SOtM Mini Server - sMS-100 Announced

[MikeJazz]

Well I just have first impressions because I have a bunch of parts that are brand new. That said, I am getting my Oppo 105D playing DSD128 through the SMS100 and the mBPS battery supply. I'm having some dropouts but I suspect my internet gateway, it's very slow at times. I'll bridge a decent wired router and that should fix it.

 

Interesting configuration you have here..

You could try a switch instead instead of another router, connected to your main router. switches do a simplier and more effective data flow.

[Sam Lord]

Sam, if you are distributing connections around the house, using a network switch rather than the router's ports seems to be faster for me.

You could try a switch instead instead of another router, connected to your main router. switches do a simplier and more effective data flow.

 

Definitely agree, I should have it Wednesday: Cisco SG100D-08-NA 8 Port Gigabit Switch. I'll have one line from the router to it, then everything to the switch; correct plan, yes?

 

Jesus is helping me as we speak. I'm still new to the modern Mac OS (10.9), and that's a significant hindrance. People said to leave Windows to go with iTunes... bad advice, at least for an audiophile who is still new to OS10x.

[MikeJazz]

I'm still new to the modern Mac OS (10.9), and that's a significant hindrance. People said to leave Windows to go with iTunes... bad advice, at least for an audiophile who is still new to OS10x.

 

How does that affect the control of the sotm?

[vortecjr]

Jesus-

 

Do have any comments on Chris' findings in his review, that the mini-server needed complete isolation to sound its best, and that the battery PS didn't fully isolate it? Chris found the Berkeley USB converter, improved the sound, apparently because of better isolation before the USB of the DAC.

 

Is there something you'd suggest to improve isolation of the mini-server?

 

We have been told that USB is perfect and that it's the universal panacea. The truth is that there are good USB implementations and just plain old implementations. That aside...the SOtM mini server was specifically designed to allow customers to improve it's power supply should it be needed. I would not underestimate the value of a good power supply. One can also improve things on the USB output side with the various products on the market. Not all customers are finding the need to upgrade the power supply. If asked I encourage people to upgrade the power supply as there sensibilities dictate. Understand that we did not want to lock you into an upgrade power supply you did not want and or need. The option for a power supply upgrade is there at checkout and there is no pressure to execute it. Also, consider that this is the SOtM 100 series and that you could opt for the SOtM 1000 series that is specially optimized on all aspects of the design.

 

Jesus R

[vortecjr]

Another option is Teddy Pardo 9V supply. Not linear, but very quiet both on DC and AC sides.

 

Why I think these are actually linear power supplies?

 

Jesus R

[Sam Lord]

How does that affect the control of the sotm?

 

I extremely doubt my problems arise from the SOtM: I didn't set up the DLNA firmware, made countless other major mistakes...no, unless you hear differently from an *experienced* Mac user and SMS100 owner, you should expect the unit to work fine in a Mac-based network. In spite of all that, I had some excellent sounds last night, much better transparency than my Schiit Bifrost was achieving, though my Oppo still has a lot of smoothing to do, it's only been running 12 hours.

[vortecjr]

Sam. Is that Oppo 105D USB <> SotM Mini Server set up giving you gapless DSD playback?

 

Yes it will:)

 

Jesus R

[vortecjr]

I extremely doubt my problems arise from the SOtM: I didn't set up the DLNA firmware, made countless other major mistakes...no, unless you hear differently from an *experienced* Mac user and SMS100 owner, you should expect the unit to work fine in a Mac-based network. In spite of all that, I had some excellent sounds last night, much better transparency than my Schiit Bifrost was achieving, though my Oppo still has a lot of smoothing to do, it's only been running 12 hours.

 

Sam, based on your email I suspect that your JRiver setup is down sampling DSD to PCM. This would explain the dropouts. I can fix this for you when I log into your unit. BTW the fix should also yield an improvement in sound quality....

 

Jesus R

[MikeJazz]

Just to confirm the importance of the power supply with the SOTM mini server: today I spent some time with the original adapter, and the difference with a linear PSU is noticeable. With the linear PSU the sound has improved dynamics, instrument separation and a general 'refinement' in the midrange.

