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Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC

headwhacker

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Hello, please message me your order ID and the shop you order so that I can track for you.
sorry for the waiting. we are just finished the new manufacturing at the end of January.
Hi Willow,
I ordered directly from your online shop on Jan 26 and still don't received any notification other than my order was received. Any eta when our orders will ship?

---Update ---

Nevermind, just found my KTB in my mailbox. Looks like it did silently shipped.
 
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Cidious

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I wanted to post sooner. But got a bit caught up with moving apartments. Here you go. The result of the DIY case.

Cost me about €3 on materials. Tools like drills and files already had.

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OP
amirm

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I wanted to post sooner. But got a bit caught up with moving apartments. Here you go. The result of the DIY case.
That's looking good. You all should organize and have someone have a CNC shop machine the back plate in volume and be done with it. :)
 

Nango

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Hello @willow I am owner of a Generic Board, I was now looking for a VIM Tone Board as they are configured to output digital on SPDIF but how does it work? ..... In Volumio I cant find a switch to tell the system to output on SPDIF (music input is from a RPI via USB-C) or does it happen automatically?
 

BYRTT

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For technically diy'ers i'm pretty shure this ESS controller kit shared by member iancanada over at diyA site could be used to display current activity for Khadas TB plus possibility to shift between the seven times ES9038Q2M low pass filters not to speak of volume controll via knob or Apple remote or Web UI.

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Had a read at iancanada's manual from here (LINK: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-...i2s-dac-hats-raspberry-pi-73.html#post5703052) and in one of its head lines it tells "Possible to work with external ESS DAC" and for that technically it looks job is to wire interface connector J3 10 pins marked above with Khadas TB connector J9 FPC 10 pin marked below. For more info suggest read the manual from link, and to join the group buy over there follow link at buttom of iancanada's posts or send him a note via mail.

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PierreV

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So I have a stupid/noob question.

So the input SPDIF is a coaxial input does this mean it is a mini-toslink? So I could use the toslink output on my PC and pass it into the board?

Or do I need some sort of convertor?

In very short...

SPDIF is basically a protocol, the data can be transferred either by electricity (RCA connector) or by optical impulses (TOSLINK).

You may need a converter that will interpret the optical signal coming out of your toslink and convert it to electricity on a RCA connector.
 

Roen

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With the DIY Case, do you have to cut the front and the back off?
 

soundwave76

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Got mine today, yeay! Works right out of the box via USB and sounds great. Next I will investigate whether my PCs mother board really has a SPDIF out and if so, then try that instead of USB. Or are there any reasons why I shouldn't use the motherboards SPDIF? (Asus PRIME Z270-K Intel Z270 LGA1151 ATX)
 

soundwave76

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About SPDIF-in... there was a guess mentioned here, that if the SPDIF-rca is plugged in, the board would automatically use that instead of USB. Can anyone confirm this? I am a bit sceptical, since if I have the music playing and I disconnect the SPDIF-rca, there are no glitches or pauses in the music at all...?
 

BYRTT

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.....I am a bit sceptical, since if I have the music playing and I disconnect the SPDIF-rca, there are no glitches or pauses in the music at all...?

Could be wrong about method how you stream music for test but think most players can only output to one soundcard at a time so if that is what you do then output device in player needs a change in settings from something XMOS to something ALC or whatever the real names are, else that scenario will mean there is no signal in SPDIF stream from motherboard when player is set to XMOS and without any real signal on SPDIF Khadas TB will probably not shift its input.
 
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democles

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Khardas is not auto switching to SPDIF.
I had to play music by SPDIF and than unplug/replug the usb connector (power supply) to get music out of the SPDIF.
 

democles

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I am testing the dac on different external power supply.
The player is a Odroid C1+ and the power supply is LT1084 based.
 

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soundwave76

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Got the SPDIF working by switching to USB power supply only. This solution works actually pretty well now in my case. I have a Matrix X-SPDIF converter hooked to my PC, which has two outputs:

1. AES -> for my digital active speakers
2. Coaxial -> connected now to Khadas, which is connected to Atom amp

The PC doesn't now obviously recognize the Khadas, but it doesn't matter. I can have the X-SPDIF on all the time and when I want to listen with headphones, I just simply turn the Atom amp on. Voila! :)

Now I need to buy one of those 'USB condoms' which strip away all the data and allow power only, so I can get power to Khadas from the PCs USB port...
 

gvl

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X-SPDIF has galvanic isolation on the Coax output, since you already have it working you may want to keep the TB disconnected from the PC.
 

soundwave76

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X-SPDIF has galvanic isolation on the Coax output, since you already have it working you may want to keep the TB disconnected from the PC.

Why? Is there a risk of power interference of some sort?...
 

gvl

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Why? Is there a risk of power interference of some sort?...

USB ports tend to be noisy. Not necessarily an issue in your particular case but since you already have an isolator in the chain it kind of make sense to keep things isolated if you're not using USB for data, if you have a clean separate power supply anyway.
 

soundwave76

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Hmm, I see your point. So would you advice to feed power to the Khadas _NOT_ from the PC but from an external power source?
 

gvl

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Hmm, I see your point. So would you advice to feed power to the Khadas _NOT_ from the PC but from an external power source?

I'd do it if I had a clean external power source. If you're powering it from a phone charger then you might as well just connect it to the PC :)
 
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