The digital output works perfectly fine as it's just data.
Recording is a use case where it seems like USB boxes are the preferred solution nowadays. MsMadLemon says that no matter how many inputs there are on the box, there never seems to be enough. Maybe what we really need is a low cost, high SNR, and large number of inputs digitizer box?
Probably would be good to base it around a Pocketbeagle (take advantage of the I/O accelerator hardware in the chip) or a low cost FPGA plus a FX2 for the USB interface. The FPGA solution would be better in terms of having very low latency and implementing antialiasing filters
Or maybe use Ethernet since it's inherently isolated to prevent ground loops?
Or maybe use Ethernet since it's inherently isolated to prevent ground loops?
Ethernet is widely used in professional audio applications using both Dante and AVB for high channel count applications. It works. You can buy a Dante interface module from Audinate and plug it into your design, or license their IP and roll your own. You can design your AVB product around the XMOS parts and they provide a free core.
And I have no idea what you're going on about with anti-aliasing filters. They're all in the converters; your FPGA sends and receives I2S (or TDM or other standard converter protocol) and the converter chips (from TI, Cirrus, AKM, ESS and others) do their thing.
Or maybe use Ethernet since it's inherently isolated to prevent ground loops?
Ethernet is widely used in professional audio applications using both Dante and AVB for high channel count applications. It works. You can buy a Dante interface module from Audinate and plug it into your design, or license their IP and roll your own. You can design your AVB product around the XMOS parts and they provide a free core.Or just run some kind of open source or publicly reverse engineered protocol like PulseAudio or Apple AirPlay.
Or maybe use Ethernet since it's inherently isolated to prevent ground loops?
Ethernet is widely used in professional audio applications using both Dante and AVB for high channel count applications. It works. You can buy a Dante interface module from Audinate and plug it into your design, or license their IP and roll your own. You can design your AVB product around the XMOS parts and they provide a free core.Or just run some kind of open source or publicly reverse engineered protocol like PulseAudio or Apple AirPlay.
I used Shairport4w with itunes for quite some time and it was quite reliable.
It would be good to see a virtual sound card driver for it one day appear.
Or maybe use Ethernet since it's inherently isolated to prevent ground loops?
Ethernet is widely used in professional audio applications using both Dante and AVB for high channel count applications. It works. You can buy a Dante interface module from Audinate and plug it into your design, or license their IP and roll your own. You can design your AVB product around the XMOS parts and they provide a free core.Or just run some kind of open source or publicly reverse engineered protocol like PulseAudio or Apple AirPlay.
And I have no idea what you're going on about with anti-aliasing filters. They're all in the converters; your FPGA sends and receives I2S (or TDM or other standard converter protocol) and the converter chips (from TI, Cirrus, AKM, ESS and others) do their thing.Run the ADCs at 192kHz and downsample to (for example) 48kHz in the FPGA in order to make it easier to work with (might be unnecessary with modern PCs), while still getting the very relaxed analog LPF requirements of an ADC running at 192kHz.
Many reasons why they are not as big a market as they once were for home computing. (For professional uses, you're still going to buy expensive "sound cards", which are not really just cards.)
Yes most computers now have decent integrated audio. But you also have to consider another factor: desktop computers have lost a lot of market share. There are now a lot of other computing devices that people use instead, such as tablets and even mobile phones. Obviously adding an extra device to them, even if it's USB, would just be clunky and unpractical. Onboard sound on those devices is not always that great but I think people tend not to care much anymore. They just want a compact device.
Which leads to another consideration on top of those above. Until the 1990's or early 2000's, I'd say, hi-fi was a big thing. A lot of people had pretty good home hi-fi equipment. It was even a sign of social status. I'm noticing that msot people don't care about hi-fi anymore. Many people in the same social classes than those that once had nice hi-fi gear are now content with crap bluetooth speakers or the speakers in their laptops or LCD monitors. The most audio-inclined will have "sound bars" that sound like crap while putting out no more that 10W RMS at over 1% distortion. The centers of interest seem to have shifted. Only a small percentage now still seek good audio equipment (amongst which you have to distinguish the real amateurs and the audiophool'ed). Our way of "consuming" music has now changed a lot too.
Isn't the reason the same answer as the questions:Answer: Because these things have all been integrated into the motherboard.
- Why nobody buys Network cards anymore?
- Why nobody buys HD controller cards anymore?
- Why nobody buys USB interface cards anymore?
