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

[gadgetman]

Forgot to mention that after setting fixed IP address for sMS-200 it won't be recognized by any other computer. It's impossible to get into Eunhasu web page with the new setup. If you need to update the firmware or to configure sMS-200 to modes other than Roon then the only way to do it is to use the original SD card which containing untouched Eunhasu.

[gadgetman]

Is there support for HQplayer in Rock? If not, can one get to a command prompt at root level to enable?

I'm not sure if ROCK doesn't support HQplayer yet or it's because that I don't have HQplayer that even though I set sMS-200 to HQPlayer NAA mode in normal switched connection that ROCK does not see it.

 

And no, there's no command prompt on the host PC and I can't ssh into ROCK either. The connection just being rejected (permission denied).

[gadgetman]

Forgot to mention that after setting fixed IP address for sMS-200 it won't be recognized by any other computer. It's impossible to get into Eunhasu web page with the new setup. If you need to update the firmware or to configure sMS-200 to modes other than Roon then the only way to do it is to use the original SD card which containing untouched Eunhasu.

Oops! Wrong description. It should be this : to update the firmware or to configure to modes other than Roon then the only way is to reset the IP address in the SD card then configure it the normal way then set the IP address again.

[gadgetman]

This looks interesting : If I decide to go with Roon I probably would start to use ROCK. Two questions

 

1) The way you describe it : this is not an ethernet-bridge between the 2 NIC's on the ROCK computer, but a situation where the SOTM is on a different net segment? In the way I use my NUC with W2016-core (see my post here)

 

You are right. It's not a bridge. It's very similar to your setup. The difference is that there's no DHCP running inside ROCK. The IP addresses can be set explicitly. SOtM MUST be on a different net segment.

 

 

2) In my situation (luckily) I can use firefox under W2016-core to change the SOTM settings. With ROCK you can't. But wouldn't it be easier to unplug the SOTM and plug it into another PC/Notebook in order to change SOTM settings?

 

Thank you very much for your advise. Indeed it should be much easier. But the IP address of SOtM still has to be fixed in order for ROCK to recognize it. So one need to setup a private network with the same net segment of SOtM. Then the PC on the net segment can configure it.

[gadgetman]

Deleted for duplicate post.

[gadgetman]

Looks like there are major issues in the alpha version.

 

After playing music for some time (I don't know exactly for how long), that ROCK can loose connection with sMS-200. I'll do more test then report back.

[gadgetman]

ROCK is much more stable now. I've been running ROCK for more than 10 hours and it's still working fine. No more connection lost though there still is small glitches.

 

Current version is build 206. I remember it was build 204 at the time I installed it. Perhaps the bug was fixed in new build.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to do the SQ comparison this weekend.

[gadgetman]

I've been running ROCK since Mar. 1. Though it had an issue of losing connection with sMS-200 but that happened only once. ROCK updated itself several times last week. It's becoming much stable now.

 

As to the SQ performance Daphile still has an edge over ROCK IMHO. The image of Daphile is a little more vivid and solid while ROCK's image is a little diffused. Daphile also sounds a little more airy. ROCK sounds a little flatter on the other hand. But the differences are very very subtle. I need to do the comparison in a very quiet moment in order to discern the subtleties.

 

Though I tried to have the same h/w setup as best as possible, but ROCK can only boot from internal mSATA (I mistook it as m.2 in previous post), on the other hand Daphile can boot from an USB flash drive. The other difference is that I used 2 micro SD cards for sMS-200 during the test. One is configured as Roon device with static IP, the other is configured as Squeezelite with DHCP. The music files were stored in an internal 2.5" HDD. Both ROCK and Daphile can read it without any problem.

 

I know that hearing memory is very short. Switching from setup A to setup B in the shortest time is crucial. So I always hear Daphile first then shutdown everything and switch to ROCK immediately. Thanks to ROCK's instant ON feature (2 seconds from cold start, extremely impressive) I can do the switching within 1 minute.

 

Despite the tiny SQ gap I might stick to ROCK for its fast response and ease of use characteristics. The metadata and folder cover features are not so attractive to me considering that I have quite a few Chinese and other Asian language music which Roon has no information at all.

[gadgetman]

What I want to know are the MEASURABLE differences or based on listening only? Just asking.

The result is based on my own hearing and my preferences. There's no scientific explanation of how I hear it. My environment and my setup is very likely different from others. So YMMV.

