My new CAPS V2+ build; best digital I've heard

[HipVinyl]

Well, here it is (cuz I did it in response...maybe it will save others )

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2196[/ATTACH]

 

Hi Ted,

 

I am trying to follow your build as best as I can but I have run into a problem and I was wondering if you (or anyone else) can help me out?

 

I am impatiently waiting for my Wesena case and Sotm card to arrive so I decided to mount the MB, mSATA, and RAM in an old case to tweak abit. I managed to install Windows 8 Pro and Jriver 18 without any problems. The issue is when I try and set the audio output to Wasapi Event as you recommend. The only output mode that works for me is Direct Sound. Is this a driver issue? any clue where to find the correct driver for the onboard USB or am I stuck with Direct Sound until my Sotm card arrives?

 

Thanks for your advice.

[ted_b]

Yes, sounds like your DAC drivers dont support wasapi event style

[HipVinyl]

Before I was using the S/PDIF O/P from my Oppo 95 EU which was playing FLAC files off an external HDD and I’d hoped the CAPS MS was going to produce some improvement over this setup, but I didn’t have the have the highest of hopes. But no, the sound has now definitely been lifted a couple of notches, it is a fuller more enjoyable, but most important it is more musical.

 

 

John are you using a s/pdif connection?

[JohnVulcan]

John are you using a s/pdif connection?

 

No, I'm using USB now, but straight from the M/B for now while I save up for either a SOtM PCIe card or a D-D converter, such as the Halide Bridge. So I expect to be using the USB connection from the CAPS MS for my 'final' solution, though I did think of trying the S/PDIF header on the M/B sometime, just out as an experiment, nothing more.

PS: My DAC (Audio Note Kits 4.1) is really geared up for a S/PDIF or AES/EBU connection hence my interest in S/PDIF.

[sebassie]

Hi Ted,

 

Just started to build according to your shopping list. The Wesena case is not available in continental Europe. Identical cases are available from Streacom (Streacom | Computer Products & Accessories).

Intel stopped production of the 2800 mobo for Europe. Reason is that the board uses >0.5 Watt in standby, which is too much according to EU regulations.

The Atom processor on the 2800 runs 32 bit. It is therefore useless to install 64 bit Windows or install >4 Gb RAM.

I'm still searching for a decent LPS. Hard to find in Continental Europe. If anyone has suggestions for this please advise.

[4est]

The Atom processor on the 2800 runs 32 bit. It is therefore useless to install 64 bit Windows or install >4 Gb RAM.

 

I do not think that is true.

[sebassie]

I do not think that is true.

 

My supplier told me so. Look also at Desktop Boards — Supported operating systems

[4est]

My supplier told me so. Look also at Desktop Boards — Supported operating systems

 

I have heard the opposite to be true, including the OP of this thread.

[sebassie]

I have heard the opposite to be true, including the OP of this thread.

Thanks for your comment. As I did not install Windows yet I can go both ways. I will check this out.

[Ralf Hutter]

The Atom processor on the 2800 runs 32 bit. It is therefore useless to install 64 bit Windows or install >4 Gb RAM.

 

Not true. I'm running a 2800MT with Win Pro 64-bit and 4GB of RAM just fine.

[HipVinyl]

My supplier told me so. Look also at Desktop Boards — Supported operating systems

 

Hi Sebassie,

 

I just built my V2+ with the DN2800MT last week and I can confirm that I am running Win 8 Pro 64-Bit AND Windows is recognizing the 8GB of Mushkin RAM.

 

By build is pretty much identical to Ted's build in his original post except that I am using a 120GB mSATA drive and the 8GB of ram.

 

Hope that helps....

[jtwrace]

Hi Sebassie,

 

I just built my V2+ with the DN2800MT last week and I can confirm that I am running Win 8 Pro 64-Bit AND Windows is recognizing the 8GB of Mushkin RAM.

 

By build is pretty much identical to Ted's build in his original post except that I am using a 120GB mSATA drive and the 8GB of ram.

 

Hope that helps....

 

Like this?

 

[sebassie]

Thanks all for responding. It was not my intention to cause a discussion about 32 versus 64 bit. My problem was that I got contradicting information. I've been told that the processor runs 32 bit although it contains a 64 bit instruction set. Therefore of the 8Gb RAM available only 4Gb is used, although Windows recognises 8 Gb. All this is not my opinion, I just mention some of the information I got. Anyway I am still waiting for the SotM USB Pcie. I will run Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, as I have this already, 8 Gb of ram and a 120Gb mSATA drive. I hope I can enjoy my V2+ next week, thanks to Ted!

