jukebox pc, audio transport (56k !!)

shadowlord

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 6, 2005
Messages
3,108
hello all !!

after i finished my jukebox pc no1 (rig 3 in my sig) i instantly liked the ability to shuffle trough all my tracks and the easines of use....
the jukebox 1 is located in my shop for music listening and internet access.

so i felt the need of building a dedicated jukebox for my main hi-fi system.

my goals are:
- as silent as possible
- fit the hi-fi components look
- maintain sound quality of my cd player
- remote control

some parts are already bought, some are on order and on some i'm unsure right now.

in the audio subforum here some members suggested me some Digital - Analog Converters, from which i've chosen the mhdt labs paradiesea

now on to the worklog...

first i bought a via epia mobo to play arround a little
jukeb00001.jpg


corsair value ram
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morex itx case with a 80w mini psu, pci riser, 2,5" to ide converter.
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jukeb00004.jpg

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first test to see if everything is working...
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duh....it works but the temps are very confusing, cpu diode is good, but what has over 60C in the system??
jukeb00007.jpg

maybe i should open a thread about it in the via subforum.

the case will be my old minidisc recorder which has it's flaws already.
jukeb00008.jpg


back
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front
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innards (they will have to go)
jukeb00011.jpg


first test layout of the parts
the hdd in the pictures will be replaced with a 400gb samsung one...
jukeb00012.jpg

jukeb00013.jpg

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i had to flatten some stands with my hammer ;)
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hight seems to fit
jukeb00018.jpg


the following pictures show how i mounted the mobo on selfmade stands.

first a m3 screw fitted trough the bottom of the case...
jukeb00019.jpg


on my manual lathe i fabricated some spacers
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jukeb00023.jpg


jukeb00026.jpg

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hdd test fit...
jukeb00020.jpg


soundcard that will provide the digital output:
esi maya44
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everything mounted on spacers/stands mobo, psu ...and one for the hdd

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very unprofessional marking of the back panel cut-outs....
jukeb00031.jpg


lots of filing
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can you guess whats wrong in the following picture...
jukeb00033.jpg


i will flush mount the soundcard against the back.
jukeb00034.jpg


the sanded back panel before painting. (no one would see it, but i like my things nice looking ;))
jukeb00035.jpg


in this 70mm gap i like to mount a fan for cooling but i needed a method for keeping the noise low.
jukeb00036.jpg


so i will try to build a tunnel which is filled with this noise dampen material....
jukeb00037.jpg


cutting plexi pieces for the tunnel...
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and some L-shaped aluminum profile
jukeb00039.jpg


should look somewhat like this...
jukeb00040.jpg


shortening some m3 screws
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the lot
jukeb00042.jpg


to give you an idea how it will look in the end...
jukeb00043.jpg

a 60x25mm ys-tech fan will replace the 60x15 papst one shown in the picture.

paint on the back panel dried already ;)
jukeb00044.jpg



many thins are still undecided or in the planning stage

- display to replace the stock one
- make some of the buttons on the front working
- remote control via a pda and wifi (player is foobar2k)
- will the sata hdd install xp without trouble ??


until next time......
 
looks good, ever thought of fillin in the stock holes? or are there plans in the works to use em?
 
i need some stock holes for mounting the power cord and maybe a serial cable for a display or ir reciever.....

update:
painted back plate test mount....

jukeb00045.jpg



finished air tunnel


jukeb00046.jpg


test fit in the case
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with the noise dampen material and the fan...

jukeb00049.jpg


i'm not satisfied with either the papst fan nor the ys-tech, i'm now searching for alternatives.

take care..
 
I might have just gone with a high quality usb dac, and wired up the existing (or new) phono jacks on the back directly to the line out.
 
