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

[octaviars]

1 hour ago, austinpop said:

I would love to hear other voices reviewing the SR-4. Did I miss it, or am I the only one who has had anything to say about it?

 

Come on, people!

 

I have not come around to write about the SR4, I started a seperate thread when I got it but have not had the time to compare it to the stock SMPS (I only own a HD Plex 200W and SR4 so not much else to compare it to)

Just bought a Tx-USBultra today and will run that on a second SR4, need to get some USB and DC cables to connect it so my SMS Ultra and the second SR4.

[zoltan]

1 hour ago, austinpop said:

 

Since you guys have actually opened up your units and had a closer look at the board and U.FL connector... Do you know, or can you see, where and how the termination is implemented? Remember, the master clock input is either 50 or 75 Ω terminated, depending on how you ordered it. I just wonder whether you have to take this termination into account when considering alternative internal cables.

 

On  the sCLK-ex board there are totally separate input terminals for 50 ohm (u.fl) and 75 ohm (MCX) that you can easily check out on the board's manual too (downloadable from SOtM's site). 
I even asked May if one can be swapped for the other to which she said 'no'. The firmware of the board would have to be re-optimised, so I am sticking with the 50 ohm cable.  

[mozes]

1 hour ago, zoltan said:

On  the sCLK-ex board there are totally separate input terminals for 50 ohm (u.fl) and 75 ohm (MCX) that you can easily check out on the board's manual too (downloadable from SOtM's site). 
I even asked May if one can be swapped for the other to which she said 'no'. The firmware of the board would have to be re-optimised, so I am sticking with the 50 ohm cable.  

Thanks for the info

[MayfromSOtM]

7 hours ago, auricgoldfinger said:

Since you guys have been offering help to the DIY-challenged, I would appreciate suggestions for my problem.

 

I always used an LPS-1 set at 7v to power my sMS-200ultra set at 9v and never had a problem.  @MayfromSOtMtold me it was a bad idea, so I opened the case and changed the jumpers.  In the process, I also dislodged a cable and had to return the unit to Korea for repair.

 

When I recently tried to open the case to change the voltage setting back to 9v, I discovered the screws are now too tight for me to unscrew them.  The price of this discovery was damaged threads on 2 screws.  May has been completely uncooperative in helping me and refuses to even acknowledge that they made the screws too tight.  (Never mind the fact that I was able to open the unit once before, or that I also opened my sPS-500 and tX-USBultra without incident.)  Even if I were to spend the $100-150 to return it to Korea, there is a high likelihood they won't fix it given May's lack of cooperation to this point.

 

Does anyone have suggestions for getting the screws out that don't involve a drill?

 

Hi auricgoldfinger, 

Sorry to hear you still don't get solution on this matter from our local partner, but every screws were tightened by a fixed constant power driver and it can be unscrewed by a handy driver also, it doesn't mean that only your product is firmly tighten specially. As you have requested, in this time I have loosened the screws almost halfway also, but anyway I am very sorry for the same result you experienced.

 

Speaking of pulling the screws out,  the screw heads are already broken and damaged a lot,  so the only way what you can do is using a drill and take out the screws by force. You know I already sent a few extra screws to be replaced, you will need to practice to pull out the screws by a drill and then apply it to the damaged screws on the product or simply ask what to do for this situation to the store where you bought.

 

We always try our best to support our customers and that is what I have to do,  I'm sorry again to hear your situation but I'm trying my best to support.

 

Thank you.

Best regards, May.

 

 

[austinpop]

On 3/10/2018 at 4:44 PM, auricgoldfinger said:

 

I believe these are the cables @mozes likes:  http://audiosensibility.com/blog/sotm-audio/#!/Signature-Silver-DC-Cable/p/102414197/category=27007760

 

Ask Steven to terminate however you need.  [email protected]

 

Note the list price is $CAD so your cost is about 80% of that amount in USD.

 

Steven was great to deal with. The correct link is http://audiosensibility.com/blog/sotm-audio/#!/Signature-Silver-DC-Cable/p/102469015

 

Make sure to email him first. @mozes must be a celebrity, since Steven also emailed me a generous discount code, after I name dropped I was a friend.

