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


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Most important: please realize this thread is about bleeding edge experimentation and discovery. No one has The Answer™. If you are not into tweaking, just know that you can have a musically satisfying system without doing any of the nutty things we do here.

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I've been running the Sablon Reserva usb and ethernet cable and love them.  I've been running Sablon power cords to all of my components for a very, very long time (a number of years ago I had borrowed a 6 or so power cables from the Cable Company, together with about another half dozen power cords I had acquired and took a week to extensively compare them head-to-head and Sablon beat them all). 

 

Mark is a great guy.  I placed my order for his new 2020 usb cable.  I'll put my current 2017 Reserva in my second system.  2017 Reserva beat out many usb cables in my head to head comparisons (Light Harmonic 10G, 2G and 1G, Curious, Nordost Blue Heaven, Mapleshade Clearlink, King Rex uArt, iFi Gemini, Cardas, AudioQuest, and TotalDac).  TotalDac is a very good cable as well, but Sablon for me is tops.

 

Speaker Room: Lumin U1X | Lampizator Pacific 2 | Viva Linea | Constellation Inspiration Stereo 1.0 | FinkTeam Kim | Revel subs  

Office Headphone System: Lumin U1X | Lampizator Golden Gate 3 | Viva Egoista | Abyss AB1266 Phi TC 

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2 hours ago, Blake said:

I've been running the Sablon Reserva usb and ethernet cable and love them.  I've been running Sablon power cords to all of my components for a very, very long time (a number of years ago I had borrowed a 6 or so power cables from the Cable Company, together with about another half dozen power cords I had acquired and took a week to extensively compare them head-to-head and Sablon beat them all). 

 

Mark is a great guy.  I placed my order for his new 2020 usb cable.  I'll put my current 2017 Reserva in my second system.  2017 Reserva beat out many usb cables in my head to head comparisons (Light Harmonic 10G, 2G and 1G, Curious, Nordost Blue Heaven, Mapleshade Clearlink, King Rex uArt, iFi Gemini, Cardas, AudioQuest, and TotalDac).  TotalDac is a very good cable as well, but Sablon for me is tops.

 

Hi Blake, I’m awaiting mine also. The fact it compares to Intona Ultimate which cost 4 times the price, really makes this a bargain. Question, do you use Sablon ethernet cables or have you? How do they compare to others? 

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1 hour ago, ASRMichael said:

Hi Blake, I’m awaiting mine also. The fact it compares to Intona Ultimate which cost 4 times the price, really makes this a bargain. Question, do you use Sablon ethernet cables or have you? How do they compare to others? 

 

Hi, yes I am using the Sablon Panatela Ethernet cable. However, I only compared the Sablon ethernet to two other cables- a generic one, and a Blue Jeans Cable.  

Speaker Room: Lumin U1X | Lampizator Pacific 2 | Viva Linea | Constellation Inspiration Stereo 1.0 | FinkTeam Kim | Revel subs  

Office Headphone System: Lumin U1X | Lampizator Golden Gate 3 | Viva Egoista | Abyss AB1266 Phi TC 

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2 minutes ago, soares said:

Hi guys!

Following a long search for an Apacer 8GB memory for my Zen MKIII, I finally received it. Quite expensive (200$) and arriving from Slovakia after almost 3 weeks waiting. Let me say first that some companies on line (e.g. Price Blaze) despite announcing Apacer memories,  they send you Kingston’s or other brands... so be careful.

First impressions:

I went through a couple of favorite tracks:

Amália Rodrigues “Com que voz”

António Zambujo “Nem que seja”

Pedro Barroso “Em Sagres”

Mariza “Ó gente da minha terra”

Camané “Sei de um Rio”

Pablo Alborán/Carminho “Perdóname” (en português)

Vinicius de Moraes/Maria Creuza/Toquinho “Eu sei que vou te amar”

Joel Xavier “Lusitano” 

Adnan Joubran “Beat the drum”
Música Nuda“passione”

Dead Combo “Quando a alma não é pequena”

Etc...

