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

[KingRex]

56 minutes ago, Johnseye said:

 

That's the issue with prebuilt equipment.  Unless it's modular, allowing for updates, it will be outdated within a year.  It's an endless cycle in the audiophile world.  That's the main reason I took the build-your-own approach.  I can upgrade any component anytime.

 

Even mine which is modular could be scrapped at 2 years.  The case has improved as well as Incorporating a new mother board that only uses 6 Watts.  But, I still have jaw hits the floor amazing  digital playback.  Yes It is getting better but hey, my digital blows my $7000 analog out of the water.  No contest. 

[KingRex]

6 hours ago, rickca said:

Thanks for clarifying the nature of the improvement.  I'm curious about what technology difference between the motherboards might account for the improvement.

I don't personally know the boards.  My server has a Gigabite.  It sounds amazing.  But the builder want to put a new board in that only uses 6 watts.  I am assuming the micro board is also low power.   He says its way better than the amazing I'm already getting.  Here is the but,  a low power board can not handle much processing so there is no upsampling.  Of course his philosophy is upsampling is really reving the motor, making a bunch of noise requiring filters to clean the noise and filters can cloud - so don't upsample.  

[KingRex]

15 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

 

Sean Jacobs made one that's up to 5A

 

http://www.custom-hifi-cables.co.uk/home/power-supplies/dc3-power-supply

Mojo audio has a used Joule 5 for sale. 

[KingRex]

I tries synergistic fuses.  Not the black.  I think they were white.  Not much different than a glass fuse in my amps.  I left them there and forgot about them. No harm, no foul. 

[KingRex]

What is controlling the SE.  Did you bridge the IP address, if that is even possible.

 

 Also, is the SE sensitive to the upstream device controlling it.  I thought I read somewhere the Ultrarendu are.  Maybe I'm remembering wrong.  Just wondering about the Influence that has on an SE.

[KingRex]

Are the 2 switches on the same phase from the main panel?   Is the switch at your panel on a very short 14 awg conductor and the switch in your listening room on a 10 awg.  I am an electrician and read extensivey about wiring and grounding. It only takes fractions of a volt difference between devices for the stray voltage to travel along the shield or ground of your equipment and you now have a Loop.  What about your cat7. Are you grounding both ends - Don't.  

 

Now I don't know anything about how digital gear reacts to ground loops, but maybe you are experiencing just that.  Try and clean up your circuit.   If it clears the voltage differential and the 2 switches sound the same or better than 1 switch, you will have made a great find for many of us.  

[KingRex]

5 hours ago, Confused said:

I was reading a speaker cable review a while ago that claimed the cable would make a 20% improvement in a $20k system.  Slightly bonkers.

I just splurged for the Inakustik LS2404 Ref Air speaker cable.  It had a dramatic impact on my speakers.  It was no small margin.  When I went to do the A/B, I was bracing to have a hard listen. I assumed it would be tough to tell the differences as I had a pretty decent set of Graditeck cable.  After burning my new Inakustik for 40 hours I put my old cables back in and queue up some James Taylor, Then Cat Stevens, Then Chopin.  After playing a few tracks I put the Inakustik back in.  It was all of 2 seconds and I realized this was a dramatically better set of cables.  They took my speakers forward in performance no small degree.  The extension of highs was breathtaking.  Just so much more realism in the guitar strings.  They really sang like a live guitar.  The decay on piano notes via Chopin Nocturnes was far more real.  It really sounded more like a piano.  The bass was fast and taut, full and clean.  Could not ask for more.  The volume was also notably higher.  I had to lower by 2 clicks which is 3 db on my preamp.   Can I ascribe a number like 20% gain.  I don't know, but I was truly amazed how a good cable made that much difference in the performance of my speakers.  My stereo is a $35K system.

[KingRex]

You really should consider the Mojo audio Illuminati power supply. It's significantly more expensive than others but the results I have on my system are quite outstanding.

[KingRex]

You forgot to include a photo of the case, transformer, overload protection, engineering that went into layout of the board and selection of parts etc.  Plus the owner wants to pay his employees and earn money himself.    The initial PS feeding the server is probably one of the most critical components in a server.  Start with ok power, make an ok server.  Ask for a bulk buy price? 

