Related Manuals for WEISS INT203
Summary of Contents for WEISS INT203
- Page 1 INT203 Owner’s Manual Weiss Engineering ltd. Florastrasse 42 8610 Uster Switzerland Phone: +41 44 940 20 06 Fax: +41 44 940 22 14 Email: weiss@weiss.ch Web: www.weiss-highend.com www.weiss.ch www.asiaweiss.com...
- Page 3 Introduction Dear customer, Congratulations on your purchase of the INT203 Firewire I/O Interface and welcome to the family of Weiss equipment owners! On the following pages I will introduce you to our views on high quality audio processing. These include fundamental digital and analog audio concepts and the INT203 Firewire I/O Interface.
- Page 4 T E XLayout: Samuel Groner & Rolf Anderegg, Weiss Engineering ltd. Date: October 15, 2013 Weiss Engineering ltd. reserves the right to make changes to product specifica- tion or documentation without prior notice. Updated manuals and datasheets are available at our website for downloading. Weiss Engineering ltd. makes no warranty, representation or guarantee regarding the suitability of its products for any particular purpose, nor does part of this manual, and specifically disclaims...
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Page 5: A Short History Of Weiss Engineering Ltd
Grundman Mastering, Masterdisk, Sterling Sound, Whitfield Street, Metropolis and hundreds more. For a more comprehensive list you are invited to visit our pro audio website at www.weiss.ch. Today Weiss Engineering ltd. employs nine people, five of them in the engineering department. Our Mission and Product Philosophy... - Page 6 2010 Introduction of the DAC202 Firewire D/A Converter, the INT202 Firewire Interface and the ATT202 Passive Attenuator 2011 Introduction of the MAN301 Music Archive Network Player and the INT203 Firewire I/O Interface 2012 Introduction of the MEDEA+ D/A Converter, the MEDEA with an en-...
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Page 7: Table Of Contents
1.1 Jitter Suppression & Clocking ....1.2 Jitter handling in the INT203 Firewire I/O Interface .. - Page 8 3.1 Digital Inputs ......3.2 Digital Outputs ......3.3 Synchronization .
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Page 9: Advanced Digital & Analog Audio Concepts Explained
Chapter 1 Advanced Digital and Analog Audio Concepts Explained Jitter Suppression and Clocking What is jitter and how does it affect audio quality? In the audio field the term jitter designates a timing uncertainty of digital clock signals. In an analog to digital converter (A/D) the analog signal is sampled (measured) at regular time intervals;... -
Page 10: Jitter Handling In The Int203 Firewire I/O Interface
Jitter handling in the INT203 Firewire I/O Interface in more detail The Jitter Elimination Technologies (JET) PLL on the chip used in the INT203 feature state-of-the art jitter rejection abilities and extremely low intrinsic jitter levels. Like all phase-locked loops, JET PLL use feedback to lock an oscillator to a timing reference. - Page 11 transfer point of view, they provide increasing jitter attenuation above some chosen corner frequency. Jitter attenuation is just one aspect of PLL design. Other considerations include frequency range and intrinsic jitter. It can be shown that conventional designs are bound by a fundamental tradeoff between these three aspects.
- Page 12 happens in the so-called analog to digital converter (A/D). The inverse in the digital to analog converter (D/A). A physical law states that in order to represent any given analog signal in the digital domain, one has to sample that signal with at least twice the frequency of the highest frequency contained in the analog signal.
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Page 13: Dithering
So engineers looked for ways to enhance those filters. They can’t be eliminated because we are talking laws of physics here. But what if we run the whole thing at higher sampling rates? Like 96 kHz or so? With 96 kHz we can allow frequencies up to 48 kHz, so the reconstruction filter can have a transition band between 20 kHz and 48 kHz, a very much relaxed frequency response indeed. -
Page 14: Digital Level Control
are correlated with the audio signal, hence the resulting error is also correlated and thus there are distortions and not just noise (noise would be uncorrelated). The dithering technique now is used to de-correlate the error from the signal. This can be achieved by adding a very low level noise to the original 24 bit signal before truncation. - Page 15 16 bit signal is truncated to 8 bits; 8 bits in order to clearly show the effect. Notice how the noise (distortion) is modulated by the music signal. www.weiss-highend.ch/computerplayback/nodither.mp3 This is how a badly implemented digital level control works. . . Fortunately there is a better way to handle the re-quantizing.
