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

[Cornan]

14 minutes ago, seeteeyou said:

Maybe we could still get away with quite a few pieces of LT3045 boards to accommodate different voltage requirements, some of them could be 1A ones from Alexey with others might actually need 3A instead.

 

I am not sure if this will fit that purpose, but Alexeys interesting new Mezzanine Power board (for RPi) can be tailored with different modules and voltages. Michaels single ps where more than 1A is needed.  

 

http://www.ldovr.com/product-p/mpower.htm

 

Just a thought.

[RickyV]

What i am also wondering is, if shutdown a computer who is cutting the power? The power supply or the mobo.

And you need a constant 5Vsb

[hieukm]

5 hours ago, AmusedToD said:

 

I hear you, I am not advocating neglecting the digital source. Hell, I spent a fortune on my dCS NBR plus the Paganini DAC. But as it happened in my case, moving from $3500 speakers to $12900 speakers made a much bigger impact than moving from a $2500 DAC to a $13000 DAC.  In order to get to the level of musical enjoyment Roy mentioned in his post (Wilson Alexia 2), one would need to shell out almost $60k just for the speakers, and most probably over $100k for the entire setup, which makes the server a bargain.

 

I am just saying that investing in superior speakers (and amplification) makes for (at it least should make for) a greater upgrade than investing in the digital source. That is my opinion and also the opinion of many audiophiles that I happen to know. 

This case not apply to Blu2. Blu2 would be equipvalent to an upgrade from 10K Speaker to 100K. 

[Bruce Orr]

Rajiv, appreciate the invite to visit and bring my modded Netgear GS-108. Glad to do so, but will need for Texas weather to get warmer! 

[austinpop]

7 minutes ago, Bruce Orr said:

will need for Texas weather to get warmer! 

 

I'm sure our friends from the frozen Northern climes got a good laugh out of this!

[Johnseye]

12 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

I'm sure our friends from the frozen Northern climes got a good laugh out of this!

 

 

 

 

[Bruce Orr]

Having lived in Pennsylvania, Green Bay and Chicago, I’ve suffered cold enuff!!

[mozes]

Anyone talking about cold?

Greetings from ??  

[BigGuy]

4 minutes ago, mozes said:

Anyone talking about cold?

Greetings from ??  

Given the drought, fires, rain and mudslides a good part of CA has experienced, I am OK with shoveling a bit of snow and enduring a few days of subzero temps in CT.

[Cornan]

2 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

I'm sure our friends from the frozen Northern climes got a good laugh out of this!

 

It is about 3 degrees C, 85% rain, 83% humidity and 3 m/s wind here in Gothenburg right now. Not too bad if you are used to the climate! ?

 

[vortecjr]

We use to make something like this. It was a full blown Sonore Music Server running Vortexbox with an optional output card (USB, SPDIF/Analog, AES/EBU, or i2s) They had a miniBox ATX or straight power, or a combination of the two. They were fanless and the drives had vibration isolation with filters. We had a single external power supply brick or external upgrade power supply made from a Daitron module. Then towards the end of the series we made a dual output power supply called Duex which had a linear supply for the output card and a Daitron module for the mainboard. They sounded great, but the Rendu series is better sounding, less parts, smaller, and much less expense. This was circa 2014 so no USB circuit design from John S or on board linear regulation feeding all the circuits and oscillators 

 

Here is a picture of the stack:  

[catastrofe]

12 minutes ago, vortecjr said:

We use to make something like this. It was a full blown Sonore Music Server running Vortexbox with an optional output card (USB, SPDIF/Analog, AES/EBU, or i2s) They had a miniBox ATX or straight power, or a combination of the two. They were fanless and the drives had vibration isolation with filters. We had a single external power supply brick or external upgrade power supply made from a Daitron module. Then towards the end of the series we made a dual output power supply called Duex which had a linear supply for the output card and a Daitron module for the mainboard. They sounded great, but the Rendu series is better sounding, less parts, smaller, and much less expense. This was circa 2014 so no USB circuit design from John S or on board linear regulation feeding all the circuits and oscillators 

 

Here is a picture of the stack:  

I owned one of these, and completely agree that the UltraRendu sounds better.