[gadgetman]

Here is a photo of the clock board. The 4 clocks are in the left upper quadrant of the board. I presume this stuff comes off pretty easily?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33737[/ATTACH]

 

Hi Romaz,

 

On the lower left corner there's a rectangular silver top with golden edge, it looks like an OSC. Do you know what is it for? Thanks a lot for sharing it.

[gadgetman]

I'm not sure what that is. It's unlikely to be a master oscillator because of its location (I would think that you would want it as close to the other clocks as possible). You can probably see the gold input along the left border of the board. I believe that is the external master clock input for those who wish to use an atomic clock (debatable whether that would be better for audio or not). The clock connectors are U.FL connectors and the clock cables are silver-plated copper. There is the option to use UP-OCC silver internal DC cabling ($70) vs the stock UP-OCC copper DC cabling to power the clock. I stayed with stock UP-OCC copper because for such a short run, I wasn't sure it would make much difference but I love that they give you the option and that they purposely use single crystal silver or copper. Needless to say, they consider the smallest details.

Looking forward to your listening impression.

 

By the way if you are interested in an external OCXO reference, Cybershaft has some options that might fit your need. I bought this one ’´‚¸“xOCXOƒNƒƒbƒN Premium to pair with Mutec MC3+ USB for Hugo before I got DAVE. It's a true bargain.

 

p.s. Sorry for the above seemingly meaningless link. It should be Japanese.

[gadgetman]

SOtM hasn't listed the specs for the sPS-500. It states it is a hybrid PSU and so I don't yet know what that means but my guess would be that it involves batteries or supercaps in some fashion. If this is the case, it would be unlikely to be able to power a Mac Mini. Even Vinnie Rossi's Mini Pure DC-4-EVR supply can't power a Mac Mini.

 

EDIT: I stand corrected! You are right. I just noticed there are now specs listed and indeed, 12V/5A is listed as an option which is quite surprising considering how small this PSU is. I am definitely interested to know how well this performs.

 

What I will say is that my experience with PSUs with switchable voltages is that they come with challenges. With Paul Hynes' PSUs, to do this requires cascading regulators (which is a good thing in terms of added line noise rejection) but as you go from 12V down to 7V, for example, to maintain 5A of output results in more heat generation that could result in stability issues. Exactly how the sPS-500 will address this will be interesting to see.

 

If sPS-500 is truely a hybrid and a small PSU then it's highly possible a switching PSU with linear regulators. Under this configuration the heat dissipation may won't a big issue. As to my knowledge Chord Electronics is one of the players who's using such mechanism in most of its products. As long as the RFI and electric noise can be controlled at a minimum I don't think it can't be a good audiophile grade PSU.

 

I own a mid 2010 Mac mini, thought it may be quite different from the latest version but they are all using a 85W PSU. I had measured my good old Mac mini and it never goes over 3A in normal use. So, it's possible that sPS-500 can power Mac mini as long as no heavy load is running.

[gadgetman]

7 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

Hi Larry,

 

I am re-reading this forum.

I am running Daphile and have it directly connected to sms200

I am using 

a Samsung USB SSD for music storage. 

Are you suggesting  a standard local storage 2.5" hdd in the Mac mini would be superior?

I'm not sure how I would power it with a LPS-1 though. 

Please advise

 

Geoff

Since Daphile has a RAM play function, if you have enough memory that you can load entire album into the memory. I would suggest to stick with SSD. My take is that after loading the album onto RAM there's no SSD accessing activity. So the electrical noise can be kept to minimum.

 

The second reason I don't recommend a HDD for Daphile is that there's always vibration from the HDD even though you put entire album into RAM. And vibration can degrade the SQ.

[gadgetman]

6 hours ago, lmitche said:

Have you tried Daphile with a hard disk?  Just because an SSD isn't being accessed doesn't mean it isn't singing on the wire.

My original setup was Sandisk Ultra II 960G. Recently I changed it to Seagate ST2000LM007 because my music library is growing. I found the SSD sounds better than HDD. HDD sound a little bit muddy in my system. But the price difference didn't worth me to upgrade to a 2GB SSD. So I didn't buy one.

 

I'm using a fanless NUC. There's no fan in the system. HDD would be the only source of vibration. For Macmini users the fan is a necessity. The vibration is already there. Using HDD may or may not make it worse. So YMMV.

[gadgetman]

6 hours ago, lmitche said:

 The ISO Regen uses the Crystek cchd-575 not the 957.

As a matter of fact both are pretty much he same. If you compare the spec you'll now that they both have the same phase noise performance. The only difference is that 957 has output enable/disable function while 575 doesn't.