[mozes]

1 hour ago, austinpop said:

 

Steven was great to deal with. The correct link is http://audiosensibility.com/blog/sotm-audio/#!/Signature-Silver-DC-Cable/p/102469015

 

Make sure to email him first. @mozes must be a celebrity, since Steven also emailed me a generous discount code, after I name dropped I was a friend.

BTW, I informed Steven that some of my CA friends will talk to him. Happy to help anytime  

[flkin]

13 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

Yup, that about sums it up. No idea what the right answer is!

 

Thsnks for the tip about the glue. I do want to proceed so I can get at the voltage jumpers.

 

That blob of glue seems to serve no purpose except to check whether people have opened their unit. This may be for warranty purposes?

[rickca]

3 minutes ago, flkin said:

 

That blob of glue seems to serve no purpose except to check whether people have opened their unit. This may be for warranty purposes?

Really?  I thought it was OK for people to change the voltage jumpers.  No?

[flkin]

It may be ok to change voltage jumpers and even clock cables, SOtM doesn't seem to say anything to suggest otherwise but the glue blob is there for a reason if only to confirm if the case was opened. Why else it would be there for?

 

Most manufacturers would frown at what is being suggested here and modding equipment would mostly void warranties. It seems SOtM is more tolerant to the people here at CA than others.  

[zoltan]

2 hours ago, flkin said:

It may be ok to change voltage jumpers and even clock cables, SOtM doesn't seem to say anything to suggest otherwise but the glue blob is there for a reason if only to confirm if the case was opened. Why else it would be there for?

 

Most manufacturers would frown at what is being suggested here and modding equipment would mostly void warranties. It seems SOtM is more tolerant to the people here at CA than others.  

Agreed. SOtM is the most positively liberal company I have seen. I think the glue does have a purpose. The board can slide (at least in theory) back and forth and this is an easy way to avoid that. They could have just used an unremovable sticker on one of the back screws.

[str-1]

13 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

I would love to hear other voices reviewing the SR-4. Did I miss it, or am I the only one who has had anything to say about it?

 

Come on, people!

I will be happy to offer some thoughts once mine turns up and is run-in.  Paul said I would get it today or tomorrow.  But I haven’t yet received any tracking info, so I am not so sure about that.  Anyway, should be sometime this week.

 

I have the 9V tX-USBultra, so with that, can only compare the SR4 to a Gophert smps and the tX-U’s own smps (like you, I have some misgivings about opening up the tX-U and changing tne voltage, even though May said I could).  But I can compare the SR4 to an LPS-1 using my ISO Regen.

[LTG2010]

6 hours ago, flkin said:

That blob of glue seems to serve no purpose except to check whether people have opened their unit. This may be for warranty purposes?

Most likely just to stop the board from sliding about in the case especially in transit.

Probably a drop of hot glue, good for damping vibrations. Harmless to remove it.

[spotforscott]

Need some help getting trifecta and mini mac running. Anyone from Toronto and very tech savvy? Willing to pay for your time... thx

[seeteeyou]

A Stunning Improvement in Computer Audio Sound Quality - the Samsung 960 EVO SSD
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/computer-audio-sound-quality-samsung-960-evo-ssd/

 

Could that be more hype than anything else?

[Confused]

17 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

I was up very late last night, because I just couldn't stop listening to the Ref 10 in my system. The musicality is just crazy, and despite my incessant urge to test things, I just kicked back and enjoyed the music. Well - I couldn't resist one test, which was to use the knob on the Ref 10 to enable/disable the clock.

 

Regarding your observation, @Confused, I can certainly understand. One thing I have found is that some tracks are way better than others to discern the effect. And it does take a few seconds for the brain to register. I find it better to repeat a snippet every time you make the change, rather than do it while letting a track continue on. Here are some tracks where I found the clock effect to be massive, as in "hit you on the head":

• The Game of Love, Daft Punk
• Y tú qué has hecho - Buena Vista Social Club
• Take Five - Dave Brubeck
• Mahler Symphony 5, Rondo - Finale - Osmo Vänskä, Minnesota Orchestra
• Mahler Symphony 1, 4th movement - Ivan Fischer, Budapest

And regarding the MC-3+ USB, see my response to @zoltan. I'm sure DAC synergy plays a role too. I will say that while I don't know how good the MC-3+ USB's native clock is, the sCLK-EX in and of itself is no slouch, and is what propelled @romaz's and my exploration lo these 100s of pages ago!