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Page 16: Firewire Vs. Usb
If you would like to dive further into those issues I recommend visiting the website of Mr. Bob Katz, a renowned mastering engineer and a Weiss Engineering ltd. customer. He publishes articles on dithering and jitter and many other topics at www.digido.com... - Page 17 No collisions, no glitches. From a practical perspective, this also makes it safer to send a lot more audio via Firewire. That’s why most of the multichannel interfaces (18 channels, 24 channels, etc.) are Firewire devices, and USB devices usually just send a two channel stereo signal. For hooking up your mouse, keyboard or thumb drive, USB is plenty fast and plenty cheap.
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Page 19: The Int203 Firewire I/O Interface
(A/D converter, digital audio transports, etc.) in order to record/route digital audio use the INT203 as a stand-alone digital level control when not connected to a computer 2.1.1... -
Page 20: Synchronization
2.1.4 Synchronization The synchronization source and rate of the INT203 can be freely chosen among: Internal an internal clock is generated within the INT203. Typically chosen when the INT203 is used as a digital output for connecting to external equipment. -
Page 21: Stand-Alone Operation As A Digital Level Control Device
(RCA and XLR) via the level control algorithm. With the (optional) IR remote control unit, the level of the digital signal can be changed. The INT203 firmware features as described below are still supported in the level control mode. Namely the bit transparency check and the absolute polarity reversal switch. -
Page 22: Installation
INT203’s output. Bit transparency means that the bits fed from the harddisk to the INT203 are not changed in any manner. 2.1.8 Frontpanel Power switch Power /Bit Transparency Check LED Bit Transparency Check switch Infrared receiver (for optional remove control) - Page 23 Figure 2.2: INT203 frontpanel Figure 2.3: INT203 backpanel...
- Page 24 Firewire bus. The power LED at the INT203 may be lit. If this is the case then the INT203 is powered from bus power on the Firewire bus. If the LED is not lit then an...
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Page 25: Operation
INT203 power switch to on, the power LED at the INT203 may be lit. If this is the case then the INT203 is powered from bus power on the Firewire bus. If you connect an external power supply to the INT203 then the Firewire bus power is automatically switched off... -
Page 26: Input Via Aes/Ebu And/Or S/Pdif Connection
2.3.3 Input via AES/EBU and/or S/PDIF Connection Connect the output of any digital audio source to the INT203. Use either the XLR or RCA connectors as applicable. Make sure that the INT203 is synchronized to the connected source, resp. sources. Choose the correct master sync source as applicable in your digital audio setup (refer to section 2.1.4). -
Page 27: Remote Control
2.3.5 Remote Control If you have acquired the remote control (fig. 2.4) for the INT203 then you can control the volume and the polarity of the digital output signal transferred by the INT203. The volume up/down switches ( / ) control the volume accordingly. -
Page 28: Stand-Alone Operation For Level Control
The maximum gain is 0 dB (a gain factor of 1.0), i.e. the INT203 can not amplify the signal and thus makes sure that there are no overs occurring within the INT203. The mute switch allows to toggle between fully off (muted) and the volume set with the volume control. - Page 29 In this case set the sampling rate as indicated by the Measured Sampling Rate within Device Settings/General. Sync Source selects the clock to which the INT203 should sync to. For playback this is usually the INT203’s Internal clock generator.
- Page 30 In this case set the sampling rate as indicated by the Measured Sampling Rate within Device Settings/General. Sync Source selects the clock to which the INT203 should sync to. For playback this is usually the INT203’s Internal clock generator.
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Page 31: Int203 Technical Data
Chapter 3 INT203 Technical Data Digital Inputs (1) XLR connector (1) RCA connector all inputs accept professional or consumer standard, i.e. accept AES/EBU or S/PDIF signals. Maximum input wordlength: 24 bits The unit has to be power cycled in order for any primary input selection change to take effect (IN1 /IN2 ) -
Page 32: Power
0 dB and -60 dB: From 0 dB to -20 dB in 0.5 dB steps and from -20 dB to -60 dB in 1 dB steps. In the 0 dB gain position the INT203 is fully bit transparent, i.e. it does not change the data in any way. In all other gain positions the output signal is properly dithered to a wordlength of 24 bits. -
Page 33: A Contact
Appendix A Contact For any questions, suggestions etc. feel free to contact us at: Weiss Engineering ltd. Florastrasse 42 8610 Uster Switzerland Phone: +41 44 940 20 06 Fax: +41 44 940 22 14 Email: weiss@weiss.ch Web: www.weiss-highend.com www.weiss.ch www.asiaweiss.com...
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