Nice view of the internals of the Sonore ultraDigital DDC.
XMOS USB, 2 clocks, what looks to be a small FPGA, voltage regulation, and a few things I can’t identify from that angle.
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I bought one so will take a close up photo when it arrives next week
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I’m mostly interested in what the Xilinx part is, I’d assume it’s one of the FPGA’s with an embedded ARM part, and what the line of parts in the middle at the back is.
FWIW if they are really doing all the digital conversion with that FPGA, and it’s well implemented it’s likely going to be quite good.
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Can’t read the part number on the Xilinx part well enough to identify it.
The Xilinx part is a CPLD (which is like a small FPGA without the RAM cells), so it’s basically hard coded logic to convert the output from the XMOS chip.
The larger chips in the middle are galvanic isolators, the smaller ones above are opto isolators.
The one at the bottom above the HDMI port is just a driver IC.
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With my zero understanding it looks like a clean design with minimal waste, no?
Short version, the XMOS chip probably does most of everything, it’s the USB interface, but it’s also a CPU, it’s what the vast majority of DAC’s use for USB input.
There is a lot of isolation, looks to be mostly between the XMOS chip and the CPLD, hard to tell where the optical isolation is used from this side of the board.
The dip switches basically pull IO pins on the CPLD hi/lo and that changes the logic that’s used to output the I2Sto the DVI port.
2 clocks on the CPLD, those, will be audio clocks one for 44.1 and the other for 48 derived frequencies.
Driver chip just effectively makes the voltage correct, and guarantees there is enough current to drive the output load.
But yes looks well engineered to me.
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Grabbed an upgrade for the sig rendu, ended up going for an ideon absolute time and used that to replace the 3r master in the chain, and man, really elevates over the 3r, and takes the setup to new levels. I always felt iffy about the inclusion of the 3r inbetween the sig and the horizon, it offered a technical boost at the cost of sounding a bit more dry, less fluid, and a bit more mechanical. The absolute time takes that technicalities to another level, but solves the mechanical feeling and offers a much more liquid sound vs the 3r. It’s still very energetic and lively, and a slight bit cleaner and dryer leaning than direct out of the sonore, but it sounds just as organic now, and easily enhanced overall technicalities, and it’s something that I would just say is an overall better experience. Will be curious to compare against the k50 usb vs the sig + time and see how things stack up lol, will def be different tonalities I can say that already. The absolute time really seems to carry forward a lot of the characteristics I really enjoyed about the sonore and improve upon them vs shift them like some other usb reclockers I tried in chain
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What difference in tonality is there between the two?
Are you going to upgrade your K50 to the new version with the upgraded USB?
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From my experience, I find the usb output of the k50 to be warmer, smoother, and more relaxed overall, tends to lean more rich and less technical. The aes/spdif side of things is cleaner and more technical leaning on the k50, which is why I use that with the totaldac since I found that to be more proficient
Going to get the oladra when the g4 comes out
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@orrman I’ve been meaning to ask you but keep forgetting… you had the Sonore USB reclocker, how did that work out for you?
I think it was great sounding and nothing really to complain about but I compared it the Holo Red and couldn’t hear much of a difference so ended up returning it. The Red made more sense being one box with internal linear power supplies and no need for an extra USB cable so similar performance but cheaper and simpler overall.
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I do truly enjoy my Sonore gear, but for the money spent I think that I might have been able to do better and thus this explains my hesitancy to follow through with purchasing another for my other setup and replacing the Allo DigiOne used there. I mean Sonore setup sounds terrific but when I look at what I spent ( yes, I did purchase new, but still) I think for not much more I could have done a little better and had more flexibility/options other than USB.
Also, same what has been noted previously - there is something to be said for a more self-contained one box solution.
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IMO the sonore stuff is pretty much go to for a usb source at it’s price point, but if you’re looking for something more spdif/aes/i2s focused, there’s going to be better options for the money. You can get an awesome spdif setup with the sonore + a ddc but that’s likely going to be more expensive than just getting a source that focuses spdif out of the box (although there are some weird cases where it might make sense since there’s a gap in the midrange spdif focused streamer market that’s only recently being filled)
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Full alignment with you and that is why I have it because of the Holo DAC it is used with. If I ever move away from the Holo DAC that is when I will explore other options.
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For those running ultraRendu or opticalRendu, what are you doing for the power supply? I’m currently rocking the small green computer LPS for mine. But I’m starting to think about what the next step up in power would be for these streamers. Thanks!
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For what I’ve tried, I’ve liked the plixir elite bdc for something more along the neutral and clean, fairly technical, on the tighter side of things without going too far, the fidelizer nikola for something a bit warmer and sweeter that’s a bit more organic leaning but a bit less technically proficient than the plixir. I like the SGC for the price, but imo those are a few steps up without going overboard for the streamer.
I did try the ferrum hypsos with the sonore, but tbh it felt a bit too dry and just meh for the cost for that pairing. The mojo illuminati v3 was great for overall bass and control, and pretty dang technical, but imo felt a bit softer and more vague in things spatially and perhaps a bit lacking in the upper ranges in comparison, but I found it to work well in my setup just a bit expensive if you’re only using one device with it
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Thanks! Those Plixir power supplies look very interesting. I need to dig into these…
Wow, I’ve got a similar result using my Illuminati V1 but given my Voxativ speakers there was more than enough up top and in the spacial presentation for the gains overall gains in body and bass gains.
There really aren’t that many higher end streamers (comparitively) to other gear and I think as streaming comes more and more into its own within higher end audio we’re likely to see more choice. The dCS guys said they killed their bridge because it was too costly to make and it was cannibalizing sales of their dacs.
The Weiss when I had it, Daniel Weiss said to me in an email exchange that I wouldn’t see much gain in going with an external streamer into the 502 and that was flat out wrong because when I had the dCS it raised the performance of the 502 noticeably.
Not sure if there is the lack of high end streamers is a business decision or a segment that is generally not been discovered yet as a point in the market that is ripe. I can see why in the case of the new Shciit CD transport/reclocker adding Ethernet would make it another product but as they said, then there is software support and they didn’t want that.
It’s also in today’s market a generally trivial thing to add streaming to your DAC and enhance to perceived “value” of it to the general population. But obviously there’s no incentive to dig deep in providing that streaming since it’s a marketing move more than anything else.
I’m very happy with my digital source chain but as it already has been stated, I’ve got $6k retail pricing sunk into it. There are a growing number of choices in the sub $1500 price point and a good number of choices and more an more “full server” higher end offerings but IMO the choice of a single purpose streamer/bridge is a thing that should be in the mix for those that have standalone DACs and already use a standalone server.
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