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

[mormogi]

3 hours ago, RickyV said:

 

Is it better then the sigma 11?

studer warmer , little colored ,syrupy,more micro details.

only lt3045's like hpuln great step forward but more expensive.  

[sandyk]

21 minutes ago, mormogi said:

studer warmer , little colored ,syrupy,more micro details.

 

Those clones on ebay appear to use quite old technology, such as the type of power transistor used and dated opamps.

The 25VA transformer in them would also markedly reduce the available current when you take into account that the available current from a bridge rectifier with capacitor input is only around 62% of the rated current from the transformer.

In other words, with a 12V output, the maximum available constant current would only be around 1.29Amps.

[flkin]

I have a retraction and apology to make regarding what I mentioned during a review of the Pink Faun 2.16x streamer I made a month ago.

 

At that time, I felt that convolution was a good tool to complete the sound by managing room frequency and phase issues and recommended it's use. It certainly has its advantages of removing the room from the equation (especially bass nodes) and making the sweet spot larger as I had described. At that time I was still adjusting the filters and had not come to a final set but felt it was pretty close to what I wanted.

 

But over time and longer listening, I started to question my earlier findings on whether there was a downside to using convolution. I started to feel that the dynamics and immediacy of the music was affected. Camouflaged by the more solid bass and less muddied lower mids that convolution offered, the downside effects were beginning to be clear to me.   

 

 @romaz commented to be wary of using convolution as he found that soundstage and emotional impact was affected. Was it this that I was hearing?

 

So I started a thread in Roon communities https://community.roonlabs.com/t/convolution-with-null-filters-are-audible/51732/39 to see if I could isolate the problem to the process of convolution rather than the adjustment of frequency/phase. I wondered if the action of making adjustments to the music file caused the defects I heard heard. By using a NULL convolution file I found I could still hear the difference with and without convolution and the defects are similar to what I heard with full frequency/phase adjustments. 5 others there found the same. So it might be the process that may be causing the sound defects not the adjustments. 

 

 

Given this, at the present time, I now feel that convolution cannot be used as a way forward to push the boundaries of sound quality. Although it does proved massive improvements in certain parts of the sound spectrum, the defects it adds to my system are audible and not subtle enough to ignore. Back to physical room changes.... ?

 

I've started another thread here to further discuss this and see if there is a way around the sound defects caused by convolution. https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/54773-convolution-with-null-filters-are-audible/

 

[Cornan]

7 hours ago, Hauser said:

Hi Cornan,

 

If you are still experimenting with power supplies, I can highly recommend the Studer 900 boards.

 

Martin.

 

Thanks! I’ve pretty much finished with my power supply experiments but will surely have a closer look at the Studer 900! ?

I saw your PS build btw. Great piece of work! ????

[tapatrick]

11 hours ago, Middy said:

Just got the Akasa chassis for the NUC. Celeron

If you Tapatrick or others are inclined or bothered! the Block isnt very good. Its just fly cutter milled roughly. Rub a nail across it. Just google 'Lapping a cpu heatsink'. A good CPU heat sink is like glass. + flat.

This makes it flatter for more surface area to transfer heat. Have a look, not that hard.

Remove the cheap silicone grease and apply a carbon TIM like Artic mx4 . 'Non conductive' if you make a mistake.

Screw back in lightly diagonal and tighten for even pressure.

I won't do a guide, IT guys here know over clocking. But simple techniques make the case earn its money. Especially + celeron/pentium chips like i3 i5.  

No over clocking but a cooler cpu. GFX

 

All fun and something else too play with.

Flat is better than super smooth.

Food for thought !!and should help keep it cooler.

Dave

 

 

 

 

good info Dave, thanks.

[the_doc735]

On 11/12/2018 at 10:26 PM, Hauser said:

This may be a good time to take a short break from NUCs to share my recent upgraded power supply project.   Although the thread title says 'massively improve', everything in audio is relative and I consider the upgrade significant and well worth the effort if DIY is of interest and for those confident working with AC.

 

The project has involved several months of research, design, execution and a few repairs.  The original construction of the box was to house a TX USB hub Ex and Iso Regen along with a couple of LPS1s and SMPS to power them and accomodate all the associated cabling.

 

Some, probably ill founded, doubts over SMPSs led me to explore the potential to change the supplies to linear, regulated.  I upped the challenge by adding a third supply for the Aries in the same box.   This required external transformers and for aesthetic reasons, toroids with custom stainless covers.

 

More important was the selection of the power boards.  Recommendations from posts on DIY Audio, Audio Asylum and Seeteeyou, suitable dimensions, cost and availability as completed boards made the Studer 900 the board of choice.  The vendor had limited knowledge of the board's performance and suggested testing.  From my testing, the board's power requirements seem similar to the Sigma 11 which is extensively covered on the AMB site and proved to be a valuable source to achieve success.

 

Modding the board by replacing the large cap with an industrial Kemet brought a worthwhile improvement.  Replacing the other caps with Panasonic FCs, nothing conclusive.  Adding the LT3045s made the sound subtly smoother.  I used Toroidy 30VA transformers.  These sustain higher voltages than another commercial transformer I tried.  Schedule 5 Stainless pipe will comfortably sleeve these transformers; I had to ream schedule 10 pipe.

 

Compared to the previous power supplies: more bass and treble extension, better detail and more realistic sound and more stage depth.  

 

For a very modest material cost there is a potential very worthwhile sonic benefit to be had for those with the time available, not to mention the satisfaction.  Just don't get zapped.

 

Martin. 

would you recommend this?

[Hauser]

13 minutes ago, the_doc735 said:

would you recommend this?

