim and Ashok (?) for their original posts. A very cool little box.

JDUBS · « **Reply #56 on:** 26 May 2009, 02:13 am »

Mike

Great to hear that the ioBox and MPD are working out for you! Community Software Installer makes the software part of the equation with these Networked Media Tanks really easy.

I can't wait to hear what you think of the ioBox with the Twisted Pear dac. I bet that will be an awesome combination, especially when coupled with a great front-end like MPD.

Looking forward to hear about your modding adventures as well. I think these things have a lot of potential (although they sound great out of the box imho).

-Jim

jkeny · « **Reply #57 on:** 26 May 2009, 05:01 pm »

Mike,
Why do you need an SSD? - are you not running this on your network? - do you not have your music files stored on your server?

ashok · « **Reply #58 on:** 26 May 2009, 06:28 pm »

Quote from: jkeny on 26 May 2009, 05:01 pm

Why do you need an SSD? - are you not running this on your network? - do you not have your music files stored on your server?

(Hope Mike does not mind me answering the question).

Some on-board storage is needed to install user developed applications, like the Music Player Daemon (MPD) and telnet for example.

One can run the NMT without any additional storage, but then you will have to live with whatever functionality the basic firmware provides. And music playback is certainly not its strong point. I mean that the box will playback FLAC at higher sampling rates and bit depths, but once it begins playing a song, it will not do anything else until the song finishes.

MPD gives you nice functionality (gapless playback, browse the library while something else is playing, etc.), but the NMT needs additional on-board storage for it. Media can be on the network.

mgalusha · « **Reply #59 on:** 26 May 2009, 07:39 pm »

Not at all and your answer is perfect.

To have access to the OS one needs FTP enabled to install a telnet daemon and those are needed to install MPD. None of these require much space but MPD also indexes the music collection and some space is also required for storing that. The ftp daemon is part of the NMT apps package, which requires a disk of some type.

As Ashok mentioned, the built in software will play music but since the NMT is primarily a video source the UI for playing music is pretty bad. MPD works really well, the Minion client is easy on the eyes and the search even seems pretty good.

mike