SOtM smS-200 unveiled at Munich Hi-End

[phusis]

i have finally managed to collect the SotM sMS-200 and a working sample of sonore microRendu to start my comparos.

 

I also have the SOtM battery PSU, UpTone Audio JS-2 and LPS-1 PSUs and iFi Power PSU on hand.

 

Some initial impressions?

[phusis]

Let me do some more in-depth listening. But you got yourself a brilliant piece of kit

 

Looking forward to your in-depth analysis, not least how the units behave sonically being fed with the SOtM battery supply vs. the non-battery dittos.

 

And thanks, I'm quite happy about my kit Having highly sensitive speakers (~106dB's) I might venture further into the simple topology (2-stage) single-ended no negative feedback SET's in the future, but as is the Belles is a wonderful, versatile amp. The source components are rather "SOtM-heavy" in number (which could be read as an add in itself), but they're simply no-fuss, well-sounding units.

 

Your setup looks to deliver excellent sonics, even if I have heard none of the components herein (let alone this particular combination). I imagine the transparency at play will be beneficiary evaluating components.

[phusis]

Here are my observations in my system.

 

Playback from storage connected directly to the sMS-200 doesn't sound good, regardless of whether it's SSD, HD, thumbdrive, etc. Good detail but no body -- it just sounds thin and not to my liking at all. It's not clear from your post if this is how you've connected your USB SSD.

 

This could be system dependent but LMS, especially with iPeng didn't sound very good in my system. Same thing with MPD. I own HQPlayer and have tried it but with my Chord DAVE DAC and the sMS-200 and unfortunately, HQPlayer doesn't add anything (actually sounds a bit worse). Roon is where I get my best SQ and I expect the soon to be released Roon 1.3 will sound even better.

 

I used to own the full Aries with femto clock and LPS option and what I am getting from my sMS-200 connected to my Paul Hynes SR7 is way better. The SBooster should be excellent also.

 

If you have the option to move to a Mac Mini or Windows PC server (nothing fancy necessary) that you can attach 2 ethernet ports to, you would have the option of directly connecting the server to the sMS-200 with a single ethernet cable and this should significantly elevate your SQ.

 

romaz --

 

Thanks for your contributions (and replies to me earlier) - I'm looking forward to try out the direct, bridged LAN-connection, and will add ROON once I have my NUC in place (my NAS is not powerful enough for this task).

 

A question regarding the PSU to the sMS-200: have you tried out SOtM's battery supply (or any other battery supply), and compared it to the Paul Hynes SR7 or other linear PSU's?

[phusis]

Picked up the Edimax EW-7811UAC connected it, but for some reason my 5GHz network not showing up in list. Any thoughts on why? It is picking up other 5GHz networks in the area, but mine is not. I have an Airport Extreme in dual output mode, one at 2.4 and the other at 5. The 2.4 picks up fine.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

 

Are other devices in your home picking up the 5G signal from your router? Do you have to set up 5G manually from the router, or perhaps the 5G signal is too weak (5G is said to sport less range compared to 2.4)? Using the Edimax myself, with success.

[phusis]

Yeah all my other devices pick up the 5GHz signal fine.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

 

Are they placed in closer proximity to the router compared to the sMS-200?

[phusis]

13 hours ago, jtwrace said:

I think the Ultra is going to be $1k though...

 

If that's the going price I'll just keep concentrating on refining the potential of my "regular" sMS-200 in the near future with an even better, linear power supply and playback software (ROON) - all of which I had planned anyway. Steve Plaskin's recent review over at audiostream.com sheds some light on the sound of the sMS-200 with different PSU's, btw.

 

Seeing the ever pouring stream of upgrades coming in the form new clocks and other tweaks with the sMS-200 (and similiar products) sometimes lends an exhaustive feel to it; will it ever end or just pause for a moment - or rather will I come to settle a bit on this rollercoaster ride of upgrades and tweaks? I mean, it's wonderful and humbling seeing the contribution of many here who put hours and hours into testing and experimentation for others to benefit from, just as well as seeing the ongoing product developement bring with it new initiatives like the Ultra-version of the sMS-200 - this is indeed an area of rapid evolution that has by now reached impressive sonic results. 

 

However, for my part I need to sometimes step back for a moment and see the bigger picture once a certain "plateau" of sonic level has been reached, in this case with the digital source (which is still an ongoing process, as per above..), and assess the other areas of ones setup that need attention or re-evaluation. In my case I've just invested in a new subwoofer (arriving this weekend) to my main speakers, which should see an interesting outcome in bringing out new (hidden) details from the source material and strike an impact on the sound on a macro-level. Whereas very often I feel these digital tweaks to only register on a relative micro-level, levels of which one becomes used to dealing with, and over time rates them perhaps far more important than they are - not that they're unimportant.  

 

Mostly this is meant as a reminder to myself, to keep perspective in the midst of these digital progressions..

[phusis]

1 hour ago, Joerg D said:

Hello, since I made the update to 4.15, DLNA and MPD will not start anymore. Reset and restart did not help. Has anyone found a solution?

greeting
Joerg

 

Same problem - I'm stuck with no sound  

[phusis]

On ‎15‎-‎02‎-‎2018 at 1:19 AM, ClothEars said:

There is a new firmware version (V 4.15) released last night and I have just installed it.

After the install I started the MPD/DLNA server and after 1/2 an hour it has not become active.

