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AVR400 MAIN ASSEMBLY
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AVR400 Power Amplier Circuit Description
Apart from the power transformer, the power amplier electronics is fully contained on the large
double sided PTH PCB and heatsink located at the bottom of the AVR400. This is called the Main Board
on the schematic diagrams (pages 11 and 12). The Main Board also contains the mains input circuitry, in-
cluding the safety fuses and standby power transformer, so great care should be exercised when probing this
area of the board.
Note that some small surface mount components are soldered to the underside of this PCB.
The 7 power ampliers are identical in terms of circuitry, although necessary compromises in the physical layout may give rise to slight dierences in measured noise, crosstalk and distortion performance.
The two channels at the extreme ends of the heatsink have less radiating area available to them and will
run hotter under load – this is not normally an issue as these are assigned to the SBL and SBR channels.
Looking from the rear of the AVR, facing the at face of the heatsink, the channel order is SBR, SR, FR,
C, FL, SL and SBL, the same order as the loudspeaker terminals. The SBL and SBR channels can also be
assigned to zone 2 or as duplicates of the FL and FR channels for when passively biamping the main
stereo loudspeakers. In this latter condition we recommend assigning the SBL and SBR outputs to the
tweeters of the FL and FR speakers, in order to minimize the power ampliers’ heat dissipation.
Note that the 8 pre-amplier outputs are also on this PCB – apart from SUB their phono sockets are
eectively in parallel with the power amplier inputs, which are fed from the Input Board via a ribbon
cable and CON103. This connector also carries 5 power supply and power amplier control signals to
and from the system microprocessor (μP) IC151 situated on the Input Board above the Main Board.
The ampliers’ power supply is provided from a centre-tapped secondary winding on the toroidal
power transformer, via the connector BN508, to the bridge rectier D5830. This is mounted on a
small PCB near the top of the heatsink. The rectied AC is then sent to the main PCB via connectors
BN581/582. To avoid induced hum and distortion it is important to keep these cables twisted tightly
together and well away from the actual power amplier circuitry. The main 15,000μF 80V reservoir
capacitors, C835 and C836, are positioned on the main PCB well away from the power amplier input
traces and close to the system star ground. The smoothed DC is fed to the power ampliers’ Vcc and
Vee lines near the centre of the heatsink via a twisted-pair cable, again to minimize induction into the
power ampliers. Vcc and Vee are typically +/- 52V at 234VAC with no signal. Q5845 sends a fraction of
Vcc to the muting control on the Input Board.
The FL (front left) channel will now be described in detail.
The input stage is a long tailed pair Q5101 and Q5102, with local degeneration provided by R5105 and
R5107. The tail is fed from the negative rail via an approx 3mA ring-of-two constant current source,
Q5109 and Q5110. R5101 and C5101 at the input provide high frequency rollo and help keep residual
DAC ultrasonic noise above 100kHz out of the power amplier. DC blocking is provided by C5102 at
the input and C5107 in the feedback loop so that the whole power amplier has unity gain at DC. The
midband AC gain is 22000/680 = 32.35 after allowing for the attenuation provided by R5101 and R5102.
Thus 875mV at the input produces 100W into 8 ohms at the output.
The long tailed pair’s collectors are loaded by a current mirror, Q5103 and Q5104. The resistors R5103/4
and R5105/6 are 1% tolerance to minimize even order distortion. The collector of Q5101 also feeds the
Darlington class A voltage amplier stage (VAS) made up of Q5115 and Q5116. Q5113 is loaded by the
output stage and the 8mA constant current source made up by Q5125 and Q5126. The amplier’s main
frequency compensation network (for stability) comprises C5115 plus the combination of C5116 and
R 5115. This adds gain inside the loop (two pole compensation) at high audio frequencies so that the
additional feedback further reduces high frequency distortion and crossover distortion within the audio
band.
These stages are partially decoupled from the Vcc and Vee power supplies by D5130/R5130/C5130 and
D5129/R5129/C5129 respectively. They are also bootstrapped to the amplier output via the networks
R5118/C5128/R5128 and R5117/C5127/R5127. This raises the supply lines by approximately 3V at full
output to avoid clipping the driver stage prematurely.
The output stage comprises classic complementary emitter followers Q5150/Q5170 (NPN) and Q5160/
Q5180 (PNP). The On Semiconductor output transistors have a current gain that is sustained to about
10 amps and a very large safe operating area, which allows the ampliers to drive low impedances well.
They also have built-in thermal compensation diodes which helps stabilize the quiescent current both
statically (when hot) and dynamically (when playing music at high level) – this minimizes crossover
distortion and improves sound quality.
The output stage biasing is performed in the network around the amplied diode Q5120, which is
mounted in intimate thermal contact with the driver transistor Q5130, plus the two built-in diodes
associated with the output transistors. The thermistor R5122 is positioned on the PCB close to the
heatsink and provides extra downward compensation at very high temperatures. Bias is set by VR51 and
is largely independent of temperature – it should be set to16-20mV when measured across the outer
terminals of the compound emitter resistor R5175, using the 2 pin connector CN51, 5 minutes or more
after the AVR400 is powered up.
The power amplier output is routed across the PCB to the back panel. It includes a Zobel network
(sometimes called a Boucherot cell) R5183/C5183 and a series inductor L5185 damped by a 4.7R 2W resistor R5184. These components help isolate the amplier from reactive loads to ensure high frequency
stability. One half of the normally-o relay RL52 is used to switch the load in and out.
Each power amplier is protected against overload in a number of ways. The complementary transistors
Q5130 and Q5131 protect the NPN half of the output stage and Q5140 and Q5141 the PNP half. They
operate as Sziklai pairs, passing negligible current until a threshold voltage of approx 600mV is reached
across R5132 and R5142. Between 600 and 700mV the pairs then ramp up current smoothly, diverting it
away from the bases of Q5150 and Q5160 to limit the output stage drive to a safe level, within the power
transistors’ SOA (safe operating area). The 600mV threshold voltage depends upon both the instantaneous current and voltage across the output transistors, set by the networks R5132/R5136/R5137/R5138/
R5175 for the top half and R5142/R5146/R5147/R5148/R5175 for the bottom half. R5135/R5145 and the
zener diodes D5135/D5145 change the slope of the protection locus at high Vce voltages. R5134/R5135
plus C5134/C5145 prevent fast transients and brief overloads from prematurely triggering the protection.
