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A novel way to massively improve the SQ of computer audio streaming


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Most important: please realize this thread is about bleeding edge experimentation and discovery. No one has The Answer™. If you are not into tweaking, just know that you can have a musically satisfying system without doing any of the nutty things we do here.

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Since you guys are gonna mod one of those PCI-Express cards anyways, what if we go one step further and replace RJ-45 jacks with the industrial M12 X-coded ones to further reduce the noise?

 

https://www.telegaertner.com/en/info/highlights/m12/

http://www.lda.be/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=145:molex-m12-cat-6a-connector-system&catid=11&Itemid=82&lang=en

Complete 360º shielded design: 4 twisted-cable pairs individually shielded and protected with a braided metal shield. Optimal signal performance without system noise interference.

Telegärtner is already selling this M12 SWITCH GOLD in Japan for 3 grands:

http://www.audiounion.jp/ct/detail/new/138728/

http://www.telegaertner.co.jp/product/newproduct/m12_switch_gold/m12_switch_gold.html

 

Extremely positive review:

http://asoyaji.blogspot.com/2017/02/m12-gold-switch.html

 

PerfecTron MT321-M Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Network Mini PCIe Module with 2 X M12 Connectors

http://www.perfectron.com/download/datasheet/MT321.pdf

http://www.perfectron.com/download/users_manual/MT321QIGV1.0_20150604.pdf

http://www.wdlsystems.com/Communications/PerfecTron-MT321M-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter-Network-Mini-PCIe-Module-with-2-X-M12-Connectors.html

 

Obviously we're talking about direct connections now but what if the same advantages were still applicable?

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Took me a fairly long time to go through 1,000+ posts, let's see what I was able to find then.

 

Regarding that Mac Mini / Windows / SDXC combo, someone was able to run Windows 10 off micro SDXC but Parallels 9 was used

 

https://discussions.apple.com/message/29687534#message29687534

 

And then someone created an *.VHDX image of Windows 10 while booting that off USB flash drive

 

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/bootcamp-windows-10-from-external-drive.1815672/page-7#post-23038526

 

Maybe that VHD could also work for SDXC cards after following these instructions?

 

Deploying Win 7 to Boot From VHD with MDT 2010

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/deploymentguys/2009/03/03/deploying-win-7-to-boot-from-vhd-with-mdt-2010/

 

Guide: Deploying Windows 7 to a Macbook as a VHD

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/9ef457f2-5152-4c1a-a02e-a1b717e1ed24/guide-deploying-windows-7-to-a-macbook-as-a-vhd

 

Yet another alternative could be Grub4Dos

 

USB Boot Grub4dos into .VHD

http://reboot.pro/topic/19604-usb-boot-grub4dos-into-vhd/

 


FYI - for many audiophiles in Asia, their favorite way to boost SQ turned out to be "heavily" optimized (i.e. very lightweight) Windows 10 residing in RAM

 

http://www.myav.com.tw/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=20478104

 

Link to that optimized VHD

 

http://uptobox.com/lqj0vl80qsq6

 

We've got a very similar thread here as well

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f10-music-servers/running-win-os-purely-ram-27402/

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Thank you, seeteeyou!
Hi Roy, you're very welcomed! Actually I'm only interested in sCLK-EX for improving the SQ of something called SDTrans384 from Japan, I don't really listen to that music myself and that's why having a few SD cards plus a super simple player should be more than enough for me.

 

So basically I'm just more interested in the technical side and then anything related to Chord Electronics would float my boat as well. Rob's M-Scaler with over a million taps could be potentially revolutionary since that should be able to show us the genuine quality of RBCDs. Of course that's also great news for those of us who are big fans of TIDAL etc.

