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Audio Hack Recap / Results

New MessageAudio Hack Recap / Results (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.

(Double-posted - once to moderated-info to record my results. Discussion to follow in generic technical area, please and thank you)

06-05-2000 21:18:13

New MessageRE:Audio Hack Recap / Results (modified 0 times) Tackhead
Forgot to mention -- my "sounds like crap" on Hack #3 was with a TL082 buffer amp but no extra audio amp chip, and of course, it was to low-impedance headphones (18-ohm, 36-500ish-ohm), not proper stereo equipment. Hack #3 is quite a bit more promising than this post makes it look
06-05-2000 21:28:39

New MessageRE:Audio Hack Recap / Results (modified 0 times) Tackhead
Following up - hack #3 hooked into a stereo sounded awesome. Just be sure you have the volume on the IO's sound chip *and* the volume on your amp/stereo turned down before you plug in.

For the record, I'm using 100uF caps in series with the outputs of ButtonPuncher's hack.

Credit to netik for Hack #2 - headphone out:
http://www.retina.net/~jna/iopener/

Shared credit to ryan pogge for Hack #2 - the preamp line-out mentioned here:
http://www.open-i.f2s.com/projects/line_out.html

Credit to ButtonPuncher for Hack #3. Schematics in a Word .DOC are here:
http://www.execpc.com/~theshoes/bentemp/i-opener%20audio.zip

ButtonPuncher's original post to this BBS includes the following:

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.

06-07-2000 21:38:25

New MessageRE:Audio Hack Recap / Results (modified 0 times) elvis
Profile
Many thanks to Buttonpuncher for the audio out hack (Tackhead refers to it as hack #3). I'm no electrical engineer, but I can read and solder two wires together. No problems whatsoever. Sounds great through my home receiver. Also thanks to whoever posted the memorytogo sodimm upgrade. Got the 128mb upgrade for $53 and, again, no problems.
12-19-2000 09:06:07

New MessageRE:Audio Hack Recap / Results (modified 0 times) boduke
Profile | Email
which version do you have that your audio mod worked with?
12-19-2000 18:57:00

New MessageRE:Audio Hack Recap / Results (modified 0 times) elvis
Profile
I believe it is V3. Not positive. It had gooped bios chip and newer POST splash screen. Not the "...nothing but net." screen. I bought it back in April.
12-20-2000 10:18:18

New MessageRE:Audio Hack Recap / Results (modified 1 times) ButtonPuncher
Profile | Email
If anyone is still interested, the link has changed to:

http://home.wi.rr.com/buttonpuncher/temp/i-opener%20audio.zip

BP

07-28-2001 19:36:21

New MessageRE:Audio Hack Recap / Results (modified 0 times) DagW00d
Profile
If you want more drive try a BUF634 on the output it's a buffer capable of driving 250 mamp.
BTW you can get samples from TI if you're creative.
05-29-2004 17:12:05

New MessageRE:Audio Hack Recap / Results (modified 0 times) wkearney99
Profile
So what's the end conclusion?

I'd like to be able to pull audio out of a v1 iOpener to drive an external set of speakers. I'd like to have it controlled from the IO, either from the volume control panel or the front slider (or both). But if necessary I can use a line out of some sort for the speakers. I have no need of headphone output for it. Which one, pulled off which pins, would work best?

10-27-2004 17:34:04

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