 

@MayfromSOtM

The activity light is still flashing away so something is going on however it shouldn't take this long.

I have been caught out before by being impatient with the SMS-200 but surely it should not take so long to start the MPD server.

 

I would strongly suggest other users delay their firmware update until this gets sorted.

Unfortunately it is the New Year holiday in east Asia and we will have to wait until Monday to have any problem solved.

I will post any updates to the situation if it changes.  

 

Oh, dammit. Thanks for this info. 

 

I guess the only way to fix this problem, other than waiting for a new update by Monday, is a recovery:

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

[phusis]

11 minutes ago, d_elm said:

One could use Squeezebox server and SqueezeLite renderer, painful, until the MPD problem is fixed.

 

Just about to finish rewriting the microSD card with the recovery image (V4.0), so if all goes well I'll boot up the sMS-200 Ultra anew and hopefully have MPD/DLNA up and running again. 

EDIT: now up and running with V4.0 again via MDP/DLNA. 

[phusis]

2 minutes ago, mikeyb said:

Why the desperate urge to update right now, if your sms200 is working fine just now, be patient and a new update will appear soon after the holiday.

 

May warned people not to update as soon as it was obvious that the update was failing.

 

Not much more they can do in the meantime.

 

Indeed, I would suspect there's no audible advance with the recent updates, but of course there are features that some may crave to implement.

I'll wait it out from V4.0, and update again when it's safe to do so.. 

[phusis]

18 hours ago, MayfromSOtM said:

Just back to work again, please try to re-install the OS newly and then make an update again.It should work fine.

Sorry for the absence~

 

May, 

 

From what I can tell V4.16 hasn't solved the DLNA issue - it still won't start up. I'll try and make the upgrade for a third time now...

 

EDIT: third-time upgrade wasn't a charme. Back to V4.0 via recovery - again..

[phusis]

Well, recovery to V4.0 completed again, and I've then upgraded to V4.14 (the upgrade prior to where the MPD/DLNA issue arises), and here it stays(!) until the problem has been ameliorated  

[phusis]

16 hours ago, sotm.jho said:

Hello

I'm Jeeho-Oh. I'm an engineer in SOTM.

Thank you for your reply and I'm sorry to have a problem.

So, if you have problem try this:

 

Case1: eunhasu version is 0.4.16 and still have problem:

1. Go to the this url:  <your eunhasu address>/upgrade.php?upgrade_server=alpha

2. Click the upgrade button.

3. Reboot your device when the upgrade finish.

 

Case2: eunhasu version is less than 0.4.16:

Just upgarde to 0.4.16. We've already fix the problem.

 

If you still have problem after these following please send the e-mail to [email protected].

 

 

 

Thanks for this follow-up. 

Perhaps to avoid confusion, could you designate the fixed 0.4.16 to simply be 0.4.17? Several have experienced 0.4.16 having earlier mentioned issue, so we may feel more comfortable knowing that the actual fixed version is another, new version. 

[phusis]

22 hours ago, ClothEars said:

 

How did you get the version 4.1.4 upgrade?

I thought it would automatically install the latest version (4.1.6).

 Sorry for the late reply. 

 

I believe V0.4.14 became "visible" being that I had made a recovery to V0.4.0; the first upgrade that became available from V0.4.0 was V0.4.14, and only after I'd upgraded to that version did V0.4.16 become available. 

[phusis]

18 hours ago, MayfromSOtM said:

Sorry for the confusion updating to the latest f/w. I had reported it to our engineer team and they will check and work on it.

Thank you.

Best regards, May

 

Hi May, 

 

It appears the issue has now been solved, as per above SOtM engineer. I've yet to dare try the update.. 

[phusis]

9 hours ago, MayfromSOtM said:

Yes Jiho has been done the teamviewer session and it will work fine

 

So, downloading the latest V0.4.16 upgrade means that it's fixed and won't need for me to do a Teamviewer session with Jiho? 

[phusis]

Two days ago upgraded to V0.4.16, and had to make a second install for DLNA to work. Yesterday I started up the sMS-200 Ultra again and DLNA started automatically - wonderful, all seemed to be OK. 

 

Then today I'm at it again for some music listening, but this time around DLNA won't start automatically - not even manually. Reboot doesn't help. Upgrade installed for a third time, to no avail. 

 

OK, I've had it. I'll do my last recovery to V0.4.0 (a rather lengthy process..), at least with this specific issue, and call it a day.

 

Why is V0.4.16, that worked OK these last two days, suddenly not working again? There's obviously an issue here that hasn't been sorted out by the SOtM engineers. 

 

@may.park

 

Perhaps a remote session, trying to fix the issue, with one of your engineers is called for? That being said I don't understand why the problem has to be dealt with locally when so many have the same issue?  

[phusis]

7 hours ago, Boomboy said:

I've been finding 4.14 ok and i wont be going past it . It was recommended to me by sotms engineer to update to 4.16 after i reflashed the filmware on my sd card .. but i dont see how that would help as it seems like a procedure ive already done ..

 

@phusis was 4.14 ok for you ? 

 

When i stream my internet radio station via a .pls into mpd after about 3 hours it stops and then plays a flac file . Weird huh ? But i can live with it .

 

Yes, thank you - V0.4.14 runs like a charm (and good it does for you too) After recovery to V0.4.0 the upgrade to V0.4.14 went trouble free. Then we'll see what comes with a newer upgrade to be had - anything that is not V0.4.16