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HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out...

New MessageHEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) ButtonPuncher
I need you to help me out in the quest for good audio. I know that you have a scope, so hopefully you can confirm my findings.

I have found that the mixed line outputs(pins 81&82) are horrible for audio. They are mixing the two channels together creating some weird stuff. Using Cool Edit I made a .wav file with a 1kHz sine wave on the left channel and a 5kHz sine wave on the right (both at 0dBfs). When I put my scope on the outputs I noticed that the signals were being mixed. On one channel the 5kHz was modulating the 1kHz and on the other the 1kHz was modulating the 5kHz.

Soooo, I probed around the Yamaha chip and found the CLEAN 1kHz and 5kHz sinewaves on pins 77&78. These pins are marked as being the left and right "voice output" pins. Anyway, the audio is PERFECT from these two. I got a 2V p-p sinewave with a 2.5VDC bias. Again, this is a perfect level for feeding any piece of home stereo equipment.

I did some more tracing and found that the outputs from pins 77&78 go to two surface mount resistors. Below is a link showing my connections to the resistors. Red=Right White=Left Blue=Ground.

http://www.execpc.com/~theshoes/bentemp/i-opener%20audio%20out%20720dpi.jpg (It is about 127k)


If you could verify my findings it would be greatly appreciated. ;)


BTW, anyone else reading this post, you still need a 44uF(or larger) capacitor in series with the output. If you don't put a cap in, you will fry your stereo equipment.

05-30-2000 21:06:15

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Bobb
I happened to be up and bored out of my skull.. so I've re-soldered my audio out to match your information and I'm about to fire up an mp3 and give it a listen.. I don't have a scope, so I'll just be going by my ear..

but I'll let you know if I hear a difference..

05-30-2000 23:02:10

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Bobb
DAMN
very very cool
the output sounds 10 times better than what I had before..
I was using the audio-out hack from this page http://www.retina.net/~jna/iopener/

I can TOTALLY hear the difference in the bass, and the sound just sounds cleaner in general..

One thing I noticed though.. when I dialup, I hear the modem in the i-opener speakers, but not in the audio-out.. same goes for the "system beep" when I hit backspace too many times in linux.. just FYI (I could care less about those two things!) I'm actually not 100% sure those two things were audible in the other hack, but I'm pretty sure they were.. (??)

You are the man!
Thanks for this :)

05-30-2000 23:16:20

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) saridnour
2 questions for you, is there still a dc bias (caps still neeed?) and can you post a pic for where you traced he lines to good solder points?? thanks..
05-30-2000 23:54:54

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Bobb
I still have 4.7uF caps between the board and the jack..

Maybe everyone already knows this (like I said, I ain't no electronics wiz), but with regular headphones plugged in (yes, I'm using a headphone jack, then a 1/8" -> rca jack cord) the sound is a bit crappy sounding, but when plugged into a stereo, it sounds great

05-31-2000 00:18:25

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Tackhead
Bobb: I'm interested in line-outs for headphones.

Can you define "crappy" a little better? Is it clipped? (distortion on the really loud parts of songs), is there a hum or static, or is it a question of bass/treble response?

If it's a bass/treble thing, it might be fixable by changing the value of the cap. If it's clipping, it could be due to 2Vp-p being "too much" for your headphones, and you might be able to fix it by adding a resistor in series with the outputs. If you're building it into the case, Rat Shack has an in-line attenuator plug that might fill the bill.

Any audio-engineer types out there (I'm clueless when it comes to analog stuff, and that entire paragraph of mine was just guesswork :) care to comment on how to "optimize" for headphones vs. stereo components? I don't anticipate using both at the same time, and am more than happy to install a DPDT switch to flip back and forth if I can't make "both work good" at the same time.

05-31-2000 09:51:11

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) ButtonPuncher
Cool, I'm glad that this is working out for everyone.

Hmmmm, no system sounds? Do you mean beeps or do you mean all of the sounds that Windows plays when you do stuff? U know, like swooshes when you maximize a window, etc. But as long as you get clean audio, it's really no big loss.

Bobb,
This chip isn't built to drive headphones. You are putting one hell of a load on the chip by connecting your headphones directly to it. You need a buffer amplifier. If you are into electronics, you could pick up a LM386 audio amp chip from Radio Shack and hook that up.