 


Since you're asking SOtM to mod Gigabyte GA-H110TN-GSM Plus already, maybe it's a good idea to find out if the same bypass surgery were applicable for SO-DIMM or otherwise

 

http://www.tirnahifi.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3267

http://aktives-hoeren.de/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=6015

 

If that were actually feasible, you're still getting some benefits whether you're going CF route or RAM route. As I mentioned in another thread, adding whole bunch of supercapacitors to Hugo's power source turned out to be a game changer while that memory power bypass procedure mentioned above also happened to involve something similar

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/chord-hugo-re-examined-20739/index18.html#post433203

 


So far I haven't seen any Linux distros that are already running Roon Server right off the bat, though there's something worth mentioning and it's designed for Synology NAS

 

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-running-in-docker-on-synology/9979

https://hub.docker.com/r/ronch/roon-server/

 

Maybe you could get that running on your Gigabyte GA-H110TN-GSM Plus as well

 

http://xpenology.me

http://xpenology.com/forum/

 

If not, here's something similar that's based on Alpine Linux

 

https://hub.docker.com/r/josepba/roonserver/

https://github.com/josepba/dockerroonserver/

https://hub.docker.com/r/frolvlad/alpine-glibc/

https://github.com/frol/docker-alpine-glibc

 

 


Since the upcoming Wi-Fi-only Chord Poly should have ARM instead of x86 processors, it won't be able to run Roon Server but I'm still looking forward to a streamer of some sort with an integrated M-Scaler in the future.

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If I were actually building something for running Roon Server for myself, I wouldn't count on the built-in DC-ATX power supply that's provided by manufacturers of server boards. Most likely I'd rather go for the external ones since I could even opt for better wiring materials while still utilizing something nice such as SR7 from Paul Hynes

 

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=41232541497

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=545477585125

 

Audiophiles in China seemed to like his stuff very much

 

https://shop106855878.taobao.com/category-1049180713.htm

 

HDPLEX et al. should have similar offerings as well, maybe Hynes could also look into that kinda direction?

 


Those server boards with Xeon processors could provide extra benefits such as Intel Node Manager

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/data-center/data-center-management/node-manager-general.html

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/power-management/intelligent-power-node-manager-3-0-specification.html

 

Granted we're talking about 1.1GHz processor @ 13W TDP already, it's still interesting to see what could be accomplished with differernt power management options

 

https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/power-management-states-p-states-c-states-and-package-c-states

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FYI - someone in China was comparing quite a few SMPS and LPS with somewhat surprising results in terms of the ripple

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/power-supply-8-group-test-linear-power-supply-and-switchedmode-power-supply-31879/

 

Other audiophiles in Taiwan actually tried LPS with picoPSU but didn't like that combo very much. Then they just went for TWO pieces of ATX power supplies (1200W each) and the sound turned out to be very pleasing to their ears because of the much improved dynamics

 

http://www.andaudio.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=128680

 

It's a big no-no to power the CPU and other components with the same PSU, that's the whole point of having 2 separate ones instead of "putting all your eggs in one basket" so to speak

 

http://www.andaudio.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=128680&start=25#p1122025

 


Now we've got two schools of thought. First one is all about minimizing the noise while reducing the power consumption.

 

Another one is supplying 1200W (or twice with two PSUs) to fanless computers that could be fed with 25W or so, obviously cooling fans will never kick in since we simply won't reach that kinda utilization percentage. Once the LPS was replaced by that "monster" ATX power supply, they even got rid of stuff like USB DDC, dual-headed USB cables as well as the UpTone Regen (not sure if that were Green or Amber?) since those gadgets only provided marginal improvements or even knocking some points off the SQ department. That's somewhat similar to the experiences who went for the optimized Window 10 in RAM route since they no longer needed USB DDC or expensive LAN cables such as Audioquest Diamond etc.

 

Those audiophiles in Taiwan already tried stuff like WS2012r2 with AO in Core Mode, FidelizerPro, HQPlayer, JPLAY, NAS, Daphile, Raspberry Pi etc. back then but they're still rooting for a pair of WAY overkill ATX power supplies. Maybe it's just a matter of personal preferences since stuff like psychoacoustics could mean different things for different ears, or they could be onto something that we still aren't aware of yet? It's like an entirely new beast since we could very well be talking about a real clash of paradigms here IMHO.

 

It doesn't hurt to give those quality ATX power supplies a shot if we could borrow them somewhere or order them somewhere with good return policies.

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Here's a "nutty" ATX PSU for 999 bucks

 

http://www.coolermaster.com/powersupply/masterwatt-series/masterwatt-maker-1200-mij/

 


Did anyone try to compare powering gigabit Ethernet cards internally via motherboard versus externally via decent PSU?