Using a balanced transformer improves the things even more. The improvement goes in the same direction, the stage becomes deeper and more stable: all in all the isolation transformer has a bigger impact on the mini server than on the dac, and I didn't expect that. The same balanced transformer has a huge impact on my Linn Akurate DS, not so much on the Ayre QB-9.

Now I'd be curious to try the dedicated battery supply: I'll probably do that in a couple of months.

 

Sorry realmassy, could you please explain or point to an example of what a balanced / isolation transformer is?

how does it compare to or complement a power supply...

Sorry, I am basic in all things electrical..

[One and a half]

Sorry realmassy, could you please explain or point to an example of what a balanced / isolation transformer is?

how does it compare to or complement a power supply...

Sorry, I am basic in all things electrical..

 

 

A balanced transformer has an output of 60-0-60V (120V across two 180deg 'differential'). If any asymmetric noise appears from the audio gear on the AC power side, it is trapped by the balanced transformer and this system avoids passing on parallel noise to other powered audio devices.

 

The end result is source components on particular having a very clean AC power source without fancy electronics. Balanced transformers make music signals cleaner since the majority of crud is absorbed by the transformer. Simple idea, it works very well, should have put one in years ago, very happy with the one I have.

[Mark Manner]

.. I'll have one line from the router to it, then everything to the switch; correct plan, yes?

...

 

Yes, that is the way I do it on my network

[Sam Lord]

OK PEOPLE,

 

JESUS R JUST SPENT ONE HOUR TROUBLESHOOTING MY ****ED UP SYSTEM, AND FIXED IT! BAM!

 

A great big thanks, what superb customer service! I need to leave for a while, but will post tonight about my problem as well as some suggestions for website updates to save Jesus from making so many house calls from the Luddite community, I'm a founding member.

 

 

...Balanced transformers... ...very happy with the one I have.

Yes, that is the way I do it on my network

 

Thanks 1.5 and Mark. I am a great fan of balanced though I haven't tried it and won't at home. It's because I would need to mark it very carefully and keep track of electricals. Physically that's not for me, at least now. But If I had a $25k + system, certainly. Also a huge fan of any AES48 (Rane Notes has the best description) system.

[eltee00]

Will adding a gigabit switch between the SOTM and router have any impact on sound quality? What about the use of CAT7 cable? I already have the SOTM on a battery pack and a Audiophilleo DDC and want to know what else I can do to further improve the sound quality.

[jtwrace]

Why I think these are actually linear power supplies?

 

Jesus R

 

Some are. The low amperage units. The others are med grade SMPS with his SuperTeddyReg to really clean the output. They actually work very well objectively and subjectively.

[Sam Lord]

Troubleshooting a new system

 

First, I got the SMS100 and battery supply to solve a long-term need: to get my server computer into a completely accessible place, to electrically isolate my DAC from USB imperfections, and to enable completely networked audio for the future. The unit does that very well for a reasonable price.

 

The first rule is to avoid trouble, I broke that. I'd been up all night redoing my whole computer front end and all components save amps and speakers. After checking basic functions of my brand new Oppo 105D player, including its internal DLNA ability (didn't realize it had it!), I installed new software: JMRC for Mac. System: Mac Mini early 2012, i5 CPU, 16GB RAM; an Arris TG862 cable modem/router (TBase100, whoopee...) wired to audio gear but handles WiFi too. As I stated earlier I'm getting a GiGE switch to reduce the load on my router. The Oppo is running straight into my amps at the moment; I used sacrificial speakers during early troubleshooting. After fumbling for hours with settings, I stumbled onto playback with DSD128 conversion. It sounded bright and rough in the treble but extremely dynamic and detailed. I got dropouts, about 3-20 sec each about every 15 minutes. I fixed presets on the Oppo that were improperly set on the new unit: down mixing and bass processing. This improved sound a lot, but there is still lots of new-component harshness going on. Of course I tried everything to deal with dropouts first. I couldn't find a way to access the AppSwitcher software mentioned on the SOtM website either, in fact I still don't know how to do that. I think it resides in the SMS100 and I need to find its net address.

 

Well I was too beat then to troubleshoot further, so this evening I contacted Jesus for help. He needed to remotely control my machine and pulled up AppSwitcher, which is the actual software needed to activate DLNA operation on the sMS100. Well actually it will do this without prompting, but there might be lots of unnecessary CPU activity in the unit to accomplish this. He also made several changes to JRMC, which should be made available for newbies like me soon. Now I'm hearing 16/44 with no dropouts whatever.

