It's loud.

[EvilDragon]

I was working on sealing the speakers into the Pyra.
Sealing them?

Yes, sealing them! The speakers we're using are special speakers that have some of the best sound you can get when they're assembled properly.
For that, they have some special tricks. The back volume (part of the case) has to be sealed, otherwise, the membrane permanently moves to its limit which makes it sound totally overdriven.

I've sealed the speakers with self-cut padding. Of course, in the end, this will be cut by a machine and we only have to apply it.

First, we need some padding on inside the case so that the membrane has enough space to fully move.



The speaker will go onto there and more padding (to seal it) will be added to the support bars of the case:



Of course, it will ONLY go onto the support bars (not fully over it, as I did here), because that would make our back volume smaller which is urgently needed for proper bass. But for a first test, I decided to do it like that.

Then the PCB goes on top of it, like a sandwich.
You can see that the PCB and the padding I applied seals the speaker inside the case:



The result can be seen here:


This video shows a comparison between the Pandora, the GPD XD and the padded Pyra.
All of these have been recorded with the same microphones. The volume of the recording has NOT been changed, so you can hear the volume differences here.

With the reduced back volume, the Pyra is already louder at 75% audio than the Pandora is with full volume... and sounds a lot better as well.

However, sometimes it already sounds a bit overdriven - most likely an effect of the reduced back volume or maybe the sealing is not 100% yet. There are also some other tricks I want to use to improve the quality (it sometimes sounds like we have a resonance frequency as well).

The GPD XD has more bass right now (ours will improve when I don't cover the back volume with the sealing), but it sounds like it has some weird reverb combined with a resonance frequency. Looking into the GPD XD, it seems to use the full case as back volume... which explains that.

Some music tracks sound better with the GPD XD, some sound better with the Pyra... but that's only the first test, I hope I'll be able to improve audio a lot

Well, that's it for today. Just some short sound-related news, but I guess it makes some of you happy

BTW: Playing C64 commando at 100% volume plays fine without overdrive... but it was too loud for the microphones, so I couldn't even record it properly.
It was REALLY loud!

 

[ible]

awesome!

[edit] wait, so if the speakers "permanently" move to their limit if they're not sealed properly, does that mean the speakers break if the seal breaks? if so, how difficult is it to break the seal?

 

[EvilDragon]

awesome!

[edit] wait, so if the speakers "permanently" move to their limit if they're not sealed properly, does that mean the speakers break if the seal breaks? if so, how difficult is it to break the seal?

Yes, they would break. But you cannot break the seal unless you open the unit and rip it out. It'll be glued on the PCB. And as soon as you remove the PCB, the speakers won't have contact anymore.

It's the same technique they use in high-end smartphones which have awesome speakers as well, so it's pretty robust

 

[Silent-Hunter]

What songs did you use in the demo?
[doublepost=1469672417,1469672292][/doublepost]How do you seal it initially without it being broken from the beginning?

 

[ible]

How do you seal it initially without it being broken from the beginning?

you have to drive them for them to move to their limit, so you have to apply some voltage or whatever. so they should be fine until wired up. (and hopefully long after.)

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Thanks for the audio demo.
This sure proves a great improvement over the Pandora.

 

[WizardStan]

if so, how difficult is it to break the seal?

Depends on how much I've had to eat, but typically around the 6th or 7th drink. Not sure how difficult that can be considered.

edit: Ah, but on a serious note, I'm hoping the audio can get better. It definitely sounds overdriven even though it wasn't as loud as the GPD. Much better in the treble though, I'll give it that, and definitely way better than the Pandora, at least through the recordings.

 

[levi]

Cool video, thanks!

However, I wonder why you don't put the pyra at 100% - or does it still sound too overdriven if you do that. The GPD bass sounds muddy to my ears, and I wonder if that would improve if you dialled that back to 75% as well. But the Pyra already knocks the tinny sounding Pandora out of the water!

Out of interest, which amplifier are you using at present? The discrete amplifiier as in the Pandora, or the integrated one? I guess it doesn't matter so much for the speaker test, where the speakers and their mounting are much more important than the amp you use, but hopefully later on we can get headphone out comparisons where the Pandora should do much better in my experience.