 

For instance, here's an expansion box from Startech and 12V DC is required

 

https://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/Slot-Extension/PCI-Express-to-2-PCI-Full-Length-2-PCIe-Single-lane-Expansion-Box~PEX2PCIE4L

 

PE4C V4.1

http://www.bplus.com.tw/Adapter/PE4C%20V4.1.html

 

PE4L-HP1A

http://www.bplus.com.tw/Adapter/PE4L.html

 

Adnaco S5 (3.3V DC)

http://www.adnaco.com/products/s5/

 

Thunderbolt expansion box (12V DC)

http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/thundertek/chassis.php

 

Optical Thunderbolt cables

https://www.corning.com/optical-cables-by-corning/worldwide/en/products/thunderbolt-optical-cables.html

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SSD Reviews
http://www.ssdreview.com/review/solid-state-ssd/

 

Lowest power consumption SSD?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/lowest-power-consumption-ssd.589021/

 

SATA Power Management - SATA-IO
https://www.sata-io.org/power-management

 

StorPortSetPowerSettingNotificationGuids routine
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh451513(v=vs.85).aspx

 

Aggressive Link Power Management (ALPM)
http://www.fit-pc.com/wiki/index.php/Aggressive_Link_Power_Management_(ALPM)

 

Lowest power consumption SSD
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=63293

Quote

Most SSD power consumption reviews are completely wrong. Here's the deal: Some SSDs support DIPM, Device Initiated Power Management. This is not an automatic hardware feature, but something that has to be activated by a driver. Most SSD reviewers run automated test benches in either a scripted Linux Live CD (or usb stick) or some other means where they don't install drivers that are compatible with DIPM. This means that those drives that benefit from DIPM are usually not recognized. To add insult to injury, all reviewers without fail don't seem to be able to read the specs and see a huge discrepancy between the quoted power consumption figures and their measurements. Surely, if you see that the Postville Intel SSDs quote a power consumption of 75mW idle/150mW active and you are measuring 0.6W, something must be wrong?. No, they never investigate. Of course I have been an annoying user and wrote to most reviewers that made this error, but they either respond with 'nah, don't care' or 'can't change test bench, won't change reviews'. At the least, remove power consumption figures altogether if they're plainly wrong...

 

So, here's the low-down:
- Intel-based 5x and 3xnm drives are the thriftiest, with 75mW idle power consumption and on average much less than their quoted 150mW. Peak consumption is somewhere in the 1-2W range.
- Closely followed by 2xnm Intel drives that do 100mW/200mW. Peak consumption is a bit higher still.
- Phison and Samsung based drives mostly idle at 200-250mW (Corsair Nova, Samsung 470)
- Intel Marvell-based drives idle somewhere between 200 and 600mW, but numbers are hard to distill from the many flawed reviews and I haven't had one to test yet. Other Marvell-based drives usually don't support DIPM and idle higher than Intel, although this has changed since C400 (e.g. the Crucial M4).
- Sandforce drives don't support DIPM, idle between 0.6W (SF-12xx) and 1W (SF-2281), also depending on capacity 

 

Do those ALPM registry hacks work for both HDDs and SSDs?

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Android tablets sounded interesting, though Roon Server must be running off something with x86 processors.

 

THE most energy efficient x86 devices out there with a reasonably powerful processor should look pretty much like Intel Compute Stick

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html

 

Another one with Pentium N4200

 

http://www.up-board.org/upsquared/

 

Less powerful ones (when compared to Core M processors) with Atom

 

http://wiki.minnowboard.org/MinnowBoard_MAX

https://buildazure.com/2016/08/30/intel-joule-iot-is-an-iot-powerhouse/

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  • 2 weeks later...

FYI - no need to bother with any MLC or even TLC SSDs since they couldn't even hold a candle to SLC ones according to many audiophiles in Taiwan, they also recommended SuperSSpeed S301 in addition to Intel X25E

 

http://www.myav.com.tw/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=349951&pagenumber=483

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4790/supersspeed_s301_hyper_slc_120gb_solid_state_drive_review/index.html

 

They're very affordable (< $50 for 60GB and < $75 for 120GB) but importing them from China might cost quite a bit of international shipping

 

http://www.supersspeed.com/productAll.asp?sid=93
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=39329474666
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=39360536141
https://www.facebook.com/SuperSSpeedUS/

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2 hours ago, Johnseye said:

 

Why would anyone use a legacy drive over an M.2 unless the board wasn't M.2 capable?

