I have to say that solving the mystery of this hardware arrangement was both hilarious and extremely frustrating. Trying to catch one of 6 pins being rearranged is easy to overlook. Always check this and you’ll save yourself a lot of headache! Whoever designed this Amanero at Leaf Audio decided to switch up the DSD On pins. The DSD On pins simply turns the LED on when playing, which is why it is optional for most scenarios. Go to Amanero’s website and look at the reference boards, keep in mind the orientation it would be when installed vs. your direction at the DAC. Once I spotted this it was smooth sailing and I have been in a sonic heaven since! Looking forward to this review now that I know everything is finally working to its full potential!
Note: due to the fact that the pin arrangement is changed, you will be unable to get this to work using a ribbon cable no matter what you do. To use the Leaf Audio pictured below you need individual data lines that can be put into any order.
(Leaf Audio Amanero ONLY) I2S Header Looking from the USB input end (left to right):
GND | MCLK | LRCLK (or FSCLK) | BCLK | DATA | DSD On (<– Optional Pin, also called DSD0E)
(ES9038P DAC) Now the reference arrangement from the USB input end (left to right) is:
GND | DSD On (<—Optional Pin) | MCLK | LRCLK | BCLK | DATA
So just having the DSD On pin in the wrong place wrecks havoc. Please check your USB to I2S devices to ensure their pin pattern follow the ES9038P pattern (if you are using a similar DAC).
Once again, the correct pattern for my DAC here is:
GND | DSD On (<—Optional Pin) | MCLK | LRCLK | BCLK | DATA
Just to make this extremely clear, on your DAC’s I2S input, only 3 of them have 10k resistors and they are in a row on one side of the I2S row. This order is with the screen side of the DAC closest to you, left to right is:
(closest to ESS IC –>) DATA | BCLK | LRCK (<— also called FSCLK, closest to op-amps)
