Summary
This is the campaign page dedicated to ultra high performance Geek Source music server, designed and assembled by LH Labs. We put every product technical details and design progress here. And this page is designed for the backers who backed Geek Source music server already.
Three major design goals:
- Build a stable and yet future proof high res music playback platform
- Design to be "audio" optimized from the software to hardware
- Provide great connectivity via WiFi, ethernet and easy to expand storage space
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How we make it future-proof
Originally Geek Source just like other music servers on the market, we developed a nice PCB from standard PC that with the Intel standard CPU, situate hard drives or solid state drive there. It works ok; but we know that is not ideal. So there are three things we decided to push the envelope a bit more.
- Instead of using more power consuming standard PC CPU, we decide to use a more future-proof Quad core ARM core CPU. It reduced the power related high frequency noise, the system doesn't need a noisy fan inside anymore.
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By using System On Module (SOM) design, Geek Source could even upgrade the CPU in future when you needed. All related power supply and cache got upgraded too. All you need to do is pop-out the SOM card and insert the new one. Job done!
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USB 2.0 audio output like everybody else? No. Let's make it real 3.0. From the CPU decoding to internal transmission bus, all the way to the end of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed output IC. No compromise here. Not limited to 480M bps transmission speed anymore, now you have 5G bps. 10X more.
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Geek Source Overview
As its name suggests, Geek Source is THE BEST music source in your home stereo. Geek Source is the most powerful and high-end music server available for under $1500. It was also specifically designed with the modern high definition DAC in mind.
- Geek Source features a whopping 2TB (4TB optional) of internal hard drive storage space. That's enough space to store 5000+ Hi-Rez tracks or 50,000+ CD quality tracks!
- Built in Double Phase Re-Clock Jitter Elimination circuit for all output digital circuits. Every digital output is precisely timed making it the perfect fit for any system that has a dedicated DAC.
- Many of us have trouble playing FLAC or DSD files with iTunes. Fret no more. Geek Source is a high resolution music playing specialist. Looking to play FLAC, DSD, DSD2, DXD and 384K? Geek Source handles it all.
- Dedicated USB 3.0 audio port output with a noise free power supply. This isn't your Grandpa's PC or MAC music server. Geek Source is a super high speed playback machine.
- Less noise, more music. Geek Source has an external power supply, keeping the bad noise at bay while letting the good noise (your tasty tunes) in.
Industry leading USB 3.0 output HD music server
Connect a nice USB cable from Geek Source to Pulse DAC and you're ready to rock. Did we mention that the USB output for Geek Source is in SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port? By this future-proof design, you would be able to play even higher resolution or multichannel high resolution music file in future. If you have our LightSpeed USB 10G cable too, you could make sure your music system definitely has enough bandwidth for your highest sampling rate music file.
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Optional Triple Femto Clocks
In the beginning of the design, we put optional Dual Femto clocks for all the SPIDE/AES audio outputs. One is for 44.1K band sampling rate (44.1K/88.2K/176.4K) and the other is for 48K band sampling rate (48K/96K/192K).
With several deep researches, we decided to put optional 3rd Femto level clocks that dedicated to USB 3.0 interface alone. Benefit? We will reduce the USB audio output signal jitter even lower which translated into a much more stable sound stage and natural music when you use your USB DAC.
The technical specifications of Geek Source (Platform part)
We know you care about every details of this design. So let's start with the essential platform part.
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(Please download the PDF here)
This platform use Quad Core ARM core CPU with ultra-fast NAND storage and eMMC flash as secondary cache. SATA II interface will direct connect to your 2T or 4T or higher capacity hard drive there. The power supply of these hard drive has special design to block out the mechanical generated power surge noise.
Geek Source has full size SDXC card slot, high speed WiFi interface and 1000M Ethernet to provide all the extension and connectivity you need.
You could choose Solid State Drive (SSD) as an option. So there will be NO mechanical spinning parts inside your Geek Source. Absolute quiet! The life span of SSD should be more stable too.
The technical specifications of Geek Source (Audio related part)
Second part of specifications will give you more details about "Audio related" design.
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First of all, SPDIF and AES/EBU output will be well controlled by ultra low jitter TCXO audio clocks. Again, this is not ordinary PC music server. If you ask something even better, Geek Source Femto will provide dual audio master clocks that controls all the digital audio outputs? These Femto clocks' jitter is 100 times less the the ordinary clocks you will find on the market.
The AOS (Audio optimized Operation System) is another essential part of the whole platform. We wrote the software dedicated to all audio transmission path. From CPU, to internal bus transmission, to USB 3.0 IC all the way out. The whole system boot up super fast and still kept very stable for running in weeks.
DSD native output via either DSD over PCM (DoP) or native DSD protocol are all provided. Compared to the original specification we had, now we make it even higher to DSD256.
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Unique Dual Power Design
Larry designed a complex power supply star system for the whole Geek Source board. From the beginning of power input, we have TWO separated 12V DC input sockets. One dedicated to audio related circuit, if you have Pulse LPS4 or LPS8, that is the place you should plug-in. It will use its Super Quiet Linear Power to power up the master audio clocks (Femto clocks), USB 3.0 output part, and digital clocks transmission IC.