By the way, Pardon my English :-)

[HipVinyl]

Like this?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2757[/ATTACH]

 

Zactly! :-)

[Iansr]

Another likely UK builder here. Great thread guys, many thanks to Ted and the other contributors.

Any recommendations from John and Nicks in the UK on sourcing the chassis and other components in the UK would be gratefully received.

[JohnVulcan]

Another likely UK builder here. Great thread guys, many thanks to Ted and the other contributors.

Any recommendations from John and Nicks in the UK on sourcing the chassis and other components in the UK would be gratefully received.

 

Hi Ian, just to say I sourced my M/B from ITX Warehouse, the memory and mSATA drive direct from Crucial UK and the case (Streacom F7C EVO) from QuietPC. All vendors provided excellent and prompt service. Best of luck with your build.

[nicks]

Hi Ian, just to say I sourced my M/B from ITX Warehouse, the memory and mSATA drive direct from Crucial UK and the case (Streacom F7C EVO) from QuietPC. All vendors provided excellent and prompt service. Best of luck with your build.

 

Hello Ian,

 

I sourced components from the following UK on-line vendors:-

 

Case: (Streacom FC5 Evo) Scan.co.uk

M/B: (Intel 2800MT) LambdaTek (ensure you select the retail box, not the oem version)

PSU: (White Energy 60w) P/N: 04079-UK

RAM: (kingston value RAM P/N: K162671

SSD: (256GB Crucial mSATA SSD) amazon.co.uk

 

I found these provided quick delivery, next day in the case of Scan and Lambdatek. All of these items are readily available from other sources therefore I suggest you shop around for the best price, availability and delivery.

 

Good luck!

-

Nick

[nicks]

Hi Nick,

 

Thanks for your reply - reassuring that you’ve also (as well as Ted) had a good experience with this spec. I too am kicking off with an inexpensive switching PSU just to get going, in fact I’m hopeful that all the bits will arrive for this weekend, however we’ll see.

 

I hadn’t planned on trying jplay as I’d got the impression that the Atom CPU would take ages to prepare a FLAC in memory ready to play, what has been your experience with this please?

 

I was thinking of connecting up the S/PDIF header, just to see how this stacked up against the USB output as my DAC (Audio Note Kits 4.1) is only USB 1.1 but really geared up for S/PDIF. Is this something you’ve tried/considered?

 

John

 

Hi John,

 

Further to our conversation re: the use of on-board M/B headers. This weekend I connected one of the M/B USB headers to a USB socket on the Streacom case. This enabled me to easily disconnect the 5v supply (without disassembling my USB inter-connect) and stop injecting the computers noisy 5v supply into my DAC. The result: a huge improvement in sound quality. I can now confidently state this computer transport is outperforming my silver disk transport and is the best sound I've obtained from my system.

 

I now need to address the noise the Ethernet lead is injecting into the computer, the sound is noticeably improved with it disconnected. As I see it I have three options: 1) install a Wi-Fi card into the spare miniPCI slot; 2) insert an in-line filter into the Ethernet cable or 3) replace the copper Ethernet with a fibre based connection. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone with their experience and solutions to address this issue.

 

BTW Great to hear your system is up and running.

 

-

Nick

[Iansr]

Many thanks to John and Nick for the info.

The only supplier of the sotm PCIe to USB card that I can find in the UK is Item Audio. Either of you find anywhere cheaper?

[mav52]

Has anyone tried any of these USB interfaces listed ( I know the Sotm is well regarded) below. Some noted are not pci but do look interesting for a build.

 

The Well-Tempered Computer

 

USB Audio interface | ABC PCB

[iago]

Has anyone tried any of these USB interfaces listed

 

I'm currently running the WaveIO (USB -> S/PDIF) between my music server and DAC, and I am very happy with it. Compared to the Musical Fidelity V-Link II that I used before, soundstage and especially reproduction of transients are much improved.

 

The original purpose of this board, by the way, is its use as input stage in a DAC.

[JohnVulcan]

Hi John,

 

Further to our conversation re: the use of on-board M/B headers. This weekend I connected one of the M/B USB headers to a USB socket on the Streacom case. This enabled me to easily disconnect the 5v supply (without disassembling my USB inter-connect) and stop injecting the computers noisy 5v supply into my DAC. The result: a huge improvement in sound quality. I can now confidently state this computer transport is outperforming my silver disk transport and is the best sound I've obtained from my system.

 

I now need to address the noise the Ethernet lead is injecting into the computer, the sound is noticeably improved with it disconnected. As I see it I have three options: 1) install a Wi-Fi card into the spare miniPCI slot; 2) insert an in-line filter into the Ethernet cable or 3) replace the copper Ethernet with a fibre based connection. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone with their experience and solutions to address this issue.

