Let's talk about SOTM SMS-200 ULTRA

[HardrockInMiniMac]

On 27.2.2018 at 4:41 PM, mfin said:

I do know for a fact that poweline adapters can audibly mess things up simply by being plugged in near hifi, perhaps even simply being in the same house. I could prove this in 10 seconds flat in my house.

 

That is wrong because your house is not a fact to prove a general verdict, neither will anyone be interested for a 10sec showcase at your place either. 

[mfin]

2 hours ago, HardrockInMiniMac said:

 

That is wrong because your house is not a fact to prove a general verdict, neither will anyone be interested for a 10sec showcase at your place either. 

 

Well, if I have my power amp on, and nothing being fed to it, the dac can be off, the preamp I had before I had that can be off and then I plug a powerline adapter in in that room, you can hear in the interference it creates coming through as sound from the speakers. Keen ears can hear it from a few metres away, it's obvious with your ears next to it. Of course, it is only one amplifier, but that is good enough for me, and its entirely possible it is messing with lots of other items of the hifi kit.

 

I've also heard the effects of streaming through them, then eliminating them (in three different setups now) and it's been better without. Whether that is compounded by their presence alone as in my first para I did not set about checking, I should have.

 

Anyway, I've heard the above, and thats enough for me to dismiss them. Oh, I also tried two different makes as I had them lying around, same thing.

[ClothEars]

7 hours ago, mfin said:

 

Well, if I have my power amp on, and nothing being fed to it, the dac can be off, the preamp I had before I had that can be off and then I plug a powerline adapter in in that room, you can hear in the interference it creates coming through as sound from the speakers. Keen ears can hear it from a few metres away, it's obvious with your ears next to it. Of course, it is only one amplifier, but that is good enough for me, and its entirely possible it is messing with lots of other items of the hifi kit.

 

I've also heard the effects of streaming through them, then eliminating them (in three different setups now) and it's been better without. Whether that is compounded by their presence alone as in my first para I did not set about checking, I should have.

 

Anyway, I've heard the above, and thats enough for me to dismiss them. Oh, I also tried two different makes as I had them lying around, same thing.

 

I use power line adapters to get my SMS-200 Ultra onto the home network so I was interested in your observation that they can introduce system noise.  I went to carry out the test along your lines but found that without a signal my Sanders Magtech and Maggie 20.7's are utterly silent and remain so even when the SMS-200 + DAC + Preamp are on.  So switching the mains adapter out created no detectable difference in the output of the speakers - they remained utterly silent.

[mfin]

6 hours ago, ClothEars said:

 

I use power line adapters to get my SMS-200 Ultra onto the home network so I was interested in your observation that they can introduce system noise.  I went to carry out the test along your lines but found that without a signal my Sanders Magtech and Maggie 20.7's are utterly silent and remain so even when the SMS-200 + DAC + Preamp are on.  So switching the mains adapter out created no detectable difference in the output of the speakers - they remained utterly silent.

 

Good to know. I can only report my experiences.

 

I am sort of assuming that in many cases it will either not produce an audible interference, that's based on the fact if they did every time then I think more people would have picked up on it.

 

I've heard quality differences in three different systems though, but this is to be expected in systems where you can hear audible differences in changing things in your network infrastructure really. Then of course if you are hearing changes when you try different approaches to mains, then they can be a consideration there too. I've found it is an adverse affect they have.

 

Of course, what's great is you can try things with and without just like you have, and this is what everyone should do with everything. Myself, I look at what people say, and try for myself, in my system, exactly like you have. It's the only way to assess things.

[HardrockInMiniMac]

18 hours ago, mfin said:

Anyway, I've heard the above, and thats enough for me to dismiss them. Oh, I also tried two different makes as I had them lying around, same thing.

True for you but not as a general rule that you could prove in your house.

 

You know I agree with you on the PowerLAN, but I could as well say that my electricity supply is much better than yours and say I would be able to "prove" this in my house in 10sec. Ever thought about the grid quality down where you live or what your neighbor is doing being on the same main power connection while you are listening to music or do you have a direct cable connection to your next nuclear plant?

[doraymon]

On 2/28/2018 at 2:41 AM, mfin said:

even the Asus (which is the same but without the "wireless extender" functionality

I thin the Asus EA-EC87 5Ghz does exactly the same thing of the Netgear EX7000.

I don’t know for the ASUS but on the Netgear you can completely switch off the wireless transmission and have only the wird Ethernet connection active.