The other socket provide the power for the rest, including CPU, WiFi, Hard drive, and our 5'' touch screen.
For your convenience, if you want to plug-in one power only. That is no problem. The main power socket will automatic power up the audio power socket if there is no audio power plug-in.
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Chassis Design
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The design goal is to make the chassis fully integrated with your potential Vi DAC and Pulse DAC. The different element we have considered is the internal chassis volume that is good enough for air flow and mechanical hard drive. Also, our goal is to make swap hard drive in/out EASILY enough that you don't need to send back your unit.
Front panel design is a complete new design of works that inherit the spirit of Vi DAC design elements. (See the "V" shape there). Due to the center touch screen size, it is not 100% copy and clone from Vi DAC chassis.
The chassis dimension is FULL rack mount size. 16.5'' wide, with a good 4.5'' height that could fit in our 6.5'' inches lovely touch screen. The touch screen is capacitive type and has its own separate software module to work with AOS. We could separately update this User Interface firmware when necessary.
Dimension: 16.5'' (420mm) Width , 8.3'' (210mm) Depth, 4.5'' (113mm) Height.
Indiegogo Crowd-design only perks
* USB 3.0 Audio Output UpgradeYes. We love to provide you upgrade possibilities. Future proof. And this time, thanks for your patience for our design time. (We know it is been one year and more), we decide to make this upgrade
FREE for every Geek Source backers!!
* Ultra-low ESR Power Cap Upgrade
Larry believes the best power supply is the foundation of everything. We will install 5 special low ESR Power capacitors in strategic important places for the mother board. Where is the most important places? Core S.O.M, digital audio output and USB 3.0 port! thanks for your patience for our design time. We decide to make this upgrade FREE for every Geek Source backers!!
* Power Cap upgrade Plus: For the people who back the power cap upgrade before, We will enhance the following: Besides the 5 low ESR caps that everyone has, there will be 10 more ultra high speed PPS bypass power caps to replace the original MLCC capacitors. Bring down the 10M Hz above noise 6 dB more around the digital audio output and USB 3.0 audio output.
Let's call it "Power Cap upgrade Plus"!
* Geek Source Plus upgrade. The original design in the campaign was the Intel PC architecture. Now we change to ARM core based with SOM modular design. The benefit of that is future proof. Also bring one good benefit: We don't need to boot up the operation system from hard drive. All Geek Source boot up from the EMMC flash. So in the spirit of "Plus" upgrade, we add the 64G ultra high speed flash as separate cache and add more layer of cache dedicated to USB audio output usage which will further reduce the output jitter.
* Dual Femto Clocks Upgrade
Upgrade the two audio clocks inside Geek Source to customized, lowest-jitter, USA-made Crystek TCXO clocks. This special upgrade will belong to the Indiegogo backers who pledge this upgrade during the campaign. Expect the price will be at least double for this configuration in MSRP.
As for the third Femto clock that works with USB 3.0 output. We will update more information for the final details.
Roon and Tidal support in software
In our current internal beta software, we already structured a good framework for support these two great services in near future. With Roon service enabled, you could use Geek Source with local/remote music library, and works perfectly with Tidal lossless music service too.
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Current Development Progress
[updated in Dec.8-2015]
The whole development progress is a long journey. Thanks for the support from our backers. We are able to focus on the technology improvement and make the best music server on the market.
There are five more items need to be finished as we saw in the chart. Internal storage (hard drive) mechanical design is the target this month. And we are working with our WiFi module provider to make sure what is the problem. Software part is very time consuming but our plan is to ship something has core function smooth and add the new features via software upgrades.
The most important thing here is definitely USB 3.0 interface. We already optimized the 5V power supply there, tested noise level is 5.7uV (20~20K), but we really hope to maximize the signal through put by the putting an even better USB 3.0 IC which has been used in many advanced industrial grade computer server.
We will keep this section updated bi-weekly until we finish all the remaining pieces.
FAQ
1. Will Geek Source support I2S over HDMI?
Answer: Yes.
2. How Geek Source connect with Pulse DAC or Vi DAC?
Answer: You could choose from USB (preferred) or AES/EBU or Coaxial (least preferred)
3. Why design team decide to change from Intel CPU to ARM core CPU?
Answer: We tested between different platforms. ARM Core CPU's OS foot print is smaller and energy consumption is lower. So we could provide cleaner and better decoupling caps there which will lower the potential output high frequency noise.
4. Why you let OS all run from flash instead of hard disk?
Answer: The boot up time is faster. It works quiet. And you could make your mechanical hard drive a TOTAL music file storage. Easier for you to swap.
5. How will you guys design the power supply? Is it linear?
Answer: We will update another concise chart for power distribution. All of the core audio circuit and USB 3.0 related circuit are powered by ultra low noise linear power supply. Not a single point compromised.
