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

[Nenon]

As always, excellent post @austinpop. I am glad you had the opportunity to try the two switches I sent you. 

 

Today is the last day of my vacation. When I get back, I am planning to do a comparison between the PF-Buffalo and a M12 SWITCH GOLD switch. I would need about a week first to get my system to play back to normal (it always needs about a week when I haven't played for a while) and will get back to switch experiments after that. 

 

Two more pinkFaun ultraOCXO clocks are coming my way (to modify a couple Buffalos for friends), so if all goes well I would have 3 x PF-Buffalo switches and one M12 SWITCH GOLD switch to expand on @austinpop's excellent experiments above. I also have my etherREGEN and some more Buffalos, but I would need to limit the number of experiments to something manageable. 

 

I think I have mentioned this before, but a single PF-Buffalo sounds better than 4 stacked Buffalo switches in my system. The new capacitor board @austinpop mentioned also adds something to the sound. 

 

The M12 SWITCH GOLD switch has been the absolute winner so far. It would be really interesting to see how the PF-Buffalo compares. It would also be interesting to see how stacking multiple PF-Buffalos would sound as well as how the PF-Buffalo and the M12 GOLD play together. 

 

My biggest fear is that I may discover that a combination of PF-Buffalo and M12 GOLD sounds best, and I would have to buy the M12...

I have been offered to audition the M12 GOLD switch several times by multiple people, and I kept refusing to try it, because I knew I would end up buying one. But I couldn't resist that temptation forever and it's time to try it...

Keep you posted. 

[austinpop]

43 minutes ago, Exocer said:

 

Very interesting read @austinpop! Thank you. 

 

I was hoping you would add some experiences with the Fiber NIC. Have you considered going this route?

 

Also, have you installed the JCAT Net Femto card in the extreme yet?

 

Cheers

Part of the point of going to the Extreme is to leverage Emile’s tuning and optimizations, so I don’t  see this box as a test bed for experiments like I would a DIY server! So no, I haven’t tried the JCAT Net Card Femto.

 

One of the reasons for the minimal network penalty during local playback is that Emile has tuned the driver settings on the Ethernet adapter to achieve this. I risk losing this by going to another card.
 

As for trying the Fiber NIC on the Extreme, yes I did compare early on and preferred my fiber further upstream.  I’ve found Emile’s advice of using fiber on at least one leg of the chain to be very sound.

[Exocer]

9 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Part of the point of going to the Extreme is to leverage Emile’s tuning and optimizations, so I don’t  see this box as a test bed for experiments like I would a DIY server! So no, I haven’t tried the JCAT Net Card Femto.

 

One of the reasons for the minimal network penalty during local playback is that Emile has tuned the driver settings on the Ethernet adapter to achieve this. I risk losing this by going to another card.
 

As for trying the Fiber NIC on the Extreme, yes I did compare early on and preferred my fiber further upstream.  I’ve found Emile’s advice of using fiber on at least one leg of the chain to be very sound.

 

Again, thank you for this info! 

[auricgoldfinger]

33 minutes ago, Nenon said:

My biggest fear is that I may discover that a combination of PF-Buffalo and M12 GOLD sounds best, and I would have to buy the M12...

 

IIRC, at one time in months past, romaz' preferred configuration was Melco > M12 Gold > Melco

[mikicasellas]

Has anyone tried from Ghent Audio the Gotham GAC-4/1 11301 ultraPro XLR with JSSG360 ?

 

I am back to separates and i was considering this cable to connect between the Preamp & Amp or DAC & Preamp, i have a tellurium Ultra Black II XLR which is very open and transparent but i am considering something neutral-to warm side for this new one, i would not like to spend too much so i am looking for something really good at a very fair price.

 

Thanks !

 

 

[adamaley]

19 hours ago, austinpop said:

Part of the point of going to the Extreme is to leverage Emile’s tuning and optimizations, so I don’t  see this box as a test bed for experiments like I would a DIY server! So no, I haven’t tried the JCAT Net Card Femto.

 

One of the reasons for the minimal network penalty during local playback is that Emile has tuned the driver settings on the Ethernet adapter to achieve this. I risk losing this by going to another card.
 

As for trying the Fiber NIC on the Extreme, yes I did compare early on and preferred my fiber further upstream.  I’ve found Emile’s advice of using fiber on at least one leg of the chain to be very sound.

Speaking of fiber, rumor has it that the Finisar SFPs are better than the Planet Techs. Any intention to give them a shot?

[ASRMichael]

Just now, adamaley said:

Speaking of fiber, rumor has it that the Finisar SFPs are better than the Planet Techs. Any intention to give them a shot?

What model are they? I have planet techs, would like to try the Finisar’s..

[auricgoldfinger]

8 minutes ago, ASRMichael said:

What model are they? I have planet techs, would like to try the Finisar’s..

