TOPIC:

Hi,

I just wanted to share some info on my build. It is supposed to be a combined active crossover/dac/preamp. So far I have put together a rough box:

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Apart from the miniSharc and BIII, I have also made a small controller (picaxe) driving a OLED display and a relay for standby mode. A Placid HD from Twisted Pear is powering the dac and their LCDPS is used for powering miniSharc and the controller.



For the time being, I only have one input (the Toslink adapter from TPA) so I have to switch cables from time to time....
I havn't yet been using all outputs yet since I need to replace the old analog crossovers in my speakers with power amps first...

Best regards,
Mattias

Mattias,

Wow, that's an impressive setup you have here! Very cool... You did combine buffalo + miniSHARC which is one of the first complete setup we can see here..
Great work!

Devteam

Great build!
That is exactly the stup I would like to build, but I definitely lack the electronic skills to implement and troubleshoot this myself, especially without proper I2S cabling and directives (Devteam ? )
I do have a B3 and power supplies ready, as well as a miniSHARC (well, it sits inside a fancy box called "openDRC" right now )

I see that your output cabling goes directly from the B3 to the XLR. No plan for I/V stages? How does it sound that way?
I/V is complicated with a 8 way setup, so if this can be avoided that is good news.

Is this a volume control knob on the front panel? Are you controlling the volume in the miniSHARC or in the B3 ?

Thanks for your kind words!

#POS: Actually, I am new to electronics myself so this have been taking some time. That being said, getting this together was actually easy! The one problem I had was that I had severe problems to connect and sync to miniSharc from the plugin. The reason turned out to be inproper grounding/reference between the parts (thanks for helpling me out devteam).

The I2S connection between miniSharc and Buffalo III wasn't any problem - simply connect the signal and clock pins. I haven't yet been using the I2S input to miniSharc however. I plan to use I2S sources later on, and the OTTO:II board from TPA for switching between sources.

As you noted, there's no I/V stages yet. It sounds really good I think, but then I don't know how it would sound with I/V-stage of course. As you say it's a bit complicated with a 8ch setup. I haven't really decided yet...

The volume control is a stereo 10k lin pot. One of the channels is connected to BIII:s header and the other to my little control board (just so I can get a disply of the level). In the next (proper) build I'm thinking about using a motorized pot so I can operate it remotely.

Thanks for the update and please keep the community updated.. A very neat setup putting a smile on our face.

DevTeam

I wish I can buy I2S adopter between MiniSharc and Buffalo III. Is there any plan to make such connector in near future?

Connecting the miniSHARC to BIII is easy, just connect the appropriate pins with some wire.

That being said, I made an adapter board that should arrive in a few days for use in my next build. Minimum order was 10 boards and I won't be needing them all so I'm willing to share. I just need to verify that they work as expected first!

Best regards,
Mattias

Good to hear that. Did you implement any buffer or reclocker or is it a purely passive adapter (which is completely OK to be honest )

Best regards, Daniel

Crumboo, I am definitely interested?
What is the price? What is required to assemble them?

Its a purely passive adapter so I can skip the wiring and get a good ground plane for the signal and clock lines. I intend to stack the board onto the headers of BIII and miniSHARC using female headers mounted on the backside of the board. I'll put up an image as I get them.

pos: I'll keep you in mind. You just need to solder some female headers (2,54 mm pitch). I'll be happy to give them away for free if you pay for the shipping.

Best regards,
Mattias

Mattias,
I'm looking forward to it. Please sign me up for the adapter board!

Thanks,
Paul

I'd like to follow this thread because my plan is to use MiniSharc / Buffalo 3 to feed a pair of LX521 speakers. I'd like to implement 4-way crossover with linear phase instead of MiniDSP 4x10HD.

Are there any issues with using the balanced analog outputs of (4) AN-FPs to use all (8) outputs of the miniSharc? I've looked through the forum a bit but can't seem to find an explicit yes or no. Thanks !

You can only connect one AN-FP to the miniSHARC in the basic configuration since there is only one digital-I/O header. AN-FP needs some configuration via I2C Bus so connecting several AN-FP would probably need some at least some firmware hacking if possible at all. Better to use other solutions like 8ch Buffalo or 4 curryman DACs I guess...
kind regards, Daniel

Thanks curryman for clearing that up. It would be great to see a module from miniDSP that allows all (8) balanced outputs to be used in a pro-audio environment, for example. But until that happens, other than the Buffalo III, are there any other DAC solutions I should be aware of? It wouldn't have to be a "pull out all the stops" kind of design, but relatively low noise is important. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!