SOtM smS-200 unveiled at Munich Hi-End

[tedwoods]

21 hours ago, Confused said:

You do know that I have a fear of Daleks?

Sorry, didn't mean to scare you...😉

Personally, I like my images being music related. For Eunhasu I use New Order's Tempation cover...

 

[tedwoods]

8 hours ago, Always.Learning said:

Has anyone else been unable to access Eunhasu? For three days now, when I type http://eunhasu into my browser, I get the message that the browser cannot open the webpage because the server where the page is located is not responding. 

If you're accessing it via DHCP and not via a bridged  or static IP configuration, it could mean it has been assigned a new IP address, so your link to Eunhasu does not work anymore.

Google ""sotm my" and it'll direct you to "my eunhasu" page (http://sotm-audio.com/my/), where you can find the new IP address and connect to Eunhasu again.

You can then bookmark it for later reference.

 

 

[tedwoods]

4.57 is working flawlessly for me in NAA mode.

The big surprise was the SQ up-lift when switching to 100Base-T !

This is a serious upgrade, not of the subtle kind, and it is especially prominent in the midrange.

Everything seems -for lack of a better term- more "relaxed" and enjoyable now and also the depth perception seems to have improved, but also there's a sort of  coherence to the sound.

Very nice!😊

 

[tedwoods]

13 minutes ago, kelvinwsy said:

Hi Tedwoods do you experience stuttering still with 4.57 just like earlier versions. I hv a case of stuttering with my new SMSL VMV D1 Dac from my HQPlayer Server .. 6700k /nvidia 970 .. with the SM200 Ultra Neo as NAA 

Strange using my 8650u minipc as NAA I can upsample even 96khz to DSD 512 - 24mhz smooth as can be.. So it has to be the SM200 ??

Setting to Ds7 and polysinc ext2 did not help even Dsd256 ! still stutters ??

Thx

 

I'm currently doing 48x256 /DSD7 256+fs /poly-sinc-shrt-mp , on a i7-8700K/nVidia GTX-1080 machine through the Holo Spring II without any stuttering...

[tedwoods]

+1 about being given the option to uninstall Roon Ready... 

[tedwoods]

6 hours ago, Confused said:

Furthermore, there a few posters on this thread that clearly have the knowledge and ability to act as beta testers, across a wide range of Eunhasu's various modes.

This is a very good idea!

My 4.59 upgrade went smoothly. NAA works perfectly and the sound is enchanting, to say the least.

Maybe, I'm just lucky that way...😊

On the server front, I hope you've noticed the beans being spilled by @romaz concerning a SoTM i7 mobo is in the works, for an upcoming server product, most probably...🤫

 

[tedwoods]

 

16 hours ago, Confused said:

Interesting that 4.59 works for you with NAA.  Is this with 1000BASE-T or 100BASE-T?  I did get it working on 1000BASE-T, tried 100BASE-T, this did not work, then back to 1000BASE-T, this did not work, despite trying re-boots and all sorts of things.

 

I have to say that I’m still loving the sound with 4.57, so very much hassle but more than worth it for the sound quality hike.

 

And no, I had not spotted  Romaz’s post re the mobo.  I found it after a quick search though, I will keep an eye out for his one.....

 100 BASE -T with  PCM to PCM, PCM to DSD or DSD to DSD conversion in all the rates the Holo Spring II DAC supports.

[tedwoods]

https://www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/english/link-speed/

[tedwoods]

4.6 sounds really good. Actually, it sounds "what just happened?" good, with a great mid kick that makes everything come alive.

However, neither HQPlayer  nor Roon upsampling work with 100BASE-T in my set-up.

[tedwoods]

New firmware is out!

New version of NAA is stable and sounds fine!

[tedwoods]

2 hours ago, Solstice380 said:

@tedwoods  Hi Ted,  To what new firmware are you referring?  On this page "Eunhasu Images" I only see 4.22 and the 4.60 that has been out since July.  Thanks in advance!  Jay

Hi Jay,

It's the 4.7 version.

You can access it via Eunhasu page on your machine.

Also, see here: https://www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/english/eunhasu4-7/

The sound is really good, more natural instrument timbres and smoother note decay.

[tedwoods]

On 3/10/2020 at 2:20 AM, ClothEars said:

 

I found that Lumin does not work with an attached USB drive in MPD mode and that is the problem.  In fact I tried quite a few other MPD control apps (ie Kazoo, Kinsky, MConnect, MPDluxe etc.) and they either did not work or the interface was awful.