The above dual slope SOA protection is self resetting but if a gross overload persists for more than a
second or two (such as when a channel’s output is short circuited with music playing at a moderate to
loud level) then the open collector transistor Q5181 sinks current for long enough to initiate the amplier’s full shutdown procedure via the line SOA_PROTECT. This can also be triggered by a total output
stage failure (which passes enough current through R5175 to turn on Q5188) via OVERLOAD or by an
excessive DC oset at the output terminals (via R5185) via V_DET. All these signals, and others, feed into
the protection module, described below.
The protection module comprises 8 transistors and associated parts positioned at the back of the PCB
near the preamplier output sockets. It has a single output line named PROTECT which, when pulled
down from Vcc to ground, instructs the system μP IC151 to shut down the whole amplier. This occurs
when any of the following events happen:
1) Any amplier channel pulls current through the SOA_PROTECT line for long enough to charge
up capacitors C5871 and then C5872 so that Q5874 turns on.
2) Any amplier channel pulls current through the OVERLOAD line for long enough to charge up
C5882 and turn on Q5882 and thus Q5884.
3) Any amplier channel has a large long term (DC) oset (typically greater than +/-3V) sμFcient
to charge up C5861 enough to turn on either Q5862 (positive oset) or Q 5864 (negative oset).
These then turn on Q5863. N.B. This circuit is also used to detect imbalances in both the Vcc/Vee
and +/-15V power supplies (the latter is generated on the Power Supply board).
4) When the PTC thermistor TH585 mounted at the top centre of the heatsink gets sμFciently hot
(around 100C) and thus high resistance enough to cause Q5855 to turn on via the +12V supply.
Intermediate temperatures will not activate PROTECT but will provide signals to the level detectors associated with the FAN_1 and FAN_2 lines, to run the cooling fans at high or low speeds
respectively.
Note that the fans’ 12V supply is gated via Q5909 and Q5911. This means the fans will not run when
no signal is present on the FL, C or SR channels, so that during quiet passages no fan noise should be
audible.
AVR400 Main Power Supplies Circuit Description
The main DC power supplies are located on the Power Supply Board - a double sided PTH PCB adjacent
to the Main Board. Note that the mains input switching, mains fuses, standby power transformer with
its associated unregulated DC supply and the relay for enabling the power amplier supply rails are
located on the Main Board. The two boards communicate via CON501.
Considering the Main Board rst, the mains voltage switching uses a double pole double throw slide
switch accessible from the back panel. One pole addresses the standby transformer and the other the
toroidal power transformer. Ensure the switch setting matches the supply voltage before switching on the AVR400. Nominal settings are 115 and 230V +/- 15%. The 20mm 115V fuse in line with the toroidal transformer is rated at 15A T (Time delay) and the 20mm 230V fuse is rated at 8A T. Always replace these fuses with the same type and value. The standby transformer T5941 is not fused but is designed to go open
circuit in case of overheating (e.g. if left connected to a 230V supply for longer than a few minutes when
the mains voltage selector is set to 115V).
The standby transformer generates approximately +9V DC via the bridge rectier diodes D5495/6/7/8
and the 1,000μF reservoir capacitor C5947.This is sent via pin 7 of CN501 to the Power Supply PCB
(confusingly marked as 5V). The rail voltage is also routed to the system microprocessor (μP) via D5965/
R5965 and pin 6 of CN103 as POWER_MUTE.
The 5V relay RY594 is normally open. When the mains switch is closed then the SUB_POWER rail (approx
+4.3V) is activated from the Power Supply PCB via the standby transformer. When the system has
booted correctly, without any shutdown signals, then the POWER_RELAY signal from the system μP also
goes high, pulling down Q5947 hard. Only then does the relay close and switch on the main toroidal
power transformer, enabling the rest of the system to boot up.
Now consider the Power Supply Board, found on page 14 of the schematic. This generates all the main
DC supplies for the AVR400 except +Vcc and -Vee for the power ampliers and the non-logic part of the
VFD display requirements of the Front Panel Board. Note that additional local regulation also takes place
on the other PCBs, e.g. for large digital ICs.
Two secondary windings from the toroidal power transformer are fed in via CN63. Pins 1, 2 and 3 connect to a centre-tapped secondary winding used to generate approx +/- 20VDC via the bridge rectier
diodes D603/3/4/5 and the 2,200μF 35V reservoir capacitors C609 and C610. R603 and R604 are 0.47R 1W
fusible resistors for circuit protection – if they fail replace only with the same type and value.
The 3 terminal regulators IC63 and IC62 are mounted on two of the larger heatsinks near the back of the
amplier. These provide +/-15V to the op amps on the amplier’s Input Board via the 11-way connector
BN62. The Input Board also then routes the +/-15V onwards to the Front Panel Board.
Pins 4 and 5 of CN63 receive AC from another transformer secondary to generate approx +15VDC via the
heatsink mounted bridge rectier D601 and the 18,000μF 25V reservoir capacitor C631. F601 and F602
are hard wired 6.3Amp T (time delay) fuses for circuit protection – if they fail replace only with the same type
and value.
This +15V unregulated supply has 4 main outputs:-
1) It is regulated down to +12V with the low dropout (LDO) 3 terminal regulator IC64. This is situated on the heatsink closest to the Main Board, near the back panel. Its output goes to BN62 for
the +12V triggers and also to CN501, to drive the power ampliers’ cooling fans.
2) It supplies the HDMI Board via CN61. To minimize ripple currents in the ground return, Q643 is
wired as a low dropout voltage follower with low pass ltering via R650 and C569.