Brubeck, Mahler and Daft Punk?  We're not going to be able to pigeon hole you for music taste are we?  Good stuff.  I'll try a couple of the above myself, and see if I get the "hit you on the head effect", any excuse for a bit of Daft Punk.....

[lmitche]

39 minutes ago, seeteeyou said:

A Stunning Improvement in Computer Audio Sound Quality - the Samsung 960 EVO SSD
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/computer-audio-sound-quality-samsung-960-evo-ssd/

 

Could that be more hype than anything else?

FWIW, hearing a major improvement in SQ moving  from a NAS to local playback seems reasonable to me. I think there a better ways to accomplish this than with a Samsung SSD, but nevertheless it does seem like a reasonable claim.

[tapatrick]

5 hours ago, str-1 said:

I will be happy to offer some thoughts once mine turns up and is run-in.  Paul said I would get it today or tomorrow.  But I haven’t yet received any tracking info, so I am not so sure about that.  Anyway, should be sometime this week.

 

I have the 9V tX-USBultra, so with that, can only compare the SR4 to a Gophert smps and the tX-U’s own smps (like you, I have some misgivings about opening up the tX-U and changing tne voltage, even though May said I could).  But I can compare the SR4 to an LPS-1 using my ISO Regen.

I've got an SR4 and it's great psu in my opinion. I prefer it slightly to the LPS-1, also I'm a big user of LT3045s with my modified Teradak DC30W in series but find they are not needed with the SR4.

 

While on the topic of PSUs, I find an clear improvement running the ISO regen on 5V - much better sounding as this bypasses the internal voltage regulators...

[Confused]

I have started a new thread to cover the topic of reference and word clock cables.  I am hoping this will pull together all the experience of which cables work best, cable length and all this good stuff.  First off, I am hoping to get some clarity on the curly clock cable issue as raised by @zoltan 

 

 

 

[LTG2010]

2 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

Could that be more hype than anything else?

No it's definitely not hype. I put one a year ago in my laptop, moved the Hitachi HDD over for storage- the improvement wasn't subtle, clearer, more spacious, warmer.

Problem was playing music direct from the Samsung NVME was superior to playback from the storage HDD and due to the lack of space I found myself moving files over and deleting etc. Soon got fed up with this though and accepted the sound as it was from the HDD, still pretty good once you adjust.

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

FWIW, hearing a major improvement in SQ moving  from a NAS to local playback seems reasonable to me. I think there a better ways to accomplish this than with a Samsung SSD, but nevertheless it does seem like a reasonable claim.

This is HDD via your USB card? (for storage I mean)

[lmitche]

6 minutes ago, LTG2010 said:

This is HDD via your USB card? (for storage I mean)

Yes, USB 3 gen 2 card and enclosure each powered by lt3045 chains.

[str-1]

1 hour ago, tapatrick said:

While on the topic of PSUs, I find an clear improvement running the ISO regen on 5V - much better sounding as this bypasses the internal voltage regulators...

Thanks.  I didn’t realise you could do that.  I’ll give it a go.

[Cornan]

10 minutes ago, str-1 said:

Thanks.  I didn’t realise you could do that.  I’ll give it a go.

 

AFAIK only if your DAC´s USB input does´nt require 5v. If it does it might disconnect after a little while depending how much current the DAC pulls.

[str-1]

14 minutes ago, str-1 said:

Thanks.  I didn’t realise you could do that.  I’ll give it a go.

Just had a look at the ISO Regen manual and see that the IR requires power in the range 6V-8V.  But it is at the moment running off a 5V feed from the LPS-1.  

[str-1]

4 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

AFAIK only if your DAC´s USB input does´nt require 5v. If it does it might disconnect after a little while depending how much current the DAC pulls.

My DAVE dac only needs the 5V to recognise a usb input.

[Cornan]

Just now, str-1 said:

My DAVE dac only needs the 5V to recognise a usb input.

 

Then it is worth a try since it will not pull much, but as it seems on your previous post you already do!