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

[seeteeyou]

Here comes the €1500 OPTIMO 3 DUO with 2 separate LT3045-regulated rails @ 3A, available voltages should be 5V / 9V / 12V

 

https://jcat.eu/product/optimo-3-duo/

https://jcat.eu/JCAT_OPTIMO3DUO_manual.pdf

 

If 5V / 1.5A were good enough, then it might make sense to order 9V and then add DXP-1A5DSC (9V → 7V → 5V) afterwards

 

https://www.ldovr.com/product-p/dxp-1a5dsc.htm

 

Similarly, 9V / 1.5A is a better bet when we're adding DXP-1A5DSC (12V → 10.5V → 9V) accordingly.

 

As always the question is what we could expect from OPTIMO 3 DUO when compared to the latest DC4 Power Supply from Dr. Sean Jacobs as well as the legendary SR7 DR.

[ASRMichael]

21 minutes ago, seeteeyou said:

Here comes the €1500 OPTIMO 3 DUO with 2 separate LT3045-regulated rails @ 3A, available voltages should be 5V / 9V / 12V

 

https://jcat.eu/product/optimo-3-duo/

https://jcat.eu/JCAT_OPTIMO3DUO_manual.pdf

 

If 5V / 1.5A were good enough, then it might make sense to order 9V and then add DXP-1A5DSC (9V → 7V → 5V) afterwards

 

https://www.ldovr.com/product-p/dxp-1a5dsc.htm

 

Similarly, 9V / 1.5A is a better bet when we're adding DXP-1A5DSC (12V → 10.5V → 9V) accordingly.

 

As always the question is what we could expect from OPTIMO 3 DUO when compared to the latest DC4 Power Supply from Dr. Sean Jacobs as well as the legendary SR7 DR.

 Listening to what Sean told me about his new DC4, and price point, I think his will at top of the tree! Time will tell....

[RickyV]

1 hour ago, seeteeyou said:

Here comes the €1500 OPTIMO 3 DUO with 2 separate LT3045-regulated rails @ 3A, available voltages should be 5V / 9V / 12V

 

https://jcat.eu/product/optimo-3-duo/

https://jcat.eu/JCAT_OPTIMO3DUO_manual.pdf

Mmmm?? What is different then any other lt3045 power supply? MP audio and ldovr.com
This is probably the transformer they use https://sklep.toroidy.pl/en_US/p/TTSAS0100-SUPREME-AUDIO-grade-transformer-TSAS100VA-voltage-to-50V/391

And six of +/- these  values 

https://www.hificollective.co.uk/catalog/audio-note-kaisei-680uf-25v.html
 

 

[tapatrick]

 

On 3/24/2020 at 7:48 AM, RickyV said:

 

 

 

The set through hole is left/above the +out. 

 

 

@RickyV Did you get this board from Alexey? The board pic on his site does not show the Set through hole?

 

[RickyV]

2 hours ago, tapatrick said:

 

@RickyV Did you get this board from Alexey? The board pic on his site does not show the Set through hole?

 

I think that’s an older pcb from before the paralleling idea.

[ASRMichael]

JCAT XE 

 

 

[adamaley]

22 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

 Listening to what Sean told me about his new DC4, and price point, I think his will at top of the tree! Time will tell....

I have one on order for a new server I'll be building. Exciting times in quarantine.

[matthias]

22 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

 Listening to what Sean told me about his new DC4, and price point, I think his will at top of the tree! Time will tell....

 

Would you like to share the price point?

Thanks

 

Matt

[ASRMichael]

15 minutes ago, matthias said:

 

Would you like to share the price point?

Thanks

 

Matt

Contact Sean and ask for a price, price will depend what you looking for, 1rail? 7?

[ASRMichael]

16 minutes ago, matthias said:

 

Would you like to share the price point?

Thanks

 

Matt

Prices now on his site

 

http://www.custom-hifi-cables.co.uk/home/power-supplies/dc4-power-supply

[matthias]

11 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

Prices now on his site

 

http://www.custom-hifi-cables.co.uk/home/power-supplies/dc4-power-supply

 

This makes the SR7 look like a bargain.

 

Matt

[tapatrick]

16 hours ago, RickyV said:

I think that’s an older pcb from before the paralleling idea.

thanks Ricky

[Iving]

1 hour ago, matthias said:

 

This makes the SR7 look like a bargain.

 

Matt

 

True

Spec for spec so to say, PH is much cheaper.

This was apparent when I ordered an SR7 last Dec.

[Also I wanted ready V/A for HDPlex 800W Converter.]

My SR7 should be with me within a week or two.

Even when it arrives I won't know how it compares with a SJ PS.

I agree all the favourable remarks about SJ - incredibly helpful when I enquired. I wanted to buy from him partly because he is only a few miles from me! But those prices ...

[matthias]

14 minutes ago, Iving said:

True

Spec for spec so to say, PH is much cheaper.