Also, in a few minutes, I'm going to test out a few different capacitor sizes to see which ones provide the best bass response. Right now I would suggest using at least a 22uF or 47uF capacitor.

saridnour,
Yes, there is a 2.5V bias on the output. This is why those capacitors are sooo important. Also, just look at my pic in the original post for the solder points. Just solder the wires onto the sides of the surface mount resistors. I used 30 guage wire-wrapping wire from Radio Shack.

05-31-2000 17:59:13

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) ButtonPuncher
Well, I'm back from testing and...

I tried a 100uF capacitor and I found that it blocks the DC bias and has an excellent frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz. On the bad side, I found out that the Yamaha chip has to have a buffer placed on the output. If you connect the Yamaha to your stereo through a capacitor directly, THE AUDIO WILL BE VERY BAD. This is because your stereo will place too large of a load on the Yamaha chip.

To fix this you need to wire up an Op-amp from radio shack. The part only costs a two bucks and is VERY easy to wire up.

For all of the details on my testing and for the wiring diagram please download the Word document from the link below:

http://www.execpc.com/~theshoes/bentemp/i-opener%20audio.zip

This should give you CD quality audio out of the i-Opener. Oh yeah, the zip file is about 200k and all of the readings were taken with my Fluke 89 IV multimeter. (the peak to peak readings were calculated)

Once I borrow a scope from work for the weekend, I will post any new findings and results.

Also, please tell me if the word document works out for you.

If you need to contact me directly, my e-mail address is buttonpuncher@yahoo.com

05-31-2000 22:20:44

New Messagedigital / SPDIF out from the Yamaha chip (modified 0 times) PrimerAl
I searched the old posts and found only a broken link for the Yamaha .pdf. I'm looking for the digital out so that I may add a TOSlink fiber optic out for use with MiniDisc recording. ButtonPuncher, do you happen to have the PDF offhand, or perhaps an updated link to the Yamaha specsheet?

Regards

06-01-2000 15:00:44

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) vailr
BP: Text readable, but no pictures. Wordpad gives following error: "Unable to load graphics conversion filter".
06-01-2000 15:47:53

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) codePig
OK, now I'm confused. Bobb says that he did the mod sans op amp and he gets "great" sound. ButtonPuncher says that he did it and the audio was "VERY BAD" without the op amp. So which is it?
06-01-2000 16:00:02

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Tackhead
Bobb: Are you using headphones or not? Does it suck or rule? And what does "suck" sound like so we know where we screwed up?

ButtonPuncher: Ditto

My hunch is that the sound quality is a function of the requirement for the buffer-amp (an LM386 is nice and small and will fit easily inside the case, BTW), and the impedance of the speakers/headphones/stereo. Your volume setting will also play a part here.

Meanwhile, I've got something to do this weekend

06-01-2000 16:13:42

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Shane
Well, I rigged up my audio as ButtonPuncher has described (including the opamp). I stole the +5VDC from pin-1 of CN13.

I've got RCA outs to an amp. I've never listened to the audio from headphones, but I don't know if that would affect anything. The left audio channel is muffled (high's disappear). There is definitely more noise than the previous audio hack. Perhaps it's my solder job, but I'm undoing this particular audio mod.

06-02-2000 04:29:37

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) ButtonPuncher
PrimerAl - Sorry but the Yamaha doesn't have a digital audio output. If you still want to search throught the .pdf check out http://www.yamaha.com/lsi/products/pdf/4MF715E20.pdf

valir - You need to use Word. Wordpad isn't capable of loading pictures.

codePig - If you feed the audio through a capacitor into your home stereo AND your home stereo has a high input impedance (more than 1k ohms) you will get a good audio ouput. Not great, but good. If you look at my research, when you run the output without a buffer in place, you loose about half of the signal.

Tackhead - I should have mentioned that you don't need a TL082 op-amp buffer and the LM386 amplifier. If you just want to hook up some headphones, all you need it the LM386 amplifier.

Shane - Did you use the op-amp? I would check the wiring. It should work..I'm going to wire everything up and test it this weekend.

Thanks for the input everyone!! ;)

06-02-2000 07:48:57

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Shane
> Shane - Did you use the op-amp? I would check the wiring. It should work..I'm going to wire everything up and test it this weekend.