[Johnseye]

1 hour ago, vortecjr said:

We use to make something like this. It was a full blown Sonore Music Server running Vortexbox with an optional output card (USB, SPDIF/Analog, AES/EBU, or i2s) They had a miniBox ATX or straight power, or a combination of the two. They were fanless and the drives had vibration isolation with filters. We had a single external power supply brick or external upgrade power supply made from a Daitron module. Then towards the end of the series we made a dual output power supply called Duex which had a linear supply for the output card and a Daitron module for the mainboard. They sounded great, but the Rendu series is better sounding, less parts, smaller, and much less expense. This was circa 2014 so no USB circuit design from John S or on board linear regulation feeding all the circuits and oscillators 

 

Here is a picture of the stack:  

 

While the endpoint is a great idea, you still need a host server. If you guys could make something simple to run Roon Core I'd be interested. 

[seeteeyou]

36 minutes ago, Johnseye said:

 

While the endpoint is a great idea, you still need a host server. If you guys could make something simple to run Roon Core I'd be interested. 

 

I wholeheartedly agree with that suggestion, especially Sonore already worked closely with SolidRun for their Sonicorbiter SE.

 

As @romaz mentioned recently, all we need is a great carrier board (for their SolidPC Q4) so that everything could be powered directly with dedicated power sources while the excellent LT3045 could be deployed strategically

 

I want to design my carrier board.

http://forum.solid-run.com/hardware-f39/i-want-to-design-my-carrier-board--t3262.html

https://www.solid-run.com/intel-braswell-family/solidpc-q4-carrier-board/

 

SolidPC Q4 Carrier Documentation & Block Diagram | SolidRun

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

 

Tiniest Braswell COM ships, with 4K video, GbE, up to 8GB RAM

http://linuxgizmos.com/tiniest-braswell-module-delivers-the-goods-including-4k-video/

 

Braswell SOM – System On Module

https://www.solid-run.com/intel-braswell-family/braswell-som-system-on-module/

[vortecjr]

46 minutes ago, Johnseye said:

 

While the endpoint is a great idea, you still need a host server. If you guys could make something simple to run Roon Core I'd be interested. 

John, we have that already;) It's called sonicTransporter and it's made by Small Green Computer. We are hardware and software partners with them, but I don't make any money on the servers. sonicTransporter runs a version of Sonicorbiter that is setup for server duties. It can be a Roon server, DLNA server, Logitech Media Server, etc. Its very similar in look and feel to Sonicorbiter running on the micro/ultraRendu and meant to be complimentary. The are reasonably priced, include support, and are turnkey. 

 

Also, I would say that endpoints need "server software" running on any computer or NAS. The point is you don't need a dedicated music server. There are also people just streaming via Tidal or Quboz and in that case neither computer or NAS is needed.        

[hurka]

Sparky SBC (Motherboard) For AUDIO!!!!!

https://www.allo.com/sparky/sparky-sbc.html#features

[lmitche]

17 hours ago, austinpop said:

Eric and I tried this experiment a long time ago, when he first got his trifecta. We found no benefit or degradation from using 1 sCLK-EX vs 2 sCLK-EX boards in the chain. The SQ benefit came from the quality of the clock, not apparently due to synchrony with exactly one clock source

Great to know that synchronized clocks don't seem to matter, and thanks for sharing.  I missed this in your write-ups of that experiment. This is an important find and pretty fundamental, so very useful.

 

[lmitche]

19 hours ago, austinpop said:

If I had it to do over, this is exactly what I would do. In fact, this is what I counselled @Bruce Orr to do, and he is very happy with the results. If/when he next comes to Austin, we can pit his modded Netgear GS108 vs. my modded Zyxel vs. my chain of shunted Netgear GS105 and modded Zyxel.

Good to hear that you share my logic here.  I'm hoping Bruce comes to Austin soon.

[spotforscott]

Curious about which server option you would choose & why @ $1500 price point?

 

1. Modified Mac Mini (modded) + JS2 power supply

2. SONICTRANSPORTER I7 FOR ROON DSP

 

Both support bridged connection but which would produce the best results?