Wow. First impressions were meh because I didn't know what direction you were going w/ it, but now it looks like you are implementing some great ideas! I'll be watching to see how this turns out.
 
update time !!

while still waiting for the dac to arrive i got a bit work done this weekend.

first ....new parts 60mm fan, front usb thingie, tt media lab with ir remote ;)
jukeb00050.jpg


instead of the power button i will install my front usb port, that way i won'T have to cut a new hole in the front.
rough fit
jukeb00051.jpg


installed the tunnel to the case side with some L-shaped alu and cut the fan hole as well
jukeb00052.jpg


cut the outer casing to
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60mm grill....no go:rolleyes:
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i needed some small edge mold, so cut a 2.5mm² installation wire insulation
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and glued it in place
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nice
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regarding the non fitting 60mm grill.....i found some mesh i may install
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maybe there are some airflow gurus arround here and can answer if the mesh would have much impact my airflow ??

i tested the media lab with my test rig to find this
(in the bottom row some pixels are missing)
jukeb00060.jpg


but since the media lab is in no enclosure i looked at the solder joints and found a bad one !! out comes the soldering iron and a few minutes later it worked
jukeb00061.jpg


warranty ...... who needs a warranty ;)

to install it properly in the front panel instead the stock md-player one i had to carefully drill some holes in the front. the white tape is my depth marking.
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installed media lab
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installed usb connector
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future plans:
i will cover the connector with the remains of the original power switch when not used.
i will solder custom lenght cables for usb, media lab to keep things clean in there.
right now the pda remote controll is giving me a lot of troubles.


anyone knows why i'm seeing that high temps with this mobo ?? 64C° for temp 3 & 4 ??


to be continued....
 
update time !!

my dac, the mhdt - labs paradisea arrived

parad00001.jpg



and after lot's of sleepless hours i managed to get the wi-fi remote control working
here is a shot of minibar2k running on an old mda
jukebo00001.jpg


i decided to try to make some of the front panel buttons working again.
since foobar2000 features custom keyboard shortcuts i bought an usb num-pad
jukebo00002.jpg


i ripped it apart to draw a shematic how to solder new leads to the pcb which then connect to the front buttons.
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soldering
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changed the power led to blue (my amp and dac use the same color)
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soldered a fan header to the record lever pot for fan speed controll, and the power switch cable to the eject button.
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the hdd activity led goes into the not used headphone port (thought about makeing it work to, but i have no need for one)
jukebo00010.jpg


power for the i-mon display is soldered directly to the psu (so no ugly adaptor is needed)
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s-ata power instead regular ide one...
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hdd anti vibration mount
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fan tunnel in place
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stuffed the inside with noise dampening material to silence the hdd and whats left of the fan noise.
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the pcb from the usb num-pad screwed in place.
jukebo00016.jpg
 
It's looking great! In the future, for jobs like the hacked numpad, I find that some stranded ethernet cable works great.
 
done the wiring
jukebo00017.jpg


the i run into a problem, the mobo features 4 usb headers.
but when you plug two in there are only 3 pins left for a 4 pin header, wtf?
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a look in the manuel led me the right way
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a y junction was needed for +5v
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soundcard installed
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interim setup for os installation
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and now....
here is where the disaster striked ...

the system isn't running flawless... the system kinda hangs for the fragment of a second.
then works for a few seconds or minutes than "hangs" again.

i already posted in the via subforum here and were pointed to the right part.

it runs fine with the external hdd connected while playing music, and the hdd itself works great in an other system.

a replacement mobo (msi cn700 this time) is on it's way and just to be on the save side i will change hdd and ram aswell.

so stay tuned....i will get her working soon !
 
