Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product SX-34 Antex electronics
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SX-5e SX-6 SX-34 SX-36 Digital Audio Adapter User's Manual September 17, 1999 Rev. E A NTE X ELEC TRON ICS CORP ORA TION 1125 W. 190 th STREET GARDENA , CA LIFORNIA 90248 info@antex.
Declaration of Conformity Standards to which Conformity is Declared: EN55022 (Class A) 1994, EN 50082-1 1992 This equipm ent has been v erified to comply w ith the limits for a class A computing device, pursuant to FCC Rules. I n order to m aintain compliance with FCC regulations, shielded cables must be used with this equipm ent.
TA BLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1 CARD INSTALL ATION ............................................................. 1 JUM PER SE TTINGS & CON NECTIONS ...................... 2 I/O ADDRESSES AND INTERRUPTS .
SX-34 M IXER AN D BLOC K DIAGRA M ......................... 34 SX-6 M IXER AN D BLOCK DIAGRAM........................... 36 SX-5e M IXER AN D BLOC K DIAGRA M ......................... 39 ANTEX M ETER ...................................................
FIGURES Figure 1 . SX-5e,6,34 ,35 & SX-36 Ju mper Setti ngs................... 2 Figure 2. SX-35/36 Connections.............................................. 5 Figure 3. SX-34 Connections................................................... 8 Figure 4.
1 INTRODUCTION The Antex SX-5e, SX-6, SX -34 and SX-36 f amily of cards are I SA bus audio “add-in” cards f or the PC. T hey all incorporate DSP’s (Digital Sig nal Processors), which allow the cards to do a variety of audio format s. (MPEG, PCM16, M SADPCM, etc.
2 Set the board number with jumpers as shown below. If only one board is being used, leave the jum pers off (sets to board number one). W hen using more than one car d in a computer , each board must be given a diff erent number by setting the jumpers dif fer- ently on each card.
3 I/O A DDRESSES AND INT ERRUPTS SX-5e, 6, 34, 35 & 36 I/O addresses and in terrupts are soft ware selectable. The vali d I/O addresses are: 180h, 220h, 280h, 300h, 320h and 380h The valid interrupts ar e: 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12 Note that interrupts 3 and 4 ar e normally used by the computer’s COM ports and w ill not be available.
4 balanced connections and shielded coax cable for unbalanced connections. See the section “Balanced and Unbalanced Sig- nals”..
5 SX-35/36 CONNECTOR DESCRI PTIO N JP1 SX-35/36 JP4 JP7 JP8 JP9 BALANCED IN/O UT JP3 Pin As signm ent 1G r o u n d 2 Righ t In - 3L e f t I n - 4R i g h t O u t - 5L e f t O u t - 6 Righ t In + 7 Left.
6 LINE I/0 (JP8) Pin 1 Right Line Input + Pin 3 Right Line Input - Pin 5 Left Line I nput + Pin 7 Left Line I nput - Pin 9 Right Line Out put + Pin 11 Right Line Out put - Pin 13 Left Line O ut put + Pin 15 Left Line O ut put - Pin 2,4,6,8,10, 12,14,16 Ground This connector duplicat es the function of the DB9 connector.
7 A UX IN (JP9) Pin 1 Right Aux Input + Pin 3 Right Aux Input - Pin 5 Left Aux Input + Pin 7 Left Aux Input - Pin 9,11,13,15 No connection Pin 2,4,6,8,10, 12,14,16 Ground The Auxiliary inputs are balanced inputs, t he same as the Line In and can be used in the same way; as a record source or analog feed-t hr oug h to the Line Out.
8 SX-34 CONNECTOR DESCRIPTIO N JP5 LINE IN MIC SX-34 A UX LINE OUT JP6 JP7 JP4 JP1 Figure 3. SX-34 Connecti ons 1. SPx Header - JP1 JP1 is a 40-pin, dual-row, 2m m spaced header the provides connections for an SPx module. 2. Output Header - JP5 JP5 is a 5-pin, 0.
