SOtM smS-200 unveiled at Munich Hi-End

[mitch751]

Received my Game card too ... out of my expectation .... I can hear the sound difference ..

 

Do not ask me the tech. issue ..... and I do not understand the reason behind .. but it does change the sound, and even in a better way ..

[mitch751]

From Sony

[Joao Lins]

5 hours ago, mitch751 said:

Received my Game card too ... out of my expectation .... I can hear the sound difference ..

 

Do not ask me the tech. issue ..... and I do not understand the reason behind .. but it does change the sound, and even in a better way ..

 

What size card did you buy?

[stefano_mbp]

10 hours ago, mitch751 said:

From Sony

What’s the meaning of those pictures? … no Chinese/Japanese here …

[mitch751]

12 hours ago, Joao Lins said:

 

What size card did you buy?

32GB

[mitch751]

5 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

What’s the meaning of those pictures? … no Chinese/Japanese here …

The Japanese translation of the Top

It can have a negative impact on the components and circuits of playback equipment, causing a decline in sound quality.

 

The Bottom one 

Measures have been taken to reduce electrical noise by taking measures to address technical elements within the memory card that are thought to affect sound quality.

 

Reduces the impact on playback equipment and improves sound quality

 

Frequency analysis data

 

radiation intensity

 

dBuV

 

Our conventional product

 

SR-64HXA

 

 

 

Slight electrical noise occurs when reading data

[mitch751]

To be honest, when I first heard ... I did not believe and made a conclusion - it was subjective and nothing to support a SD card could make the sound different. 

 

Since I needed few new cards for backup why not tried two Game card as above suggested ..... in turn on made a surprise.

 

Tempted to try Delkin Power UHS-II microSD , received it and  Imust said ... it is even better .... 

 

 

 

 

[mitch751]

3 hours ago, mitch751 said:

32GB

sorry should be 64GB

[Gerardo61]

Sorry in advance, but did  you flash SOtM O.S. on SD? 

I cannot understand which advantage could I have with these SD game. 

Thanks for explanation

Gerardo

[ClothEars]

4 hours ago, Gerardo61 said:

Sorry in advance, but did  you flash SOtM O.S. on SD? 

I cannot understand which advantage could I have with these SD game. 

Thanks for explanation

Gerardo

Yes - you burn/flash a micro SD card (minumum 8Gb) with the image file available on the sOTM web site for version 5.51.  Here is the link - the download is at the bottom of the page.

https://docs.sotm-audio.com/doku.php?id=en/eunhasu/burn_sdcard_image

It doesn't matter if the micro SD card is bigger than 8Gb as the image is for a partition that is around 7.8Gb.

 

Each micro SD card seems to have a particular sound signature and I have found the SP Gaming card to sound the best to my ears.  I have just ordered the 64Gb Delkin Power micro SD card referred to earlier to give it a go. It will be interesting to see if the extra expense is worth it.  😃

[Stonemanty]

… don’t forget…

 

as well as firmware 5.51, you need to update the Kernel to xx.211 (although it now seems to be xx.212) plus set the CPU speed to 312MHz (+/- depending on what’s stable on your system, Roon is fine down to 144 on mine but the GUI is veeeeeerry sloooooow)

 

Some prefer 100 vs 1000 Ethernet,  IPV6 off etc etc 

[Gerardo61]

8 hours ago, ClothEars said:

es - you burn/flash a micro SD card (minumum 8Gb) with the image file available on the sOTM web site for version 5.51.  

 

8 hours ago, ClothEars said:

Each micro SD card seems to have a particular sound signature and I have found the SP Gaming card to sound the best to my ears.  I have just ordered the 64Gb Delkin Power micro SD card referred to earlier to give it a go. It will be interesting to see if the extra expense is worth it.  😃

Thanks for info, I will try a new SD card.

 

7 hours ago, Stonemanty said:

as well as firmware 5.51, you need to update the Kernel to xx.211 (although it now seems to be xx.212) plus set the CPU speed to 312MHz (+/- depending on what’s stable on your system,

I already use v. 5.51 while Kernel version is 6.1.60-210-fc32

I can not run 200 ultra neo under 528 MHz because it stop music and I have reboot it.