Looking good so far. Sorry about the instability but nice work !
 
as per your question about high system temp, keep in mind air flow works both ways, the cold air has to come from some where, as of right now, i see no intake.... and the hanging your seeing could just be chip set drivers being installed in the wrong order, (i have had this happen on bigger via systems, but have no experience with epia systems)
 
wow, very nice :)

Sorry to hear about the issues, hope they get fixed soon enough! Cannot wait for the finished product! ;)
 
thanks for all your encouragements.

after lot of trying i got it working finally. I'm still tweaking it to my likings but i wouldn't keep back whats happened so far.

as you all know the samsung hdd wouldn't work with the via epia mobo.
but the samsung hdd worked in another system, and a seagate worked with the epia ??
using the seagate wasn't an option due to it's louder noise level.
i excanged the maybe defective hdd for a new one, still the same problems

so i bought a msi cn 700 mobo (with the same cpu and northbridge as the via)
jukebo00025.jpg


it worked with the samsung hdd at first but chrashed when i was transfering the remaining music from the external hdd to the internal.

when changing back to seagate drive i noticed that it had the jumper set to lock it to sata 1,0 specs (1,5gb transfer max). the samsung should sense it's working speed automatical, the jumper pins on the samsung have no use. but i found a patch file on the official homepage. patched the drive to 1,5gb/s and it works flawless so far. :cool::D:cool:

installed the new board in the case and did some testing...
jukebo00028.jpg


the msi board features 6 full standard usb connectors so i don't need the y-junction i soldered for the crippled connectors on the via mobo.
jukebo00029.jpg


ah this is how i like things...standard ;)
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just to be on the save side i will use this revoltec hdd cooler instead of the u - mounting thingies.
jukebo00027.jpg


cabling done, unfortunately the hdd cooler has no mounting holes at the bottom, so i had to use zip ties. maybe they are better for vibration isolation anyway.
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thore: i realised when reading you post about airflow that i don't show any pictures of the air intake at the back. the incoming air is forced over the hdd than over the mobo and than trough the air-tunnel outwards.
jukebo00032.jpg


the paint on the back panel was damged during the cutout for the new mobo. i had to fix it with a black sharpie for now since winter is coming and it's already to could to paint outsinde:(
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i will glue the original power button on a sawn off usb connector to cover the front usb when it's not in use.
jukebo00026.jpg


i wan't to thank the fellow H members in the via subforum for pointing me in the right direction with my problems, i think i would still be searching for the error otherwise.

take care...
 
Really slick solution for making the front USB match the original looks of the unit. :cool: You putting an optical drive in this, or will your primary I/O be network once it's up and running? Also, you have a link / more info on that sound card you chose? What finally made you go with it over the other available options?

 
uzor: no there will be no optical drive in it ( the shown setup with the cd in front is for os setup). for file transfer i will use a 1 gb usb stick.

soundcard is an esi maya 44
http://www.esi-audio.com/products/maya44/

i choose the maya because it features optical and spdif digital out without adaptors, 24 bit playback and it by-passes windows mixer (the evil resampler) out of the box :D

if you don't plan to use a external dac the esi juli@ has excellent onboard dac's for just a bit more bucks.

to be honest i listened with my akg k 530 headphones (directly plugged into the soundcard) while setting up the system and it already sounded awesome.

onto the update

final install...
jukebo00034.jpg


i installed some noise dampening material in the top aswell and the closed the case
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connected to the dac with optical cable... (monitor audio ic's, prowire optical cable, audiquest digital coax)
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up and runnin'
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my system from top to bottom
not shown Dual 5000 turn-table
pro -ject phono pre-amp , Cambridge audio azur 640 amp
harman/kardon hd7325 cd player
mhdt-labs paradisea dac
pioneer ct-959 tape deck
pioneer "audio pc" ;)
jukebo00038.jpg



actual i could controll it with the front buttons, the i-mon ir remote, a wifi pda and with a wireless mouse and my tv.


temps with the msi mobo are way better than with the via one.

cpu 42C, system 39C, hdd 38C fan spins 1300rpm.
i doubt i could run it without a fan, but at 1300 in it's noise dampening box the fan is dead silent.

rock on ....
 
Very nice.

Id have made one before... Its in the Case Mod Gallery, called "Monster Amp". I'm thinking of building another one, this time out of a small dvd player case, and the components of a laptop.


Tyler
 
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