Computer Audio Blasphemy, nige tries Another SD Card Player

[seeteeyou]

Nice find.. opinion seems to be that it beats the Allo USBridge signature

My DACs don't have I2S inputs at all, that's why I would be interested in something that could also play concert / orchestra / symphony Blu-ray with either USB or S/PDIF outputs.

BTW, you might wanna check this out since it won't hurt the wallet

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-18Gbps ... B00H7N4RJS
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Monoprice-Acti ... 3191676172
https://www.monoprice.com/products/inde ... _item.html

(10764) 3ft 18Gbps Ultra Slim Series High Performance HDMI® Cable w/ RedMere® Technology - Black - Price: $11.91
(11181) 3ft 18Gbps Ultra Slim Series High Performance HDMI® Cable w/ RedMere® Technology - Blue - Price: $11.91
(11189) 3ft 18Gbps Ultra Slim Series High Performance HDMI® Cable w/ RedMere® Technology - Pink - Price: $11.91
(11185) 3ft 18Gbps Ultra Slim Series High Performance HDMI® Cable w/ RedMere® Technology - Red - Price: $11.91
(10768) 3ft 18Gbps Ultra Slim Series High Performance HDMI® Cable w/ RedMere® Technology - White - Price: $11.91

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/ ... mit.16540/

1.) Monoprice Redmere 18Gbps - Incredible performance and value. Crystal clear textured highs, liquid, no grain/hash, good bass extension (although a bit soft), superb depth and 3D soundstage. Vivid colors. Sounds similar to a premium Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil capacitor.
2.) Monoprice Redmere 10.2Gbps - Same as above.
3.) AudioQuest Cinnamon - Great bass slam, textured sound, no grain/hash, but a bit flat 2D soundstage, similar sound to what a good silver wire would produce.
4.) Shunyata Venom - Nice detailed sound, slight hash over high frequencies, a bit flat 2D soundstage, good bass extension.
5.) Monster Black Platinum and Ultra HD - Clear detailed highs, a bit flat 2D soundstage, decent bass extension, it does everything very well, but nothing exceptional.
6.) Transparent Performance - Midrange focused, the highs and lows are a bit trimmed, has a loudness type of effect, brass instruments sound great though.
7.) Monoprice cheapies, Dynex, Amazon, Oppo, Blue Jeans, Pangea, Tartan, and everything else.

And then there will be lots of possibilities with multiple layers of JSSG 360 that could help I2S connections. Yet another interesting choice could be found here

https://forum.psaudio.com/t/hdmi-i2s-ca ... on/4281/60
https://audiosensibility.com/blog/produ ... ry=4059160

[tapatrick]

BTW, you might wanna check this out since it won't hurt the wallet

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-18Gbps ... B00H7N4RJS

Interesting find. They are hard to get in the UK and shipping from US is crazy, but I've ordered a couple locally I could find on amazon - an 18Gbps 3ft and a 10ft Redmere for 4k speed. It seems the Redmere is an active cable. I was using a hard HDMI connector before which was better than a cable but not practical hanging off the back of my DAC. Worth a punt for the cost. Thanks again @seeteeyou!

[Sligolad]

Received the NDK clocks and added the 22Mhz today.
Burning in for a few hours and getting the best sound I've had through my system so far. Sounding magical.

Its great when you get to hear the return on all this small delicate work....well done.

Oh by the way looks like you were lucky to get an SD Player from a while back that plays the full selection of SLC cards out there, some of the more recent SD Players can have trouble with some of the cheaper SLC cards.
They can be made to play these cards but I do not know what is involved....maybe a re-flash by the supplier with different code on the controller!!

[Sligolad]

FYI guys, for mounting ndk clocks, I figured out that sot23-6 adapters are a perfect fit

Wish we knew that before all the recent work Randy but good to know now as soldering those wires to the clock can be a challenge :-)

[tapatrick]

Received the NDK clocks and added the 22Mhz today.
Burning in for a few hours and getting the best sound I've had through my system so far. Sounding magical.

Its great when you get to hear the return on all this small delicate work....well done.

Oh by the way looks like you were lucky to get an SD Player from a while back that plays the full selection of SLC cards out there, some of the more recent SD Players can have trouble with some of the cheaper SLC cards.
They can be made to play these cards but I do not know what is involved....maybe a re-flash by the supplier with different code on the controller!!

Thanks, yes its worth the sweat! Good to know about the SLC cards. I did order another SD player last week, as fall back in case I destroyed the current one :)

[tapatrick]

I was reading the data sheet for the STM32F407ZET6 SD card player today as you do and came across a few things that might explain why it works so well....

ARM® CortexTM-M4F core with embedded Flash and SRAM

The ARM Cortex-M4F processor is the latest generation of ARM processors for embedded systems. It was developed to provide a low-cost platform that meets the needs of MCU implementation, with a reduced pin count and low-power consumption, while delivering outstanding computational performance and an advanced response to interrupts.

The ARM Cortex-M4F 32-bit RISC processor features exceptional code-efficiency, delivering the high-performance expected from an ARM core in the memory size usually associated with 8- and 16-bit devices.

