Khadas Tone Board with case and 8 channel expansion

[QuantumMechanic]

Hey guys, I'm trying to gauge people's interest in a case for the Khadas Tone Board with an expansion to 8 total RCA outputs and possibly a volume control. I think the 8 channels would be a great option for those looking for a well performing and affordable DAC to use in an active crossover/DSP setup. Let me know if you have any interest in a product like this.

 

[somebodyelse]

I made pretty much the same suggestion on the Khadas forum but didn't get a response. I'd like to see XLR outs as an option, even if it's just an extra resistor to match impedance on the -ve and a header instead of a connector.

 

[vitalii427]

8 channels would be a great option for those looking for a well performing and affordable DAC to use in an active crossover/DSP setup

It’s me too

 

[Krunok]

I made pretty much the same suggestion on the Khadas forum but didn't get a response. I'd like to see XLR outs as an option, even if it's just an extra resistor to match impedance on the -ve and a header instead of a connector.

Isn't there an 8 channel extension connector already present on the Khadas Tone Board?

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Isn't there an 8 channel extension connector already present on the Khadas Tone Board?

As far as I know, there is only the 30 pin fpc connector for the expansion. I haven't seen anyone that has actually made something usable with outs to rca or xlr.

 

[Krunok]

As far as I know, there is only the 30 pin fpc connector for the expansion. I haven't seen anyone that has actually made something usable with outs to rca or xlr.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Exactly, I was thinking of designing a PCB with FPC and RCA connectors that would connect to the tone board and a case to mount the two in.

 

[avddreamr]

I'm not sure if I understand how this would be possible. Unless you are talking about linking 4 tone boards, in a case, with an additional PCB to handle input routing and volume control to the respective DACs. Because the DAC at the heart of the tone board is the ESS ES9038Q2M which is a stereo DAC unless I misread the pdf. If you are planning to this, and you can design a board that can use either the miniDSP nanoSharc or miniSharc, you will have a winner.

 

[mixMZ]

I was thinking about something very similar. Wanted to have 6 channel dac ( 3x khadas tone + nanodigi ) volume control would be a bit problematic but ideally something like this :
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dsp-...-preamplifier-dac-network-player-p-13124.html
would be just perfect (obviously at reasonable price)

 

[LF78]

This is very interesting. So is that "8 channels ext" connector already analog? Is it only needed to attach proper RCA plugs from there?

 

[QuantumMechanic]

I'm not sure if I understand how this would be possible. Unless you are talking about linking 4 tone boards, in a case, with an additional PCB to handle input routing and volume control to the respective DACs. Because the DAC at the heart of the tone board is the ESS ES9038Q2M which is a stereo DAC unless I misread the pdf. If you are planning to this, and you can design a board that can use either the miniDSP nanoSharc or miniSharc, you will have a winner.

You are correct, I misunderstood. The 8 channel extension is only from the xmos microcontroller.

While 4 tone boards may work, it seems like that runs contrary to the idea of an affordable multichannel DAC.

 

[somebodyelse]

It seems I misunderstood too - I thought you were proposing an 8 channel i2s dac board to make use of that connector. There are open hardware designs for multi-channel boards at freedsp.cc but AFAIK the audio quality hasn't been tested.