 

 

Why wouldn't? If you don't like my peaches, don't shake my trees.

 

Anyone could feel free to compare any drives at one's own expenses, please go ahead to test them out and report back

 

http://www.addonics.com/products/indm2.php

 

Until then, does it make sense to stick with something relatively affordable that's tried and true to boot? It's easier to assume that new ones are superior to legacy drives but someone will have to pay for the hardware.

 

I was simply linking to previous experiences from fellow audiophiles while anyone could share field-tested experiences on the Internet these days. With that said, I would be more than interested in a comparison between SATA and M.2 drives.

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3 hours ago, romaz said:

I have come across a purpose-built audiophile class motherboard with linear regulators, short-signal paths, a low power CPU and has very good clocks.  It also runs its lightweight OS off an electrically quiet mini-SD card and can run Roon and HQP.  It can also be powered by the full glory of an SR7.  Pretty much everything you would want.  It's called the microRendu or sMS-200.  

 

Both of them have a low power CPU but it's still a dedicated ARM processor, that's only good for the client side (Roon Ready and HQ Player NAA) while the server side can't work without x86 processors.

 

Qualcomm Collaborates with Microsoft to Support Windows 10 Computing Devices on Next Generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Processors

https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2016/12/08/qualcomm-collaborates-microsoft-support-windows-10-computing-devices-next

 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Will Be Able To Emulate x86

https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/01/qualcomm-snapdragon-835-will-able-emulate-x86.html

 

If the emulation were accomplished on the server side, I wonder how that would affect the sound / noise / power requirements etc.

 

OTOH, I wonder if the following Mini-PCIe and PCIe x1 slots were going through PCH or otherwise

 

http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/09/06/asrock-imb-157-is-one-of-the-first-intel-apollo-lake-motherboards/

 

Is it such a significant compromise when we providing via 4-pin ATX PWR Con instead of the usual ATX 24-pin?

 

http://www.asrock.com/ipc/overview.asp?Model=IMB-157

 

We could still add an Ethernet card with the industrial M12 connectors, and then there's still one more full-sized PCIe x1 slot for something else

 

http://www.wdlsystems.com/Communications/PerfecTron-MT321M-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter-Network-Mini-PCIe-Module-with-2-X-M12-Connectors.html

 

BTW, it would be interesting to design a purpose-built carrier board that's similar to SolidPC Q4

 

http://wiki.solid-run.com/doku.php?id=products:ibx:documents

 

The carrier board plus one of the MicroSoM (with x86 processor) would cost anywhere between $180 and $300 at the moment. Should be double or triple that price tag for an "audiophile" version if SOtM or Sonore were partnering with SolidRun?

 

https://www.solid-run.com/product/solidpc-q4-carrier/

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Amazon is selling X10SDV-2C-TP4F (i.e. X10SDV-2C-7TP4F w/o SAS) for 350 bucks, and it's as low as $328.99 somewhere else with 8.8/10 ratings @ resellerratings.com

 

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/D/X10SDV-2C-TP4F.cfm

 

However, I checked the pictures of X10SDV-7TP4F and couldn't figure out where the clock(s) could be found

 

Jz0DtZp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Jz0DtZp.jpg

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/supermicro-x10sdv-7tp4f-xeon-d-1537.9349/

 

One of these guys next to the Mini PCI-E slot and SoC seemed to be close enough but who knows?

 

LkgSMK0.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, could a single music server with Adnaco-S3B (i.e. occupying PCI-E slot without going through PCH) do the trick by any chance? The clocks and switching regulators on both ends could be replaced accordingly

 

http://www.adnaco.com/doc/Adnaco-S3B-DS.pdf
https://www.adnaco.biz/collections/s3b/products/s3b-01-000-p-e

 

And then we could power Adnaco-R1USB30 with LPS-1 easily (~1.5W to 1.75W) so we're good to go

 

http://www.adnaco.com/doc/Adnaco-R1USB30-DS.pdf

 

Still "Direct USB" in a somewhat indirect way?

