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Hello Leif,
I think you remember me from the VirtualEngineer forum. I am testing BBP V080 (latest one) on air in my station and man – I am very impressed – like I was back then !
Nevertheless, I noticed hiss while on stereo mode. The sound card was "flattened" using a scope and all the procedures but I still get some hiss when the station is on dead air. Compared with the 2300 (the "main" audio processor SO FAR 😀) hiss is much higher. On some music passages I can notice it, specially on my car…
My trial system specs:
OS: Windows XP SP1
PC: Intel HT 2.8, 2 Gb RAM
Input soundcard: SoundBlaster Audigy
Output soundcard: SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS
Pilot injection: 8.8%
MPX Ref Level: – 2.30 dB
No RDS encoders.Please notice that the output meter floats around -36 dB when there is no program injected on the input sound card. At first I thought it’d be my input soundcard with problems. I muted the input and the meters decreased a tad (down to -42 dB), but still floating and hiss was still alive and kicking. I did not test with a Pipeline attached because I had to return the station into service with the 2300 but I can assure you that switching off the stereo mode cuts all the hiss.
I must confess that I am very impressed with BBP. The stereo image is superb, highs are clean – even with Amsterdam Preset – and bass is out of this world.
Your insights will be very welcome. Oh, I am considering purchasing a Juli@ soundcard. Would you recommend it ? BBP is my choice processor but the hiss issue is really posing a threat for the full 2300 -> BBP swap.
Keep up the good work. Even with hiss BBP rocks !
Ricardo
BrazilEDIT: Typos.
Hi Ricardo!
It’s the sound card. SB Audigy2 ZS, although usable, is pretty dirty.
Try a Juli@ or another pro sound card.
///Leif
Good question, Lee. They both work great. Juli@ is a little cheaper and has the flippable i/o card with balanced/unbalanced, and you don’t need a breakout cable, so I suppose Juli@ is a better buy. Both are just as usable though, and audio performance is identical to my ears.
///Leif
Bought an M-Audio 192, modded it according to Leif’s instructions and.. presto ! A perfect MPX output with no tilt needed whatsoever !!!
Leif, we’re in the final stage of evaluating BBP and if anything goes smooth it’ll be on air by the end of the month. We intend to use BBP with a P4 HT 2.8 box. My questions are:
– Should I stick to XP SP1 or change to W2K SP4 ?
– Which one of the versions is more recommended for such a box: the ASIO or non-ASIO one ?Thanks
Ricardo
BrazilHi Ricardo!
Nice @ the AP192 mod!
Stick with XP SP1 if it works for you. Make sure the firewall is on if the box is connected to the internet.
P4 HT 2.8 is a very old CPU. I actually don’t have any P4 left in my computer collection, so I’m not sure if BBP ASIO will run OK on it, but you can download the demo version and try for yourself.
Best,
///LeifWith XP SP1 it’s not a bad idea to firewall the box from your own network too if you can, except for a few ports it needs like ARPA, PING, DNS, and your remote software. Otherwise you probably want something half decent to firewall it from your LAN, not just WAN.
Also see what other CPUs can run in your mainboard, you might be able to update to a Pentium D which could probably work half decent. The thing is even the Pentium D is past demand and return of positive revenue, not even being made anymore, so the price of those is actually going UP now. And for quite a while already. You may even consider a new mainboard with matching memory and CPU to go with it, which you can get something workable for only $250-350 USD with speed that annihilates your P4. 🙂
[quote author=”Leif”]Hi Ricardo!
Nice @ the AP192 mod!
Stick with XP SP1 if it works for you. Make sure the firewall is on if the box is connected to the internet.
P4 HT 2.8 is a very old CPU. I actually don’t have any P4 left in my computer collection, so I’m not sure if BBP ASIO will run OK on it, but you can download the demo version and try for yourself.
Best,
///Leif[/quote]The box is not connected to any network, and doesn’t even have a NIC installed.
It’s definitive: BBP will be our main audio processor. I will order it today but I have a question: Since the PC is not connected to any network, will I need to install one in order to activate/register BBP ?
Regards,
Ricardo
BrazilOK Leif, I have ordered BBP already. I am waiting for the reg code to arrive via e-mail.
Ricardo
BrazilHi Ricardo!
No, you won’t need a NIC, but you’ll need a USB flash drive so you can copy and paste the activation code for offline activation. That way you can use another computer with internet access to handle the activation.
///Leif
OK, I have an USB drive on my car’s keychain. Will install it at the station and activate it using the flash drive to copy/paste the activation code. 😀
Leif, I noticed that the M-Audio 192 has tiny electrolytic caps on the main outputs as well. Those are 22 uF/16 (or 25, don’t recall now) caps that provide the DC isolation from the NE5532s to the output connector, just before the 150 ohm resistors. Should I add another 470 uF cap in parallel to the chosen (MPX) output, just in case ? Since the STL is unbal, one single cap would do the trick. Will such an extra cap screw up the MPX output ?
Another point: I have cut the HPF PCB trace on the card’s ADC (pin 19 as stated on the mod instructions) and for some reason some DC+high freq oscillation appeared on the MPX output. The pilot tone got a companion sinusoid and got pretty deformed and the only remedy was to rewire the previously cut trace. Other than that, the mod was perfect !
Ricardo
Brazilquote :Another point: I have cut the HPF PCB trace on the card’s ADC (pin 19 as stated on the mod instructions) and for some reason some DC+high freq oscillation appeared on the MPX output. The pilot tone got a companion sinusoid and got pretty deformed and the only remedy was to rewire the previously cut trace. Other than that, the mod was perfect !Whoa, that’s not supposed to happen!
I’d check and make sure that pin is still going to the ADC (input) chip. I don’t know how it could modify the output, unless they changed the board design. The mod worked for me.
Adding a cap to the output is also a good idea! This should remove or reduce the need for tilt correction.
Best,
///Leif
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