As you might have guessed from my musical tastes I am not an English native speaker so I am not going to elaborate much on the SQ. I would just say that the differences are subtle but notable, timbres are better and the instruments sound  a little bit more crispy. Please take my evaluation with a grain of salt because my system is very accourate. Should You buy it? It’s up to you, but I will keep it.

Cheers Jorge

I find the Apacer RAM more stable with SQ when running Ram Root on euphony and there is not much loss in SQ if large amount of RAM is used e.g > 50%. In the past when using regular RAM, the SQ gets a bit worse when more Ram is occupied and also gets worse when running RAMroot.  This is surely recommended if you plan to run RAMroot (eg AL or euphony) or have huge music files that would occupy large RAM space. 

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49 minutes ago, Chopin75 said:

I find the Apacer RAM more stable with SQ when running Ram Root on euphony and there is not much loss in SQ if large amount of RAM is used e.g > 50%. In the past when using regular RAM, the SQ gets a bit worse when more Ram is occupied and also gets worse when running RAMroot.  This is surely recommended if you plan to run RAMroot (eg AL or euphony) or have huge music files that would occupy large RAM space. 

Thank for sharing your experiences. As you might know Innous servers are “closed boxes”. So no much space to try other OS. I am using squeezelite with Roon (much better than Roon alone) and from with this experimental mode, music is played from memory. How much memory is allocated I really do not know... 🙂

Jensen VRD-iFF>Router>Rj45>opticalModule>
SFP>Buffalo2016>SFP>opticalModule >Rj45>

IZen Mk3>Rj45> Delock62619>Rj45>
etherRegen (Master Clock+ Mini-Circuits BLP)>SFP>opticalRendu>USB>IsoRegen>

USB>Phoenix>USB>OPPO 205 (Modded)>HMS “the Perfect Match”>Proac Tablette Reference 8 Signature.
 

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3 minutes ago, soares said:

Thank for sharing your experiences. As you might know Innous servers are “closed boxes”. So no much space to try other OS. I am using squeezelite with Roon (much better than Roon alone) and from with this experimental mode, music is played from memory. How much memory is allocated I really do not know... 🙂

 

If you want to experiment, there is no reason why you can't boot Euphony (or AL) off a USB stick in Innous server. I think someone has already tried this over here - I don't remember who but maybe @austinpop ?

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8 hours ago, soares said:

Hi guys!

Following a long search for an Apacer 8GB memory for my Zen MKIII, I finally received it. Quite expensive (200$) and arriving from Slovakia after almost 3 weeks waiting. Let me say first that some companies on line (e.g. Price Blaze) despite announcing Apacer memories,  they send you Kingston’s or other brands... so be careful.

First impressions:

I went through a couple of favorite tracks:

Amália Rodrigues “Com que voz”

António Zambujo “Nem que seja”

Pedro Barroso “Em Sagres”

Mariza “Ó gente da minha terra”

Camané “Sei de um Rio”

Pablo Alborán/Carminho “Perdóname” (en português)

Vinicius de Moraes/Maria Creuza/Toquinho “Eu sei que vou te amar”

Joel Xavier “Lusitano” 

Adnan Joubran “Beat the drum”
Música Nuda“passione”

Dead Combo “Quando a alma não é pequena”

Etc...

As you might have guessed from my musical tastes I am not an English native speaker so I am not going to elaborate much on the SQ. I would just say that the differences are subtle but notable, timbres are better and the instruments sound  a little bit more crispy. Please take my evaluation with a grain of salt because my system is very accourate. Should You buy it? It’s up to you, but I will keep it.

Cheers Jorge

I bought myself a 4g  APACER ram and I like it also. 

I did got a nice sq boost : better bass , a little more detailed treeble and a little better soundstage.

For my system most significant improvement was the bass .

Could you give a link on where you bought it ?