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10 hours ago, romaz said:

The USB 3.0 host controller used is the Texas Instruments TSUB7320, which I believe is the same host controller SOtM uses.  The receiver module is a very straightforward design that uses only 2 switching regulators -- 3.3V @1A and 1.1V @1A with an input voltage of 5V.  While 3.3V @1A will consume potentially 3.3 watts which equates to a fair amount of heat, Adnaco tells me the draw is more typically around 500mA at 3.3V and so converting to linear regulators should be no problem with the use of appropriately sized heat sinks.  Just to make sure heat isn't an issue, we plan to order this receiver board without an enclosure and will find a suitable larger enclosure at a later time.  Now if I can only convince @paulhynes to provide us a pair of his linear regulators to replace the two that come on this board, I think that in theory, this could prove to be a superb endpoint, maybe the best one yet.

 

Most likely TSUB7320 should work under Linux with ARM processors such as i.MX6 so it would be quite a bit fun to try Adnaco-S3B with an Ethernet endpoint like HummingBoard-Pro

 

http://www.bplustech.com/Adapter/PM2H.html
http://www.bplustech.com/PDF/PM2H_brief.pdf

XoamdAm.jpg

https://www.solid-run.com/product/hummingboard-carrier-pro/

https://www.solid-run.com/freescale-imx6-family/hummingboard/hummingboard-specifications/

v8SMSHd.jpg

HummingBoard-Pro should be fine with 5V and maybe we could get away with LPS-1 when the power consumption of i.MX6 Solo is low enough. Though it's somewhat tricky to power PM2H since it does require both 5V and 12V.

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I dunno where to put this but many of us should be interested in replacing DC cables with even better ones

 

FYI - recently there's yet another audiophile DC plug available in Taiwan

 

They should be able to ship internationally and here are their contacts

 

http://www.atl-newcablestudio.com/Contact.html

 

DC plugs from Oyaide are only good for bulk wires with 6.3mm diameter or below, however ATL ones are good for anything up to 8mm. Basically that's good for CrystalPower Special and the genuine bulk wires are available in Hong Kong as well as China

 

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=23058296058

http://www.audiofile.nl/sites/default/files/2014-07-01 R6 Crystal Cable Retail Pricelist.pdf#page=3

 

Of course we could also find a reputable seller on Audiogon etc. and then get one of those genuine Crystal Cables Power cables for cheap, then we could simply replace the IEC plugs on both ends with DC plugs accordingly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Itching to ask, what if we go for COM Express with N3710 instead?

 

https://www.picmg.org/spec-product-category/com-express-carrier-boards/

http://www.dfitech.com/boards/computer-on-module-3/com-express-carrier-boards/

 

The pricing should be really reasonable as well, not an advertisement by any means but almost all vendors seemed to prefer quotations instead of listing each price tag directly

 

http://www.neutronusa.com/prod.cfm/2616005
http://www.dfi.com/Upload/Product/Documents/DFI-BW968-COM-Express-Compact-Datasheet.pdf

 

http://www.neutronusa.com/prod.cfm/2616044

http://estore.dfi.com/index.php/com332-b-1001.html
http://www.dfi.com/products/product.html?productId=10043

 

http://www.neutronusa.com/prod.cfm/2616042

http://www.dfi.com/products/product.html?productId=1822

 

https://shop.iesy.com/produkt/come-cbw6-n3710.html

http://www.kontron.com/products/boards-and-standard-form-factors/com-express/com-express-compact/come-cbw6.html

http://www.kontron.com/downloads/datasheet/datasheet_comexpress_evalboards-starterkits_web.pdf

 

Is it a good idea to find out how much would "custom making" actually cost for a certain number of carrier boards from DFI? Maybe it's kinda nice to upgrade the clocks for a carrier board and then we could swap an existing COM with something else.

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Nice shots of the DC-ATX and a little something next to the linear PSU, they put some boards with a few caps next to the linear PSU and do you guys know what we could learn from them?

