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

[lmitche]

6 minutes ago, Johnseye said:

 

My intention is to eliminate the sMS-200.  With the new motherboard I'll add a tx-USBexp and either convert that to an Ultra with a sCLK or txUSBultra.  Haven't decided which yet.  It's either add the txUSBultra and don't update my switch clock or add the txUSBultra because of the limited number of taps available.  Theoretically I shouldn't need the txUSBultra with a txUSBexp so that's likely the route I'll take.  Just waiting for confirmation from May.

 

I will be putting the 3M absorber in all devices possible except speakers of course.

A brand new txUSBexp arrived in the mail yesterday.  It's breaking in now.

[Johnseye]

Just now, lmitche said:

A brand new txUSBexp arrived in the mail yesterday.  It's breaking in now.

 

Nice. Looking forward to your impressions and comparison to the other SOtM components.

[Lebouwsky]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

A brand new txUSBexp arrived in the mail yesterday.  It's breaking in now.

Is it a "server only" or in combination with a renderer.

[limniscate]

8 hours ago, beautiful music said:

Does anyone attend the “Beyond Off-The-Shelf DAC Chips” seminar by Rob Watts in RMAF occasion?

@austinpopand @romazwere there. 

[limniscate]

1 hour ago, Johnseye said:

 

My intention is to eliminate the sMS-200.  With the new motherboard I'll add a tx-USBexp and either convert that to an Ultra with a sCLK or txUSBultra.  Haven't decided which yet.  It's either add the txUSBultra and don't update my switch clock or add the txUSBultra because of the limited number of taps available.  Theoretically I shouldn't need the txUSBultra with a txUSBexp so that's likely the route I'll take.  Just waiting for confirmation from May.

 

I will be putting the 3M absorber in all devices possible except speakers of course.

I believe Lee said that the tx-USBexp still sounds better with a tX-USB Ultra after it, but @austinpopor @romazcan correct me if I'm misremembering. 

[beautiful music]

2 hours ago, Johnseye said:

 

Better yet, has anyone made any video of this or other events?  Nothing up on YouTube yet.

Upon to Rob Watts, he will try to post the presentation tomorrow in this thread 

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/watts-up.800264/page-23#post-13770382

[Johnseye]

23 hours ago, Lebouwsky said:

This might help

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/1128-can-the-guys-whove-used-emirfi-paper-sotm-3m-etc-post-photos-here-of-how-you-did-it/

 

Some more good reading on the topic.

 

https://interferencetechnology.com/introduction-to-composite-electromagnetic-noise-absorber-technology-1/

 

 

[BigGuy]

27 minutes ago, Johnseye said:

 

Some more good reading on the topic.

 

https://interferencetechnology.com/introduction-to-composite-electromagnetic-noise-absorber-technology-1/

 

 

Good find.  There is quite a library on shielding as well as a newsletter at Interference Tech website.

[lmitche]

2 hours ago, Lebouwsky said:

Is it a "server only" or in combination with a renderer.

It's a single CPU machine running Roon and HQplayer on the same CPU and motherboard.  Server/renderer I guess.

 

 

[ElviaCaprice]

4 hours ago, lmitche said:

A brand new txUSBexp arrived in the mail yesterday.  It's breaking in now.

As I reported last summer, the tXUSBEXP isn't nearly as effective without the sCLK-EX.  I found the ISO Regen more effective.  But once the the clock was replaced with the sCLK-EX, that's when the magic started to occur.  Adding the rest of the clock points to the mobo, takes it to a whole new level.

[octaviars]

2 minutes ago, ElviaCaprice said:

Adding the rest of the clock points to the mobo, takes it to a whole new level

 

Regarding adding the extra clocks to the mobo any special mobo to look for? No need for high power cpu will not use dsp in Roon.

[ElviaCaprice]

2 hours ago, limniscate said:

I believe Lee said that the tx-USBexp still sounds better with a tX-USB Ultra after it, but @austinpopor @romazcan correct me if I'm misremembering. 

Yes, but again your talking about a server less sCLK-EX incorporated.  Of course, in such a case adding sCLK-EX clocks anywhere in the chain, Ethernet or USB is going to help.  The point is, why not do it at the source instead and leave out the fixers?