3) It feeds the switched mode buck regulator IC61 via L631 and C615. The tank circuit comprises
L632, C640 and C641, discharged via D631. R636 and C643 make up a snubber to reduce overshoot. This provides a high current +5V supply to the Input Board via pins 4 and 5 of BN62. This
5V supply also feeds two 3V3 linear regulators, IC67 and IC68. These in turn supply the audio DSP
ICs on the Input Board via pins 10 and 11 of BN62.
4) It feeds the +5V 3 terminal LDO regulator IC66 via the diode D616, which itself is preceded by the
smoothing network comprising R615 (2W 15R) and C615. Note IC66’s output is actually approx
+5.7V because of D644 in its ground line; this is brought back to +5V after D643, to feed the relay
IC66 is noteworthy because it continues working when the amplier is in standby.
It takes a second input from the +9V standby power supply on the Power Amplier PCB – D616 acts as a
gate to prevent this from feeding back to the +15V supply when the system is in standby. It also allows
the +15V supply to override and remove the load from the +9V supply when the amplier is fully booted
up.
D606 and D607 form half of a second bridge rectier (with the other two diodes coming from the full
bridge rectier D601). These diodes charge up the 1μF/50V capacitor C604 to +15V, generating a “mains
power present” signal. The 10K resistor R614 in parallel with C604 continually discharges it so that this
signal eectively disappears within about 50 milliseconds of the mains being switched o. This +15V
goes to the Main Board via pin 8 of BN62, where it is used as a “pull up” signal to help control the various audio muting circuits.
AVR400 Front Panel Board Circuit Description
The Front Panel Board is a double-sided PTH PCB. It contains the VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) and
its associated electronics, plus the keyboard, power status LED, IR remote receiver and headphones
amplier. A daughter board carries the front panel I/O socketry. See page 1 of the schematic diagram.
It communicates with the Input Board via CN101 and a 31 way ribbon cable. Other connectors comprise
CN94 which connects to two secondaries of the main power transformer and the hard wired BN93
which connects up the daughter board.
There are two associated break o boards. One houses the front panel mounted single pole mains
switch plus its suppression capacitor C901 and a connector BN502. The second is mounted on the
power ampliers’ heatsink and is used to route power to the cooling fans and also to guide the 31 way
ribbon cable.
The VFD draws AC lament power from a centre tapped winding of the power transformer connected
to pins 1, 2, and 3 of CN94. The centre tap connects to ground via the zener diodes D901/2 and C903
to provide the lament with its required DC oset. Pins 4 and 5 connect to a relatively high voltage
transformer secondary which is half wave rectied by D916 and smoothed by C907 and C960. The zener
diodes D903 and D904 in series with R906 generate +40V which is then coupled to the emitter follower
Q901 to provide a nominal regulated 40V HT power rail for the VFD.
The VFD’s internal driver IC and external data bμFfer IC901 run from the main +5V supply generated in
the Power Supply board and routed onwards through the Input Board. The drive signals (data, clock,
chip select and reset) come directly from the system microprocessor via CN101.
The 12 front panel switches are arranged in 2 blocks of 6 with resistive divider chains connected to two
ADC inputs on the system micro. These have 10K pull-up resistors at the system μP end to complete the
potential divider chains. The pnp switching transistors Q906 and Q907 turn on the 3V3 supply from the
system μP via another 10K pull-up resistor at the μP end to provide interrupt control.
The power status LED D905 is a tri-colour type. The green side indicates power on and the red side
standby. A high signal on the LED net turns on Q902 and Q903. This turns o the npn Q913 to disable
the red LED and turns on the pnp Q912 to enable power to the green LED. The reverse is true when the
LED line is low. Pulling the STB(LED) line low when the LED line is also low powers both LEDs and gives
a yellow light to show when the unit is booting up. Note that the power supply is STBY+5V to allow the
red LED to operate in standby mode.
RC901 is a Kodenshi KSM603TH5B encapsulated infra red receiver for processing commands from an
external IR remote control. It is designed to work with the 36-38kHz carrier frequencies associated with
the Philips RC5 protocol. Note that it operates from the ST+5V rail to enable the AVR400 to be woken up.
It does not demodulate the IR – this is done by the system microprocessor.
The headphones amplier IC902 drives external headphones directly via the 330μF series capacitors
C935 and C936. IC902 has a gain of about 4, meaning that the headphones output will be about 4V rms
when the volume control is set to clip the L and R main power ampliers (equivalent to about 120WPC
into 8 ohms). IC902 is a JRC NJM5556AL capable of driving 7V rms into150 ohm loads and about +/100mA peak current into lower impedances. Mute transistors Q904/905 in series with 100R resistors are
tted in front of its input to minimize switching transients and it is powered from the +/-15V supplies
generated on the Power Supply Board.
The L and R headphones outputs go via BN93 to the Headphones Board, after passing through relay
RL902 which is normally o. A positive voltage from the μP at the emitter of pnp Q911 turns on Q911
and generates the same positive voltage at the base of the npn transistor Q909. Because its emitter is
connected to the -15V rail this pulls the relay on.
The FRONT AUX and MIC inputs come from the Headphones Board and through the microphone relay
RL901. When the relay is o the AUX line level L and R signals are switched through to the unity gain
bμFfer IC904 and then on to the Input Board via pins 3 and 1 of CON101. When the relay is closed (in
the same manner as described above for RL902) then the L front input is routed to the low noise microphone amplier IC903. This operates as two cascaded virtual earth ampliers, each with a voltage gain
of approximately 21 (R961/960 and then R965/962). Note the MIC line is biased at +6V via resistors R956,
R957 and R958. The amplied signal is output to the Input Board on pin 5 of CON101.
AVR400 Input Board Circuit Description
The Input Board comprises a 4 layer PCB; this is attached directly to the back panel via its various sockets and to the heatsink by two steel brackets. It is positioned underneath the HDMI Board and above
the Main Board. 5 ribbon cable sockets connect it to the other 4 boards. CN71 connects it to a daughter
board containing two 9 Pin D socket connectors (an RS232 serial port and an iPod dock interface), plus
two 12V trigger sockets and 2 IR receiver sockets. Note some passive components are mounted on the
underside of the PCB.