Thank’s

PCserver Supermicro X11SAA under Daphile  ,Jcat pcie net card ,Etherregen,e-red dock endpoint,powered by LPS 1.2 , SPS 500 , Sean Jacobs level 3 psu,  DAC Audiomat Maestro 3, Nagra Classic Amp , Hattor passive preamplifier , Martin Logan montis

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15 minutes ago, jean-michel6 said:

I bought myself a 4g  APACER ram and I like it also. 

I did got a nice sq boost : better bass , a little more detailed treeble and a little better soundstage.

For my system most significant improvement was the bass .

Could you give a link on where you bought it ?

Thank’s

 

I have Apacer DDR4 non-ECC in my NUC and like it but am still having trouble finding DDR3 non-ECC for my server.

 


"Don't Believe Everything You Think"

System

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3 hours ago, mourip said:

 

I have Apacer DDR4 non-ECC in my NUC and like it but am still having trouble finding DDR3 non-ECC for my server.

 

Here is the link:
 

https://www.soselectronic.com/articles/apacer/the-most-reliable-memory-for-industries-2177

 

If you live in US, from the moment you place an order  it will take about 2 weeks to receive it! 

Jensen VRD-iFF>Router>Rj45>opticalModule>
SFP>Buffalo2016>SFP>opticalModule >Rj45>

IZen Mk3>Rj45> Delock62619>Rj45>
etherRegen (Master Clock+ Mini-Circuits BLP)>SFP>opticalRendu>USB>IsoRegen>

USB>Phoenix>USB>OPPO 205 (Modded)>HMS “the Perfect Match”>Proac Tablette Reference 8 Signature.
 

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11 hours ago, Dev said:

 

If you want to experiment, there is no reason why you can't boot Euphony (or AL) off a USB stick in Innous server. I think someone has already tried this over here - I don't remember who but maybe @austinpop ?

Will try to find it! Thank you again.

Jorge

Jensen VRD-iFF>Router>Rj45>opticalModule>
SFP>Buffalo2016>SFP>opticalModule >Rj45>

IZen Mk3>Rj45> Delock62619>Rj45>
etherRegen (Master Clock+ Mini-Circuits BLP)>SFP>opticalRendu>USB>IsoRegen>

USB>Phoenix>USB>OPPO 205 (Modded)>HMS “the Perfect Match”>Proac Tablette Reference 8 Signature.
 

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14 minutes ago, soares said:

Will try to find it! Thank you again.

Jorge

 

Here you go: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/?do=findComment&comment=895805

 

I reported trying this on AudioLinux, although more recently, I have easily been able to boot into Euphony on a friend's Zenith SE. You do have to make a 1 time change to the BIOS - attach a VGA monitor and USB keyboard, boot into the BIOS and change the boot order to boot from a UEFI USB stick. The SE requires VGA, not sure about the latest crop (Mk3 etc).

 

Also it goes without saying - this is an unsupported operation. Try it at your own risk.

 

 

 

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30 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

Here you go: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/?do=findComment&comment=895805

 

I reported trying this on AudioLinux, although more recently, I have easily been able to boot into Euphony on a friend's Zenith SE. You do have to make a 1 time change to the BIOS - attach a VGA monitor and USB keyboard, boot into the BIOS and change the boot order to boot from a UEFI USB stick. The SE requires VGA, not sure about the latest crop (Mk3 etc).

 

Also it goes without saying - this is an unsupported operation. Try it at your own risk.

 

 

 

Thank you so much Rajiv! I guess I won’t try it, not because it’s a unsupported operation but because I don’t have the knowledge to do it! VGA, Bios, etc are alien words from outer space! 🤪

Nevertheless and because I am curious, did your friend found a significant SQ upgrade when using Euphony? 
Cheers Jorge

Jensen VRD-iFF>Router>Rj45>opticalModule>
SFP>Buffalo2016>SFP>opticalModule >Rj45>

IZen Mk3>Rj45> Delock62619>Rj45>
etherRegen (Master Clock+ Mini-Circuits BLP)>SFP>opticalRendu>USB>IsoRegen>

USB>Phoenix>USB>OPPO 205 (Modded)>HMS “the Perfect Match”>Proac Tablette Reference 8 Signature.
 