 

i will try comparing this solution to the powerline adapter and share my impressions.

Just to ad to the statistics...

[mfin]

20 minutes ago, HardrockInMiniMac said:

True for you but not as a general rule that you could prove in your house.

 

You know I agree with you on the PowerLAN, but I could as well say that my electricity supply is much better than yours and say I would be able to "prove" this in my house in 10sec. Ever thought about the grid quality down where you live or what your neighbor is doing being on the same main power connection while you are listening to music or do you have a direct cable connection to your next nuclear plant?

 

Read what I said in the post above, I think it makes clear what I am saying.

 

Yes, I have considered the possible reasons for it. All I can say is the experiences I have had. I think people are capable of reading what I have said I figuring out what to take from it.

 

Notice how I also said:

 

"Of course, what's great is you can try things with and without just like you have, and this is what everyone should do with everything. Myself, I look at what people say, and try for myself, in my system, exactly like you have. It's the only way to assess things."

 

So, I'm not sure what you are arguing about, I can prove the effect in my house, and I've heard the effects in other houses too. It's quite simple. If you are reading this all as "absolute" I think you are reading it in an odd way. All I'm offering is my experiences.

[doraymon]

Any idea for a decent linear power supply to feed my network bridge?

I need 12V, 5A.

[mfin]

5 minutes ago, doraymon said:

Any idea for a decent linear power supply to feed my network bridge?

I need 12V, 5A.

 By network bridge do you mean the Netgear EX7000? When I hear network bridge I think of DCS now!

 

If so... even though there are a bunch of LPSUs that are available as 5V, it might be wiser just to buy something multi-voltage so you can put it to other uses later on.

 

Some shouts might be:

HDplex 200w (multi voltage and simultaneously will power different voltages)

LPS1.2

SPS500

etc.

 

Kingrex 5v is small.

 

My ASUS EA-EC87 is currently powered by an sBooster as I have one lying around but if not I think I would have picked up another HDplex. 

 

EDIT: Ooops, I just read you said 5A, that's high, better have a check

 

[doraymon]

Just now, mfin said:

 By network bridge do you mean the Netgear EX7000? When I hear network bridge I think of DCS now!

Yeah the EX7000,sorry I might be misusing the term.

These boxes ha e a ton of functions!

[mfin]

3 minutes ago, doraymon said:

Yeah the EX7000,sorry I might be misusing the term.

These boxes ha e a ton of functions!

 

Does it say 5A on it, or on the SMPS that came with it?

[doraymon]

21 hours ago, HardrockInMiniMac said:

That is wrong because your house is not a fact to prove a general verdict, neither will anyone be interested for a 10sec showcase at your place either. 

I think he wrote “they CAN mess things up”, not that they will for sure.

he also added “in my house”.

I think it’s a legitimate statement as like others he is sharing his experience.

As none here is a certified testing centre I think that’s about all we can ask here.

[doraymon]

4 minutes ago, mfin said:

 

Does it say 5A on it, or on the SMPS that came with it?

Sorry it’s actually 12V - 2.5A, found on the PS.

[mfin]

12 minutes ago, doraymon said:

Sorry it’s actually 12V - 2.5A, found on the PS.

 

Ah ok... it depends what you'd want to spend, there's not going to be much in the way of findings on these things I suppose either.

 

Personally I think an HDplex 200w (5v at 3A) whilst not the last word in linear power supplies is a handy thing to even have as it can be used in many scenarios, repurposed as things change, and can run a few things off it. So at least it's a handy thing to have around. If you're in the UK they ship from Germany and currently it works out a couple of quid over £290 delivered using paypal's conversion.

 

Or... hold on for something used. I picked up a Kingrex 5v very very cheaply not so long ago.

 

Are you running your AQvox off a LPSU? If you had an HDplex for example and the Netgear was close enough, you could try running both off an HDplex which has a 5v XLR out and a 5V USB-C out and comes with the necessary cables for 5.5 x 2.5mm (double check all that). ....it's only one suggestion off the top of my head. (Note that to run two 5v items the 5v-19.5v output will have to be adjusted to 5v, easy with a multimeter around, I think when it comes it is adjusted to 9v if I remember correctly, the info is on their website).