 

I use Soundirok as the control app (as do many friends) with great success.

Does Soundirok display art stored in the files?

[tedwoods]

7 hours ago, ClothEars said:

 

Yes it does.  Here are some photo's of the opening screen, browsing screen and an artist screen to give you an idea.

 

 

No luck, I'm afraid...

I get all contents of the attached disc and can control it fine but no artwork...

In the settings something's mentioned about a script...

[tedwoods]

4 hours ago, ClothEars said:

 

You need to setup Soundirok (in "Settings" then "Devices") to find your artwork.  A script is not necessary.  Look under the album folders on your drive to see what name is used for the album artwork.  They will probably vary depending on the source of your audio files.

 

I use the file name "Folder.jpg" as my artwork file.  The name is case sensitive and each album folder on your drive needs a file named the same (in my case Folder.jpg) and it will display the artwork.  You may have your artwork saved with the filename "cover.jpg" or "Cover.jpg" for instance.  Just nominate this filename in Soundirok and it will display the artwork.

 

 

The file "Thumb.jpg" is an artwork file that you place in the artist folder to customise the display for a particular artist.  It is not essential as the first album artwork file will display as the default.  The "Booklet.pdf" file allows information in PDF files to be accessed through Soundirok. 

 

When I first started using Soundirok I did a search for all artwork files on the drive and used a bulk rename utility to change all the artwork file names to "Folder.jpg".  In hindsight I probably should have chosen "cover.jpg" as the standard artwork file name as it is more common.  For missing artwork I used JRiver to search for and insert artwork files into each album directory.

 

@ClothEarsThanks for taking the time to provide this info. I have done all of the above already. I have a pretty well organised library -the result of several years of painstakingly naming my files and selecting high resolution images through JRiver-  with all my covers stored in the files as folder.jpg and also as thumbnails and also I have pointed to the right directory (Collection URL), but still the problem persisted.

I have to mention I'm in Android, if that makes any difference...

I have also e-mailed the developer, but haven't heard back from them yet...

In the meantime I have been using a free app (MPD Remote), which after pointed to the right directory (the same as Soundirok) did find all my artwork.

Its design is a bit "different", but it works...

In my opinion, MPD is the best sounding option of the bunch and it's a pity that control apps seem a bit under-developed.

In the coming weeks I'm going to experiment with disc to device configurations, trying power supplies, cables and possibly re-clockers for the outboard disc (I have many audiophile friends...) to see if they make any difference.

Cheers,

Ted

[tedwoods]

A new firmware version is out...

To these ears, it sounds clearer and more dynamic. 😃

[tedwoods]

For their next update, I hope they also include HQ Player NAA, which is currently three versions behind the most recent one, if I'm not mistaken...

Other than that, can't complain...superb sound all around!

Stay safe everyone!

[tedwoods]

A new version is available which updates a bunch of stuff!

I've downloaded it through Eunhasu and have tried DLNA and NAA and they both work just fine.😀

[tedwoods]

14 minutes ago, Abyss Man said:

My feelings exactly bro, loss of Attack and dynamics is what I hear using a LPS. Please keep us posted on the PH please. I’m told the Farad3 is also good. Plixir Elite is another, but as said I love the Attack,speed and dynamics of the sps. It’s quiet too, well at least to my ears.

The LPS sound you're describing is probably due to high output impedance.

The lower the output impedance the better the sound, especially in the areas of speed and dynamics.

The Farad3, which I have, is very good, but only slightly better overall than the sps-500.

Most other LPS's I've tried did not give a clear improvement over the sps-500 and some had drawbacks too, like the ones you've described.

I'd love to try the new PHD, but I'm a bit apprehensive, due to delays and such.

I've had my fair share of delivery horror stories to stomach yet another...

The Plixir Elite is also a viable candidate, but I've yet to try it...

[tedwoods]

2 hours ago, audiobomber said:

I have owned the sms-200 for several years through numerous FW updates. Never have I seen an update that required me to finish it by myself. I did have to uninstall and install MPD/DLNA as you posted, but IMO this is an error in the firmware and will be corrected shortly. It is fairly common that a second and even third update almost immediately follows the first. That's what I expect will happen now. MPD/DLNA should have been automatically updated in 4.91. 

 

@may.park hasn't been active on this site for awhile. I will email to ensure they know about the firmware omission.

 

Manual install has been done before for NAA.

