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Slink-e / CDJ Discussion Archive #8

Re: Auto-switching analog sources?

Posted By: Justin Gillis <justin_dc@h...>
Date: 6/29/00 11:22am

In Response To: Auto-switching analog sources? (Scott)

Scott, you are getting no answer because the premise of the question makes no sense. An analog mixer by definition mixes sources together. Why would you need to auto-switch the sources? If you were using a commercial mixer in a Slink-e setup you would just set each CD player to pass through its full signal. CDJ will switch between the sources--that is, after all, what it is designed to do--and you will get a perfectly nice musical blend out of your speakers. CDJ will even cross-fade between CD carousels if you want it to. No switching is needed beyond what CDJ already does.

For this purpose, commercial mixers are really overkill--you do not need the ability to fade sources up and down manually. And decent commercial mixers are expensive...the $100 models that Radio Shack sells are garbage and will mess up your sound. Your best bet may be to take a look at Colby's mixer designs on the link below. I have built the analog mixer, which is incredibly easy and works quite well. I'm about to try building the active mixer to see how much better it sounds. The AD-797 op-amp at the heart of the design is available directly from Analog Devices and other parts can be bought at Radio Shack, ordered from their Web site or ordered at the likes of www.jameco.com or www.digikey.com.

Finally, if you want to skip analog entirely and feed a digital music stream into an outboard decoder or directly into an amp, the Nirvis DXS is the best solution. It will auto-switch sources, though you lose the ability to cross-fade that you have in an analog set-up. You get slightly better sound and, with the right output module, you can use coax cable to distribute a digital signal to another room hundreds of feet away if you want. Be aware however that the DXS does not co-exist well with Sony amplifiers, which tend to lose their lock on a signal every time the DXS switches. They re-lock about two seconds later, but that's enough of a delay to clip the beginning of a song--a very unpleasant problem. Amplifiers from other manufacturers tend not to have this problem and to co-exist well with the DXS, as do virtually all outboard decoders.

Colby's Mixer Designs

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