Yup. Used the exact op-amp from RadioShack and two 100MFD electrolytic capacitors and got the +5VDC and ground from pin-1 and pin-2 of CN13, respectively.

IMO, the hack at http://www.retina.net/~jna/iopener/ sounds much better (I've got 2.2MFD caps instead of the .33MFD caps).

I connected it up to my amp and checked both channels. The right channel sounds fine, but the left channel is muffled. The background noise level isn't really that much worse, but it's noticeable.

06-02-2000 14:27:20

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Perplexer
Finally did this mod. I couldn't ask for a better quality line-out. My tests were very unscientific (I don't have a scope) but I know what sounds good!

ButtonPuncher: Thanks for the info and for tracing pins 77 & 78 to the surface-mount resistors. This mod was a piece of cake, even with the op-amp. Hooked up to a Pioneer HT receiver and Carver sub/speakers. Highs and lows were clean, bass response very good :)

As a bonus, the Radio Shack 1/8" 3-conductor phono plug fits perfectly where the 2nd USB port would go; looks very stock.

06-03-2000 18:46:41

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) robot
Yes, this is a very good mod, however 2 additional parts are needed. On the negitive side of each 1000 uF capacitor connect a 10K resistor to ground. Do this on EACH cap.
The purpose of the this resistor is to disapate the DC charge that is built up in the capacitor.
I have verified this mod wth 1000 uF caps and 10k resistors on a Tektronics dual trace scope and this works perfectly. I do not see any need for and OP amp.

Robot

06-05-2000 20:05:15

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) codePig
OK, now I'm really, really, confused. robot says to "additionally" add two resistors, but then then he says that the opamp isn't needed. Perplexer has great sound with the op amp, Shane, no joy. Guess I'll have to dig out my breadboard for this mod. Can ButtonPuncher or robot actually hook their stuff up to a stereo (oscopes are nice, but what's the ear think?) and report back? Could this just be a difference in peoples stereo systems?

Keep up the good work guys ...

oink

06-05-2000 20:34:10

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Tackhead
AFAICT, there are three audio hacks out there:

Hack 1: Use pins 26, 17, and 21 of LM4835 for headphone out.
IIRC, this is a "use the speaker outs".

Hack 2: Use pins 9, 14 (GND), and 13 of LM4835 through a
.33uF capacitor in series with the outputs (to remove
the 2.5V vias) and connect to headphones. These are
the "docking port" pins. People have reported poor
bass response with this hack and recommend larger caps
to make it work better.

Hack 3: A newer hack posted on the BBS. Take the audio signals
straight from the YMF715 and pass them through a TL082
buffer amp. The goal is to get something that'll work
with high-impedance devices (stereos) instead of low-
impedance devices like headphones.

I've got results from two of the hacks and two headphones. I measured
the resistance from GND to one connector of the headphones and used
this as a proxy for impedance. I know that's not quite "right", but
it's probably a decent ballpark :)

Phones 1: 18 ohms. Generic cheapie headphones.
Phones 2: 36-500ish ohms. Has an inline volume control pot.

HACK 3:
-------

Hack 3, Phones 1:
- Sounded like total crap. Extremely high levels of distortion.

Hack 3, Phones 2:
- Sounded like crap. Distortion dropped as impedance increased,
of course, volume dropped too

Hack 3, Stereo:
- Untested. I just realized all my music comes from my computer :)
I'll have to dig out my stereo to do this test.

Hack 3's audio quality sounded the same whether I powered the TL072
with +5V or +12V. My hunch is that the TL072, not the hack, was to
blame.

I'm guessing the TL072 isn't designed to drive low loads, and that a
beefier op-amp would have had better headphone results. Can anyone
who actually knows what they're doing comment?

HACK 2:
-------

Hack 2, Phones 1 and 2, .33uF:
- Very poor bass response.
- Bass response degraded (on Phones 2) as I turned up the volume and
decreased the impedance.