 

https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2017/04/30/review-clones-audio-host-music-server/

 

8R2tKMG.jpg

 

GLnUz3S.jpg

 

XiiUM76.jpg

 

AZWaPEM.jpg

 

Processor turned out to be Pentium J3710

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/91532/Intel-Pentium-Processor-J3710-2M-Cache-up-to-2_64-GHz

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/J3710-ITX/index.us.asp

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FYI - here's something that's potentially comparable to Intel X25-E with even lower power consumption

 

http://techreport.com/review/15931/intel-x25-e-extreme-solid-state-drive/11

 

jZSKpRP.gif

 

qhkud4J.gif

MCC0E50G5MPQ for 50GB and MCC0E64G5MPP for 64GB respectively, or simply do a search on Dell G914J instead

 

4ADV7Le.jpg

gydwGSw.jpg

For a much smaller footprint, there's yet another option and simply do a search for STEC / HGST / Hitachi M16SD2S-50UI or M16SD2S-50UC on eBay. Not a bad deal for just under 40 bucks and it's brand spanking new to boot.

 

Obviously there're all SLC but so far none of us tested them out yet.

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2 hours ago, romaz said:

I agree.  I believe COM Express holds the key and I am in discussion now to build a custom carrier board to my specifications.

 

Terrific, it's gotta be exciting time.

 

Let's see if that were gonna pave the way for a brave soul to explore the possibilities of designing something that's similar to SHB Express in the future

 

https://www.picmg.org/openstandards/shb-express/

http://www.dfitech.com/boards/backplanes-picmg-1-3/

http://www.dfitech.com/boards/backplanes-picmg-1-3/picmg-1-3-backplane/

 

Even Ethernet didn't seem to be "bulletproof" since we still have to deal with the noise unless we're going for fiber instead of copper, most likely that's why iso-CAT6 would actually make a difference.

 

It would be great if someone were able to find a way to build a backplane of some sort and then somehow 2 separate Single Board Computers could somehow communicate through PCI Express directly.

 

And then we could also mitigate the impact of noise with Adnaco-S5

 

http://www.adnaco.com/products/s5/

 

It's yet another way to establish a "Direct Connection" between 2 machines in a somewhat indirect way.

 

What if that weren't doable? Maybe we could "combine" Adnaco-UF1 with one of those USB 3.0 transfer cables if they weren't limited to transferring actual files from one drive to another

 

http://www.adnaco.com/doc/Adnaco-SU1-DS.pdf

https://www.adnaco.biz/blogs/adnaco-for-medical/13654565-adnaco-su1-usb-3-0-fiber-optic-extension-system

 

http://plugable.com/products/usb3-tran/

https://www.startech.com/Networking-IO/USB-PS2/usb-file-transfer-cable-windows-mac~USB3LINK

http://www.bafo.com/index.php/products/adapter/usb-cable-adapter/bf-7330-usb-3-0-easy-transfer-cable.html

http://www.laplink.com/index.php/individuals/disk-utilities/538-pcmover/laplink-easy-transfer-cable-modules/1476-laplink-easy-transfer-cable

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14 hours ago, Forehaven said:

So does anyone know what the price is on this DC plug from Taiwan?

 

 

40 bucks or so, ATL products are well known for their impressive pricing because of the quality

 

https://www.currency.wiki/en/converter/1280twd-usd

http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21713632385641

 

We could translate some impressions by kmg here

 

http://www.hiendy.com/hififorum/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=103468

 

BTW, I found more StarQuad bulk wires yesterday

 

http://www.audioquest.com/resource_tools/downloads/pricing/AQ_PB_US-Retail_16-05_r16_Web.pdf#page=38

 

qukkv7x.png

 

Oyaide L/i50 OFC (10.5mm OD should be too thick...)

http://oyaide.com/catalog/products/p-122.html

 

Oyaide HPC-26QUAD (4.0mm OD with 102 SSC)

http://oyaide.com/catalog/products/hpc26quad.html

 

Oyaide 102 SSC Copper Cable

http://www.monoandstereo.com/2014/12/oyaide-102-ssc-copper-cable-new.html

 

Van Damme

http://www.van-damme.com/10.html

http://www.van-damme.com/12.html

http://www.van-damme.com/12a.html

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Since we've quite a bit of interest in DC cables lately, here's one more tweak for everyone and pretty much all reviews from Japan seemed to be very positive so far

 

http://www.megatech.tokyo

https://www.amazon.com/FINEMET-FT-3AM-B4AR-F1AH0434-length/dp/B00NE1QQ8W

https://www.amazon.com/Finemet-saturable-core-MP1006LF3T-length/dp/B00R5GWP2S

 

