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dCS Network Bridge


r_w

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A question.  I have found that performance using my (obviously already great) DCS Network Bridge improves meaningfully by applying all the damping and isolation tricks I know to my flimsy Verizon-supplied wifi cable modem.  Are there ideas for a simple, well-built, robust modem/router/switch solution that I should consider? From my perspective the simpler the better, i.e., fewer cables, boxes, etc.  I am fortunate (I think) in that via a coax switch in my bedroom where all the Verizon ISP/cable boxes are situated, I do have a long coax cable that goes all the way across my apartment right up to where I have my audio equipment in my living room.  For now, at least, I am using a MacMini on my LAN (located near audio) with its attached hard drive as my UPNP music server.  For now I have the (damped/isolated) Verizon cable modem located behind the audio system.  Thank you for any ideas. If there is another thread here that addresses this please let me know. 

hltf

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Steve:

May I ask what brand of modem and switch do you use with your DCS NB?  Did you try different ones?  Or do you have a particular recommendation?  I have found that damping my flimsy Verizon provided one makes a decent difference.

 

Related to this I have a Netgear switch on order which I plan to connect to my current Verizon modem.   And I have a  Wireworld Platinum CAT8 cable also on order.  I am trying to figure out whether I should invest in a heavy well built modem too, if there is one that is thought to be a good one.

 

I found I liked Minim Server and Bubble UPNP better than Asset UPNP with the DCS NB.  But I haven't yet tried Roon as I need another iPad.  My current iPad2 works with the DCS NB but not with Roon which needs iPad Air.

 

Thanks

 

hltf

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On 8/24/2017 at 9:38 AM, skyline said:

 

There's a very good Waversa hub that is a battery operated switch with filters.

 

Once you hear your streaming setup with it, you will never go back.

 

I'm also interested in the DCS bridge, as I don't need USB.

 

Seems like a promising product.

Thanks skyline.  I might look into this at some point or one of the things I mention below.  Based on what I heard from Steve above, I ended up getting: (1) an Airport Extreme as router that is fed by Verizon FIOS modem, and (2) a 5-port Netgear switch that is fed by the Apple Extreme and from which I have a single lead going into my Network Bridge.  This setup sounds very good.

 

I have one of the Wireworld Cat 8 going into the NB and three lengths of Blue Jeans 6A cable for the other ethernet connections in my system.  The Wireworld was certainly a nice step up from the 5e cable I was using before.  I am wondering whether I should eventually upgrade to WW Cat 8 everywhere, or get 1 or 2 Acoustic Revive isolators, or leave it all as is. 

 

Thanks for the details Steve.  It helped clarify what I needed to do.

hltf

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Skyline, I stuck a bunch of Stillpoints ERS paper around my modem/router/switch and connectors to address RFI/EMI, and physically isolated it as best I could with various Herbie's materials plus some Walker discs and a lot of caulking material.  I wrapped some ERS paper around the various SMPS boxes of the DC power cables for these units.  I also send power to my modem + router + switch from my balanced power isolator which also helps. One issue for me is that I discovered that I am limited to using only Verizon supplied Fiberoptic modems and these need as much as 3 amps at 12 volts.  So my best bet is likely to be another power supply than the LPS-1.  Over time I plan to dig around.  Some of those IFI purifiers for might be good too, although I am not sure how well they work though relative to a separate power supply.

hltf

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On 8/25/2017 at 8:15 PM, cjf said:

Nice product, I see one in my future very soon.

 

Two questions though for current owners:

 

1. Does DCS offer a Control APP for Android devices?

2. Can you configure all the same settings that the APP offers via the built-in Web Interface if by chance an APP isn't available for Android?

 

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide

cjf, I don't believe you can use an android with the DCS Network App. In fact you can't use a MacBook either at least yet.  However, as Steve said above, Roon is probably a much better way to drive the DCS NB.  I might switch to that in the weeks ahead as the DCS app is a bit buggy anyway and Roon is a very attractive sounding option.  Though Roon does cost some additional money of course.  In the meantime I am just getting used to the NB myself.  It is a very nice step up from my previous USB based set up.

hltf

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Yes, as Steve said earlier, I too have found that Roon has much better playback sound quality than BubbleServer UPNP/MinimServer on my MacMini server.  And it is really great for its own meta data and smooth user interface.   Very worth while.

 

However, I am experiencing some persistent connection issues that seem specfic to my Roon, Mac and DCS NB set-up for which I would much appreciate any tips from anyone who knows anything about this.  I have set up my MacMini as Roon Core with an external HD holding all my music. I control Roon via a MacBook Air.  Roon keeps dropping the connection to the DCS Network Bridge. I do manage to get it started again. Sometimes it just starts up again when I press the Play button without doing anything else. But at other times it only comes back after I try several things like switching off the DCS Network Bridge or rebooting my MacMini core or shutting down Roon etc. The error messages that Roon gives are: "Roon lost control of the audio device" or "Failed to select Roon as the current source". 

 

The MacMini is wired by ethernet cable to an Airport Express. The DCS NB is also wired by cable to the same Airport Express. The MacBook AirRoon control communicates with everything on my my LAN including the MacMini and the DCS Network Bridge over WiFi.

hltf

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Thanks a lot for the thoughts again Steve.  I will look at the WiFi connection.  That makes sense.  