This was apparent when I ordered an SR7 last Dec.

[Also I wanted ready V/A for HDPlex 800W Converter.]

My SR7 should be with me within a week or two.

Even when it arrives I won't know how it compares with a SJ PS.

I agree all the favourable remarks about SJ - incredibly helpful when I enquired. I wanted to buy from him partly because he is only a few miles from me! But those prices ...

 

Further the SJ are rated 5amp, PH 10amp:-)

 

Matt

[Iving]

1 hour ago, matthias said:

 

Further the SJ are rated 5amp, PH 10amp:-)

 

Matt

 

For 800W Converter this was material for me notwithstanding possible capacity of SJ Booster or whatever it is.

[ASRMichael]

I think it’s fair to say you can’t call anything a bargain until you compare both, otherwise we would be saying the Innous Statement is a bargain against the Taiko Extreme! Would be interesting to see head to head! Until then I won’t be judging 

[beautiful music]

33 minutes ago, ASRMichael said:

I think it’s fair to say you can’t call anything a bargain until you compare both, otherwise we would be saying the Innous Statement is a bargain against the Taiko Extreme! Would be interesting to see head to head! Until then I won’t be judging 

+1

[Johnseye]

5 hours ago, matthias said:

 

Further the SJ are rated 5amp, PH 10amp:-)

 

Matt

 

One difference is that SJ's supplies are double regulated.  PH's are not unless custom.  You can add the LT3045 for extra regulation depending on how you spec'd your supply.  The need with an LT3045 is for a supply with slightly higher voltage, but not too high that it creates excessive heat.

 

There is no question that SJ's supplies are quite a bit more than even the custom PH supplies (not PH Design).  It has made me think twice and even three times before placing an order, which I have not done yet.

[StreamFidelity]

3 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

I think it’s fair to say you can’t call anything a bargain until you compare both, otherwise we would be saying the Innous Statement is a bargain against the Taiko Extreme!

 

The Innous Statement was compared by stereophile not with the Taiko extreme, but with the Roon Nucleus +. Between the lines you could read that the Innous was worse. I wouldn't have thought so. 

[ASRMichael]

29 minutes ago, StreamFidelity said:

 

The Innous Statement was compared by stereophile not with the Taiko extreme, but with the Roon Nucleus +. Between the lines you could read that the Innous was worse. I wouldn't have thought so. 

That’s my point! Until both reviewed side by side, you cannot say one is better than the other, or one os better value than the other. 

[Iving]

18 minutes ago, ASRMichael said:

That’s my point! Until both reviewed side by side, you cannot say one is better than the other, or one os better value than the other. 

 

It would be great to read first hand (inevitably subjective!) reviews of two products against each other like for like. But there's not many of us that can do that whether we are talking about expensive servers or expensive power supplies. Meantime we make purchasing decisions: 1) rationally based on information we *can* garner - combined with 2) our intuition about how a product might meet our personal needs and expectations. Naturally price gets factored in as 3).

 

Is anybody likely to have an SR7 - preferably DR - and also a new SJ DR - for an "all things equal" comparison any time soon.

[matthias]

1 hour ago, Johnseye said:

 

One difference is that SJ's supplies are double regulated.  PH's are not unless custom.  You can add the LT3045 for extra regulation depending on how you spec'd your supply.  The need with an LT3045 is for a supply with slightly higher voltage, but not too high that it creates excessive heat.

 

There is no question that SJ's supplies are quite a bit more than even the custom PH supplies (not PH Design).  It has made me think twice and even three times before placing an order, which I have not done yet.

 

Even the SR7 DR is about half the price of the DC4 and has about the double amp output of the DC4. 

 

Matt

[Johnseye]

23 minutes ago, matthias said:

 

Even the SR7 DR is about half the price of the DC4 and has 10A continuous output which is at least the double output of the DC4. 

 

Matt

 

Yes, I own an SR7 with DR and Paul agreed to build me another custom SR7 which I have not executed for the lone reason that it could be 2 years before I see it and even then I may never.  I waited 6 months for mine and I thought that was a long time. I keep an eye on that build calendar thread and it's not positive.

[Nenon]

On 4/7/2020 at 12:45 PM, Nenon said:

 

The new JCAT USB card with OCXO clock was released today. According to early testers (I was not lucky enough to be one of them):

a. It is very good.

b. It scales with a really good LPS. In other words the better LPS you use, the better it sounds. 

 

Order placed and will report back soon. 

First impressions of the JCAT USB XE card in my system:

1. Sounded pretty bad the first 30 minutes. 

2. Big improvement after 30 minutes. 

3. Another big improvement after an hour. 

4. Sounded really good after 4 hours and kept improving.

Could it be because I had to power off my server to install it? Maybe, but I think the card is going through a burn in process, because I kept comparing the motherboard USB output vs. the JCAT USB XE USB output. The difference was minimal in the beginning, but over time it kept becoming bigger and bigger. That's all normal and expected. I typically completely ignore the first 24 hours, but a few people asked me for early feedback.