 

 

I don't know the part number of the older Finisar transceiver off hand.  People were buying them used off eBay for around 10 US$.  I have seen people say they are now difficult to find, if not completely impossible.

[BigAlMc]

I bought the

FTLF1324

 

I then bought the

FTLF1318

 

In all honesty I heard no difference whatsoever and didn't really expect to. But I read they were better so upgraded to the 1318s 😁

 

The 1324 are available. PM me if interested.

 

Cheers,

Alan

[adamaley]

On 6/29/2020 at 6:22 AM, John769 said:

The other version, praised on WBF, was FTLF1324P2BTL-MC LW?

There are currently refurbished ones going for less than 8 euros on ebay (EU), if anyone wants to try.  

 

I just bought a pair of new FTLX1471D3BCV 10GB/1GB for even less than that, just to compare. 

 

It's hard to keep up 🙃 

 

 

I may have missed it, but have you done this comparison yet? 

[austinpop]

1 hour ago, adamaley said:

Speaking of fiber, rumor has it that the Finisar SFPs are better than the Planet Techs. Any intention to give them a shot?

 

I compared the Planet Techs with the Finisar FTLF1324P2BTL-MC SFP back in the June time frame, and felt I liked the Planet Techs better.

 

I've lost track since then, there appear to be some new faves after this? In any case, my motivation has dropped at this point.

[flkin]

Just recently I purchased a few DSD512 albums from NativeDSD that were recorded in 128/256 and then remastered to 512 using HQPlayer Pro by @tailspnTom Caulfield.

 

- Beethoven 5, 7 symphonies by Reference Recordings. 
- Jazz at the Pawnshop

- Coo Jazz by Gabor Varga
 

For those that don’t know, HQPPro allows upsampling using it’s best filters/modulators to the highest and most computationally heavy resolutions since it isn’t a real-time playback technique. This then allows the final saved 512 file to be played back without further filters or upsampling with low loads on the streamer. 
 

The final album size is around 30G each which is so large that I can only afford to keep a few albums in my library at any one time. 😄

 

But the sound - oh my! An good step up from earlier non-upsampled recordings of the same tracks. I wrote to Tom to enquire about the filters he used for the HQPPro mastering saying that I prefer the sound of the new EC filters and asked whether he had used them for the albums. He replied that he had only for the Cool Jazz album but not for the other two. But he then went ahead and made a new remaster for the Beethoven and is looking into doing one for the Jazz at the Pawnshop. Thanks Tom! 👍🏻😄

At this time, I have the received the newly remastered Beethoven with (probably) the ploy-sinc-xlr-lp with the ASDM7EC modulator in 512. In comparison with the older non-EC version I like the new one better. A touch more realistic with clearer tighter soundstage. 

 

@austinpop I’m curious if you have already tried these HQPPro 512 files? I suspect they would be extraordinarily good through your new player. I wonder how close lesser bit sized files would compare?
 

Extreme files for the Extreme player. 😄
 

 

[John769]

On 9/4/2020 at 9:55 PM, adamaley said:

I may have missed it, but have you done this comparison yet? 

Should be able to compare FTLF1324P2BTL-MC LW against FTLX1471D3BCV over next day or two.

[rickca]

A couple of dates to keep for AMD announcements.

 

Zen 3 CPUs  October 8 (12PM EDT)  

RX 6000 GPUs  October 28 (12PM EDT)

 

I am hoping for an Intel announcement of Rocket Lake-S desktop CPUs in the same timeframe, but they may have slipped into 1Q2021.

 

[lmitche]

FWIW, last week a "mini" project was done to regression test the 32Gb Optane NVME as Audiolinux boot, root and Roon database drive against NVME drives from Samsung and Intel. The Optane still shines with the best SQ hands down.

 

Larry

[cool_chris]

Here is something that adds a massive improvement to the SQ

Again many thanks to Nenon who discovered Buffalo and continued with modding and searching for the best only as well as the others like Austinpop and many more for confirming this is the way to go.
Rajiv was also so kind to share his excellent experience with Buffalo he got from Nenon! 
There is no way back to older switch.

By having 4 in total Buffalows I have a comfort of expermenting much more.

 

[soares]

9 hours ago, cool_chris said:

Here is something that adds a massive improvement to the SQ

Again many thanks to Nenon who discovered Buffalo and continued with modding and searching for the best only as well as the others like Austinpop and many more for confirming this is the way to go.
Rajiv was also so kind to share his excellent experience with Buffalo he got from Nenon! 
There is no way back to older switch.

By having 4 in total Buffalows I have a comfort of expermenting much more.

 

I am using a 10gteck (fiber) + LPS 1.2  with my modded Buffalo + Sbooster + ultra and I felt a notable sound upgrade. From there it goes to an opticalModule + LPS 1.2 and then eR + Farad. Amazing sound 😅

[John769]

On 9/10/2020 at 1:17 PM, John769 said:

Should be able to compare FTLF1324P2BTL-MC LW against FTLX1471D3BCV over next day or two.