 

[almostalive]

After watching the video, overall the pyra does sound the best. The XD does have better bass but the overall sound was best in the pyra. But I think the test could have been done a little better. For instance the Pandora and Pyra could have used the same program for playing the music ( I understand it for the XD being android based.). Also I think the Pandora and XD both should of been at 75% as well like the Pyra or the Pyra at 100% like the other two, for a fairer comparison. I know on my desktop and tv combo that alsa at 100% and TV volume lower sounds different than alsa at a lower volume and tv at a higher volume. This test seemed more like pandora and xd at full volume regardless of sound quality and pyra at best sounding quality for the tests (still liked the prya the best so no hard feelings on it.). Just my Two Drunk Cents.

also off topic. I know the Pyra has higher bluetooth support than the pandora but does anyone have a recommendation on a good bluetooth headphones? I'm looking for more like ear muffs instead of ear buds but anything of decent recommended quality would be awesome for when i get my prya.

 

[Ted]

Yes, they would break. But you cannot break the seal unless you open the unit and rip it out. It'll be glued on the PCB. And as soon as you remove the PCB, the speakers won't have contact anymore.

It's the same technique they use in high-end smartphones which have awesome speakers as well, so it's pretty robust

So, it is still possible to replace/fix the speakers or the PCB by end user? or none of them are possible to be replaced?

 

[tigerroast]

I'd also really like to know what amp or audio chip is being used.

Also, what time is it over there?! Staying up late to work on improving the speakers. The grind.

 

[almostalive]

I'd also really like to know what amp or audio chip is being used.

Also, what time is it over there?! Staying up late to work on improving the speakers. The grind.

Me thinks the Evil Dragon has not slept much since taking over the pandroa and has slept even less since starting the prya! Time wise I think he made this post a few hours after midnight in Germany if my timezone is correct on this board. Either 5 or 6 pm is midnight there and it is showing he made this post at 8:45pm so about maybe about 3:45 or 4:45 in the morning for him.

Edit: or I could be very wrong. To drunk to care though so it is my best guess.

 

[Shlee]

Please play some Slayer - God Hates Us All and Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans.. so I can get an idea of the metalness/folkiness

thanks.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

I hope ED can sleep more once the Pyra is finished. I worry that sleeping so little is unhealthy.

 

[kuru]

Cool beans. Thanks for the direct comparison. Sound from Pyra is already bettter than Pandora's. I was hoping for smartphone tech to find its' way. Still amazed at how good even just a mono speaker on e.g. a Note sounds. Incredible volume and range for these small things.

 

[TrashyMG]

Please play some Slayer - God Hates Us All and Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans.. so I can get an idea of the metalness/folkiness

thanks.

God hates us All is horrible mixed, If you're choosing a Slayer album that is produced well go with Seasons of the Abyss.

 

[hns]

Out of interest, which amplifier are you using at present? The discrete amplifiier as in the Pandora, or the integrated one?

It is the integrated twl6040 (class D ca. 800 mW peak power per speaker). With standard mainline Linux drivers (alsa).

 

[Silent-Hunter]

It is the integrated twl6040 (class D ca. 800 mW peak power per speaker). With standard mainline Linux drivers (alsa).

It sounds quite nice as far as I can tell.

 

[Willhelm]

Yes, they would break. But you cannot break the seal unless you open the unit and rip it out. It'll be glued on the PCB. And as soon as you remove the PCB, the speakers won't have contact anymore.

It's the same technique they use in high-end smartphones which have awesome speakers as well, so it's pretty robust

So the speakers will be sealed to the case and glued on the pcb?
I disambled my Pandora quite often, this would mean that users should not remove the main PCB from the Pyra?

 

[benoitb]

So the speakers will be sealed to the case and glued on the pcb?
I disambled my Pandora quite often, this would mean that users should not remove the main PCB from the Pyra?

Glued to the PCB, not to the case. My understanding is that you can disassemble it as you want, the "boom cage" just sticks to the PCB and the speaker's membrane sticks to the case ?