 

BTW, I have no interest in building a server so that's not an option

[seeteeyou]

$1,500? Supermicro SuperServer E200-8B seemed to be a good start because of its excellent motherboard X10SBA

 

https://www.supermicro.com/products/system/Mini-ITX/SYS-E200-8B.cfm

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/superserver/mini-itx/MNL-1688.pdf

 

We could pay more to customize the options

 

https://www.abmx.com/supermicro-sys-e200-8b

https://www.thinkmate.com/system/superserver-e200-8b

https://www.sourcecode.com/system/superserver-e200-8b

http://www.acmemicro.com/Product/Customize/15504/Supermicro-E200-8B-Mini-iTX-Intel-Celeron-J1900-

 

It came with their own MCP-250-10117-0N power adapter so we could do a little bit better with 12V iFi Audio iPower

 

https://ifi-audio.com/portfolio-view/accessory-ipower/

https://www.amazon.com/iFi-iPower-12V-Power-Supply/dp/B01LZD8SHJ

 

Or it's actually a good idea to get the barebone for less than 300 bucks

 

http://shop.ironnetworks.com/supermicro-superserver-sys-e200-8b

http://atacomipc.com/program/print_ipc_spec.cgi?Item_code=MIPC_SUPE_E2_26

https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Barebone-Components-Other-SYS-E200-8B/dp/B00T4XV1Y8

http://www.wiredzone.com/supermicro-servers-compact-embedded-processor-sys-e200-8b-10023745

https://www.compsource.com/pn/SYSE2008B/Supermicro-428/Superserver-E2008b-black-Syse2008b/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-SuperMicro-SYS-E200-8B-Mini-ITX-Server-with-X10SBA-Motherboard-/361650942796

 

Then we're left with approximately $1,200, both RAM and SSDs are very affordable these days.

[Johnseye]

3 hours ago, vortecjr said:

John, we have that already;) It's called sonicTransporter and it's made by Small Green Computer. We are hardware and software partners with them, but I don't make any money on the servers. sonicTransporter runs a version of Sonicorbiter that is setup for server duties. It can be a Roon server, DLNA server, Logitech Media Server, etc. Its very similar in look and feel to Sonicorbiter running on the micro/ultraRendu and meant to be complimentary. The are reasonably priced, include support, and are turnkey. 

 

Also, I would say that endpoints need "server software" running on any computer or NAS. The point is you don't need a dedicated music server. There are also people just streaming via Tidal or Quboz and in that case neither computer or NAS is needed.        

 

How can I say this...the sonicTransporter isn't as good as it could be?  I think the hardware side of it is too easily duplicated and not as well designed as the Rendu.

[tapatrick]

6 hours ago, hurka said:

Sparky SBC (Motherboard) For AUDIO!!!!!

https://www.allo.com/sparky/sparky-sbc.html#features

Yes, I’m in the process of putting together an Ethernet >I2S Roon streamer. Sparky/McFifo/McDualXO/Audio g-d HDMI > I2S. 

[klaus]

Please help me to understand my SMS/Zenith setup.
1. my SMS-200ultra/SPS-500 goes via an AFI USB/optical/EAS EBU Interface to my DAC.
Data are on a USB stick in the SMS USB-1 port, Control is with Ipeng, Squeezelite is used.
This runs without problem.

Now I have loande a Zenith SE and control it with Ipeng and get all the clarity and dynamics that are reported from other members one thing I miss  is that on classical music low level content is dynamically set back andnot that openas I would expext.
Now I have connected the Zenith via ethernet to the SMS and have set Ipeng  SMS-200 USB to actuell player. I have the Zenith Database for selection and music plays with great openness.
I am new to Network players and do not understand which parts of Zenith and SMS are contributing to this setup.
1. Does the Zenith simply replace my USB stick? probably not because I also see the Squeeze part in Ipeng.
2. The Zenith SE would simply play the roll of a nAS?  Or can it justify the costs  in this setup?

Please help me to understand what I am doing.
Klaus
 

[hurka]

45 minutes ago, tapatrick said:

Yes, I’m in the process of putting together an Ethernet >I2S Roon streamer. Sparky/McFifo/McDualXO/Audio g-d HDMI > I2S. 

Sparky little hungry and picky ,think the new lps1.2 the best choice.can upsampling amazingly, play via usb3 with externally powered ssd also perfectly.

[vortecjr]

9 hours ago, spotforscott said:

Curious about which server option you would choose & why @ $1500 price point?

 

1. Modified Mac Mini (modded) + JS2 power supply

2. SONICTRANSPORTER I7 FOR ROON DSP

 

Both support bridged connection but which would produce the best results?

 

BTW, I have no interest in building a server so that's not an option

The sonicTransporters are designed primarily for streaming so you would not need at JS-2 level power supply with it. comparing for local playback in not really proper. They can play music locally and you can discuss options for that with Andrew at SGC.