PSU for my VIM3L / Tone Board

[Richard]

Hi

I recently set up my Volumio / VIM3L / Tone Board streamer, with some help from your helpful members. I’ve taken a free 30-day trial with TIDAL and I’m really impressed by the sound quality of the TB. I’m currently using the Khadas 24W power adapter, but I’m thinking I could improve this further with separate linear PSUs for the VIM and TB. I’ve read good reviews of the Allo Shanti and have the following queries that I’m hoping someone might help me with.

1. Firstly, do you agree the Shanti is a good choice for the money?

2. What’s the best way to connect the 2 boards separately. The Shanti comes with DC 5.5/2.1 jacks, I guess I can use a jack to USB-C adapter to power the VIM3L. What about the Tone Board? do I need a mod to the 40 pin connector (to get to pins 1 and 21 I think?) or can the USB-C be used instead of the power from the VIM?

3. The Shanti comes with one 1A supply and one 3A supply, which should be used for which board?

Many thanks

[Vladimir.v.v]

Hello! do you have a problem at the moment? or do you want to improve sound quality?
from what I read, I see you like everything, is that so?

@Richard

or can the USB-C be used instead of the power from the VIM?

yes you can.

the original power supply from Khadas, in my opinion will be enough

[Richard]

@Vladimir.v.v

do you have a problem at the moment? or do you want to improve sound quality?

No I don’t have a problem. I love the sound of the tone board, but I’m playing this through a good quality hifi and I would appreciate any further improvements in sound quality.

@Vladimir.v.v

@Richard

or can the USB-C be used instead of the power from the VIM?

yes you can.

Do you mean that just by plugging in USB-C power to the TB, the power connection from the VIM will be isolated?

[Electr1]

@Richard

Do you mean that just by plugging in USB-C power to the TB, the power connection from the VIM will be isolated?

No, it will just supply extra power

[Richard]

@Electr1

No, it will just supply extra power

If I’m spending money on a low noise PSU, I assume that I want to disconnect the supply from the VIM. Can this be done - other than cutting off pins 1 and 21?

[Vladimir.v.v]

usb-c has a dual interface for TB, somewhere there is documentation about this, can be found at docs.khadas

[Vladimir.v.v]

Yes, as I said it is both power supply and data transfer for usb-c

Khadas Tone Board User Manual

[Richard]

@Vladimir.v.v

Yes, as I said it is both power supply and data transfer for usb-c

Yes I understand this, but my question was how can I power just from usb-c and not from the 40 pin connector between TB and VIM3L

[Vladimir.v.v]

I understood you correctly, and answered specifically on usb-c

[Richard]

ok, thanks

I would still appreciate any answers on disconnecting the power from the VIM

[Vladimir.v.v]

for example, such a scheme: connect the power supply via usb-c, to the spdif input, and rca to the output naturally, I’m telling you specifically about a separate ToneBoard without vim

[RDFTKV]

Hello, The Tone Board’s schematic shows the switch logic concerning power input and source switch. See pages 3, 5, and 6.

These will need to be considered. I personally would not cut off the pins, at least for testing. For testing, you can use the schematic(GPIO section) to jumper GPIO connections to/from the VIM3L and TB. Not all GPIO pins are used, so you won’t need 40 jumpers.

Much has been discussed on external powering of the TB, seems they had a slightly different goal, but may be helpful to read through it.

[Richard]

Thanks RDFTKV, That’s really useful.

I’ll make up a temporary jumper between the 2 boards and the PSU (I didn’t really want to start cutting pins out!)

It will probably be a few weeks before I report back because no one seems to have the Allo Shanti in stock.

[Vladimir.v.v]

Richard ,
in any case, keep us up to date with the events, nevertheless, if you decide to take this serious power supply, give comparative tests, and whether it really will be better in your case. Good luck to you!

[Richard]

@Vladimir.v.v

in any case, keep us up to date with the events, nevertheless, if you decide to take this serious power supply, give comparative tests, and whether it really will be better in your case. Good luck to you!

I will do, I’ll report back!

[atrsantos]

Does the Volumio and Tone Board reproduce HD Audio from Tidal or Deezer and FLAC Music over the LAN?

[Electr1]

If those services exist on Volumio it should work,

I know this service exist for Tidal,
there should be something like that for deezer…

Streaming *.flac over LAN works, it is there on the Volumio website…

I Digress, but I think those question are more relevant to Volumio itself, rather than the Toneboard itself, as Volumio is a standard software and the OS doesn’t change like other distribuitions…
you can ask in the Volumio forums as well

Cheers

[atrsantos]

I just saw on the Volumio website that it doesn’t support Deezer, but it does support QOBUZ.

My Tone Board is coming and I am researching how I will play HD Audio on VIM3 + KTB.

[Electr1]

It seems it has been requested by many to bring in that plugin, but nothing to avail till now…

your project sounds wonderful, I wish you best of luck on your audio setup

cheers

[Vladimir.v.v]

Hello, you’d better wait for an answer from those who really have Volumio on vim3 + TB, and not from those who allow themselves to just speculate without knowing absolutely nothing about it.
Good luck to you