After the 4.9 auto update I have uninstalled and re-installed  MPD/DLNA and NAA to the new versions.

 

[tedwoods]

What's described above must be a bug, as I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling both individual apps and the latest update itself to no avail...

What prompted me to do so was apps not showing active status when you swap between them, so one is not entirely sure, if they actually stop and start.

However, it's only a lack of visual indication and it doesn't affect actual performance.

If, for example, you want to go from DLNA to NAA and you can't seem to be able stop the former as it seems to hang forever, just open NAA and then restart sMS, just in order to show NAA active status again.

In any case, even without restart, sMS will have made the swap and will play in the latter mode properly, even if active status is not visible.

 

[tedwoods]

On 6/9/2020 at 10:53 AM, tedwoods said:

What's described above must be a bug, as I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling both individual apps and the latest update itself to no avail...

What prompted me to do so was apps not showing active status when you swap between them, so one is not entirely sure, if they actually stop and start.

However, it's only a lack of visual indication and it doesn't affect actual performance.

If, for example, you want to go from DLNA to NAA and you can't seem to be able stop the former as it seems to hang forever, just open NAA and then restart sMS, just in order to show NAA active status again.

In any case, even without restart, sMS will have made the swap and will play in the latter mode properly, even if active status is not visible.

 

Not a bug, after all...

4.91 is very stable.

After my relentless A/Bing between Roon, LMS, DLNA and NAA the sd card got corrupted.

With a new card containing the 4.91 image everything is fine again.

Sometimes the obvious turns out to be the most elusive..

[tedwoods]

16 hours ago, michaeltay5871 said:

Just for clarification.  Do you need to use a brand new card or just reflash the existing one?

Sometimes the old card can suffer irreparable damage (like on my case) and cannot be re-flashed, so you have to use a new one.

In most cases though, re-flashing the old card will work just fine, as @audiobomber has suggested.

Also good advice is to keep a backup sd card, as suggested by @Tommd64

4.91 is very stable, so we can use this version for our backups with confidence.

 

Now, for some audiophile craziness...

Since I could not find the usual 16GB Sandisk "Ultra" that I've been using previously, with only the "Extreme" version in stock  this time round, I used the latter for flashing 4.91 and it feels like it's sounding somewhat "better"...

Actually, I distinctly remember this having been mentioned at some point, but it must have gone below my radar at the time...

Has anyone else noticed the sound changing with different sd cards, I wonder...?

 

[tedwoods]

8 hours ago, audiobomber said:

I had this happen once and assumed the SD card was trashed but I found a solution. I believe the partitions were disrupted. I couldn't use the card with the sMS-200, nor with BalenaEtcher and a Raspberry Pi/Volumio. I tried another program called SD Card Formatter and managed to rescue the card. It is in my sMS right now and doing fine.

Thanks, I'll try that!

[tedwoods]

1 hour ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Hi, I am a bit confused here, the other person mentioned the clock of TX-USB Ultra is for input only.  How to differentiate here.  Nice to see you here again and listen on your insight on clock.  @Solstice380

Both the tX-USBultra and the sMS-200ultra can accept either clock inputs (via BNC) or have extra clock outputs (via SMB connectors).

That's because both share the sCLK-EX clock board, which can have up to four outputs.

Since not all of the outputs are used in either of these units, you can opt for some of the unused outputs to clock other products with.

For example a tX-USB Ultra can also clock a regular sMS-200 (provided both are equipped or modded with the appropriate SMB connectors on the back of the units).

Before SOtM came up with the sMS-200Ultra model and its own switch, it was not uncommon to have one SOtM product clock another.

Of course that created complexity and also it was observed that the clock cables length and quality also affected performance and so this method subsided with time, but I believe you can still spec a tX-USB or sMS-200 this way.

See link as an example: https://sotm-usa.com/collections/ultra-series-mods/products/sms-200ultra-neo-plus-ethernet-switch-mod

The exact clock frequencies have to be programmed at the factory though, so this is not something the user can do and it has to be specified, so that SOtM through their dealers can do it.

Moreover, both "ultra" products plus the sNH-10G switch can also accept either 50 or 75Ω BNC clock inputs to use with external 10 MHz master clocks, like SOtM's own sCLK-OCX10.

[tedwoods]

6 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Of course, ideally, I can use the more advanced M10 Clock to synchronize, sMS 200, TX-USB extra and a DAC with clock input.

That's the way to go...