But, to what benefit? Do you need to reduce CPU horsepower or are you constrained by I/O capacity? Buy a more-powerful computer, one that actually meets your needs.
Yes most computers now have decent integrated audio. But you also have to consider another factor: desktop computers have lost a lot of market share. There are now a lot of other computing devices that people use instead, such as tablets and even mobile phones. Obviously adding an extra device to them, even if it's USB, would just be clunky and unpractical.
Or maybe use Ethernet since it's inherently isolated to prevent ground loops?
Ethernet is widely used in professional audio applications using both Dante and AVB for high channel count applications. It works. You can buy a Dante interface module from Audinate and plug it into your design, or license their IP and roll your own. You can design your AVB product around the XMOS parts and they provide a free core.Or just run some kind of open source or publicly reverse engineered protocol like PulseAudio or Apple AirPlay.
You're missing the need for sample-to-sample synchronization over hundreds of channels of audio, as well as extensive routing capabilities (multiple consoles, recording devices, etc) that Dante and AVB provide. But, like I said, this is for professional live-sound and broadcast environments, way beyond what the average home user or gamer needs.
Isn't the reason the same answer as the questions:Answer: Because these things have all been integrated into the motherboard.
- Why nobody buys Network cards anymore?
- Why nobody buys HD controller cards anymore?
- Why nobody buys USB interface cards anymore?
To be sure there are still PCI plugin-boards for network and all those other things.
But they tend to be specialty products for users who need something beyond/different than the mainstream stuff.
And of course there is always the issue of the very noisy envvironment inside the computer case which is hostile to audio input and output.
The last motherboard I installed had a very pronounced, separated "island" for the audio hardware to attempt to improve the Signal-to-Noise Ratio.
- Why nobody buys Network cards anymore?
- Why nobody buys HD controller cards anymore?
- Why nobody buys USB interface cards anymore?
So only people who really need that much more buy a dedicated card.
When you use server-grade stuff, a lot of things have to come on cards:
- Why nobody buys Sound cards anymore? My server motherboards don't have built-in sound, thus either it have to be mute or I have to use a sound card to get analog audio out of it.
- Why nobody buys Network cards anymore? When you need a lot of Ethernet ports (for example link aggregation) a multi-port network card like Intel I350T4 is a must-have. Or if you need faster networking (e.g. 10Gbps Ethernet or Infiniband) or (iin most of the case) native optical fiber networking you need cards too.
- Why nobody buys HD controller cards anymore? If you need real RAID you almost always need to buy a hardware expansion card - I have two MegaRAID 9271-8iCC to put 14 of my storage drives into a concrete 24TB RAID-60 array.
- Why nobody buys USB interface cards anymore? This is a downer for me: Intel Z97 chipset has a bugged USB XHCI controller with 96 endpoints instead of the standard 128, while all of the USB ports on the board goes to that single XHCI controller. Given my array of debug probes and my tendency to constant hook them (since it is fairly difficult to reach the USB ports on my rack-mounted machines) I ran out of endpoints fast, and has to use a PCIe USB 3.0 card to add a second XHCI controller that isn't bugged. My server boards also lacked USB 3.0 entirely and has to rely on those cards.
To be sure there are still PCI plugin-boards for network and all those other things.
But they tend to be specialty products for users who need something beyond/different than the mainstream stuff.
Yes, precisely my point:QuoteTo be sure there are still PCI plugin-boards for network and all those other things.
But they tend to be specialty products for users who need something beyond/different than the mainstream stuff.
This is a simple and correct answer.
The quality of the onboard devices/sound card is (more than) good enough for the majority.
In fact THD and SNR of onboard sound cards is better than most cd players.
So only people who really need that much more buy a dedicated card.
This is a simple and correct answer.
The quality of the onboard devices/sound card is (more than) good enough for the majority.
In fact THD and SNR of onboard sound cards is better than most cd players.
So only people who really need that much more buy a dedicated card.Most mid to high end consumer amplifiers are also digital input nowadays, removing the need for a high end sound card in the first place.
For normal consumers the audio or sounds cards might be dissapeared, for musicians these are called audio interfaces and are still manufactured and sold by many companies even up to thousands of $ a piece.
In the start of the 2000 era these were connected through firewire, which now is replaced by thunderbolt and usb3.1c ofcourse.
Main features are 19" rack format to take it out on tours in flightcases, and although some just offer a very good low jitter DAC , others have tons of extra features.