Hack 2, Phones 2, 1.0uF, 2.0uF, 4.7uF, 5.7uF:
- Larger caps (small caps in parallel) improve bass response.
- Higher volume (lower impedance) is possible without degraded bass
response as the filter cap gets bigger.
- With sufficiently large caps, lower volume (high impedance) can
result in slightly muffled sound.
- Under Windoze, you can compensate for some of this by clicking on
the speaker icon -> Properties -> Advanced, and playing with the
bass and treble settings.

With both the Bass/Treble settings near their maximum levels, my
untrained ear got decent (IMHO) performance across a wide range of
volume levels with a 4.7uF cap. This gave me reasonable sound with
the 18-ohm "phones 1" provided I turned down the master volume by
about 25%, and good sound on the "quieter" (36-500ish ohm) headphone
set. I believe the sweet spot for "kinda loud but not deafening but
you don't have much bass fade-out or tunnel-sound" was around 350 ohms.

I'll attempt to duplicate these tests with a stereo when I get the
thing unpacked, and/or try it with a few friends' boom-boxes.

One interesting thing - assuming you're not gonna run both a stereo
*and* headphones at the same time, maybe you can use Hack #3 to give
you a buffered line-out into your stereo and Hack #2 for a headphone
jack. They're sufficiently independent that you should be able to
build both into the IO.

Any suggestions where to go from here? Or other folks' results?

( *** As for this stuff -- don't take my comments on Hack #3 - the op-amp -- as criticism. I know Hack #3 isn't really designed for headphones... but those 10K resistor ideas intrigue me... I still have more testing to do but figured I'd share what I know now...

06-05-2000 21:20:01

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Tackhead
ButtonPuncher:
Sanity check: Did I do something supremely silly? My test setup was the TL082 buffer amp, through the 100uF caps as in your document, but *without* an LM386 amp afterwards. (And of course, on headphones with impedances in the 36-500ish ohm range, not stereo equipment...)
06-05-2000 21:25:46

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Bobb
sorry folks.. been out of town (and unplugged) since Wednesday..

What I meant by "crappy" was static sounding, not very loud, overall bad sounding.. That was with headphones, and I think BP explained before why it was bad sounding.. I have 4.7uF caps on my audio out, and plugging that directly into a ** stereo system line-in **, I get GREAT sound. Crisp, clean, lots of bass, etc..

No Op-amp here.. but I might give it a shot just to see what it'll do.. (hey, I'm bored!)

06-06-2000 11:55:13

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Tackhead
Following up my own post.

Tried it (TL072 buffered op-amp) on a stereo-style amp with plenty of impedance, as opposed to my headphones.

Short version: Woo-hoo!

Warning: When you first hook this thing up, have the power on your amp turned down, and the volume output on your IO turned down. WAY down. (This is good practice *whenever* plugging untested or new audio components into each other...)

Powering up with low volume settings gave me "comfortable" audio settings in the room. Given the amp I was working with, I got it up to "apartment neighbors will complain" without distortion, and probably could have taken it to "measurable on the Richter scale"...

ButtonPuncher's line-out hack *rocks* with just a TL072 and 100uF caps.

06-07-2000 16:08:13

New MessageGreat Hack!! (modified 0 times) SpiceWare
I did this up this weekend. I added the 10K resistors after the capacitors and all works extremely well.

To build the circuit I used a little 2"x2" (maybe smaller) prototype circuit board from Radio Shack. I mounted it via the top-left screw of the modem, hanging off to the left.

06-14-2000 07:12:17

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Tackhead
SpiceWare:

Where did you mount the jacks?

http://www.geocities.com/rarose2/frontaudio.html

I'm thinking of using the front panel jacks as illustrated on the site shown. With a little clever soldering, it looks pretty sweet. I think I've just got my project for the next time I take the IO apart, namely tracing the "schematic" of those caps and resistors on the front panel connector.

06-14-2000 11:30:28

New MessageBy keyboard socket (modified 0 times) SpiceWare
On the back, just to the left of the keyboard socket. I used a 1/8" stereo jack. I use a 1/8" to 2 RCA adapter to plug it into the stereo.

I'd take pictures, but I sold my digital camera to my folx when they moved to Mexico. I plan to upgrade, but haven't decided on which one yet.

06-14-2000 14:55:47

New MessageRat Shack part 276-159B (modified 0 times) SpiceWare
I found the package remains - the board I used is a "Dual General-Purpose IC PC board"(they are sold in lots of 2).