I prefer the former, seems to sound clearer with improved sense of stereo, as well as more air and immediacy. That's using a Buffalo GS24 -> OM with a 1 metre yellow cable.😐

[The Computer Audiophile]

Topic split.

 

 

[sandston]

On 4/4/2019 at 6:35 PM, atxkyle said:

Based on the chatter on this thread, I ordered a 32G Optane card and did some A/B testing between it and my Samsung Evo SSD.  This is on my Intel NUC (NUC7i3BNH) server running Roon ROCK.  Music storage is on a USB stick.

 

In my case, the Optane brought a subtle upgrade to imaging/separation and realism. 

 

It took several back and forth changes comparing the same 5-6 tracks to be sure of what I was hearing.  This wasn't nearly as big an improvement as I've experienced with tweaks (e.g. improving power supplies).  However, it was only $60 for the 32G Optane card, and it's nice to get any sort of improvement for that small an investment.  And as a little side bonus, Roon is also running faster for me with the Optane.  

ATXKYLE

 

I finally got around to trying to load Rock onto an Optane drive I had that came with my NUC, but ran into a dead end. The install appears to go fine. The Rock USB Boot drive sees the Optane, loads and gets to the installation successful point of the install. However when I try to boot from the the optane drive containing Roon Rock I get the attached string and a frozen boot. Did you or any other readers come across this in their trials? Wondering if this is something that needs to be addressed in the BIOS settings.

[jcn3]

@sandston -- the directions for installing rock include a few comments about the bios -- i'd check that out first.  if that doesn't get you anywhere, then i'd reset the settings (there's a f-key for that) in the bios on the nuc and try again.

[sandston]

Thanks jcn3 for your input. I came across those settings recommendations and have reset the bios a started again. Didn't get me any farther

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

I am thinking to establish a “WiFI bridge” to mimic the bridge concept described in this thread.  I almost 100% sure people here already successfully implemented it but searched around I failed to identify anything similar.  

 

In a typical bridge, hardware wise, Ethernet connections are established between a router and a computer (Mac Mini), and between the computer and a streamer (SOtM’s sMS 200).  Software wise, virtual link is established by combining two physical connections listed above as a bridge.  Now, I would like to replace the second connection listed above, namely the Ethernet connection between Mac Mini and sMS 200, with a WiFI connection by taking the advantage of sMS 200’s WiFI capability.  I have successfully established the WiFI connection between the router and sMS 200, indicating hardware-wise, sMS 200 is capable taking wireless signal.  Next I tried to use the sharing function in Mac Mini to turn it into a WiFI hotspot by sharing “Ethernet” using “WiFI Ports” with other computers such as sMS 200.  However, when I went to sMS 200’s  web-based interphase to establish the WiFI connection with the “Hotspot” from Mac Mini, the hotspot was visible but sMS 200 failed to connect to it.  

 

Wonder if anyone can share their experience how to do it or the expert’s opinion if it even can be done.

 

Thank you very much!

[Superdad]

12 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

....by taking the advantage of sMS 200’s WiFI capability.  I have successfully established the WiFI connection between the router and sMS 200, indicating hardware-wise, sMS 200 is capable taking wireless signal.

 

Uh, not sure what you have going there because the SOtM sMS-200 series do not have WiFi capability built in.  

[cool_chris]

14 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

I am thinking to establish a “WiFI bridge” to mimic the bridge concept described in this thread.  I almost 100% sure people here already successfully implemented it but searched around I failed to identify anything similar.  

 

In a typical bridge, hardware wise, Ethernet connections are established between a router and a computer (Mac Mini), and between the computer and a streamer (SOtM’s sMS 200).  Software wise, virtual link is established by combining two physical connections listed above as a bridge.  Now, I would like to replace the second connection listed above, namely the Ethernet connection between Mac Mini and sMS 200, with a WiFI connection by taking the advantage of sMS 200’s WiFI capability.  I have successfully established the WiFI connection between the router and sMS 200, indicating hardware-wise, sMS 200 is capable taking wireless signal.  Next I tried to use the sharing function in Mac Mini to turn it into a WiFI hotspot by sharing “Ethernet” using “WiFI Ports” with other computers such as sMS 200.  However, when I went to sMS 200’s  web-based interphase to establish the WiFI connection with the “Hotspot” from Mac Mini, the hotspot was visible but sMS 200 failed to connect to it.  

 

Wonder if anyone can share their experience how to do it or the expert’s opinion if it even can be done.

 

Thank you very much!

 

I have a different dream .

Get all wifi off !

Wifi is causing unfortunately so much destruction to the SQ that I can't think of using it.

I am using a separate access point with lowerst wifi power and isolate it with short fibre as well as 2 ethernet isolators .

All 3 isolators on the single ethernet to access point. It all brings nice effects.

I wish I could turn it off completely but not sure how to setup the server control / remote in different way.