User manual AUDIO ANALOGUE MAESTRO SPECIAL EDITION REV 1.0

[. . . ] Dear Audiophile, congratulations and thank you for choosing the Maestro CD Player 192/24 DAC SE. You're now the owner of a unit that establishes a new reference point in the category of high-quality and high-versatility stereophonic products. the Maestro CD reduces Jitter problems thanks to an innovative technology developed by Audio Analogue. The technology is based on a discrete component PLL used to lock the digital signal. [. . . ] Powering up Maestro CD Player 192/24 DAC SE When you plug the Maestro CD Player 192/24 DAC SE to the power outlet and turn on the power switch on back panel, the unit automatically turns on and enters in "STANDBY" mode. This is intended to prevent the unit from suddenly turning on after power interruption. When the "STANDBY" button on the front panel or the "STANDBY CD" button on the remote controller is pressed, the Maestro CD Player 192/24 DAC SE turns on and a presentation message is shown on the display. If nothing happens, please refer to the troubleshooting section of the present manual. The SPDIF coming from the CD Mechanism which is selected when the unit works as a CD Player and the digital signal coming from the SPDIF IN input which is selected when the unit works as a DA converter. To select the digital input for the signal path see further details in the Menu SETUP description section. In the picture, the square indicated as "S/PDIF RX" The CPLD is a circuit which has the task of selecting and sending the signal according to the mode selected by the user. The "System Clock" represents the clock which is used in the DA conversion. As indicated in the picture, this clock signal can be taken from the S/PDIF RX or from the PLL. In fact the PLL coming from the output clock of the S/PDIF RX, configures it to reduce the clock jitter further. Direct Mode ­ The SPDIF RX receives the selected digital signal which is then directly sent to the DAC. In this mode there is no up-sampling so the sample frequency remains the same along the chain until the DAC, both when the signal from the CD Mechanism is selected and when the signal from the SPDIF IN is selected. PLL Mode ­ This mode is available only when the selected digital signal is the one coming from the CD mechanism. The system clock from the SPDIF RX is sent to the PLL, which, if it can lock to it, regenerates and cleans it reducing the jitter for frequencies higher than 20Hz (according to a second order filter). This improved clock is then used to "re-synchronize" all the signals inside the CPLD. If the signals from the CPLD are then directly sent to the DAC, it will work just at 44. 1KHz as sample frequency, while if the SRC is enabled the sample frequency can be increased by a factor of 1X, 2X or 4X. The sample rate converter factor like all the other parameters can be set in the PLL mode menu option Modalità PLL ­ Questa modalità è disponibile solo quando il segnale digitale selezionato è quello proveniente dalla meccanica CD. SRC Mode ­ The signals from the SPDIF RX are sent directly to the SRC and from this to the DAC. The SRC resynchronize the signals with an external reference clock reducing the Jitter to an extremely low level. In fact, the reference clock comes from the quartz crystals used inside the PLL circuit. The sample frequency which the DAC works on can be set to: 44, 1kHz, 48kHz, 88, 2kHz, 96kHz, 176, 4kHz, 192kHz while the bit resolution is always set to 24bits. [. . . ] (Note**) Pressing the OK(5) switch on the remote, stores the configuration that is currently running in this preset position. (Note**) Pressing the OK(5) switch on the remote, stores the configuration that is currently running in this preset position. Pressing the OK(5) switch on the remote, stores the configuration that is currently running in this preset position. The " CD" preset requires that the selected input in the actual configuration, which is the one you are going to save, is the signal from the CD Mechanism therefore the "CD" preset is not available as a loadable preset if the current configuration has the SPDIF In signal selected. [. . . ]