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Tried NUC i7 with Farad as the HQP Server for a day or so, and whilst it runs at DSD 512 rates (albeit getting hot and certainly closer to the PSU limits), there is a small loss in dynamic range in particular bass.   

 

My HQP Server is far from ideal either (SMPS power, GPU though CUDA not activated, m.2 SSD) and yet the difference is there.  

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3 hours ago, soares said:

Here is the link:
 

https://www.soselectronic.com/articles/apacer/the-most-reliable-memory-for-industries-2177

 

If you live in US, from the moment you place an order  it will take about 2 weeks to receive it! 

Thanks. I tried them previously. Unfortunately my server board takes DDR3 UDIMMs and they do not seem to be available. Lots of SODIMMs.


"Don't Believe Everything You Think"

System

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Noticed a subtle but noticeable difference adding 8G Apacer Ram 

8g was expensive but it adds to the SQ. 

 

One thing i noticed was Euphony increased the usage to 5,1g from when using 4g crucial ram using 3g ish.

I am just finishing my trial and isnt the new bigger que in ram system update..

 

SOS electronic

26007375.

B93E2.G040B
SODIMM DDR3L 1600 4GB CL11 Tc=-40...85°C

X2 sticks.

 

Dave 

 

 

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, guiltyboxswapper said:

Tried NUC i7 with Farad as the HQP Server for a day or so, and whilst it runs at DSD 512 rates (albeit getting hot and certainly closer to the PSU limits), there is a small loss in dynamic range in particular bass.   

 

My HQP Server is far from ideal either (SMPS power, GPU though CUDA not activated, m.2 SSD) and yet the difference is there.  

The Farad is only art 3 A ? You may need a higher current than 3A to run upsampled DSD512. I use 10A of the HDplex 200W LPS to run HQplayer upsampled to DSD512 but that is only for fun, not really for regular listening. I don't recall it having much improvement of SQ from DSD256.  

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5 hours ago, Chopin75 said:

The Farad is only art 3 A ? You may need a higher current than 3A to run upsampled DSD512. I use 10A of the HDplex 200W LPS to run HQplayer upsampled to DSD512 but that is only for fun, not really for regular listening. I don't recall it having much improvement of SQ from DSD256.  

 

Yes 3A, however the watts drawn "from the power socket" was ~47w for DSD 512, 35w~ for DSD 256 so well within the limits of the Farad 3 at 19v.  NUC i7 in passive case was stable for hours on end in this configuration.

 

But yes i'm finding the same in this experiment at least - good power on a simple NUC doesnt reap much compared to SMPS driven desktop system, when the system is doing the heavy lifting only (i.e. streamer running NAA on other end).

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Anyone know anything about this

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32963971686.html

 

Quote

"Transmit the signal via Cat5/6 cable. Will eliminate noise & 2kv sure protection yo to 1240m."

 


Basically two boxes, XLR inputs/outputs on one side & ethernet slot on the other.

You connect your source via XLR to one box & then a Cat4 cable connects to the 2nd box, & then XLR to your amp?

 

It's only $56 too.

 

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There's been a few posts here with regards to the new Sablon USB Cable and on WBF (Romaz review). I have happily been using Curious USB cable for the past year or so. So I thought I would give the Sablon a go. The first 1 minute I new this was the best decision I have made in a long time. I am no good at explaining SQ with cables, all I can say after 5 hours of listening is it's probably the last USB cable I will ever buy.

 

Well done Mark at Sablon for creating such a great USB cable at a sensible price.

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I got my Sablon cable earlier this week.  Gave it a quick listen and it was striking how calm and assured the sound was.  Perfectly natural and neutral presentation.  I've been crazy with work this week so I've been doing the continuous burn in thing, but very eager for some proper extended listening this weekend.  Very much looking forward to it

ATT Fiber -> EdgeRouter X SFP -> Taiko Audio Extreme -> Vinnie Rossi L2i-SE w/ Level 2 DAC -> Voxativ 9.87 speakers w/ 4D drivers

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