 

I had tried DSD64 early on, but that didn't lessen dropouts. Of course I later tried 16/44 (no conversion) but by then my JRMC just froze up. I'll probably try 24/88.2 next on Jesus's suggestion. I tried it a while ago but JMRC wouldn't play. In fact it wouldn't play anything again until I changed the output device *back* to the SMS... I didn't know it had changed! I had unwittingly tried to convert a playing track, argh, JR doesn't like that. This is one of many bugs in this latest (.0131) build of JRMC, I should have gotten the earlier, most stable build. Sometimes newer *is* stabler, you never know.

 

Jesus said that JRMC had difficulty with making the 16/44PCM-to-DSD128 conversion that I was doing on the fly. The sound was very good, quite a bit better than my current 16/44, so I will tackle this problem soon. I WILL have DSD128 playing on my system again, and soon! Lots of people like Paul Raulerson use JRMC to do this now, but they are adept at optimizing computers for audio. So what software is the alternative? Maybe he was only addressing how it worked in my constrained system. I was pretty surprised I got excellent playback (except for the dropouts) with all that number crunching and other duties burdening my Mac Mini and router.

 

A few small changes to SOtM's website would make a huge difference:

 

1) Documentation of AppSwitcher, there is none, in fact not even the name, only which of 4-5 settings it needs to be set to.

 

2) Instructions for the SMS100, the lovely box contained none. The mBPS-d2s battery supply had instructions, but those need enhancing with an LED activity chart. It's true that the unit is basically insert-and-forget, but some surrounding info would help. A link to good DLNA audio operation might be the ticket.

 

3) A few pointers for operation with JRMC. Many people like me will be doing DLNA for the first time. I had read a lot about it, but many more SMS100 buyers will be new to it too.

 

And here is an important need for the SMS100: an AC extension cord. Right now for 120Volt areas there is plug, included in the box, attached the 220V AC adapter. This combination is a mechanical problem, a long *weighted* lever sticking horizontally far out from an outlet, which will fall or be shoved out out and cause loss of power at the worst time. That shouldn't cause a bang but still, a short extension cord is necessary.

 

How does it sound? Obviously in my case I'm comparing two new components in place of three old ones:

 

Old: (Mac Mini via USB to) Schiit Bifrost DAC via RCA out to Bel Canto Pre3 preamp, balanced out to amps.

 

New: (Mac Mini via ethernet to) Arris TG862 modem/router to SMS100 (with battery supply) via USB to Oppo 105D, balanced out to amps.

 

I just now listened to one of my reference tracks with much great percussion.

Format was 16/44 for both instances, but no level matching or AB test attempted, the old system is out. Yes the new setup is better. To give a useful test of the SMS100 I would need to compare the SMS100+ethernet+router with just straight USB between server and DAC, sorry I won't do that. Whoops, I *could* do it with my laptop as the server... give me a while.

 

The new system is more dynamic, lower in noise, and more resolving. Harshness is disappearing quickly now, and the percussion strikes will be harder for good, this system has slam like I remember from my days building $$$ gear. Whatever the noise level of my Bifrost, the SMS100 is certainly allowing an excellent, quieter signal to reach the Oppo. One aspect of truly great systems is that on most 16/44 albums, if sourced from tape or early ADCs (even great ones), you are hearing the noise. That is, on almost all of my recordings I'm hearing the particulars of mistakes, external sounds (outside the studio) and tape hiss. Now I'm not concentrating on that, but it's right there in front of me. So this is certainly an endorsement of the Oppo, but the SMS is clearly doing a fine job; I have no clue yet of the limits of either. My cables are solid but nothing special, with one exception: a balance set of Mosaic speaker cable to my midrange drivers. I use a good USB cable (AQ Cinnamon), not that kilobuck LH thang.

 

That's it for now, Cheers. And great thanks again to Jesus...Man I'll buy if we meet at a show.

[wappinghigh]

That's Awesome Sam.

 

That's why he's called Jesus I guess

[Sam Lord]

Word brother. WWJD? Fix your stereo!

