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SOTM USB card vs PPAstudio USB Card v2


Inbest

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Paul Pang is very reliable. His products are excellent and his customer support excellent. I have not had a problem.

 

I now am in possession of the SOTM tx-USB, Pang V1 and the new JCAT cards. Each has their pluses and minuses and I plan on doing a shootout among the three next week. Clean power is very important to each and all three exceed MOBO USB. I as well as others have experienced some issues with the JCAT and certain MOBO, BUT, Marcin from JPlay has been excellent with customer support as well as returning $ to those who find their MOBO don't work. As I am in the early stages of evaluating the JCAT card I am refraining from a knee jerk response in claiming which I like the best until I have my power issues equal for all.

 

To be continued, but Pang's card is an EXCELLENT choice for the $$, especially relative to the differences in cost between his card and the SOTM and JCAT.

 

Looking forward to it. I hope one of these days we will be able to enjoy the benefits on a Mac OS as well.

 

Cheers.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Well I would have agreed with you three weeks ago as that was my ranking albeit with the PANG V1.

 

I relegated the SOTM to the "to be sold" pile. Along comes my Core Technologies Kaia dual rail linear power supply and the shoot out begins. The SOTM shines beyond belief. From my perch the SOTM with Kaia can't be touched. Timbre, side to side and front to back imaging, bass control and overall accuracy is right it is scary.

 

With a lesser LPS or battery supply the other two may indeed be the right choice but with something like the Core Technology Kaia feeding the SOTM it is beyond anything I have ever heard in my system.

 

I use the Light Harmonics Lightspeed USB.

 

Thanks for sharing. Externally powering as much as possible via LPSU and reducing as much electrical taxing of the computer (incl. e.g. Background processes, HD,etc.) really makes a difference I have found as well.

 

If I remember correctly you had moved from Mac to PC and liked the improvement in audio. Not sure how much Mac tweaking you had done, but I think a key tweak, which sadly is unavailable to Mac OS, is the SoTM USB powered externally. This SoTM combines the filtering, clocking and lower electrical draw benefits.

 

Cheers

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Hi Priaptor and ALRAINBOW,

 

Since both of you have MSBs I was curious whether you ended up with the MSB USB input. Many months ago I was able to listen to one and was not impressed with the USB input. They have a very expensive power supply, but then the USB input seems like a great way to get noise into the DAC. But perhaps the SotM and PPAs fix any noise upstream.

 

Cheers

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  • 3 weeks later...

I followed barrows suggestion as well and I also power the HD externally.

 

If you look at the SATA filter you can see that the data lines are not filtered and just pass-through. So you would only be adding additional useless connections.

 

Fans have no business in a music server.

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  • 3 months later...
Hi to all, I like this section... :-)

As technical newbie I am still wondering if the PP V2 card is working or not with the Mac OS.

I wrote him asking this and he wrote me back:

 

"Hi,

V2 card need no driver for Linux,Mac OS,Win8.

Thanks!

Regards

Pang.Kai-Yu"

What is he meaning..? The same question about the new usb card from J CAT... no technical information on the HP.

 

Mi set up is mac mini latest model, with two keces 116, one for MB, one for internal SSD and HD music storage, and no fan. Dac is Msb Analog+ Power Base.

 

Thank you

Alex

 

Hi Alex,

 

These are the current gold standards for audio USB cards, but are all Win based.

 

JCAT card is based on an NEC uDP720201 - built by Adnaco

 

SoTM card uses a TI chip tusb7320 - designed from the ground up for audio. SoTM also has filters on the PCIe pins.

 

PPA card is based on NEC chip uPD720202 - homebrew with standard USB card

 

Someone tried the SoTM with a NEC driver on a Mac but it did not work for audio. Lechu has loaded a generic kext on a non-audio pcie-USB card.

 

The one thing to keep in mind though is that you would need another motherboard, since the Mini does not have a PCIe slot. Going with some other translation from e.g. Thunderbolt to PCIe is possible but likely defeats the purpose. Let me know if you decide to experiment as that is one of the last things to make a Mac close to a CAPS.

 

Cheers

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I Tranz thank you for your answer.

I really enjoyed your tread about mac mini caps.. :-)

I followed your instructions quite step by step, and confirm that the result is very very good.

Really interesting!!

Now I have a partially diassembled mac mini, upside down, with Keces 12v for mains and another Keces for the 5v line for internal osd, now external.

No fans, no wifi, bluetooth infrared etc.

I am considering Streacom also.

 

Remains for me now to do the last step, the sound card ...

and here there are two ways:

sound card usb interface through sonnet thundernolt

or Rme HDSPe, but it is sol spdif / XLR 16 channel ......

 

I wonder if there is another way ..

 

I would also be willing to change motherboard .. But I do not like windows ..

 

Can you give me advice on how to proceed?

 

Best regard's

Alex

 

(I am running A+, have G tech 4TB external TB drive, and MsB Dac)

 

Hi Alex,

 

Very nice. Sounds like you have done a lot of tinkering!

 

You would be breaking new ground with using an external Sonnet box with a sound card. RME and Lynx are good cards with SPDIF output via AES. If that is your input on the MSB. Not sure if it would sound better as I have never heard of anyone actually testing it.

 

Using an SoTM in a Sonnett for an USB output is also new ground. Will it even be recognized by the Mac? Doubtful. Will it sound better? Do you have an USB MSB input, as I was not happy with that.

 

I thought about these options, but it seemed like an expensive experiment and never actually tried it.

 

Another option is a streamer where a LAN connection is used. I have heard, since you have an MSB, that they are working on something. Perhaps wait before spending more on a Sonnett/Sotm/RME card.

 

Regarding another mobo, check with lechu as he used an older MacBook Pro motherboard that had a PCie slot. He modified a USB-PCIe card and liked the results. But I am not sure whether he uses an IFI USB to clean up noise, which is a cost effective bit of kit.

 

Windows is a whole different setup with more flexibility. The only reason to stay Mac is if you like Audivarna or Amarra.

 

A little side note, please be careful with not overheating if you have removed the fan. I run heattubing and it still runs on the warm side; around 60-65C.

 

Cheers

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