SOTM USB card vs PPAstudio USB Card v2

[Jon L]

12v for the MOBO and 5v for the JCAT USB card.

 

Hello. I thought JCAT USB card takes 3.3V, but is 5V safe to feed the 3.3V line then?

Since there is no power input jack on front of JCAT, I presume you hacked into the PCE-E 3.3 V power lines to feed JCAT with Kaia, but do you leave the Kaia outside the PC case still somehow? Curious to see some photo's of how this is done. Thanks.

[tboooe]

Hello. I thought JCAT USB card takes 3.3V, but is 5V safe to feed the 3.3V line then?

Since there is no power input jack on front of JCAT, I presume you hacked into the PCE-E 3.3 V power lines to feed JCAT with Kaia, but do you leave the Kaia outside the PC case still somehow? Curious to see some photo's of how this is done. Thanks.

I am about to purchase a JCAT USB card. As I understand it there is a barrel plug to accept 5v DC. According to JPLAY, if 5V is supplied via this barrel plug, the card will use this power instead of the 3.3V mobo power.

[highstream]

Jon L - Marcin wrote me the JCAT USB card calls for 5v, suppled from the mobo or externally. Ryan at Core Audio also knows this and will need to adjust your Kaia, unless it is user adjustable. My Kora is not and has to be sent back (I've been using a SOtM PCI.

[Jon L]

I am about to purchase a JCAT USB card. As I understand it there is a barrel plug to accept 5v DC. According to JPLAY, if 5V is supplied via this barrel plug, the card will use this power instead of the 3.3V mobo power.

 

I thought the 5V input on JCAT only powers the USB device (DAC) and not the card operations itself. 3.3 V power is required to actually power the JCAT card operations from PCI-E unless one hacks into PCI-E (via riser cable, etc). Are you sure if you connect the 5V to JCAT (front jack or rear molex), it powers BOTH the card operations and USB device down the line?

[tboooe]

Check out post #20 from this thread. Good discussion on if supplying good clean power to the USB card even if the DAC does not use the power.

[Jon L]

Check out post #20 from this thread. Good discussion on if supplying good clean power to the USB card even if the DAC does not use the power.

 

Thanks for the link. Interesting; you learn something new every day in this hobby. So to clarify:

 

"The JCAT board has a linear regulator which can provide additional filtering to the NEC chip. However without 5V connected, the 3.3V from computer will be applied directly to the NEC chip without much filtering. Even without a linear 5V power supply it might be better to connect 5V from computer. To sum up: even for self-powered USB devices, the JCAT USB card will benefit from high quality 5V PSU.3.3 is not used to power the NEC chip if 5v is applied.

The 3.3V is still used for 1.05V regulator for the NEC digital core. We wanted to use only 5V but it was not possible due to power dissipation."

 

I guess the perfectionist would still frown upon the need for 3.3V off mobo for some functions of the JCAT, but such is life. BTW, does anyone know if the SOtM USB card uses any power from the Mobo for any function if the external power jack is powered?

 

 

[highstream]

Does the port itself supply any power? Otherwise, I supply a SOtM PCI USB straight from a Kora LPS.

[highstream]

I'm not sure it's come up here, but the JCAT card now works with mobos it wasn't before, in my case a Gigabyte Z68X. A bit more about it on JCAT's forum.

[Jon L]

Has anyone actually tried using one of these Lithium laptop recharger/ car jumper type batteries to power SOtM/PPA/JCAT cards? I realize it's not going to be LiFePO4 and will have switching regulators, etc, but wondering if anyone actually tried them in real life to see.

 

This one for example is pretty large at 12 Ah and can supply 5/12/16/19 V. The 12 or 19V could probably power a CAPS server Mobo as well.

 

12000mAh 12 16 19V Pink Black Power Bank Battery Jump Start Phone Laptop Charger | eBay

[Lowlands]

Anyone seen / checked out the new V3 from Paul?

[ALRAINBOW]

]I have one to be ordered I am waiting on Paul to invoice my paypal . I listened to Phil and own two bakoons and one black lighting . All pauls stuff inside except for the xion I7. It makes a big difference for sure. Not so sure about the internal drives from Paul compared to a SSD drive from Samsung though. But pure dc or a good linear PSU is a must for top end performance. I'll post when I get one.

[sebna]

]I have one to be ordered I am waiting on Paul to invoice my paypal . I listened to Phil and own two bakoons and one black lighting . All pauls stuff inside except for the xion I7. It makes a big difference for sure. Not so sure about the internal drives from Paul compared to a SSD drive from Samsung though. But pure dc or a good linear PSU is a must for top end performance. I'll post when I get one.

 

Hi,

 

Have you maybe received it yet? Any impressions and comparison to other cards?

 

Thank you.

[agillis]

This review of the Micro ZUMA with the SOtM card was posted this week.

 

Micro Zuma C.A.P.S. v3 Audio Server, JPLAY, SOtMtX-USBexp, Audiophile PCI-E To USB Audio Card, And HDPLEX Linear Power Supply With be a million ways to enjoy computer audio, here's an excellent setup to enjoy the music. Review By Jonathan Lo

 

the reviewer states that the Linear supply makes a big difference in the sound.

[emaspac]

This review of the Micro ZUMA with the SOtM card was posted this week.

 

Micro Zuma C.A.P.S. v3 Audio Server, JPLAY, SOtMtX-USBexp, Audiophile PCI-E To USB Audio Card, And HDPLEX Linear Power Supply With be a million ways to enjoy computer audio, here's an excellent setup to enjoy the music. Review By Jonathan Lo

 

the reviewer states that the Linear supply makes a big difference in the sound.