XQSpNu0.jpg

BHtrrJn.jpg

0i3rtfm.jpg

6ggGPbw.jpg

http://www.kaijin-musen.jp/211_8756.html

https://www.amazon.co.jp/ファインメットビーズ-10個-FT-3AM-B4AR-全長7mm-穴径1-6mm/dp/B00NE1QQ8W

https://www.amazon.co.jp/ファインメットビーズ-100個-FT-3AM-B4AR-全長7mm-穴径1-6mm/dp/B00QZML3NU

https://www.amazon.co.jp/ファインメット-可飽和コア-4個-MP1006LF3T-全長6-4mm-直径11-4mm-穴径4-8mm/dp/B00R5GWP2S

 

pzERxKL.jpg

FwiIclm.jpg

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/142562-microsd-memory-card-transport-project-63.html#post3615018

 

Nanocrystalline Soft Magnetic Material FINEMET

http://www.manz-electronic.com/product_hitachi-metals_1.html
https://www.hitachi-metals.co.jp/e/products/elec/tel/pdf/hl-fm4-k.pdf#page=29
http://www.hitachimetals.com/materials-products/amorphous-nanocrystalline/surge-absorbers.php

http://audioexotics.vanillaforums.com/discussion/13000/zanden-chukoh-宙光-sound-unheard-of

Quote

Well, I have to confess I am a total layman on technical specification, however, I first came across a newly developed material called FINEMET was used in Zanden's Choku, the Chukoh also employs this material in its output and input transformers. One sonic trait of having FINEMET transformer is low noise and a more organic sound (better tonality, absence of hardness, speed and attack).

 

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On 5/12/2017 at 4:16 PM, romaz said:

With the support from a group of friends, we have purchased a few more motherboards to test including a SuperMicro board that I mentioned in a previous post.  This SuperMicro motherboard is a SoC (System on a Chip) board that has no external PCH and so all of its ports including SATA, USB, LAN, PCIe, etc. have a much more direct and low latency path to the CPU.  Moreover, this motherboard has the option of being powered either via an ATX PSU or a 12V DC supply and this ability proved to be invaluable.  While there are probably better ATX PSUs around, we powered this motherboard initially with an EVGA SuperNova G2 850w ATX PSU that we had on hand and without question, it sounded very good and very dynamic.  For $140, this is an excellent ATX PSU and looking at reviews, its ripple values at low load (10-20%) are excellent with all 4 rails (4.6-7.6mV) and handily outperforms the HDPlex DC-ATX converter I bought (at least on paper).  As usual, there are no reported measurements on output impedance as this parameter seems to hold no value for reviewers or most manufacturers.  Anyway, we then compared this to the SR7 and even with all the noisy switching regulators within this motherboard that get in the way, the improvement we heard in terms of improved dynamics and this tonally more vivid and more holographic sound was just stunning.  It was similar to what I heard when I went from my HDPlex to the SR7 with my Mac Mini.  Having now heard this, there was no way I could continue on with my ASRock uATX board and the HDPlex DC-ATX converter.

 

How do we interpret the differences at low load?

 

EVGA SuperNOVA G2 850 W

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/SuperNOVA_G2_850/10.html

4JoZrxl.png

 

EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2

http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/evga-supernova-650-p2-review/6/

lBOU2hn.png

 

Cooler Master Masterwatt Maker 1200W MIJ

http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/cooler-master-masterwatt-maker-1200w-mij-psu-review/5/

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=508

h6edE7B.png

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171104

Quote

Most power supplies today convert the 5V and 3.3V from the 12V rail. This can affect the power delivery of the 12V rail under extremely high loads and as such, the MasterWatt Maker 1200 MIJ has separate power conversion for the 5V and 3.3V rails.

 

If MasterWatt Maker 1200 MIJ were actually as good as a grand gets, could we even make our own DC cables with StarQuad wiring to power stuff like sMS-200 (12V) / sCLK-EX (5V) or wireless routers (12V) by any chance?

 

Or does that quote imply that each and every ATX PSU (including Masterwatt Maker 1200W MIJ) might be only good for 12V because both 5V and 3.3V rails must go through their own voltage regulators at some point?

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