The Input Board circuitry is shown on pages 2 – 5 of the schematic diagram.
Page 2 covers the analogue inputs, volume control and line level outputs.
Page 3 covers the SPDIF (digital) inputs, clock recovery, audio DSPs and the codec (stereo ADC plus
8-channel DAC).
Page 4 covers the system microprocessor and a slaved support microprocessor
Page 5 covers interfaces to the DAB/Ethernet module, and the boot loader microprocessor used to
update the system SW via USB.
Analogue inputs, volume control and outputs
IC101 is a Renesas R2A15218FP analogue multiplexer and volume control, with a gain range of +42 to
-95dB in 0.5dB steps. It is digitally controlled from the system microprocessor via the I2C bus on pins 49
and 50. A high logic signal on pin 51 enables the system mute. IC101 has +/- 7V supplies generated from
the +/-15V rails with the regulators IC102 and IC103.
All stereo external line level inputs using phono sockets are routed to IC101 via 100R/220pF low pass
CR lters. IC101 also handles the AUX-L, AUX-R and the (mono) MIC_SIGNAL setup microphone inputs
coming from the front panel, plus the internal stereo outputs from AM/FM tuners (TUN-L and TUN-R)
and the DAB/ethernet receiver (VENICE_L and VENICE_R). IC101 additionally switches two multichannel
signals - the 8 channel direct input and the outputs from the 8 post-DAC lters. Note that the +/- 7V
power supply limits the input signals to approximately 4V rms before overload occurs.
The post-DAC lters comprise 4 low noise NJM2068 dual op amps, running from the +/- 7V supplies.
One op amp is assigned to each channel and performs the dual functions of converting a dierential
input from the DAC to a single ended output, whilst simultaneously functioning as a three pole 50kHz
active lter.
The AM/FM tuner module’s outputs pass through the inductors L310 and L302 (providing 19kHz notch
and 38 kHz low pass ltering) and the shunt mute circuits formed by the 330R resistors R354/R369 and
the two halves of Q306 plus Q307.
IC101 has a xed level stereo output for Zone 2 (SUB_L and SUB_R) and a second one, adjustable from
0dB to -18dB in 6dB steps, for the AVR400’s analogue to digital converter (ADC_L and ADC_R).
IC101 has one 8 channel variable level output bus labelled VOL01 through to VOL08. Capacitors C295-8
and C231-4 oat the ground ends of the associated internal potentiometers to minimize clicks This bus
goes via specially selected 100μF/25V capacitors to the dual op amps IC121-124, wired as voltage followers and running from the +/- 15V supplies. The C, SL, SR, SBL and SBR outputs are shunt muted when
required via the 560R resistors R383-388 and the dual transistors Q303-305.
The subwoofer output SW has two shunt mute circuits. One using Q311 works in parallel with the rest of
the channels. The other, using Q308 and half of Q303 allows muting of the SW channel alone.
The FL and FR channels take o the stereo headphones amplier feed from IC121 (it goes via the connector WF101 to the Front Panel Board), then add an extra dual voltage follower IC125 and a double
pole shunt mute switch using 4 x 270R resistors and Q301-302. All the above ICs are JRC NJM2068s or
equivalent.
All 8 of these outputs go to via the connector WF103 to the preamplier output sockets and (except for
the subwoofer output) to the 7 power amplier inputs located on the Main Board.
The ADC input ampliers use a JRC NJM2068 for each channel, operating as a single-ended input to
dierential output converter, with HF ltering above about 400kHz. This is sμFcient for anti-aliasing
purposes as the analogue modulator of the ADC samples at 6.144 MHz and only needs to keep out
frequencies above 6MHz.
The array of 12 switching transistors in the bottom right hand corner of the schematic is arranged in
4 blocks of 3 devices (two npn and one pnp per block). The array is used to control the muting of 4
specic groups of audio outputs, taking into account the presence of AC mains via P_U (the pull up line
from the Power Supply board) and the MUTE_POWER line derived from the power ampliers’ Vcc rail
– this is normally high when Vcc is high. The output lines are SB_MUTE2 (for the surround back channels SBL and SBR), ZONE2_MUTE2, HP_MUTE2 (for the headphones relay on the Front Panel board) and
FUNC_MUTE2 (for the 6 main audio channels excluding SBL and SBR).
Zone 2 volume is independently adjustable in 1dB steps via IC131 (rohm BD3812F). Its outputs are
bμFfered and amplied 15dB by the dual op amp IC132 and can be muted when required by Q402. The
output goes directly to two phono sockets forming half of JK11 on the back panel.
SPDIF inputs, ADCs, DACs and Audio DSPs
The AVR400 has 4 coaxial 75 ohm SPDIF (Sony/Philips Digital InterFace) inputs and 2 TOSLINK optical
inputs on its back panel. A further optical input is located on the front panel as part of JK92 (this socket
also includes the AUX and MIC inputs). There are 6 further external SPDIF inputs - one per HDMI input
socket and one on the HDMI output socket (the Audio Return Channel or ARC).
Each of the 4 coaxial inputs is bμFfered by two NOR gates, contained in IC159 and IC160, before being
switched by one half of the dual 4 input multiplexer IC147. The output on pin 7 is then sent to the 8
input multiplexer IC140. Its other 6 inputs comprise the 3 optical receivers already mentioned, the HDMI
input (multiplexed down from 5:1 on the HDMI board), the HDMI ARC and the output of the Venice 6
DAB/Ethernet module. The 8th input is unused. The output MUX_SPDIF is sent to the SPDIF receiver
IC153.
IC153 is a Wolfson WM8804 run in hardware mode. It uses X707 to generate its own 12MHz internal
clock. IC153 automatically identies and dejitters incoming SPDIF signals with sample rates of 32kHz,
44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz and 192kHz. Its output, still in SPDIF format, WM_SPDIF, is sent to pin 43
of the system codec IC143.
IC143 is the Cirrus Logic CS42548. It includes an SPDIF receiver, 2 channel ADC and 8 channel DAC. Only
one input (pin 43) of the SPDIF receiver is used; the others are grounded.