 

I don't know if your involved in the custom server of just looking for a PS.  If your part of the custom server, Alrainbow has prooven win server 2016 sounds better than other operating systems.  Why use win 10?  Because its easier?   Back to others people's point.  What is your purpose here.  To build your own for fun, or extract the highest SQ and leave SOTM /Innuos /Sonore in the dust.  

I find it intriguing what your doing. Your talking way over my head, but non the less there does seem to be need for a leader, product roadmap and some focus on the end goal keeping a budget in mind.

 

If I may, try and contact Adrian with Thelinearsolution. He is here in Seattle and may be willing to help for a price.  I believe he knows all about SOTM, clocks, PS etc.    I'm pretty sure he has built a lot of these. Guessing now, but he has probably experimented with isolated power to components.  He has offered to look at my server and suggest mods to improve SQ if needed. 

That leads me to another though, have you decided if the highest performance is to come from internal storage or Ethernet. Is this an all in one unit or to be controlled from an external unit.  Maybe I missed that part but both can have a big impact on design and SQ.  Chord does all its upsampling in a separate machine??? Just a thought.

 

 

[KingRex]

Adrian with the Linear solution brought his switch by yesterday.  What a great person.  Keep your eye on this company, and buy the switch.  I have a linear powered switch I have been using.  Its a basic Netgear  gigabyte switch with linear power to it.  Comparing music from my internal storage to NAS, the linear Solution switch had a small but noticeable improvement in removing glare and some noise.  I can't put my finger on the noise, but is better when gone.  Music is now better from the NAS than internal storage.  Small difference.  If I had a plane Jane switch it would be a big improvement.   With music streamed via Tidal the improvement is much more dramatic.  Its just way more alive and right there.  Tidal is way more fun and enjoyable.

 

Be on the lookout for their upcoming server.  It is targeted to stomp on the Sound Gallery Music server and I see no reason why it won't do as such, for a lot less Money.  Adrian brought a plain old laptop with just their software for the new server on it.  It was just as quiet, if not more so than my full blown server.  I think the dynamics were not their, but that is to be expected.  Imagine how it will perform with 24 individual power supply via 7N copper wire.  Whoops, am I letting a cat out of the bag.   It should trounce all other out there.  Probably no need for ref clocks or accessories.  Just connect it to your DAC.  Exciting product.  

[KingRex]

Doesn't Hedback give an electrical plan with his designs. 

[KingRex]

5 hours ago, Solstice380 said:

 

Wow, I was traveling today and there were 15 or so more posts since then!

 

I’ve found the PS regenerators helpful in my system / location.   We tend to have poor quality power - up to 4% THD and definite power factor issues.   So time of day and phase of the moon would change the SQ. 

 

The dedicated circuit wasn’t feasible at the time but I did make that move eventually.   Ted, you can have many runs but see which type panel you have and keep them on the same phase.  And put the fridge and microwave etc on the other!

 

i started with a Chang Lightspeed and then a Transparent Ref

conditioner.   I then tried a PS Power Plant Premier and ended up with 3 of them.  @austinpop mentioned not putting your amp on an UNDERSIZED regenerator.  I added the undersized caveat. Despite the specs for current delivery etc that are great with these things, I think they over rate them.  I now have a P10 for the front end a P10 for the amp only.  The P5 isnt even big enough for a front end with very many components.  I wouldn’t put

more than a few hundred watts load on it for it to perform its best.  The PPP and P10 have the same 1500 watt rating but the P10 is fine for my amp where the PPP wasn’t.  There is a reason why PS has introduced the P20!  I’ve also heard a solid demo on the big Stromtank unit out of

Germany.   Similar idea but wicked expensive and probably better than the PS.  Also, PS is now using DSD to generate the signal and not PCM.  ?  When it comes to

power, more is always better.  Oversized PSUs in components are usually better for SQ.  Heat be damned. 