 

My ASUS wireless network bridge is currently running off an sBooster, but not through any form of investigating what will be best or even whether it is worth using a LPSU on it, just because I had the sBooster lying around. Did it make a difference though, yes I believe it did. My AQVox has LPSU too (I can choose between HDplex and Kingrex). So, all the devices that have a lan cable in or out all have LPSUs in my setup.

[zoltan]

I'm wondering how the last dozen or so posts relate to the title of this thread? I'd be happier to see discussion on the SMS-200 ultra and directly related stuff. Is it only me?

[doraymon]

10 minutes ago, zoltan said:

I'm wondering how the last dozen or so posts relate to the title of this thread? I'd be happier to see discussion on the SMS-200 ultra and directly related stuff. Is it only me?

They are connected with a lan cable... ;-)

Ok, ok, sorry for the OT I got carried away

[mfin]

14 minutes ago, zoltan said:

I'm wondering how the last dozen or so posts relate to the title of this thread? I'd be happier to see discussion on the SMS-200 ultra and directly related stuff. Is it only me?

 

No problem, will leave this particular bit.

 

I think any discussion on the sMS-200ultra will be a bit expanded on though as there are so many ways to improve it, cables, power, things like the tXUSB-ultra which is commonly bought with it, as well as the network infrastructure it is connected to. (If someone is buying one or interested in one, I believe they should be aware of all the possible tinkering and improvements as there are a lot of them, it might even make them think twice and go for a more all-in-one packaged solution instead).

 

Oh, then there's also all the different ways of connecting it that you can see in the Eunhasu interface.

[HardrockInMiniMac]

59 minutes ago, doraymon said:

I think he wrote “they CAN mess things up”, not that they will for sure.

he also added “in my house”.

I think it’s a legitimate statement as like others he is sharing his experience.

As none here is a certified testing centre I think that’s about all we can ask here.

 

ROFL - sure

You can read for sure but can you quote?

"I do know for a fact that poweline adapters can audibly mess things up simply by being plugged in near hifi, perhaps even simply being in the same house. I could prove this in 10 seconds flat in my house."

[HardrockInMiniMac]

33 minutes ago, zoltan said:

I'm wondering how the last dozen or so posts relate to the title of this thread? I'd be happier to see discussion on the SMS-200 ultra and directly related stuff. Is it only me?

Totally agreed. I would also like to read more about the ultra.

 

Mfin is sort of an expert for a lot of topics but at the same time had warned readers to take his comments as advise or to follow his rules as he was just a normal person and so on...

 

 

[mfin]

21 minutes ago, HardrockInMiniMac said:

 

ROFL - sure

You can read for sure but can you quote?

"I do know for a fact that poweline adapters can audibly mess things up simply by being plugged in near hifi, perhaps even simply being in the same house. I could prove this in 10 seconds flat in my house."

 

Ah, and in the bit you have just quoted, I'll highlight a word for you.

 

"I do know for a fact that poweline adapters can audibly mess things up simply by being plugged in near hifi, perhaps even simply being in the same house. I could prove this in 10 seconds flat in my house."

 

...let's face it, you are being argumentative for the sake of it. It's clear as day from my posts about it that I am not saying it is an absolute conclusion that will be found by everybody as I can't possibly know that, if you want to make out I am then I have a feeling that you will be on your own with that conclusion.

[HardrockInMiniMac]

...and that is really scary...,-)

 

[mfin]

2 minutes ago, HardrockInMiniMac said:

Totally agreed. I would also like to read more about the ultra.

 

Mfin is sort of an expert for a lot of topics but at the same time had warned readers to take his comments as advise or to follow his rules as he was just a normal person and so on...

 

 

 

It seems you have a problem with me. If others do, I will stop offering my findings. In fact, perhaps I will.

 

Who says I am a sort of expert? Not me, I've been clear I am not, but I am happy to let people know my findings, that's all I have been doing.

[HardrockInMiniMac]

Just now, HardrockInMiniMac said:

...and that is really scary...,-)

 

 

1 minute ago, mfin said:

 

It seems you have a problem with me. If others do, I will stop offering my findings. In fact, perhaps I will.

 

Who says I am a sort of expert? Not me, I've been clear I am not, but I am happy to let people know my findings, that's all I have been doing.

Nope, no problem with you. Keep on.

[mfin]

Okay, I am out. I'm not going to bother contributing to the forum for a while. Tada.

[doraymon]

I don’t understand why people trying to contribute to an otherwise almost dead discussion have to be targeted so aggressively and with unnecessary irony.

But you know? 

You get what you asked for!

Cheerio!