IC143 has +5V analogue supplies, locally decoupled to analogue ground by C721/722 for VA (pin 24)
and C703/704 for VARX (pin 41). The digital supply is also +5V, decoupled to digital ground by C705/706
(pin 5) and C750/756 (pin 51). The control port power VLC (pin 6) is 3V3, decoupled to digital ground by
C752/773 and the serial port power VLS (pin 53) is also +3V3, decoupled to digital ground by R726 and
C753/754. The 3V3 is generated from the +5V supply by the linear regulator IC148.
The system master audio clock is generated by IC143 on pin 55 whenever an SPDIF signal is present (i.e.
in all cases except when an HDMI multichannel signal in I2S is required to be processed or when using
the ADC). Although IC143 has no jitter rejection below 20kHz its master clock is kept clean from incoming jitter by IC153. The PLL lter is located at pin 39. When SPDIF is not in use IC143 inputs its clock on
pin 59 – this can be 24.576 MHz from the crystal oscillator X701 associated with DSP1 when ADC mode is
engaged, or the recovered clock from the HDMI Board. This is switched by the 4 way change over multiplexer IC145 on pins 9, 10 and 11. IC145 also routes IC143’s recovered master clock or the HDMI master
clock to DSP1 on pins 5, 6 and 7.
Pins 1, 62, 63 and 64 receive the 24 bit serial audio data that has been processed by the DSPs.
The DAC’s 8 analogue outputs are in dierential mode, so making 16 output lines in total, from pins
20-23 and 26-37. These feed the post-DAC lters IC111-114, described above.
The main audio DSP is a Cirrus Logic CS 497024, IC141.This is a 300MIPS dual core 32 bit xed point DSP,
with 72 bit accumulators. The rst core is used for decoding standard and high denition audio formats
(Dolby, DTS etc) and the second is reserved for post processing such as bass management, delay and
room correction. The secondary DSP, IC142, is a Cirrus Logic CS49DV8, responsible for the Dolby Volume
processing. IC141 gets the 1.8V for its core from the 3-terminal regulator IC149. IC142 gets its 1.8V from
IC150. The 3V3_1 and 3V3_2 supplies for these regulators are generated on the Power Supply Board.
IC141, 142 and 143 communicate with the system microprocessor via an SPI bus. For IC141 and IC142
the chip select lines are on pin 6, the clock is on pin 126, the MISO line on pin 124 and the MOSI on
pin 123. For IC 143 the corresponding pins are pins 10, 7, 8 and 9. Note that the 3 chips receive data on
a common line but transmit to the μP on two separate ones (DSPDATA for both DSPs and D_OUT for
IC143).
IC141 communicates with its external memory via a 36 line data bus running at 150MHz. This is needed
when providing lip sync delay for audio accompanied by video. IC144 is a 200MHz 16Mbit SDRAM, organized as 512Kbits x 16bits x 2. It is powered from the board’s 3V3 line via 6 pins, with local decoupling
provided by C758-763.
The DSPs’ programs are stored in two external 3V3 SPI ash memory chips – IC106 (8Mbit) for IC141 and
IC107 (4Mbit) for IC142.
IC141 has two sets of I2S data inputs. DAI (pins 23, 24, 26, 27 for data, pin 29 for the system clock and pin
30 for the LR clock) is for up to 8 channels from the HDMI Board via connector WF104.
DA2 (pins 32 for the LR clock, 33 for system clock and 34 for data) is for audio from the codec IC143. This
includes bitstream SPDIF such as Dolby Digital, uncompressed two channel I2S audio decoded from
SPDIF and ADC generated I2S two channel audio.
The DSP master clock is input on pin 40 of IC141 from pin 9 of IC145 as noted earlier.
IC141 also has two sets of I2S data outputs. DA1 is an 8 channel I2S signal (pins 47, 48, 49 and 51) shown
as part of the bus DA0(04:07). This feeds the input of the second DSP IC142 (on pins 23, 24, 26 and 27).
The system clock is on pin 52 of IC141 and the LR clock on pin 54. These go to pins 29 and 30 of IC142.
DA2 is a stereo I2S output (pin 43 for data, pin 44 for the system clock and pin 46 for the LR clock). This
feeds the HDMI board via WF104 and the octal bus switch IC146. The DSP master clock output from
pin 9 of IC145 follows the same route. An SPDIF output from pin 35 of IC141 goes directly to pin 12 of
WF104.
There is one set of 8 channel I2S outputs from IC142 – DA1 (pins 47, 48, 49 and 51). These form part of
the data bus DA0(00:03) where they are routed back to the DACs in IC143 (pins 62, 64, 63 and1 respectively). The I2S system clock and LR clock (pins 52 and 54) also go directly to IC143 (pins 2 and 3).
System Control Microprocessors
There are 3 microprocessors on the Input Board, the main, the sub and the USB micro. The latter is also
kept separate in order to perform upgrades over USB.
The AVR400’s main system microprocessor IC151 is a Toshiba T5CN5 microcontroller. This has an ARM
Cortex 3 core with 512KB of ROM and 32KB of ash memory. It is a 3V3 part, with this power supply
being derived from the main 5V supply via the 3-terminal regulator IC156. It has a 40MHz system clock
derived from crystal X702 and a real time clock from the 32.768 kHz crystal X708.
IC152 is a 32Kbit EEPROM for retaining system settings at power down.
IC155 is a MOSFET switch to enable the HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronic Control) bus when the unit is
powered up, and to isolate the parts of the bus external to the AVR400 when it is powered down.
IC151 has several sets of comms busses - SPI, I2C and UARTs - depending on which system or peripheral
ICs are being addressed. SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) is a fast 3-wire interface (clock, transmit and
receive) with chip select being addressed by individual I/Os. I2C (Inter Integrated Circuit) is a relatively
slow bidirectional 2-wire interface, with open-collector/source clock and transmit/receive busses, each
with a pull up resistor, and a limited number of embedded chip addresses. UART stands for Universal
Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter and is a form of bus that takes bytes of information and turns them
into serial data on a bus before reassembling them into bytes at the other end.
