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Article: Computer Audiophile Pocket Server C.A.P.S. v3 Carbon


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Chris,

Nice write-up, as usual.

 

Question: you say "Carbon is my favorite CAPS design thus far and it's the one I use every day.......The sound quality from the CAPS v3 Carbon server is equal to or better than the best servers I've heard in recent memory." Although I realize that the Carbon version's main differentiators are its documented expandability and open real estate (for future yet-discovered expandability) the truth is that the way you are using it currently is identical to the Lagoon, except for the SOtM SATA filter. Are you saying the Carbon sounds better than the Lagoon? And if so, do you trace it to the filter? Or am i reading this the wrong way, and what you are saying is that you can really only use one CAPS V3 on a daily basis anyway, so you use this one, period (i.e maybe based on something non-audio like looks, etc)?

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Chris, thanks. Yeah, I documented that i was not a fan of what the filter did for me and the 830 in the CAPS V2+, but a buddy, using one on an internal spinning drive, said it was easily the best $65 he'd ever spent.

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Wap,

powering the motherboard via the dc plug does not insure that the motherboard will then send clean power to its peripherals. In fact, it is this precise issue that has me wondering what can be done to separately power everything in the design. For example, I have a massive Hynes linear power supply sending good clean power to the mobo (in my CAPS v2=) but the SOtM, a well-filtered design in an of itself, clearly benefits from its own dedicated external power (battery pack, iFi, etc). So, it goes to reason that the motherboard is not passing this clean Hynesian power along...so I am not really sure how much benefit the Hynes (or any dc-plugged external power source) is providing...if in fact the SSD and whatever else are getting this dirty mobo power too.

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Well, it's not like it was ineffective. For me, and my setup it almost did too much..lkind of constricted the dynamics and the soundstage. For others, they've said it is a no-brainer (esp at $65). I think it is very dependent on power quality, SSD model, etc. But it's a very low risk investment.

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  • 1 month later...
Chris, I've been thinkin' about this. Are you talking about "Remote Desktop Connection" or Remote "Desktop Assistance" . I'm at a loss to find this. FWIW, both are windows computers.

 

Any insight?

 

Peter, make sure you have Windows 8 PROfessional. If it's not the PRO version you don't have RDC.

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  • 1 month later...
My carbon build running JRiver is causing some major stuttering during song playback. Anyone else have that problem or know what would be causing it. Running ASIO through a Mytek DAC. I'm at a loss. Thanks for any help.

 

David

 

David,

Is this with the Mytek dual DAC 2.2 setup?

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Yes sir it is. I've read on the JRiver thread that its possibly the Asio drivers aren't up to date for Win8. Thanks for your help.

 

Not true. As you well know in my multichannel Mytek thread (as well as the regular stereo one) the ASIO drivers for Win 8 are absolutely fine. I documented it fully and am running the most difficult of setups (3 stacked Myteks in 5.1). I believe it could be your unorthodox Mytek 2 DAC 2.2 setup, but need more info.

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Ok. I don't know what is causing it, thus the post. What is our opinion on what the issue would be with the 4 channels that I'm running vs the 6 that you are running. What's the theoretical difference?

 

You are not running 4 channels, but 2 with split subs, etc. I have no idea how ASIO is configured for you. 5.1 multichannel is wayy different setup than stereo with split subs, using one dac to do nothing but manage subwoofer output.

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Sorry, probably a dumb question: why aren't the subs viewed as channels? Do you want any more info from me? I tried increasing the buffer size both in JRiver and within the USBPAL driver. Thanks for your help Ted.

 

Sorry, not trying to be difficult. Subs in a 2 channel file (i.e not a multichannel file with a specific LFE channel) are derived from high pass filtering. Anyway, I guess I'm shootin in the dark here cuz no idea how you guys set up ASIO to do the subwoofer stuff, especially with DSD. Maybe someone else can help...

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  • 3 weeks later...
I thinking about purchasing the Carbon from SGC and was wondering , is there any issues with my Mytek DSD or my EE Mini Max + DACS's with the SOtM tX-USB card as noted in the ZUMA build,

 

Computer Audiophile - Computer Audiophile Pocket Server C.A.P.S. v3 Zuma

 

"" Regarding the USB 3.0 card, you wrote: "I've tested the card with every DAC that has come through Computer Audiophile and haven't had a single issue.""

 

""" Reading the info in the link you provided, with the detailed specs, in the SOtm website it says:

 

"Unsupported Devices with Windows

M2Tech HiFace v1 and M2Tech HiFace OEM v1

The following devices are based on M2Tech boards:

Empirical Audio, Eastern Electric, Wyred4Sound, Chrod, JKenny

Playback Design

MSB Technology

Mytek"

 

That's a typo. Mytek's USB is through Rigisystems, not M2Tech, and runs fine with the SOtM cards.

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  • 1 month later...
Ahhh... my music server just died. Time to build a new one. Looks like CAPS v3 Carbon for me.

 

I'm pretty bad about understanding simple component connections, so I'd appreciate advice on the following:

- I will need to use my Lynx AES16e PCI Express audio card in this server (I dont plan to go USB at this time, my current Berkeley Alpha DAC connected AES/EBU thru an Antelope DA clock works nice, and I need the Lynx digital input into the server for ripping vinyl as well).

- I also need a CD drive for ripping as well (hard to pass up the $1 CDs at the local Goodwill - its amazing how much good music people throw out...). Would an external USB CD drive work best with the CAPS server? Or is there an advantage to an internal CD drive? If so , will it fit, how will it connect? Any recommends for brand / model etc?

Thanks!

 

Stupid question, but if you are not doing USB and you also want the machine to do ripping, etc...why did you come to the conclusion that a CAPS Carbon is it??

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hi Marc,

 

thanks for your input. I just realised that TeamViewer is already available for the iPad

as well.

So if I understand this right using TeamViewer would mutate the iPad into a touchscreen

monitor of the Windows 8 music server. Sounds fine... ;-)

 

Any other favourites to use Windows 8 headless?

 

If using Windows 8 Pro then remote desktop is available. Or for the iPad I use Splashtop (a VNC which also has a free pc version so I can use it from my desktop...easier to type, etc for major maintenance issues, JRiver tagging, etc).

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EuroChamp,

Yes, thanks for that reminder for JRiver (I also tag and do all my work from same JRiver database on my desktop; I think many do) but how does this recommendation address rebooting, Win8 administrative tasks, running optimization scripts like JD's or CAD's, etc...i.e all the other headless tasks outside of JRiver. And even within JRiver, running things like custom views, etc. need to be GUI based (I think)....i.e I have 2 JRIver installs accessing same db, but each has very different categories, views, etc.

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