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Amigaworld.net News   Amigaworld.net News : AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
   posted by vox on 16-Jul-2013 4:12:30 (5711 reads)
blog.hyperion-entertainment.biz
Posted by Lyle Hazelwood on July 15, 2013

I am happy to announce the release of the finished HDAudio driver for the AmigaOne X1000! The driver now supports recording as well as playback. It also now supports S/PDIF optical output.

There have been questions about whether full “32 bit” audio really makes a difference. I’d like to dig a little deeper to better understand the technical specifications....
(Please click read more.)


There are two primary factors that contribute to the quality of a digital sound recording. One is resolution, or how many bits per sample, and the other is sample rate, commonly 44100 or 48000 samples per second.

As you look at the waveform of a sound recording, these two numbers determine the vertical and horizontal resolution of the wave.

I’ll begin with the “bit width” or vertical resolution.

The original Amiga’s sound output supported four channels at eight bits of resolution. Eight bits means there are two hundred and fifty six possible vertical “steps” that can be used as the wave is generated. Now we spread those steps across a -2 volt to +2 volt span and we get 0.015625 volts per step.

At the time of the Amigas introduction, that was a pretty fair sound playback. But only 256 steps is not as “high fidelity” as we might like. As a comparison, Compact Disk Audio is reproduced at 16 bits per sample. This makes for a big improvement in resolution. 16 bits offers us 65536 possible “steps” to spread across the -2 volt to +2 volt range. Now the step size is 0.0000610351562 volts per “step” of vertical resolution. So 16 bit audio is a HUGE increase in accuracy.

Getting back to our driver, AHIPrefs offers both 16 Bit HiFi and 32 bit HiFi modes. But I’ll bet that neither of those modes gives exactly what you might expect. As AHI mixes lots of different sounds together, possibly each sound with it’s own volume and pan settings, it can be useful to have more resolution available to work with. Here’s the clue: ALL AHI modes that say “HiFi” are sending 32 bit data out to the sound device! The “16″ and “32″ only describe what goes IN to the AHI mix routines. if it says HiFi, you WILL get 32 bit output to your card!

Or will you? In truth, while AHI is making it’s calculations using 32 bit registers and 32 bit math, it only promises 24 bits of accuracy. Is this anything to be concerned about? Not at all. I’ll tell you why. 24 bit samples will resolve to a “step size” of 0.0000002384185 volts per step. Wow! That is about one quarter of a microvolt. Those with an electronics background can probably tell you, that attempts to accurately work at those levels are just ridiculous. We have reached an accuracy that is beyond the ability of our amplifiers and speakers to reproduce. Put simply, 24 bits is the reasonable limit of current technology, or at least affordable technology.

So our 32 bit samples are flying out of AHI and in to the HDAudio codec. While the ”container” is 32 bits wide, even the “high definition audio codec” that we have in the AmigaOne X1000 only resolves the top 24 bits. So it seems that in the end, both AHI and HDaudio agree that 24 bits is the reasonable limit for now.

And how about sample rate or the “horizontal” resolution?

How rapidly a sound is sampled and played back can also have a BIG impact on sound quality. It all starts with the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem or more commonly the Nyquist theorem. It’s pretty simple. As you record an audio signal, you must sample at at least twice the frequency of the highest pitch being recorded. Any sound that is higher than half the sampling frequency will be converted to noise and nasty noise at that.

So how high do we need? It is generally held that human hearing range is from 20 Hz (cycles per second) up to 20000 Hz. So any frequency above 40000 should be great right? Well Yes and No.

One simple problem is that we still must filter out all sound above half the sample frequency, and most frequency dependent volume controls (graphic equalizers) work with gradual slopes. There is no “hard cutoff” at a certain frequency, so we need a bit of headroom.

But there is another reason. As a high frequency sound approaches the Nyquist rate, we are only sampling about once per half-cycle. While this will reproduce the frequency of the original, it will do it at a bare minimum of accuracy. In other words, as frequencies get higher, they get less detail.

So what does it really matter?
Audio CDs play back at 44100 Hz. Not bad at all.
Television/DVD audio is usually at 48000 Hz. Nice.
With the HDAudio chip in the X1000 we support both of those frequencies.
We also support 88200, 96000, 176400, and 192000.
So we can double or quadruple the sample rates of common media!

At first, I really thought it was all a numbers game, but when developing the driver, I can actually hear the noise decrease noticeably as the playback rates went up!

And that is where I’ll leave off. This was enough of a lesson for one day. I am very happy that I could contribute to the completion of this driver. And the chance to “raise the bar” regarding sound capability was really very nice icing on the cake.