9 3. A UX Header - JP6 JP6 is a 5-pin, 0.100" spaced header that provides connec- tions for left and right auxiliary input signals. T hese are the same connections provided by the AUX jack on the bracket. Signals present at JP6 are switched in only when there is no plug in the AUX j ack.
10 5. Mono Header - JP4 JP4 is a 2-pin, 0.100" spaced header that provides a mono in- put connection. This input is not currently supported. 1 Ground Mono In p ut 2.
11 SX-6 CONNECTOR DESCRIPTIO N JP1 SX-6 JP4 JP2 BALANCED OUT JP3 Pin Ass ignment 1 Ground 2n c 3n c 4 Right Out - 5 Left Ou t - 6n c 7n c 8 Right Out + 9 Left Ou t + DB- 9 Femal e Balanced A nalog I /.
12 LINE OU T (JP2 ) Pin 1,3,5,7 No connection Pin 9 Right Line Ou t + Pin 11 Right Line Ou t – Pin 13 Left Line O ut + Pin 15 Left Line O ut – Pin 2,4,6,8,10, 12,14,16 Ground This connector duplicat es the function of the DB9 connector.
13 SX-5e CONNECTOR DESCRIPTIO N The SX-5e is self -explanatory. The lef t and right Line O ut con- nections are RCA jack s on the card bracket, which are labeled. There are no other connect ors on the card. BA LANCED A ND UNBA LA NCED SIGNALS The SX-5e and the SX-34 have unbalanced signals only.
14 Antex cards are “active”; t ransform ers are not used. Normally, one should not ground t he out put of an active driver. However the drivers used on the Antex cards are specifically desig ned to do this and behave identically to a transf ormer.
15 This is because the input am plifier stag es of the card have been overloaded. Also, recording from a source with too low a signal level, such as plugging a microphone directly into a line level in- put, will result in a very noisy recording.
16 externally, there must be 2 car ds installed in t he computer , so that there is one physical output f or each device. COMPRESSIO N, DAT A RA TES, A ND NETWORKS The amount of data (the size) of a sound file is af fected by several factor s. The most obvious is the sample rate.
17 a file, but no fading. Some audio editing program s do edit MPEG files, but they actually convert the file to PCM16 f irst, and t hen convert it back ag ain after editing. This has t w o problems. First, it is slow, and second, each time the conversion is done, the sound quality is degraded.
18 tained for a given output bitrate ther efore changes with sample rate. In the Antex software the bit rate is specified on a per-c hannel ba- sis. Theref ore, requesting 64 kbit s/s and stereo will result in a 128 kbits/s com pressed MPEG stream. Supported bitrates (per channel) and compression rat ios are as f ollows: Layer I 32 KHz 44.
19 DRIVE R INST A LLA T ION WINDOWS 95 1. Aft er inst alling the card, power up the system. 2. Open Contro l Panel- Add New Hardware applet. 3. Press “Next”. 4. Select “No”. Pr ess “ Next”. 5. Select “Sound, video and game cont rollers”.
20 5. Sele ct “Driver” ta b. 6. Select antexwav.vxd, click on “Change Driver”. 7. Select "Have Disk" 8. Point to locat ion of driver files. Click “OK” . Click “OK” . 9. Select antex.drv, click on “Change Driver”. 10. Select "Have Disk" 11.
21 8. Make sure “Search f or a better driver…” is select ed. 9. Select the location of the new driver. 10. Click “Next” . Click “Next”. Click “Next”. Click “OK”. 11. Point to location of driver files ag ain. 12. Click “O K”. Click “ Finish”.
22 A NTE X A PPLIC A TION SOF TWA RE IN STA LLA T ION The Antex Demo, Mixer, and Meter program s ar e on a separate floppy disk. T he same disk is used f or W indows 95/98 and NT. The soft ware installs in the usual manner. 1. Insert the disk into the f loppy drive.