Lol,

 

Yes, I have gone to considerable time and effort because I think the result is worthwhile and I recommend it.  The vendor says a max of 2A.  The max I have used is 17V and 1A.  If your power requirements are in this range, something you may consider.  Having seen your previous threads and posts, I would suggest your best bet is to go for something boxed and ready to go.

 

Martin.

[Hauser]

2 hours ago, Cornan said:

 

Thanks! I’ve pretty much finished with my power supply experiments but will surely have a closer look at the Studer 900! ?

I saw your PS build btw. Great piece of work! ????

Hi Cornan,

 

I followed your power supply journey and got inspiration from the experiments you made.  The board I used was chosen partly by dimensions, the Sigma being too large.  And a time comes when music should become the priority.

 

Martin.

[Hauser]

6 hours ago, mormogi said:

studer warmer , little colored ,syrupy,more micro details.

only lt3045's like hpuln great step forward but more expensive.  

Hi mormogi,

 

As you are already familiar with the Studer, I'd recommend further improvement can be had by changing out the large capacitor to one of higher performance; I used a Kemet peh200.

 

Martin.

[the_doc735]

@Hauser  fantastic machine you put together there!!

[Hauser]

15 minutes ago, the_doc735 said:

@Hauser  fantastic machine you put together there!!

Thanks.  Its meant to inspire others to do better than me.  Just don't ask how long it took to make.

 

Martin

 

[the_doc735]

1 hour ago, Hauser said:

Lol,

 

Yes, I have gone to considerable time and effort because I think the result is worthwhile and I recommend it.  The vendor says a max of 2A.  The max I have used is 17V and 1A.  If your power requirements are in this range, something you may consider.  Having seen your previous threads and posts, I would suggest your best bet is to go for something boxed and ready to go.

 

Martin.

Did you click on the link to show the item I was referring to?

I just wondered because PeterSt said that all chinese PSU's are junk and will destroy the rest of your gear? I presume that studer900 is chinese?

[greenleo]

15 minutes ago, the_doc735 said:

... PeterSt said that all chinese PSU's are junk ...

Did he really say this (I'm not questioning you)?

This seems quite an over statement.

[sandyk]

3 minutes ago, greenleo said:

Did he really say this (I'm not questioning you)?

This seems quite an over statement.

 

We have been down this road before, and his post has been referred to Admin.

[mormogi]

1 hour ago, Hauser said:

Hi mormogi,

 

As you are already familiar with the Studer, I'd recommend further improvement can be had by changing out the large capacitor to one of higher performance; I used a Kemet peh200.

 

Martin.

I never heard real differences between caps.Elna,nover ,nichicon…., my home full with these mess,i don't want buy more others,But trial Kemet,would be interesting...

 

[the_doc735]

40 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

We have been down this road before, and his post has been referred to Admin.

will no one ever be able to challenge that offensive comment, if they have experience of good quality chinese PSU's? Surely people should be allowed to say that they have experience of good quality chinese PSU's?

[greenleo]

Thank you Sandy and doc for your replies.  Now I know that I'm just too naïve.  Let's back to our journey.

[the_doc735]

15 minutes ago, greenleo said:

Thank you Sandy and doc for your replies.  Now I know that I'm just too naïve.  Let's back to our journey.

Agreed! Actually Sandyk had no business interjecting like that because all I did was ask @Hauser if he thought the studer900 was any good, as he was using them in his new project PSU.

[Cornan]

2 hours ago, Hauser said:

Hi Cornan,

 

I followed your power supply journey and got inspiration from the experiments you made.  The board I used was chosen partly by dimensions, the Sigma being too large.  And a time comes when music should become the priority.

 

Martin.

 

I´m truly happy that I inspired you to start that journey. I can imagine I took you a long time to finalize that beauty, but you should be very proud of yourself. It looks amazing and I can imagine it sounds great too!  

I have been off the audiphile hobby for quite some time now. Just enjoying music and focusing on my other hobby photography. 

[Middy]

51 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

I have been off the audiphile hobby for quite some time now. Just enjoying music and focusing on my other hobby photography. 

Happy is the main reason for all of this, lovely to hear it's going good my friend. Post some nice pics if you get a chance.

Good luck

Dave.

 

[Cornan]

42 minutes ago, Middy said:

Happy is the main reason for all of this, lovely to hear it's going good my friend. Post some nice pics if you get a chance.

Good luck

Dave.

 

 

Nice to see you around Dave and hope your baby is healthy and growing!  

Here is a couple of my latest pictures. Nothing audio realted so I will mark this post as off-topic though!  

 

 

 

[mourip]

This information is probably already buried in the wonderful but cavernous thread but here is a link for a US vendor of all things NUC, Jetaway, BRIX, Mini-ITX, fanless, ROON ROCK capable, and AudioLinux capable.

 

http://www.mitxpc.com

[mourip]

1 hour ago, Cornan said:

 

Nice to see you around Dave and hope your baby is healthy and growing!  

Here is a couple of my latest pictures. Nothing audio realted so I will mark this post as off-topic though!  

 

I do not want to encourage such reckless off-topic behavior ?

 

...so I will not ask you what camera you are using?

[Cornan]

8 minutes ago, mourip said:

 

I do not want to encourage such reckless off-topic behavior ?

 

...so I will not ask you what camera you are using?

 

 

 

I´m using a Fujifilm X-Pro 1 with Canon FD and Minolta MC Rokkor legacy lenses on these shots. I also use a Canon EOS M6 with the same range of legacy lenses. I´m old school and prefer to fully manually control my shots.

[Middy]

Nice off topic we can all live with.

Lovely mate.. keep smiling 

 

Sneak in some non off topic...

Lapping paste for improving fanless case heat sinks /thermal transfer.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F302841555419

 

Cheap...