Two tips:

1) The chip should be inserted on the side w/out the trace, and you solder on the side w/the trace.

2) The capacitors where too big to fit on the board w/the case closed. I hung them off two sides a such:


+----------+
| |
+-+ +-+
X | | X
X | | X
+-+ +-+
| |
+----------+
06-14-2000 16:03:10

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) seano
this is definetly the best audio hack out there. it costs about $6 and took less than an hour. just follow buttonpunchers instructions and you are set.
http://www.execpc.com/~theshoes/bentemp/i-opener%20audio.zip
i have it hooked up to my home stereo and there is no static or hiss even cranked all the way up! plus the bass response is excellence. thanks a ton buttonpuncher. saved me $60 on a usb audio solution
06-24-2000 13:02:43

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Ledfoot
Ok, all this sounds great. I'm planning to do this hack this weekend. Only question I have is should anything be changed for using this with a car stereo system instead of a Home stereo? My car's head unit has additional line in jacks (it supports 2 CD changes, a CD play and a MD). I was planning on running the line out from the I-Opener into one of those sets of jacks. Should anything be changed in the design?

Let me know soon so I can go fetch the parts....

Thanks!

06-28-2000 09:44:52

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Tackhead
Ledfoot: Not that I can see. Just be careful when powering up for the first time - low volume on the amp, low volume on the IO's software volume control, and low volume on the MP3 player's volume control.

I've used the mod on powered computer speakers and on a relatively "big" stereo-style amp. Sounded great. Should be fine on any kind of amp.

06-28-2000 12:37:36

New MessageDitto... trying to get a car mp3 player... (modified 0 times) Mister Wireman
Profile
Ditto... I need to hook up my i-o to a car stereo through a 1/8 -> tape converter. What is the best way of doing this? Please help. Thanks
06-28-2000 17:46:51

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) duuuuuhhh
pardon my ignorace in this but I went toradio shack and got two capacitors each 4.7pF I soldered everything just as stated and when I hok it up to my stero I can only get a VERY WEAK signal. I can tell if there is bass. I can just barely tell the song that is playing. Does anybosy know the solution to this isolated problem? I have not seen anybodyelse have this problem so I know this must be a stupid error. I know that I get a better sound quality from the above mod rather that the orginal but even then the signal is VERY WEAK. What is the deal? Thanks for all of you'll help

-duh

06-29-2000 21:06:19

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Tackhead
duuuuuhhh:

4.7pF - pF == picoFarads == trillionths of a Farad.

4.7uF - uF == microFarads == millionths of a Farad.

Your capacitors were - quite literally - a million times too small. Grab a pair of 4.7uF electrolytics (should look like little tin cans about the diameter of the end of a pencil) and go nuts.

If you're using ButtonPuncher's hacks, you'll need larger caps - 100uF or so - which will look like little tin cans about the diameter of the end of a large ballpoint pen. The smaller caps - 4.7uF - used in will ***NOT*** work with ButtonPuncher's mod, and you may damage your stereo equipment if you try.

Just download ButtonPuncher's .ZIP file and do what it says.

06-30-2000 10:05:06

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) vailr
Suggestion to BP: please post your "i-opener%20audio.zip" as converted to a *.mht (mailable hyper text) file, for those that don't have MS Word. (Open in IE 5, select save as *.mht file). TIA!
06-30-2000 10:57:32

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) last2000
Profile
How about connect from the volume of the I-opener? just a though.
06-30-2000 12:15:38

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) imnotreallyhere
Sorry to post a "me too" but I have to rave about this hack. I wired up the op-amp and caps, and mounted a mini stereo plug directly under the power supply port. The sound is GORGEOUS. Tried it both in the car and on my fairly decent home stereo; couldn't ask for better sound! It's interesting that the sliders on the SW volume controls don't affect the level, but I rather think that's a feature, not a bug. Consistent line level out. Volume controls on the apps themselves, like WinAmp, DO work.
The miniplug fits nicely under the power jack, and there's JUST enough thread to get the nut on.
In short, thank you VERY MUCH for this brilliant hack.
06-30-2000 15:07:36

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Ledfoot
Hey gang!

Well, just got done with this hack, and adding the drive activity LED. Took a while but it all seems to be working. One question though (please excuse my EE ignorance, I only made it through digital class before switching to CS).