SPI is used to talk to the codec IC143 and the two DSPs IC141 and IC142.
I2C is used for both the main and zone 2 volume controls IC101 and IC131. I2C also connects to the sub
micro IC154 and to the NJW1321 video input decoders IC81 and IC81.
IC151’s UARTs are used for USB Tx/Rx, the Torino (video processor) Tx/Rx and the external RS232 Tx/Rx.
Further UARTs on the sub micro IC154 communicate with the Venice 6.2 DAB/Ethernet receiver and
the iPod external interface. IC154 is a Toshiba M333FWFG ARM Cortex 3 microcontroller with 128K ROM
and 8K of ash, eectively used as a helper for IC151. Its 3V3 power supply regulator IC158 runs from the
board’s main 5V supply.
The USB micro (“Bolero”) IC162 is a Toshiba TMP92FD28FG, a 32-bit CISC microcontroller with a built-in
USB2 host controller capable of supporting 12Mbps. Its primary function is to provide a “bullet-proof”
system updating process via an external USB stick. When the AVR400 is powered up IC162 rst self
boots, then interrogates the rest of the system – if it receives the wrong response (e.g. if a previous
update failed part way through) then the unit will appear dead. However IC162 will be constantly inter-
rogating the USB socket and insertion of a clean USB stick containing only the system rmware will
initiate a complete recovery automatically.
IC164 is a MiniLogic ML61C282PR precision voltage detector, with a threshold of 2.8V, built in hysteresis
and a CMOS output, used to reset IC162 at power on.
IC163 is an Intersil USB switch, type ISL54220, which routes the USB socket on the rear panel either to
the Venice 6.2 module, for normal audio applications, or to IC162 when the system SW is being upgraded from a USB stick. Note that it is positioned underneath the Venice 6.2 module, close to the USB
socket.
The USB high side power switch IC168 is close to IC163. It is a Richtek RT9702A fed from the main +5V
power supply. It is rated at 1.1 amps output and can ag up a fault condition on the USB bus from pin 3;
this is routed to IC162.
The Frontier Silicon Venice 6.2WB module is plugged into the input board via a 64 way connector CN62. This WB version of the module supports Band 3 DAB/DAB+ digital radio for use in Europe,
Australia, Canada, Korea and other Digital Radio markets. It also supports USB2, and Ethernet up to 100
Mb/s, enabling the AVR400 to be a network audio client. A spare copy of the AVR400’s unique MAC
(Media Access Controller) address can be found on the screening can of the Venice 6.2 module. Its FM
radio function is not used.
The Venice 6.2 is operated in slave mode via the UART pins 9 and 10 on CN62. These connect to the sub
micro IC154. The USB I/O signal pins are 11 and 12, routed to the USB switch IC163. The other USB pins
are not used. Pins 26, 27, 28 and 29 make up an SPI bus to work with the Ethernet PHY IC161 (pin 33
receives interrupts from IC161).
Audio is decoded inside the Venice 6 (i.e. from AAC, FLAC, MP3, WMA or WAV) and sent out by two
routes. Pin 32 carries an SPDIF signal (at 48ks/s) for the main system and pins 64 and 63 carry L/R linear
audio for zone 2 to the volume control IC101.
The Venice 6.2 requires +3V3 at up to 300mA average and +1V2 at 200mA average for the core of its
main processor. 3V3 is provided from the main +5V supply via the three terminal regulator IC165 – this
also provides the soft start signal to pin 2 of the 1V2 regulator IC167 (also fed from +5V with some voltage drop provided by diodes D803/4). Both regulators are SM types, positioned underneath the Venice
6.2 module.
IC161 is a Micrel KSZ8851 single port Fast Ethernet MAC/PHY controller with an SPI interface. It has a
12KB receive bμFfer and a 6KB transmit bμFfer. It has its own 25MHz crystal oscillator X777. Its 4 I/Osgo
to the Ethernet socket JK52 on the back panel. Its +3V3 power rail is derived from the board’s +5V
supply via the three terminal regulator IC166.
AVR400 RS232 board
This is a daughter board connected to the Input Board via an 18 way plug and socket BN71. The circuitry
is shown on page 14 of the schematic diagram.
It contains two 9 way D-type board mounted plugs JK71 and JK72. JK71 is for RS232 control of the
AVR400. JK72 is used to control an iPod or iPhone via an Arcam rDock or rLead (the latter also supports
iPads).
The RS232 dual transmitter and receiver IC73 is an ST3232 run from the standby +5V supply via D721/
R727 and a series pnp transistor Q722 in common emitter mode referred to the +12V rail. Q721 provides
the necessary level shifting. IC73 includes internal charge pumps to convert CMOS logic level inputs
to +/-5V RS232 level outputs and +/-25V tolerant RS232 inputs to CMOS logic level outputs. Maximum
rated speed is 300kb/sec.
JK73 is a dual mono 3.5mm jack socket providing two +12V trigger outputs Z_1 and Z_2. The series pass
transistors Q712/715 are pnp T0-92 types with emitters referred to the +12V rail via the paralleled 4.7R
resistors R714/715 and R711/712. In conjunction with the pairs of diodes D711/712 and D714/715 this
provides current limiting at approximately 200mA if the trigger outputs are inadvertently shorted to
ground.
JK72 is a dual 3.5mm mono jack socket providing inputs for two modulated infra-red remote control
signals. These are connected to the opto-isolators IC72 and IC71. Note the use of the standby power
supply ST+5V for the subsequent logic.
AVR400 HDMI Input/Output Board
The HDMI Board is described on pages 6 – 10 of the schematics diagrams. Note that it has components
tted to both sides of the PCB. HDMI stands for High Denition Multimedia Interface. The AVR400’s
system supports certain parts of the HDMI 1.4a specication (3D video compatibility and Audio Return
Channel)
The HDMI Board has 5 type A HDMI input sockets and one type A HDMI output socket, which are ush
with the back panel. It gets its power via the hard wired connector and ribbon cable CN61 and communicates with the Input Board via two ex foil cables attached to connectors CN104 (17 ways) and
CN105 (19 ways). It is tted with a 30 way socket BN301 which attaches to a daughter board handling all
analogue video I/O signals (the Analogue Video Board).