 

I am wondering if it could be my Verizon FIOS modem which is a bit old.  Now that I think about it we often have very short-lived breaks in WiFi.  Very likely that is doing what you say to the Roon-DCS connection.  Maybe I need to replace the Verizon modem.  I will reach out to Verizon to see what is possible there.  Unfortunately I am limited to only a few modems that work for Verizon FIOS.

 

On a positive note the sound I am now getting is really wonderful.  I put the MacMini, external HD and DCS NB on the a SR Tranquility Base and the modem, router right alongside it.  Have also maxed out my Herbies and isolation/damping tricks.

hltf

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Thanks a lot for the detailed insights Steve.  They have helped illuminate the types of things going on here. 

 

The FIOS network is the one that my MacBook Air goes to, not to the Airport Extreme.  Only the Mac mini and the DCS NB are wired to the Airport Extreme.  I thought I'd keep wifi traffic away from the Airport Extreme as I understand that is not a good thing for audio.  So I still suspect the FIOS. Or now I am thinking it is possibly the fact that I had mistakenly designated sound output for the MacBook Air to go to the DCS NB.  Since I just disabled this last, I haven't had any problems.  So let's see.

 

And many thanks again.

hltf

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  • 2 months later...

Has anyone tried to use a Naim unitiserv with the DCS NB and Roon?  I am thinking of replacing my MacMini which I use as my Roon Core with a used Naim unitiserv.  The attraction of the Naim unitiserv seems to be that it is fanless, has a good quality power supply, and also has a good quality ripper.  Naim construction is also very solid.

 

I currently control my Mac mini via my laptop using Apple Remote and would instead control the unitiserv via my Mac laptop with its own app.  

 

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

hltf

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/7/2017 at 2:51 AM, AmusedToD said:

 

So you like it better too? Well, we should thank @romaz and @austinpop for this one and many other popular upstream tweaks.

 

Which software are you using?

 

 

I too now have implemented  the bridged ethernet tweak suggested by @romaz out of one of my 2010 MacMini's USB ports using a $30 USB-ethernet adapter from the Apple Store.  It certainly was well worth my time and the small outlay of funds!

 

May I ask which other upstream tweaks you meant that might be applicable to my DCS NB/MacMini set up?

 

Thank you.

hltf

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1 hour ago, AmusedToD said:

 

Not really sure as I haven’t tested many, but have a general idea of what could be done. Perhaps something like this:

 

1. Fanless dual LAN computer server based on the SOtM sCLK-ex clock board with a 75 ohm reference clock input (the SOtM clock board would take care of the ethernet protocol clocking where the audio signal travels from the server to the dCS NBR)

2. dCS Master clock with a reference clock input that would be connected to the word clock inputs of the dCS NBR and a dCS DAC 

3. Cybershaft reference master clock with two 75ohm output, one to be connected to the input on the server and the other to the input of the dCS clock

 

This imaginary setup would allow both the system and the audio clocks to be synchronized to an external reference master clock.

 

@austinpop, do you think this could work?

 

The configuration of computers and clocks you mention is intriguing.  I will have to try and check them out. Thanks.  I should say too that they are a bit above my present technical networking know-how, so any links etc that you recommend I look at would be helpful.

 

I had in the past thought of interposing a clock between the DCS NB and my DAC.  However, my DAC is not a DCS DAC, and in fact doesn't have a clock input, so I am not sure I can really benefit from or even properly use an external clock.  My DAC is a non-oversampling Concert Fidelity DAC-040 with a vintage Philips 16/44 (actually 16/48 I believe) DAC chip, and as far as I can tell no internal clock either.  I believe this is similar to the Audio Note NOS DAC approach, although AN uses a different chip (Analog Devices I think).  Do you think I could benefit from an external clock even without the clock input to my DAC?

 

I have heard of the benefits of a fanless computer server.  I figure when my MacMini comes close to the end of its life (its now 7-8 years old) I will replace it with a good fanless server option.  I believe the NUC option is not always fanless, correct?  Roon is also now offering a server computer.  

 

hltf

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  • 1 year later...

A question please.  Maybe it has been addressed earlier in this or another thread or even another site altogether, in which case please point me to where. I haven't been active on it for a while.  

 

Has anyone been able to bridge ethernet on the Roon Nucleus, i.e., connect internet router directly to Nucleus and from Nucleus directly to the DCS Network Bridge?  I have been doing this up to now with my MacMini and DCS NB, but I just got a Roon Nucleus (smaller one not the Nucleus+).  I am looking for tips to get it going.  My initial difficulties with bridging are:

- Do I need a different USB ethernet adapter than the one I had been using for my MacMini?

- I understand I need to reconfigure the IP addresses of DCS NB and of Nucleus itself, correct? Do I need some sort of DHCP server software that I would need to download on to one of the computers on my LAN?  I have a Mac laptop for general purpose use networked to my LAN.

 

Thank you

hltf

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  • 1 year later...

Hi, can someone please tell me whether I need a slow-blow or fast-blow 1 amp small (5 x 20 mm) fuse for the DCS NB? The manual says: 20 x 5mm T 1 amp L fuse.  Is there a brand that people have liked particularly?  I need to get a spare.

Thanks

hltf

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  • 2 months later...

Has the DCS Network Bridge changed from the original?  Or is it the same unit that is being manufactured.  Mine is from mid-2018.  When I pull up the manual on DCS web-site I see "V02" in the header.  Is that referring to the software update which is v1.02?  Thanks

 

hltf

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