[ElviaCaprice]

2 minutes ago, octaviars said:

 

Regarding adding the extra clocks to the mobo any special mobo to look for? No need for high power cpu will not use dsp in Roon.

Biggest feature, make sure you can give it quality low power.  A 12V DC input is nice.  I thought Johnseye suggested a great ITX mobo the other day.  Or go smaller like I did with a NUC or Pico-ITX  with a PCIe mini adapter to PCIe.  Roy also suggested a mobo.

[Lebouwsky]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

It's a single CPU machine running Roon and HQplayer on the same CPU and motherboard.  Server/renderer I guess.

 

 

Really looking forward to your findings

[austinpop]

4 hours ago, ElviaCaprice said:

Yes, but again your talking about a server less sCLK-EX incorporated.  Of course, in such a case adding sCLK-EX clocks anywhere in the chain, Ethernet or USB is going to help.  The point is, why not do it at the source instead and leave out the fixers?

 

I think Eric left out the key phrase "sCLK-EX'ed" to preced tX-USBexp.

[lmitche]

38 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

I think Eric left out the key phrase "sCLK-EX'ed" to preced tX-USBexp.

Huh?

[ElviaCaprice]

37 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

I think Eric left out the key phrase "sCLK-EX'ed" to preced tX-USBexp.

Even if it was, modded tXUSBexp with sCLK-EX, it still is only one point.  You really need to use all 4 points for the full benefit.  Exactly my point about the SOtM server builds, they only use two points (in the stream), main mobo system clock and tX-USBexp. 

It's really similar to the trifecta, the use of all 4 sCLK-EX points gives full benefit to SQ.

[austinpop]

6 minutes ago, ElviaCaprice said:

Even if it was, modded tXUSBexp with sCLK-EX, it still is only one point.  You really need to use all 4 points for the full benefit.  Exactly my point about the SOtM server builds, they only use two points (in the stream), main mobo system clock and tX-USBexp. 

It's really similar to the trifecta, the use of all 4 sCLK-EX points gives full benefit to SQ.

 

You're preaching to the choir here.

 

I'm not disputing that you should maximize all 4 clock points on your sCLK-EX board. Of course you should. After all, that's what my trifecta does.

 

But even with that, there appears to be further benefit to a tX-USBultra between the server and the DAC. Please read Roy's latest setup - he uses an ISO-R AND a tX-USBultra downstream of his server. 

 

On 10/2/2017 at 6:09 AM, romaz said:

... however, adding a reclocked ISO-Regen and tX-USBultra definitely adds further improvement and for those looking to go to infinity and beyond ...

[austinpop]

I'm on my way home from RMAF.

 

It was an absolute treat to hang out with @romaz and @limniscate. Roy is just the nicest guy you could imagine, and the man is literally a walking encyclopedia of audiophilia. If he hasn't auditioned it at home, he's heard it, or at least heard of it, and can give you amazing insights into it. It was also great to meet @kennyb123 from this thread at the RMAF happy hour that @The Computer Audiophile hosted. It was great to meet several other CA'ers at the happy hour. And through Roy, we met and hung out with "Audio Bacon."

 

W also got the opportunity to go out to dinner with May and Lee. I continue to be amazed at what this little company of 6 manages to deliver. And they are both the nicest people.

 

The SOtM (pronounced Sohm (t-silent), we learned ) room was one of the better sounding rooms, primarily due to the Ultra chain. Lee had brought his Advanced sCLK-OCX10. This is the middle version, not the Reference. Even so, the demo with the clock connected vs. disconnected was as dramatic as we had heard in our own systems. There's no way at a show to say how this clock would compare to a Cybershaft or the Ref 10, but it's certainly making a huge difference over the sCLK-EX. It was nice to see Roy, Eric, and me have the same knowing reaction to the clock's effect.

 

Extending this further - now that we've gotten so used to the glare-free and natural presentation of our clock chains, it was actually the rare room at the show - among those playing digital - where the "glare" was not immediately obvious.

 

One such exception was the Bluebird room, which demo'd the Chord Dave and Blu-2 M-scaler, playing on Vienna Acoustics speakers. Hearing the Dave by itself and then with the M-Scaler was epic. This was a fall out of your chair improvement. I know I've said I find DAC differences to be modest, but this was anything but. I heard the same effect downstairs in the CanJam Chord booth.