 

He states:

 

What's even nicer is the fact this configuration does not require the ubiquitous PICO DC-to-DC converter, so the linear power supply directly powers the motherboard without the extra step.

 

Well, the extra step is implemented into the mobo, since the DC buck converters are mounted on board.

No mobo can work with only 19V DC...

[agillis]

If you use a PICO to convert the power from 19v to 5 and 12 then the motherboard will convert it again to 1.9 (for the CPU) etc. Each voltage conversion adds noise. In this case we are feeding the clean power from the linear supply directly to the motherboard where it is converted to lower voltages. So we are indeed skipping an "extra step"

[emaspac]

If you use a PICO to convert the power from 19v to 5 and 12 then the motherboard will convert it again to 1.9 (for the CPU) etc. Each voltage conversion adds noise. In this case we are feeding the clean power from the linear supply directly to the motherboard where it is converted to lower voltages. So we are indeed skipping an "extra step"

 

Well, Pico-WI (wide input) converts the voltage from 19V to 12V, 5V and 3.3V, but the standard Pico PSU (12V) doesn't convert the 12V rail, which pass as it is.

Having DC-DC buck converters mounted on board, with 19V in input, means having all convertions embedded into the mobo, from 19V to 12V, 5V, 3.3V and also 1.9V.

So it's really the worst scenario and we don't skip anything.

[sligolad]

Anyone seen / checked out the new V3 from Paul?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15026[/ATTACH]

 

Finally got the Paul Pang (PPA) V3 USB Card yesterday after it travelled around the world for the last 2 weeks!!

 

Disconnected the JCat USB card from the PCie Riser which has a tapped in 3.3 Linear supply from a Teddy Pardo Supply and connected the riser cable to the PPA V3 Card.

Then connected an Anker Battery (the big one) for the 5v supply on the Molex connector and powered up.

 

Initially it took a few boots and minutes for the OS to see the card which may be down to the Oven Clock taking time to get up to temperature and boy is it an Oven, it gets warm but you can still touch it and it is about 8 to 10 times the size of the Temperature compensated clock module on the PPA V2 card which surprised and amused me when i seen it, the pictures do not do it justice in terms of size.......not that size should matter :-)

The NEC 30230 (i think) driver i use for the JCat USB card worked for the PPA V3 card so no installing of drivers required so at least I can switch back and forth between both with a quich change and rebooot.

 

It sounded good right out of the box and initial thoughts were it was as least as good as the JCat if not maybe a little better.

After an hour I was going WOW as it did seem to be getting much better, by the end of the night all I was interested in was putting on loads of different music and enjoying it all again.

Need a few more days with it to conclude but I am seriously thinking now about getting one of these big Oven clocks for the Motherboard.

 

Cheers, Pearse.

[ALRAINBOW]

I rec mine two days ago and I have not had time to try it. Can someone post why I would want the main board clock upgrade. ???

i have one ona MSI board from him all out setup. But honestly it's not any better than non chipped boards

al

[sligolad]

Did you power the Mobo PPA Clock off the onboard USB as suggested by Paul or provide clean 5v to the Clock Al?

I found the best improvement was to power the PPA clock from clean 5v separately.

[ALRAINBOW]

Main board as shown. But keep in mind this is all out

I have there seperate battery psu units.

The main board is alone feeding from a red wine black lighting

and two bakoons feeding the PPA usb card and two SS DRIVES

only one bakoon is just iOS SS drive and the other does the music drive and PPA usb card.

And of course all the fancy cables inside. To me the cables are a waist of money.

Only the ss drives , iOS system weather SER 2012 or win 8

then batteries and AO software. All of these matter greatly

as the cables do not hurt but it seems to me just not worth the money.

Thanks I will try the seperate power tonight.

Also HDPLEX. Makes for about 400 usd Both a linaer psu and ATX psu that rival a complete battery setup. At a fraction of the cost of batteries

al

[sligolad]

I hear you Al on the HDPLEX, I jumped on the Tier 1 purchase as all these separate PS units means lots of boxes.

Been waiting on a Paul Hynes 3 rail SR7EHD unit since April I think (30 days I was told) but most likely I will have the HDPLEX before I see the PH unit!!

 

Make sure you have a good ground for the clock or just leave the black where it is on the USB header and connect a separate 5v red supply to the clock 5v red and the ground from the 5v supply to any of the other grounds available.

Cheers, Pearse.

[Matias]

How do these cards compare against an external USB power+reclocker like the $99 Schiit Wyrd?

[ALRAINBOW]

I have the ap1/pp also the offramp 5.

A real caps news that stuff away.

Usb cards and seperate psu are to me no worth doing alone.

Al

[sligolad]

I hear you Al on the HDPLEX, I jumped on the Tier 1 purchase.

Been waiting on a Paul Hynes 3 rail SR7EHD unit since April I think (30 days I was told) but most likely I will have the HDPLEX before I see the PH unit!!

Cheers, Pearse.

OOOPPs got my PS wrong....thanks Seb for putting me straight, it was the Teradak PS I ordered, the price and exectution being almost the same fooled me. I am hoping to see lower ripple/noise from the Teradak :-)

[sebna]

OOOPPs got my PS wrong....thanks Seb for putting me straight, it was the Teradak PS I ordered, the price and exectution being almost the same fooled me. I am hoping to see lower ripple/noise from the Teradak :-)

 

Ahh for a second I though we will have one more to play with. Also very true about the ripple being slightly better on TeraDAK.

 

Cheers