For the 2 caps in the hack.. I had to use electrolytics. Which end of these are the end that should be near the chip, and which near the output? (ie, in the little "can" of the electrolytic, is the side that looks like it has an indention suppose to be near or away from the chip?) I hooked this up to an old stereo and it worked the way that I had it, but I want to be absolutely sure I have it in with the orientation correct before I risk my $500 car head unit on it!

BTW, I now remember why I got out of EE.... Soldering SMT stuff is a B*TCH! Those 2 resisters were NOT fun!

TIA!

Now if only the replacement cases from http://www.mainstreettech.com/index.html would come in so I'd have some room to mount all this stuff, then the car MP3 system would be complete!

07-01-2000 20:20:49

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Tackhead
Look carefully at the capacitor, you'll see a marking for polarity. Usually the "-" side is marked, often with a stylized printed band that often looks more like part of the capacitor's artwork than a minus sign.
07-02-2000 09:04:41

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Ledfoot
Foiled!!!!

Ok, got my capacitor issue resolved (thanks) since I guessed the correct orientation to install them. Now the only problem is that my F'ing head unit in the car DOESN'T actually have Line in jacks on it, but rather some freaky connector interface cable that links the CD changer to the head unit. (No, getting a new head unit is NOT an option. I dropped $450 on this one 2 years ago...)

With that said, I might have to resort to the old cassette deck adaptor. Is this still the correct hack to use? Don't know whether the cassette would be more like a headphone adaptor type load or a direct patch style one.

Anybody know of any other ways around this problem? What about those FM transmitter things? Could I possibly hook up something like that with an RCA input style jack on it and pump it out through a station on my stereo?

REALLY would appreciate some insite on this guys. Thanks again!

--Mike

07-02-2000 20:05:43

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Hey led
Can you post a pic of what the interface cable looka like?
07-02-2000 21:02:09

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Ploy
I just caught up on this thread - and we're all talking about home systems (which is good) - but nobody has talked too much about car audio here - and regarding this idea, not at all....

OK, we can run the IO off the 12V car supply - but can we hack a good 3 speaker set of multimedia speaker (computer speakers) to also run off the 12 V?

Computer sound systems are often much cheaper than car audio, and there are now USB systems with integrated music sw, to control all the levels automatically. Also there is the "cool" factor, of multi-purposing a single purpose device.

So, the question is, what voltages typically come out of a multimedia speakers (with a sub-woofer) power brick?

Could someone please measure, and report back?

Thanks in advance,

Ploy

07-03-2000 00:19:27

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Perplexer
Hi all, maybe I'm having a capacitor issue... what are the symptoms of having the caps oriented incorrectly? The short lead is cathode, and long lead anode, no?

Please read the following post and let me know if this is the reason my audio sounds bad:
http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=technical&Post=1266&Idle=&Sort=&Order=&Page=&Session=

Thanks.

07-03-2000 06:43:10

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Fooch
I also built the TL082 buffer and it does seem to produce clean sound, although I would like a tad more bass. This can easily be accomplished with a tad higher cap value. I am wondering why no one tried the Line outs on the YMF715 chip rather than the voc outs. Anyhow, seems to work very well with the 100µf caps on voc outs.

I am building one of the high-quality PLL FM transmitters to try with the IO. I will let everyone know how well it works as soon as I'm done. It may take me a few days as I can't sit long due to seven back surgeries, so please be patient with me. I am anxious to see how well this will work with the IO, especially the frequency response.

Fooch

07-03-2000 16:40:06

New MessageRE:HEY Roastbeef!! Help me out! Great audio out... (modified 0 times) Ploy
There have been several comments about the audio quality coming from the op-amp outputs.

Thing is, when I was in Engineering school, we talked about the "slew rate" of op-amps - and that frequency response is a function of it.

Now, I CANNOT recall the details here, (I'll look it up shortly), except to say that I do know that the higher the value of slew rate you have, the greater the "potential" is for a wider, flat performance band.

Perhaps the problem with poor bass response, is related to the quality of the op-amp being used. There are thousands on the market - many (most?) of them are not suited or designed for quality audio-buffering applications.

Ploy

07-04-2000 00:10:08

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