Help identify the manufacturer of this USB DAC board used in MiniMax Supreme

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nothing10
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Help identify the manufacturer of this USB DAC board used in MiniMax Supreme

Post by nothing10 »

can anyone identify or know who made the USB DAC board in the Eastern Electric MiniMax Supreme this is the USB board in question
<a href="https://imgbox.com/4ANjvvrm" target="_blank"><img src="https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/91/97/4ANjvvrm_t.jpg" alt="image host"/></a>
Last edited by nothing10 on Mon Aug 09, 2021 8:12 am, edited 1 time in total.


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mon2
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Post by mon2 »

Hi @nothing10. Saw some fine derrières on the shared links before the XMOS based audio amp. Not complaining :) Next time, perhaps consider to use wetransfer cloud service or similar?

1) Suggest to reach out to M2TECH whom you mentioned made the XMOS module.

Ask them:

a) to share the pinout for the 0.1" header pins at the end of their module
b) if they offer a replacement module to support your desired DSD256 and/or DSD512 formats

2) From the posted pix, there are many similar looking XMOS based audio boards on the market - just search for them on Aliexpress. They are similar in operation but different in PCB layouts. However, believe that it should be possible to take another XMOS audio board and mate it with this audio amp. Not impossible but you will have some work to do. The key concern is the pinout of the 0.1" male / female headers that are used on this design. Most of these audio boards are from XMOS ref designs and they interface using similar logic and power signals. But for this all to work, the signals cannot be interfaced incorrectly. So start with asking the design shop on the pinout details of this XMOS audio board.

If they will not help - tell them they suck. Most likely they have been here in this forum asking for help over the years. Most developers once they receive the help, run back to their rabbit hole and start charging crazy prices for the spoon fed XMOS ref design they copied.

If they will not help - you will need to open up your box and probe the signals on this daughter board to study what is happening on each pin. Most will be ground pins; power rails (3v3, etc.) and then the digital audio signals. Keep in mind, XMOS is the key USB to audio bridge so that is the reason for this module.

As noted, this is not impossible to reverse engineer using perhaps the DIYINHK module mentioned in our past chats. The benefit will be that you will then have support from the new vendor.

Also, you can try to hunt down Alex Leung who was partnered up with the retired USA guy. It is peachy that they have closed shop but they should have left some tidbits of help for their overpriced audio equipment.

Someone out there may have the pinout for this module - using that we can reverse engineer this module and use another one to replace this defunct one.

Chomping at the bit to enter this market but will see after we close up the too many designs on the table...
nothing10
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Post by nothing10 »

sorry about pictures but i have an add blocker so i had no idea, i have had no luck in getting any info from Bill at morning star and he does not know how to contact Alex as for modifying the DAC i will give that a miss if i am ever able to find out who made it i will see if they will release a new driver. M2Tech are saying it is not there hardware so??? theysecon may know who made it by the USB and PID codes but i doubt if they will help. i will just be happy that i can get what i can from it through Daphile as it is a really great sounding DAC. Thanks for your help
nothing10
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Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2021 5:40 am

Post by nothing10 »

i have just seen that in uninstall programs the publisher of the driver is listed as XMOS?
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