 

BTW Great to hear your system is up and running.

 

-

Nick

hi Nick,

 

Interesting to hear the result of your experiment, an improvement for free too! I haven't tried the S/PDIF header yet as my entire system is all disconnected and in piles around the room as I have have my stand in bits while I modify it to accomodate the Audio Note DAC. Hopefully all back together before Christmas!

 

I'll admit I hadn't considered the noise affecting the power side of the USB connection and this is important for me as the USB card in my DAC is actually powered by the USB not the DAC, hence while I can't repeat your experiment but it does show this is a shortcoming of my setup and one I need to overcome when I make my move on the digital IC.

 

Again regarding ethernet noise, I've not considered that either, but then I've not had the need to make any connection so far. Instead I've been disconnecting my MS and taking it into my home office to download my FLAC files onto the mSATA drive and then reconnecting back to my hifi system, with the idea of threading an ethernet cable through in the future, however I'll give that a miss for now! Let us know how you get on.

[JohnVulcan]

Many thanks to John and Nick for the info.

The only supplier of the sotm PCIe to USB card that I can find in the UK is Item Audio. Either of you find anywhere cheaper?

 

No Ian I haven't seen any other supplier in the UK. You could always try sourcing it from abroad, but in all honesty I doubt you'd get it much cheaper (I have looked) and returns could be a serious issue.

[ted_b]

I, too, am going to explore the USB power play going on, especially given that my Meitner MA-1 DAC requires the 5V from the USB cable. So I have seevral options I'm gonna try, listed in order of delivery (likely) and theoretical cleanliness too :

* Jesus is sending me the ac-charged intelligent battery option that simply plugs directly into the SOtM card and provides off the grid 5V power. Simple, clean, no need for additional USB cables or connections.

* iFi USB power kit, which uses a generic USB cable to get the signal+power to the iFi power supply. The ifi then allows for a dual conduit power leg and signal leg, or the standard power/signal in same lead. i will test the latter with my current Wireworld pltinum Starlight.

* I will test the former (signal plus power) with a dual conduit Acoustic Revive USB 1.0SP cable I am borrowing. Since i have the PCie SOtM card, which only has one USB output, I can't demo this dual conduit cable any other way currently.

* I may try and dial down my Hynes SR3-12 (Paul thinks I can only get it down to either 8.5V or maybe just 10V, which is no good). and use it in place of Jesus's battery power, but only if I can get assurance that it will do no harm. This solution is doubtful.

 

I know there are other solutions (QVOX, other sual conduit cables, etc) but my head may explode by then. Frankly, I can't imagine a blacker background than I'm getting now, and I'm currently feeding the Meitner dirty mobo 5V power, filtered via the SotM card filters.

 

I use the ethernet cable for more than remote connectivity. My file server is a Synology NAS and uses the CAt6 as its path. never thought about ethernet filtering; not sure it would work?

[ted_b]

Update: the SOtM battery power arrived. It is a wonderfully simple design, with two batteries and and an intelligent charger inside a case, a charger that charges one battery at a time (via provided wallwart) while the other provides the 5V to the USB card via the card's external dc plug (2.1MM). As one runs down the other takes over, yadayada. All is included.

 

As I said above, this is likely the simplest way to get clean power with the SOtM card cuz there is no need for additional hookups, addtl USB umbillical cabling, etc. And theoretically, off the grid is awfully nice.

 

Well, after one night of letting it settle in i did some a/bing last night with the standard mobo power. As I said earlier, my soundstage and overall presentation has been magically musical, with a very black background. Well....make that a dark gray background, cuz the battery power redefines BLACK! I use subtle recordings (bombastic rock recordings don't really bring this forward) like the micro cues in the eponymous Cowboy Junkies church recording The Trinity Sessions. I know this record as well any, and listening last night via battery USB power was revelatory. Ambient cues and microdynamic shadings came through as never before. Like I was hearing it remastered (well) in 24 bit or DSD. It floored me, actually, as I wasn't expecting such a low noise floor to go that much lower...again, not evident on some music, but clearly evident on the quietest of passages. And this lowering of noise floor has great affects on bass musicality, too, as everything seems tighter and more well controlled. I can't go back to mobo-induced power any more.

 

I think this is such a simple and elegant addition to the great musicality of the CAPS V2+ that I negotiated with Jesus (Sonore US) to offer fellow CAPS and SOtM users a nice approx $50 discount. Jesus set up a special page for us, where we get the battery pack for $375 shipped to your door in the US ($415 outside US) for the remainder of the year.

 

SOtM

 

and no..I don't get any commission on this.

 

As stated above, I will be checking out other USB power options, but suffice it to say that the SOtM battery power case works, and is simple to attain!