The HDMI Board contains 10 separately regulated local power supplies, mostly derived from the
unregulated but hum ltered +15V supply on the Power Supply Board. This is input on pins 3 and 4 of
the hard wired connector CN61 for +15V and pins 5, 6 and 7 for the ground returns. Pins 1 and 2 are not
used. See page 10 of the schematic diagram for all but the last of these supplies, as described below.
IC923, IC927 and IC930 are all Sanken SI-8005Q 3.5 Amps step-down switching regulators operating at
500kHz +/-10% and drawing power from the +15V line. They are used to generate +3.3VDD, +1.8VDD
and +1.8VH1 (video processor supply) respectively. The potential dividers in their outputs (R839+R844/
R847, R838+852/R851 and R841+843/840) are used to set the required voltages.
All other local power supplies use linear SM 3-terminal regulators.
IC922 and IC929 provide +2.5VH1 and +2.5VH2 for the two DDR memory chips supporting the video
processor. The source supply is +3.3VDD.
IC925 is a KIA7809 generating +8VA from the system’s +15VA line (NOT the unregulated +15V used
elsewhere on the board). This is further dropped to +5VA by IC924, a KIA1117S50. Inductor L860 provides
decoupling for the +5VH1 line. The video processor digital power supply lines +3.3VH1, +3.3VH2 and
+1.8VH2 are sourced from the +3.3VDD and +1.8VDD lines via L-C decoupling.
The video ADC’s analogue supplies, +3.3VA and +1.8VA, are generated from the +5VA line via IC926
(NJM2845DL133) and IC928 (NJM2845L118) respectively.
The 10th regulator, IC917, an NJU7754 found on sheet 9 of the schematic, is used to provide +5V to the
HDMI output socket. It is enabled via SW_P+5V and derives its input from the +8VA supply described
abov
The HDMI input SOC, IC901, is a 144 pin LQFP Analog Devices ADV3014B. This is a 4 into 1 HDMI 1.4a
multiplexer and is connected to inputs 4 and 5 (VCR and PVR) on the rear panel (JK95 and JK96). The
other two inputs on IC901 are not used. The core power supply is +1.8V and the receiver terminator
supply voltage is +3.3V. Note that most power supply decoupling components are on the underside of
the PCB. +5V detect and hot plug assert control is carried out by the complementary pairs of switching
transistors Q904/907 and Q910/909. The video system clock is provided by a 28.63636MHz crystal X901
connected across pins 101 and 102.
Pin 63 is set low by R602 meaning IC 901 is controlled by I2C at 3.3V via pins 78 (HDMI_SDA) and 79
(HDMI_SCL) from IC902. The HDMI output from IC901 is sent to input A of IC902.
IC902 is an Analog Devices ADV7844, packaged in a 425 pin BGA. It has a 4-input HDMI 1.3 receiver and
one video input supporting standard analogue video formats, from 525/625i up to 1080p, with 12-bit
ADCs. Its primary function is to prepare these signals for the main video processor IC906. Its second
function is to extract digital audio from the HDMI signals, including the reconstruction of a good quality
master clock, and to output all this in I2S or SPDIF format to the DSPs on the Input Board.
JK92 (AV), JK93 (SAT) and JK 94 (BD) connect to 3 of IC902’s HDMI input ports. Hot plug detect on
these 3 inputs is carried out by the complementary pairs of switching transistors Q905/906, Q908/901
and Q902/903. The 4th input receives the output of the HDMI switch IC 901. The core power supply is
+1.8VH2 and the receiver terminator supply voltage is +3.3VH2, with heavy local L-C decoupling. Note
that most of these power supply decoupling components are on the underside of the PCB. The video
system clock is provided by a 28.63636MHz crystal X902.
IC902 has a 256Mb SDRAM IC904 connected via 9 x 4-way 33 ohm resistor packs. This is used as a line/
frame store for digitizing the analogue video signals (CVBS, S-Video and Y, Cr, Cb) received from the
external video inputs and also separate i-Pod derived analogue video signals. It runs from the +2.5VH2
supply with further local decoupling components mounted on both sides of the PCB.
The 12-bit RGB video outputs are sent via 10 x 33ohm resistor packs to the tri-state bμFfers IC911 and
IC912. A 10-bit subset of these is also sent to the video processor IC906. Note that the critical video clock
is expanded to drive two output lines HD_VCLK1 (for IC906) and HD_VCLK2 (for IC911) via IC905 and 3 x
33ohm resistors.
The extracted digital audio outputs are sent as I2S and SPDIF signals to the audio DSPs on the input
board via 2 x 33 ohm resistor packs and the switch IC903. IC903 is enabled via Q913.
The video processor IC906 is an ST (formerly Genesis) “Torino” type FLI30336AC in a large 416 pin
BGA package. It is used to de-interlace and scale all the AVR400’s video inputs to the required output
resolution(s) up to 1080p and also to generate the system OSD (on screen display). Note that IC906’s
analogue video inputs are not used in this application and are either grounded via an array of resistors
and coupling capacitors close to one long edge of the heatsink or left open (R879-882 are no ts).
IC906 dissipates considerable power (about 4 watts) and is thus equipped with a heatsink soldered
to the PCB via two pins. Its core voltage is +1.8VH1, with +2.5V_DDR being used for its RAM bus and
+3.3VH1 for I/O and 19.66MHz crystal clock X903, all followed by copious local L-C decoupling. Note that
the decoupling capacitors and series inductors required are mounted on the underside of the PCB.
IC906 supports two 256Mbit DDR-1 500MHz 2.5V SDRAMs (IC908 and IC909) via a mix of 33R and 0R
series resistors in the data busses. On the other side of IC906 is its 32Mbit 3.3V ash memory IC907 (Macronix MX29LV320). IC931 is an Atmel AT24C64C 64K EEPROM with +3.3VH1 power.