RAM memory is accessed (read/write) at CPU clock speed with 0 wait states.

To achieve audio class accuracy, the I2S peripherals can be clocked via a dedicated internal audio PLL or via an external clock to allow synchronization.

Clocks

The devices embed a dedicated PLL (PLLI2S) which allows to achieve audio class performance. In this case, the I2S master clock can generate all standard sampling frequencies from 8 kHz to 192 kHz.

On reset the 16 MHz internal RC oscillator is selected as the default CPU clock. The 16 MHz internal RC oscillator is factory-trimmed to offer 1% accuracy over the full temperature range. The application can then select as system clock either the RC oscillator or an external 4-26 MHz clock source. This clock can be monitored for failure. If a failure is detected, the system automatically switches back to the internal RC oscillator and a software interrupt is generated (if enabled). This clock source is input to a PLL thus allowing to increase the frequency up to 168 MHz. Similarly, full interrupt management of the PLL clock entry is available when necessary (for example if an indirectly used external oscillator fails).

[seeteeyou]

It's already Nov. 11th in China now but this seller ain't offering any discounts whatsoever, though it's actually nice to see a separate remote control

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=585468095115
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=601209239990

I2S was added to the latest model while it's more like 150 bucks for the entire package. Accepting 6V to 12V via DC input and obviously we could always do better with the clocks. TPS7A4701 for voltage regulation so that's also not THAT bad to boot.

Now the (potentially) interesting part could very well be how would anyone approach that seller if we're actually rebooting our little project? He's having access to manufacturing facilities somewhere in China while he certainly does have the know-how to start something from scratch. Each batch of production shouldn't be THAT big for his business while his products didn't seem to cost an arm and a leg.

In the end it still won't get anywhere close to the Holy Grail like Taiko Audio SGM Extreme, though we could still leave the door open for incredible clocks like NDK DuCULoN or something

http://www.asoyajiaudio.jp/du.html
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital ... ead-2.html
https://www.facebook.com/exD.audio/post ... 3470536141

Though a duel between SGM Extreme and something like this would be shootout of the century

https://musicbird.jp/audio_column/p103/
https://musicbird.jp/audio_column/p145/
https://ameblo.jp/audioniravana/entry-12270634678.html
https://community.phileweb.com/mypage/e ... 028/39742/

[Sligolad]

I2S was added to the latest model while it's more like 150 bucks for the entire package. Accepting 6V to 12V via DC input and obviously we could always do better with the clocks. TPS7A4701 for voltage regulation so that's also not THAT bad to boot.

Nice find, i ordered the SD3.75 reference digital turntable to see how it compares with the standard SD player we are using.

In the end it still won't get anywhere close to the Holy Grail like Taiko Audio SGM Extreme, though we could still leave the door open for incredible clocks like NDK DuCULoN or something

I would not be surprised if the SD Player was better than the SGM Extreme once it has comparable Clocks, thats based on my experience with a heavily tricked out USB audio PC system!!!

Though a duel between SGM Extreme and something like this would be shootout of the century
https://musicbird.jp/audio_column/p103/

That SD system looks serious alright and the power supplies look like there has been some work and money put into them.
The clocks probably cost about €3-5k alone.

I would bet the SD Player would easily beat the SGM Extreme by a wide margin.

[seeteeyou]

Thanks to those DuCULoN clocks and Finemet core transformers, one could tell how confident Asoyaji really is when he's actually powering his flagship DAC with power banks.

Supposedly TLT1545ssWJ should be a "monster" of some sort with insane performance

https://samizuacoustics.com/製作例/
https://samizuacoustics.com/ファインメットワールド/
http://tackbon.ldblog.jp/archives/52422247.html
http://asoyaji.blogspot.com/2018/11/blog-post.html
http://asoyaji.blogspot.com/2018/11/blog-post_28.html
https://stcinemas.blogspot.com/2018/12/ ... 5sswj.html

Kinda funny to see a pair of expensive transformers when they're connected to this portable Zishan DSD player

http://tackbon.ldblog.jp/archives/52422404.html
http://tackbon.ldblog.jp/archives/52422406.html
http://tackbon.ldblog.jp/archives/52422420.html

FM-2020DW Prototype

http://tackbon.ldblog.jp/archives/52425338.html

BTW, what could we expect from a simple audio player in less than 1K of code when the evaluation board might seem to be the bare minimum hardware / software combo to achieve redbook playback?

https://github.com/luciodj/WAV-1K
https://hackaday.io/project/18914-wav-1k
https://www.microchip.com/Developmentto ... o/DM164140

There's certainly something we could learn from the concept of that SD3.75 thingy, how about stuff like IR codes and a learning remote control of some sort?

http://irdb.tk/find/

[tapatrick]

I tried Ian Canada’s ultracap upgrade to his Lifepo4 power supply this weekend and it gave a very noticeable upgrade.

Even more natural & easeful sound with extended dynamics - feel much closer to the music.

I’m powering the SD card player and an I2s to HDMI module both on 3.3v. I upgraded the caps on the HDMI module to Audio Note Kaisei all in all very happy with the result. Best SQ to date.


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