23 USING WI NDO WS DEMONSTRAT IO N SO FTWARE Figure 5. Antex Demo Program The Antex Demo prog ram allows basic recording and playback of .W AV f iles in any of the compression f ormats available on the Antex audio board you have installed in your system.
24 Compression: This list box selects specific compression formats for re- cording, and displays the compressed form at of the f ile currently playing. Not e that the Sample Rate and Com- pression for recording can only be changed when the card is in “Stop” mode.
25 Channels: These buttons select mono or stereo r ecording, and dis- play the number of channels of the current f ile. VU Meters : The VU meters show the relative signal level of the current file that is being recorded or played.
26 File: This button select s a filename f or recording or playback. Once this button has been pressed the dialog box in Figure 7 will appear. I f you hold down the “Alt” k ey while clicking on File, the dialog box shown below in Figure 8 will appear.
27 Volume: These controls allow changing the volume of the playback only. INSTA LLING AND USING MULTIPLE CARDS IN A SYSTEM W hen using mor e than one card in a system, each card must have a diff erent adapter number. This is set by using t he jumpers on top of the card.
28 Simultaneous Record and Playback MPEG MSADPCM PCM16 SX-34 No 22.05 KHz 48 KHz SX-35 No 22.05 KHz 48 KHz SX-36 32 KHz 32 KHz 48 KHz Dual Device Playback MPEG MSADPCM PCM16 SX-5e 48 KHz 32 KHz 48 KHz SX-6 48 KHz 32 KHz 48 KHz SX-34 44.1 KHz 32 KHz 48 KHz SX-35 44.
29 and right channels of a ster eo sig nal. Also, only one r ecord device is shown. The small circles with a letter inside cor respond be- tween the M ixer Diagram and t he Block Diagram .
30 “Radio pushbutton” controls G, H, I, and J determine the recor d source. Only one button on at a time is allowed. It may seem strange that button J will set the record source to Line Out . This is done to allow the use of att enuators C, D, or E t o control the record level.
31 down if the output signal f rom the Ant ex card is too loud. One ex- ception to setting both sliders at maximum is when playing 2 files simultaneously. In this case, it may be necessary to lower the sliders slightly to prevent clipping from occurring when peak s of both files occur at the same time.
32 L K A A B C D E G H I J Figure 9. SX-36 Mi xer.
33 Figure 10. SX-36 Block Di agram.
34 SX-34 MIXER AND BLOCK DIAGRA M The SX-34 diagrams are the same as t he SX-36, with the excep- tion that the SX -34 does not have the Input or Out put Tr im Con- trols.
35 Figure 12. SX-34 Block Di agram.
36 SX-6 MIXER AND BLOCK DIAGRA M Output Tr im Control B det ermines the level of the output sig nal on Line Out which corresponds to dig ital clipping. I f t he contr ol is set to +8, the maximum output signal level is +8 dBu. If the contr ol is set to +20, the m aximum output signal level is +20dBu.
37 M L B K Figure 13. SX-6 Mi xer.
38 Figure 14. SX-6 Block Di agram.
39 SX-5e MIXER AND BLOCK DIAGRA M Due to the simplicity of the SX-5e, t he Antex Mix er does not add control of any features that are not accessible throug h the Antex Demo. The Play 1 and Play 2 Sliders duplicate the f unct ion of t he sliders in the Antex Demo prog ram.
40 and controlling t he volume using t he mast er volume cont rol on the external amplifier or mixing board the Antex Card is connect ed to. One exception to setting both sliders at maximum is when playing 2 files simultaneously.
41 Figure 16. SX-5e Block Di agram.
42 ANTEX METE R The figur e below shows a typical Antex Meter window . This can be opened by running “meter .exe” or double-clicking on the meter icon. The size of the window can be changed by drag ging the side, bottom or corner of the window. The meter is sim ilar to the meter in the Ant ex Mix er or Antex Demo, but is much more f lexi- ble.
43 If you rig ht - click or double-click on the meter window , t he following window w ill pop-up: Figure 18. Antex Meter pull-dow n menu.
