User:Nmackie
From DRC
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Neil Mackie's DRC setup
Introduction
The system is a simple stereo system consisting of a passive attenuator, power amp and speakers. The source is a Linux PC constructed from second hand and low cost parts specifically to run DRC.
HiFi
The output from the PC's sound card is fed to a passive attenuator. This is a DIY unit that used to be made by Rothwell Audio Products. From there the signal goes to a home made Pass/Thagard A75 amplifier, more information can be found here.
Low cost and quiet PC
Back in the early days it looked like DRC could only run on a Linux box (Now the DRC filters can be run on Windows using foobar2000). I decided to build a Linux PC from surplus parts. The motherboard ,which was broken, was given to me by Tom Brown who also sold me the CD drive (Sony) and the sound card (Aureal Vortex2). The CPU which is a 1G AMD Duron was bought from eBay. The case was a clearance item from XCase. I did pay list price for the hard disks (IBM/Hitachi) which are in a RAID array and the memory (Crucial). It has a USB2 card from Belkin for the Netgear WG121 802.11g wireless connection.
The operating system is Gentoo. Although this distribution is a bit more difficult to set up than others, it was the only one that I found that supported the motherboards RAID hardware. However the documentation is excellent with lots of help available at the user forums. Using Gentoo means that the software is compiled specifically for the hardware. I appreciate Gentoo's update system which allows me to update the software via the internet whenever I want.
Currently CDs are 'ripped' using cdparanoia with the raw data being piped to Brutefir on stdin. The PC can be reading a CD, do DRC via Brutefir, and share a variety of files via Azureus & BitTorrent and only be 10% loaded.
The CPU voltage has been reduced via the BIOS from the standard 1.7V to 1.25V, to generate less heat. The CPU fan speed has been reduced by adding a 50ohm resistor and the CPU temperature runs at about 34C. The case Compucase 6A19 came with a temperature controlled fan and the sensor has been located on the lowest/coolest part of the case. The PSU has also been given the 50ohm resistor mod. As the PC was put together, damping tape and fiber washers were used. The result is a quiet case at minimal extra cost.