[vortecjr]

Sam, the features JRiver has for local playback are not the same as the ones for DLNA playback. JRiver appears to have issues resampling to very high rates from 16/44.1 in real time for DLNA playback. I usually recommend either original playback or resampling to 24 bit PCM. You can try resampling to 88.2 and see how it goes. If you really want to give resampling a go you should try the NAA output mode in combination with HQ Player.

 

The unit's operating system has been changing very quickly and the printed manual was held back as a result. I usually test, update and preset the units for each customer. Anyway, I have added three links on my website that should help customers.

 

Link 1 is the current sMS-100 manual.

Link 2 is a link to the sMS-100's GUI.

Link 3 is the setup screen shot for JRiver.

 

Jesus R

[Calyx]

Hello - this is my first post but I'm reading /learning with Computer Audiophile for more then 2 years now.

I would like to connect via Ethernet my MacMini and the sMS100 as my router is located 2 floors higher and with a repeater I can stream/use Wifi not very reliable. I would like to use Wifi only for the control app. How do I have to configure my Mini to use it as a 'NAS'?

 

Frank

[Sam Lord]

Sam, the features JRiver has for local playback are not the same as the ones for DLNA playback. JRiver appears to have issues resampling to very high rates from 16/44.1 in real time for DLNA playback. I usually recommend either original playback or resampling to 24 bit PCM. You can try resampling to 88.2 and see how it goes. If you really want to give resampling a go you should try the NAA output mode in combination with HQ Player.

 

Oh, now I see the issue...the early JRMC adopters weren't running through the DLNA gauntlet: transceiving with DLNA constraints, well, constrains. Bandwidth battles distance, from the carrier pigeon to the soliton.

 

The unit's operating system has been changing very quickly and the printed manual was held back as a result. I usually test, update and preset the units for each customer. Anyway, I have added three links on my website that should help customers.

Very well, that's great! Downloaded the manual and network address, couldn't pull up the JRiver setup page, got a 404 error. You should know I've been listening continuously since you fixed my system last night and never heard a dropout or anything but fabulous music. "Bertha" from the Dead at the moment. And just opened HQPlayer for a peek.

[firedog]

Hello - this is my first post but I'm reading /learning with Computer Audiophile for more then 2 years now.

I would like to connect via Ethernet my MacMini and the sMS100 as my router is located 2 floors higher and with a repeater I can stream/use Wifi not very reliable. I would like to use Wifi only for the control app. How do I have to configure my Mini to use it as a 'NAS'?

 

Frank

 

You need server software on your Mini. This can be Logitech Media Server, or some DLNA server software like JRiver. Once that is installed on your Mini, you simply connect the sms100 to your network and "point" the server software to your sms100.

 

If you buy one from Sonore, Jesus will definitely help you set it up.

[Bloodwound]

Where can I download or request a download link for the Sonic Orbiter software "OS" that is inside these boxes? I take it for granted that it's based on Debian or Fedora, and the GPL.

[firedog]

Where can I download or request a download link for the Sonic Orbiter software "OS" that is inside these boxes? I take it for granted that it's based on Debian or Fedora, and the GPL.

 

SOtM Soul of the Music

 

Yes, but Sonic Orbiter isn't fully open source. It's a mix.

[Bloodwound]

SOtM Soul of the Music

 

Yes, but Sonic Orbiter isn't fully open source. It's a mix.

In essence it is fully open source. The only parts that could be called closed source would be html/php/python (or whatever type) scripts that comprise the webgui. Anyways I digress. I was a little confused about the sotm, sonore, small green computing triangle, but I guess I can ask Jesus directly.

[tranz]

Sure. But what does it matter if the USB isn't "optimized" for audio..

 

This is a $400 odd product here.. equivalent to a Sonos Zone player..

 

and if you don;t like it you add the other "down stream" Berkeley or whatever..

 

I'm not sure it's supposed to compete with 3 figure plus priced gear..

 

There is always the Rendu for better sonics right?

 

Hi wappinghigh,

 

I guess we are looking at it for different potential purposes. My usage would be for my main stereo rig as the audio computer in a dual pc setup, with the lowest electrical noise unit connected to the DAC. The rendu I am not familiar with, but I did not think it had an USB output. I will read up on it though.

 

Cheers