Pete Millett ATEST

simon · Post by **simon** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 1:43 pm

I'm joining the party a little late after Nick suggested I should build one. First day back from hols today and the board arrived at work this morning

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I've started to read through the rather large thread on DIYA but already have a list of questions!

The M Audio Audiophile 192 sound card seems to be the one to use but they're not made any more. There's one on ebay for £60 but are there any alternative options?

Where did peeps source the bits from? Don't think everything's available from Farnell so it looks like Mouser and Digikey.

I've read a few posts about shielding the abs bud box with copper screening etc. but wondered if a steel or ally chassis instead would be worthwhile?

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 7:35 pm

I use the EMU PCIe 12-12m, James has the PCI version works a treat.

Andrew

simon · Post by **simon** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:33 pm

Thanks Andrew. Sadly these look to be no longer available too

. Nor the 0404. Hmmm, this might be a bit tricky, there must be some decent 24/192 cards available for sensible money?

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:24 pm

What about the Asus Xonar? Its not balanced like 1212, but its still 192kHz and 24bit.

Any S/H 1212m's about? I assume you tried the bay? James hasn't reported any issues with the PCI version that I know of, perhaps he'll chip in? I know he got his from the bay....

Andrew

simon · Post by **simon** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:14 pm

There was one 1212 for £69.

There are a few Asus Xonars to choose from on Amazon, as far as I can see they are all 24/192:

DS are £35
DSX are £39
Essence ST are £130
Essence STX are £170
Essence STX II are £180
ROG Phoebus £115
ROG Phoebus Solo £95

The DS is only 24/96 for analogue recording, but the DSX is 24/192 for both playback and recording.

The Essence series look to have quality headphone amps, and the ROG series seem to be heavily games oriented.

Is it too much to hope the DSX would be ideal?!

jack · Post by **jack** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:56 pm

simon wrote:I'm joining the party a little late... Where did peeps source the bits from? Don't think everything's available from Farnell so it looks like Mouser and Digikey...

I did BOMs for Mouser and Digikey that several people have used - some of Pete's numbers were wrong.

Let me know if you want them - no problem ordering from the UK...

simon · Post by **simon** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:11 pm

That would be great thanks Nick, PM me or do you want me to drop you an email?

jack · Post by **jack** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 10:12 am

simon wrote:That would be great thanks Nick, PM me or do you want me to drop you an email?

I'll be back tonight and will mail them then, else I sent them to DtB (amongst others) so he has them too...

Cheers

simon · Post by **simon** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 12:43 pm

Cheers Nick

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 5:35 pm

simon wrote:There was one 1212 for £69.

There are a few Asus Xonars to choose from on Amazon, as far as I can see they are all 24/192:

DS are £35
DSX are £39
Essence ST are £130
Essence STX are £170
Essence STX II are £180
ROG Phoebus £115
ROG Phoebus Solo £95

The DS is only 24/96 for analogue recording, but the DSX is 24/192 for both playback and recording.

The Essence series look to have quality headphone amps, and the ROG series seem to be heavily games oriented.

Is it too much to hope the DSX would be ideal?!

Got to be worth a punt for £39, the noise floor will be the telling parameter.

simon · Post by **simon** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:12 pm

The price is certainly appealing.

Output SNR is 107dB and input SNR is 100dB apparently. Is this good enough?

http://www.asus.com/uk/Sound_Cards_and_ ... fications/

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:02 pm

simon wrote:The price is certainly appealing.

Output SNR is 107dB and input SNR is 100dB apparently. Is this good enough?

http://www.asus.com/uk/Sound_Cards_and_ ... fications/

Yes, good enough starting point, I would have thought.

If you plan on doing any really really low noise stuff then you could spend 4 times as much for the top of the range one? But I would get the hang of the thing first....

simon · Post by **simon** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:30 pm

Fair point, thanks for the advice.

It doesn't need to be the best, just as good as me

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Dave the bass · Post by **Dave the bass** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 6:05 pm

A question for anyone using all the above, or at least attempting too.

I run W10 Home on a laptop. I'm having a terrible time (the woe!) trying to get it all working properly. After a good chat with our-Thomas who uses all the above successfully on a Vista (I think) Desktop PC I'm beginning to think the M-Audio Transit Soundcard isn't supported on W10 OS. Its highly tempremental but wasn't when I was on W7 on the same Laptop last year.

I can get Audio Tester to 'see' the simple PCM2902 USB interface but its not in the same league as the 24/96 soundcard + MIllet box combo.

Does anyone know of an equivalent USB Soundcard that I can use in place of the Transit so I can reliably use AudioTester/W10/Millet Box etc etc as intended.

Ta.

Max N · Post by **Max N** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 8:58 am

So...
About 5 years after Andrew & Nick suggested I might like to get one of these, I have done so.

Thanks Andrew & Nick for the good advice

The boards from Pete are really nice. Everything was in stock at Mouser or Digikey, just waiting for the parts to arrive now.....
I have read through the threads on DIYaudio and noted all the suggested improvements. The only thing I'm not clear on is Andrew's idea to replace the large protection resistors with two off BSP129 with 20R across the gates
So I connect the mosfets with the resistor gate-to-gate, then I'm left with a drain and source for each mosfet, do I connect the drain and source of one mosfet together, and the same with the other mosfet?

Draft2.pdf: (10.25 KiB) Downloaded 306 times

BTW I've attached a schematic, does anyone know how I can get this to appear in the reply?
Cheers
Max

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