Now I try to update kernel

Thanks so much guys

[stefano_mbp]

7 hours ago, Stonemanty said:

you need to update the Kernel to xx.211

Be careful with 211 kernel …

 

[Stonemanty]

Thanks, I think it’d already moved on to 212 when I updated the other day 

 

But I didn’t notice any problems with 5.51/211; Roon into ‘200 Ultra Neo at 144MHz - other than the GUI is very slow

 

Plus on mine the CPU speed option has gone ie. I’m presumably stuck on 144 unless I reflash to reset the firmware 

it sounds fine tho’ so I’m ok with that

 

regards

Andy

[audiobomber]

11 hours ago, ClothEars said:

burn/flash a micro SD card (minimum 8Gb) with the image file

Some of us experienced unreliable performance with an 8Gb card, and May recommended going higher, in an email to me.

[Gerardo61]

I flashed a 32 Gb Kingston with fw 5.51 and kernel 6.1.60.212.fc32 (from beta server)

I'll test it after and report my results

Stay tuned

Gerardo

[Stonemanty]

My starting card was a Kingston 32 extreme Pro (or similar) 

 

no SQ change vs two other cards I’m afraid 

[Gerardo61]

3 minutes ago, Stonemanty said:

no SQ change vs two other cards I’m afraid 

Yup, me too

[Stonemanty]

I think I have one or two things to change to get the cards to equal status - I think the kernel has ticked up to 212 and I need to get them all on 144mhz 

 

if there’s still no obvious change (+ve or -ve), I’m reluctant to go for the Delkin cards as they’re expensive here (The SP Game cards shown above are not available in GB)

 

Still, the firmware/kernel upgrade has been worthwhile and it’s been an interesting experiment 🤓👍

[creativepart]

My system simply can't handle 768 PCM playback at the 144mhz setting. Constant breaks and cut outs. I dropped back to the  higher 312Mhz setting and proper playback returned. I had been using the 528Mhz when folks started saying 144Mhz was the way to go.

 

At 144Mhz the wait for the firmware pages to load was horrid. At 312Mhz it still takes a while but isn't so bad. By the way, at 144Mhz I still had the CPU option showing in my control panel. It just took 4+ mins to load.

 

As to sound quality... I'll live with 312Mhz for a while and compare it to 528Mhz. I was happy with 528Mhz.

 

I take it this CPU setting is for the CPU in the SoTM device, why would slower sound better? What's the theory there?

 

I do have the 6.1.60-211.fc32.armv7hl kernel, but 0.5.51 firmware

[Gerardo61]

8 hours ago, creativepart said:

My system simply can't handle 768 PCM playback at the 144mhz setting. Constant breaks and cut outs. I dropped back to the  higher 312Mhz setting and proper playback returned. I had been using the 528Mhz when folks started saying 144Mhz was the way to go.

 

At 144Mhz the wait for the firmware pages to load was horrid. At 312Mhz it still takes a while but isn't so bad. By the way, at 144Mhz I still had the CPU option showing in my control panel. It just took 4+ mins to load.

 

As to sound quality... I'll live with 312Mhz for a while and compare it to 528Mhz. I was happy with 528Mhz.

 

I take it this CPU setting is for the CPU in the SoTM device, why would slower sound better? What's the theory there?

 

I do have the 6.1.60-211.fc32.armv7hl kernel, but 0.5.51 firmware

 

I have fw 0.5.6 and kernel 6.1.60-212. My 200 ultra neo can't manage clock below 528 MHz. I always  use HQPlayer Desktop at DSD512. 

Each time I try 328 MHz SOtM crash. I never try 144.

528 MHz is the best for me

[ClothEars]

On 3/19/2024 at 10:46 PM, audiobomber said:

Some of us experienced unreliable performance with an 8Gb card, and May recommended going higher, in an email to me.

I don't use 8Gb cards any more because they aren't generally available with 128Gb or larger fast becoming the norm.

[audiobomber]

5 hours ago, ClothEars said:

I don't use 8Gb cards any more because they aren't generally available with 128Gb or larger fast becoming the norm.

There's no point in using more than 16GB in an sMS-200. Waste of money.

[Gerardo61]

7 hours ago, audiobomber said:

There's no point in using more than 16GB in an sMS-200. Waste of money.

Of course. It's difficult to find SD smaller than 32 Gb but the costs are acceptable

[Stonemanty]

I made sure my two cards, (both 32gb V30 one SP the other Kingston) were on v5.51  xx.212 and set to 144mhz (they weren’t matched previously) 

 

I swapped them back and forth several times (what a faff 🙄) each getting 5 listens to the same reference tracks

 

the SP card was slightly better! 😮

 

The difference is soundstage; it’s more constrained with the Kingston and it opens up with the SP - it’s not night and day, but definitely preferable with the SP

 

I’ll double check later, but if the findings remain the same I’ll be happy to try the more expensive Delkin card