Like many of us, I have been using Amigas for a long time. Today, right here in front of me is an Amiga that supports high definition audio, a modern high performance video card. It uses standard, off the shelf keyboard, mouse, monitor and many USB accessories as well. Most of these we unheard of in the classic days. But with all the new and shiny, it is still AmigaOS to the core.
:)
    

STORYID: 6817
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PosterThread
nexus 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 6:52:10
#1 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 11-Feb-2005
Posts: 429
From: Germany

Congratulations (to all of us X1000 owners ;) ) !
Well done, dude!
nexus


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Nibunnoichi 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 6:54:09
#2 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 18-Nov-2004
Posts: 969
From: Roma + Lecco, Italia

Thank you for the lengthy explanation... even though i don't have an X1K, it's very useful
Oh, and good job with the HD audio driver


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Hondo 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 6:56:43
#3 ]
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Joined: 10-Apr-2003
Posts: 1370
From: Denmark

Thank you for the hard work. It's great the X1000 Amiga has High Definition sound


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olegil 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 7:09:49
#4 ]
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Joined: 22-Aug-2003
Posts: 5895
From: Work

quoting myself from the forum thread:
Quote:

I like how he's trying to reason with the audiophiles out there:

Quote:

Put simply, 24 bits is the reasonable limit of current technology, or at least affordable technology.


The fact of the matter is, "affordable" stops a bit short of 96dB SNR, which is what you can get at 16 bit (technically 6.02 times number of bits plus 1.761, if the signal is a true sinus of 100% amplitude, which doesn't make much sense for a recorded sound. Give it recorded music with enough headroom not to go into clipping and this drops significantly). "Reasonable limit" stops somewhere around 114dB SNR, at the broadcast standard of ±15V audio levels. That's about 19 bit. In broadcasting you use either 20 or 24 bit, depending on (at least sort of, in a simplified view) whether it's going into a mixer or going out to a consumer.

Add a volume control to your amplifier and you're already FAR below the 16 bit quantization noise SNR.

If you look at an amplifiers specification you'll most likely see both dynamic range and THD+N. THD+N of 0.1% means 60dB SINAD, which is the signal-to-noise-and-distortion. effective number of bits (ENOB) here is then (tada): 10 bits. That 8-bit output is starting to look pretty reasonable again, isn't it?


But still, higher numbers always makes us smile


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amigakit 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 8:33:25
#5 ]
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Joined: 28-Jun-2004
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From: www.amigakit.com

Thank you Lyle and Steven!


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QuBe 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 13:41:18
#6 ]
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Joined: 3-Dec-2006
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From: Dunes of Uridia

This is a great achievement... X1000 owners rejoice!

Q!

"i am home"

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pavlor 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 14:16:31
#7 ]
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Joined: 10-Jul-2005
Posts: 9578
From: Unknown

Well done!

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fingus 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 14:51:45
#8 ]
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Joined: 20-Oct-2006
Posts: 747
From: Havixbeck / Germany

Cool!

Please update the Envy24HT-Driver to be on the same level as that here is.


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Spectre660 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 15:11:40
#9 ]
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From: Unknown

@Fingus

Both the Envy24HT and CMI8738 drivers are good candidates for updates as new cards in PCI and PCIex1 are being produced with 5.1 and 7.1 channel audio .


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klx300r 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 15:45:58
#10 ]
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Joined: 4-Mar-2008
Posts: 3833
From: Toronto, Canada

Big Thanks Lyle


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Plexus 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 16:26:47
#11 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 29-Sep-2003
Posts: 289
From: SWEDEN (Sverige)

Yeeeah I use the optical output now on my X1000 and its works great!


Amazing work and thanks to all involved!

Last edited by Plexus on 16-Jul-2013 at 04:27 PM.


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ssolie 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 17:58:16
#12 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 10-Mar-2003
Posts: 2755
From: Alberta, Canada

Note the original blog entry at http://blog.hyperion-entertainment.biz has some nice pictures to go along with the text.


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Hondo 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 16-Jul-2013 20:34:48
#13 ]
Super Member
Joined: 10-Apr-2003
Posts: 1370
From: Denmark

@Solie

Are we talking about the cake ?


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TrevorDick 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 17-Jul-2013 4:23:01
#14 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 30-Dec-2004
Posts: 2678
From: Wellington

Well done Lyle (and Steven). We salute you.

TrevorD


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Slayer 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 17-Jul-2013 7:45:23
#15 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 4-Jan-2005
Posts: 416
From: New Zealand

Nicely done!

Great Stuff and Many thanks!


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samo79 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 17-Jul-2013 8:45:55
#16 ]
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Joined: 13-Feb-2003
Posts: 3505
From: Italy, Perugia

Well done


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gregthecanuck 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 17-Jul-2013 9:35:16
#17 ]
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Joined: 30-Dec-2003
Posts: 846
From: Vancouver, Canada

Excellent news!!

Great work Lyle!

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noXLar 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 17-Jul-2013 12:45:20
#18 ]
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Joined: 8-May-2003
Posts: 736
From: Norway

Great work!!


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Kicko 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 18-Jul-2013 22:06:14
#19 ]
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Joined: 19-Jun-2004
Posts: 5009
From: Sweden

Thanks Lyle and all others

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austgarden 
Re: AmigaOne x1000 HD Audio Driver Complete
Posted on 20-Jul-2013 11:38:11
#20 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 18-Oct-2004
Posts: 220
From: Norway

Great this is . ,

But i'm still unable to get any sound out of the optical output


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