 

Finally, it was a treat to have a long chat with Rob Watts, due to our "friends of Roy" elite status.

 

I'm so glad I went!

[ElviaCaprice]

37 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

You're preaching to the choir here.

 

I'm not disputing that you should maximize all 4 clock points on your sCLK-EX board. Of course you should. After all, that's what my trifecta does.

 

But even with that, there appears to be further benefit to a tX-USBultra between the server and the DAC. Please read Roy's latest setup - he uses an ISO-R AND a tX-USBultra downstream of his server. 

 

Roy only has 3 points incorporated into the server stream at any given event from his data drive.  Might follow that an additional fixer with one point might help, which he also claims he could live without.  In fact, only 2 points for the actual stream from memory.

[ElviaCaprice]

To be truthful, I don't know how many points or clocks are being incorporated in my NUC build that directly effect the audio stream.

[ElviaCaprice]

2 hours ago, austinpop said:

One such exception was the Bluebird room, which demo'd the Chord Dave and Blu-2 M-scaler, playing on Vienna Acoustics speakers. Hearing the Dave by itself and then with the M-Scaler was epic. This was a fall out of your chair improvement. I know I've said I find DAC differences to be modest, but this was anything but. I heard the same effect downstairs in the CanJam Chord booth.

 

Does this mean you've changed your opinion on the DAVE?  And thus the opinion on DACs in general, there effectiveness to outperform high range to mid range and their worth in relation to the digital frontend.

[mozes]

2 hours ago, austinpop said:

I'm on my way home from RMAF.

 

It was an absolute treat to hang out with @romaz and @limniscate. Roy is just the nicest guy you could imagine, and the man is literally a walking encyclopedia of audiophilia. If he hasn't auditioned it at home, he's heard it, or at least heard of it, and can give you amazing insights into it. It was also great to meet @kennyb123 from this thread at the RMAF happy hour that @The Computer Audiophile hosted. It was great to meet several other CA'ers at the happy hour. And through Roy, we met and hung out with "Audio Bacon."

 

W also got the opportunity to go out to dinner with May and Lee. I continue to be amazed at what this little company of 6 manages to deliver. And they are both the nicest people.

 

The SOtM (pronounced Sohm (t-silent), we learned ) room was one of the better sounding rooms, primarily due to the Ultra chain. Lee had brought his Advanced sCLK-OCX10. This is the middle version, not the Reference. Even so, the demo with the clock connected vs. disconnected was as dramatic as we had heard in our own systems. There's no way at a show to say how this clock would compare to a Cybershaft or the Ref 10, but it's certainly making a huge difference over the sCLK-EX. It was nice to see Roy, Eric, and me have the same knowing reaction to the clock's effect.

 

Extending this further - now that we've gotten so used to the glare-free and natural presentation of our clock chains, it was actually the rare room at the show - among those playing digital - where the "glare" was not immediately obvious.

 

One such exception was the Bluebird room, which demo'd the Chord Dave and Blu-2 M-scaler, playing on Vienna Acoustics speakers. Hearing the Dave by itself and then with the M-Scaler was epic. This was a fall out of your chair improvement. I know I've said I find DAC differences to be modest, but this was anything but. I heard the same effect downstairs in the CanJam Chord booth.

 

Finally, it was a treat to have a long chat with Rob Watts, due to our "friends of Roy" elite status.

 

I'm so glad I went!

I wish I were able to make it and hang out with you guys! Glad you enjoyed your time

[mozes]

2 hours ago, austinpop said:

. I continue to be amazed at what this little company of 6 manages to deliver. And they are both the nicest people.

Totally agree with you. What I find so impressive about SOTM is not only the innovative products they develop but also the rapid pace of development. Ultra products followed by sps-500 PSU then reference clock and who knows what next!

[austinpop]

44 minutes ago, ElviaCaprice said:

Does this mean you've changed your opinion on the DAVE?  And thus the opinion on DACs in general, there effectiveness to outperform high range to mid range and their worth in relation to the digital frontend.

 

I liked the Mscaler. Nothing more.