 

I snagged a Topaz off eBay to try.  750VA 0.0005 cap -31 model and put my whole front end on it in place of the P10.  Hundreds vs thousands of $ is worth a try.  It collapsed the soundstage noticeably.  No question.  The newer PS units have some measurement and graphical capabilities so I plugged it into the Belkin power strip that I hardwired into the Topaz to see what I could see.  The THD was a little lower than the wall outlet and the waveform was just as bad.  Flat topped, skewed sine wave.  I dedicated the Topaz to my HQPlayer server and LPSU powered drives.  My NAAs are powered by Uptone JS-2s into a PS regenerator

 

I now also find find no difference with or without any DC neg grounding.  We do it in our industrial equipment because we never know what type of power environment it will live in, and factories are baaaaaad.  I plugged in a system once and watched the cable start to melt from the outlet being wired incorrectly at the panel!  We make a “transceiver” for 5 Hz - 5 MHz incorporating both a DDCDAC and an ADC so we also use a pretty serious Powervar power conditioner.  But, I think by now we all know about good grounding and power.   

 

So for my system, which consists of generally well engineered components, the benefits are there. Better soundstage, longer decays.  Does everybody’s system let you hear the ambience after a piece is over and before they cut off the recording?  Like the sheet

music fluttering and the whum whum whum of the HVAC. 

 

Maybe we should start a thread on Regenerators but I won’t do it, I’m convinced they are good in my system.  P10s are almost always available at US$2999.  P5s are almost never on sale and I can’t figure out why.  Maybe they cost to much to make?  Wouldn’t be the first product to suffer that fate.  I don’t know if they even make the P3 any more.  Maybe you could

power a headphone setup with it.  

 

Apologies in advance for typos, run on or incomplete sentences, etc.  I hate phone typing!

 

I have used Topaz in the past and find similar issues.  I only have a Akiko Corelli in my system now.  It gets rid of a lot of glare from high frequency interference.  Creates more clarity and frequency extension.  Has no pos/negative affect on dynamics.  Like its not there.  

 

I built a heavy power strip from corian and acrylic,  has 4 plugs in it vertically aligned so it is long and thin.  Darn if my monoblocks don't hum like the dickens plugged into the same outlet, mechanically and through the speakers.  Plug them in on opposite ends of the strip and it tomb quiet.  Not a sound.  Just music.  

 

[KingRex]

1 hour ago, ted_b said:

Thanks.  The HAR slat ceiling cloud (with bass trapping) is removable and coming with me, but the side wall slats and the 400 pound floating MATS wall (behind the screen) will stay, unfortunately.  It's ok, we will be able to incorporate a lot more into the room design starting with bare studs rather than what we had this time (coffered ceiling, douibl thick drywall but no staggering, etc etc).  We built the house, and room, in 1987 and back then there was little experiential data for doing a music room.  I was only privvy to things like wall/floor/ceiling ratios (golden ratios) etc.

 

And yes, it was all done remotely with me measuring and creating impulse files, and Jeff doing the design work from Indy.   I had a wonderful carpenter in town who worked closely with us to create all the woodwork, custom corners, etc.  Kingrex, Jeff did not do an electrical plan with me, but I'm sure he can.

 

I do not want to clutter this wonderful thread with pictures of my room.  Here is a link from 2011.  The equipment has almost all been replaced (now Aerial 20Ts, Perla amps, Holo, etc) but you get an idea of the room makeover.  A few posts down, in this link, I explain the HAR slats and MATS floating wall.  BTW, the room is always darkened, not like the pics.  I listen to 60% 2 channel, 30% multichannel 5.1 and then we use the room for 10% movies.  Each signal path has its own amps, etc. 

 

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=53699.msg893756#msg893756

 

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Question:  how does one run multiple dedicated lines and not have ground loops or the gremlins everyone warns against when using different circuits in the same signal path?  It's not a big deal as I could easily run one dedicated 6-10AWG line with a couple Hubble-grade outlets (then my Topaz and 15 outlet naked power strip ala JS) but folks like MSB (thanks for the link Rajiv) are seemingly recommending/insisting separate circuits for audio categories.  It's not what I was taught earlier, but maybe it's due to the fact that if those other circuits are on same phase we're ok?

No fooling around there.  That's a listening room!!!.  I need to talk to Hedback again.  Good job.