Q914 and Q915 (on the underside of the PCB) send BYPASS_ON and BYPASS_OFF logic signals from
IC906 to the array of 4 x 20-bit non-inverting line driver/bμFfers with tri-statable outputs, IC911/912 and
IC915/916. These are arranged as a 40 way 2-in, 1-out fast switch to bypass IC906 when required (e.g.
if 3D video is present). The video is in 12-bit RGB format and 4 more bμFfers are required for the video
clock, H and V syncs and the DE (data enable) line, thus using up all of the available 40 ways. See sheet 9
of the schematic diagram. Power is provided via local L-C decoupling from +3.3VH2.
The HDMI output is handled by IC918, an Analog Devices ADV7511 in a 100 pin LQFP package. It is a
225MHz output part that can handle 12-bit 1080p video (up to 165MHz clock speed) and embedded HD
audio. It is compatible with certain parts of the HDMI 1.4 specication, supporting 3D video and an ARC
(audio return channel).
As with the other Analog Devices parts IC918 uses two power rails, namely +1.8VH2 and +3.3VH2. The
necessary decoupling capacitors are mounted on the underside of the PCB.
In the AVR400’s implementation the HDMI audio output is limited to stereo rather then 8 channels – via
I2S0 (pin 12), plus MCLK (pin 11), SCLK (pin16) and LRCLK (pin 17). SPDIF from the AVR400 is input to pin
10.
The ARC signal, if received from a downstream sink such as a TV, is output from pin 46 of IC918 and sent
via back to the input board. Note that IC921 is not tted.
The HDMI output is via JK97, a type A HDMI socket. As the AVR400’s output is partly HDMI 1.4 compliant,
pin 14 now becomes the HEAC+ and pin 19 HEAC- as well as HPD (Hot Plug Detect). However, because
the Ethernet part of the HDMI1.4 specication is not supported by the AVR400, the ARC is congured
by the sink to be carried in single (i.e. non-dierential) mode using HEAC+ as the signal line. HEAC+ and
HEAC- are then AC coupled to pins 52 and 51 of IC918 via the 1μF series capacitors C439 and C428. R771,
R777, R785, R795 and R799 bias the inputs and load the cable correctly.(Note – HEAC is short for HDMI
Ethernet and Audio (return) Channel).
Q916 is a twin n-channel MOSFET which only turns on when +5VH1 is present. This isolates the DDC
clock and data lines when the AVR400 is turned o.
IC917 is a low dropout voltage regulator feeding +5V power to pin 18 of JK97 from the +8VA supply,
when enabled by the SW_P+5V line.
Analogue video output of digitized and processed 10-bit video from IC906 is available from the AVR400
via the video encoder IC919 – an Analogue Devices ADV7342B. Composite, s-video and component
video are supported, although only component analogue video is output by the AVR400.
IC919 is in a 64 pin LQFP powered from the +18VA and +3.3VA lines. Once again most decoupling components are on the underside of the PCB.
The 6 x 11-bit video DACs inside IC919 are each loaded with 300R to ground before being AC coupled to
IC913. This is a JRC NJM2566 6-channel video amplier for SD and HD signals, powered from the +5VA
line. The FS_SEL signal on pin 17 sets the bandwidth on component video to 13.5MHz or 30MHz, to suit
progressive SD or HD signals respectively. The composite and s-video bandwidths are xed at 6.75MHz.
The outputs go to the analogue video daughter board via the 30 way socket BN301.
Note that the composite and s-video outputs are not actually used in the AVR400 so are not wired
beyond CN301 on the daughter board. The Y, Cr, Cb component video outputs are terminated with 75
ohm series resistors on the Analogue Video daughter board described next.
AVR400 Analogue Video Board
This is connected into the rest of the system via the HDMI board using CN301.The circuitry is shown on
sheet 13 of the schematic diagram.
The purposes of this PCB are:
(1) to switch between the various analogue video inputs (comprising 4 each composite and s-video
and 3 component video)
(2) to route the chosen video signal to the HDMI board for processing
(3) to provide one set of zone 1 video component video outputs
(4) to provide one zone 2 video output (composite video, with its own OSD) from any of the 4 com-
posite video signal inputs.
The PCBs power supplies are +9VV and +5VV, generated from the three-terminal regulators IC88 and
IC89 from the system’s +15VA supply on pin 1 of CN301. Pin 2 carries the system’s -15VA supply – this is
unused on this PCB.
Note that all video inputs are terminated with 75ohm resistors to ground close to the actual sockets.
IC81 is a JRC NJW1321 – a wide bandwidth video switch with 4 inputs, 2 outputs and a 6dB amplier.
It is used to select between the 4 composite and 4 s-video inputs routed to the HDMI board and also
to output any one of the 4 composite video inputs to the On-Screen Display Controller IC83. IC81 runs
from the +9VV supply, consuming about 85mA so it gets quite hot. It is controlled by i2C commands on
pins 15 and 16.
IC82 is also an NJW1321. It selects between the 3 component video inputs and its fourth input is
unused. Its Y, Cr, Cb outputs and the Y, C and CVBS outputs of IC81 are then AC coupled to IC84 – an
NJM2566 6 way video amplier/lter with 6dB gain, powered from the +5VV rail. Its outputs are also AC
coupled and terminated with 75 ohm series resistors before being routed to CN301.
IC86 is a hex inverter used to bμFfer the 3V3 logic level OSD control signals from the HDMI board and
convert them to 5V level for IC83. This is a Sanyo LC74763 in a 30 pin SM package running from the +5VV
rail. It has two crystal oscillators X801 (17.734MHz) and X802 (14.318MHz) to provide composite video
outputs for both PAL and NTSC standards.
IC86’s video input signal is AC coupled to and bμFfered by the emitter follower Q802 before pin 18.
Similarly its output signal (which now includes an OSD) is bμFfered by the pnp transistor Q801 and AC
coupled to the video amplier/switch IC85 (NJM2244), used here purely as a composite video amplier/
lter with 6dB gain. Its AC coupled output to the Z 2 OUT single phono socket JK85 is terminated with a
68 ohms series resistor.