44 Clicking on “O ptions” will open the following window: Figure 19. Antex Meter options “Visible Lines” allows you to select which devices have VU meters displayed. “Mode” allows you to select whether the meter is peak r eading or averaging (VU) .
45 “Meter Update Interval” determ ines how often the meter pr ogram reads the level data f rom the Antex Card. Not e that even if the meter is in peak mode, peaks which occur in between the update intervals will be missed. To avoid this, the update inter v al should be 5 ms or less.
46 TROU BLESH OOTING I get an error message when tryi ng to run the Antex Demo program. 1. Card did not in stall correc tly beca use of an I/O or in terrupt conflict.
47 Files I record sound “dull ”. 1. Use a higher sample rat e. Lower sample rates reduce the high fr equency content, mak ing recording s sound dull. There is a lot of noi se or hum, even when t he Antex Card is idle. 1. There may be a wiring problem.
48 too hot. T o see if this is t he problem, does the Line O ut sound distorted when just listening to the record sour ce as a feed- through? Files recorded are of poor quali t y. 1. Some formats, bit rates, and sample rat es do not sound as good as others.
49 • If using several cards in a system, try just playing one f ile on one card. If this solves the problem , your system may not be fast enough to handle as many cards and files at once as y ou want. Using compressed f ile for mats will re- duce the amount of data required by each card.
50 A PPENDIX Connectors for Male Headers For connecting to the auxiliary connectors on the Ant ex Card, there are 2 types of connectors to use. O ne type is the individual crimp type, such as the Molex C-Grid series. For single r ow headers, the part number would be 50-57-900X, where X is t he number of cont acts.
51 milliwatt into 600 ohms, which is .775 volts RMS. dBV uses 1 volt RMS as the reference. Digital Clipping Digital clipping is the point where the Analog to Digit al converter becomes saturated. The signal is “ all ones”. For a 16 bit system, this is a v alue of +32768 or –32768.
52 Specificati ons Unless otherwise noted, THD+N and Dynamic Rang e measure- ments are done at 1KHz, A w eight ing, 48 KHz sample rate. Maximum input and output levels are for dig ital full scale. A ll Cards (as appl i cabl e): Sample rates ..........
53 SX-34: THD+N ........................................................................... .02% max Dynami c Range ............................................................... 80dB min Line Out leve l ..............................................
54 SX-5e: THD+N ................................................................................... .02% Dynami c Range ............................................................... 85dB min Line Out leve l ..........................................
55 In essence, digital audio is a t echnological process whereby an analog audio signal (pr oduced when sound waves in the air excite a microphone) is first converted into a continuous stream of num- bers (or dig its).
56 Figure 20. Analog-to-Digital To visualize the analog-to-dig ital conversion process, r efer to Figure 20. At the top is one cycle of an analog input signal wave. W e've used a simple sine wave to make visualization easier. In this example, the sig nal has a peak-t o-peak amplit ude of 20 units, measured by the scale on the lef t.
57 Digital-t o-analog conv ersion (used in playback) is the exact oppo- site of the analog -to dig ital conversion process and is illustrat ed in Figure 21.
58 The for egoing is a very brief and, of necessity, oversimplif ied ex- planation of how digital audio work s. For the interest ed reader, the book Principles of Digital Audio by Ken C. Pohlmann, copy- right 1985 by Howard W . Sam s, is highly recommended.
An important point after buying a device Antex electronics SX-34 (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought Antex electronics SX-34 yet, this is a good time to familiarize yourself with the basic data on the product. First of all view first pages of the manual, you can find above. You should find there the most important technical data Antex electronics SX-34 - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, Antex electronics SX-34 you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get Antex electronics SX-34 will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of Antex electronics SX-34, but have not read the manual yet, you should do it for the reasons described above. You will learn then if you properly used the available features, and whether you have not made any mistakes, which can shorten the lifetime Antex electronics SX-34.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with Antex electronics SX-34. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device Antex electronics SX-34 along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