 

I have compared a lot of USB cards over the past two years - SOTM, Matrix Audio, JCAT, PinkFaun, and some others less famous ones. The JCAT USB Femto card and the PinkFaun USB Bridge with ultraOCXO were my favorite. They sounded much better in my system than any other cards I tried. 

 

It's hard to compare from memory, but for what is worth, I will tell you what I think:

- I am pretty sure it's a step up from the JCAT NET Femto card, which I quite liked. That's easy to tell even from memory.

- I have a PinkFaun USB Bridge here (no OCXO clocks). And I like the JCAT XE better. 

- I am pretty sure I like it better than SOTM, Matrix, etc. 

- What I am not sure is how it compares to the PinkFaun USB Bridge with ultraOCXO. That would be hard to tell from memory. So until I have both in my system to do proper A/B comparison, I would not be able to tell. Luckily there is a member here who is interested to do that comparison.

 

The JCAT XE does scale really well with good linear power supplies. It's easy to hear what difference a power supply makes and even DC cables sound different. It sounds good regardless of the LPS, but the better LPS you use, the better it sounds. My Mundorf silver/gold DC cable proved how good it is yet again. 

 

I see a lot of comments about the high prices of the Sean Jacobs DC4 LPS here. Yes, that is an expensive LPS. I am using a custom DC3 partially upgraded to a DC4, and I can tell you that it makes a big difference with this JCAT XE card. I have not heard a pure DC4, but I think Sean is into something. I know from @romaz that he liked his custom SR7 on the JCAT XE card. So the point is - if you get this USB card, power it with the best LPS you can. I guess there is a reason why @Marcin_gps released his new Optimo 3 Duo LPS at the same time. It looks like the Optimo was designed to power up a JCAT USB and JCAT Net cards. And it also looks like a neat solution. Can't comment on the sound quality of the Optimo, because I don't have one, but from the pictures I can tell that it uses my favorite toroidal transformer. The good news is that the audiophile power supply market keeps growing and there is something suitable at every price point. 

 

[Johnseye]

45 minutes ago, Nenon said:

First impressions of the JCAT USB XE card in my system:

1. Sounded pretty bad the first 30 minutes. 

2. Big improvement after 30 minutes. 

3. Another big improvement after an hour. 

4. Sounded really good after 4 hours and kept improving.

Could it be because I had to power off my server to install it? Maybe, but I think the card is going through a burn in process, because I kept comparing the motherboard USB output vs. the JCAT USB XE USB output. The difference was minimal in the beginning, but over time it kept becoming bigger and bigger. That's all normal and expected. I typically completely ignore the first 24 hours, but a few people asked me for early feedback.

 

I have compared a lot of USB cards over the past two years - SOTM, Matrix Audio, JCAT, PinkFaun, and some others less famous ones. The JCAT USB Femto card and the PinkFaun USB Bridge with ultraOCXO were my favorite. They sounded much better in my system than any other cards I tried. 

 

It's hard to compare from memory, but for what is worth, I will tell you what I think:

- I am pretty sure it's a step up from the JCAT NET Femto card, which I quite liked. That's easy to tell even from memory.

- I have a PinkFaun USB Bridge here (no OCXO clocks). And I like the JCAT XE better. 

- I am pretty sure I like it better than SOTM, Matrix, etc. 

- What I am not sure is how it compares to the PinkFaun USB Bridge with ultraOCXO. That would be hard to tell from memory. So until I have both in my system to do proper A/B comparison, I would not be able to tell. Luckily there is a member here who is interested to do that comparison.

 

The JCAT XE does scale really well with good linear power supplies. It's easy to hear what difference a power supply makes and even DC cables sound different. It sounds good regardless of the LPS, but the better LPS you use, the better it sounds. My Mundorf silver/gold DC cable proved how good it is yet again. 

 

I see a lot of comments about the high prices of the Sean Jacobs DC4 LPS here. Yes, that is an expensive LPS. I am using a custom DC3 partially upgraded to a DC4, and I can tell you that it makes a big difference with this JCAT XE card. I have not heard a pure DC4, but I think Sean is into something. I know from @romaz that he liked his custom SR7 on the JCAT XE card. So the point is - if you get this USB card, power it with the best LPS you can. I guess there is a reason why @Marcin_gps released his new Optimo 3 Duo LPS at the same time. It looks like the Optimo was designed to power up a JCAT USB and JCAT Net cards. And it also looks like a neat solution. Can't comment on the sound quality of the Optimo, because I don't have one, but from the pictures I can tell that it uses my favorite toroidal transformer. The good news is that the audiophile power supply market keeps growing and there is something suitable at every price point. 

 

 

 

I currently have a tX-USBexp clocked by the sCLK-EX in my server.  Within the next couple days I'll be able to compare it with the JCAT XE.