JCAT Net Card Femto

[bodiebill]

Two net card FEMTO newbie questions (mine is now en route from Poland to The Netherlands):

 

First my current setup:

 

modem/router => MikroTik SFP switch => fiber => Intel fiber NIC1 => HQPe server => Intel fiber NIC2 => MikroTik SFP switch => CAT6 => NAA endpoint

 

Before this, everything was fiber, but I prefer the sound with copper downstream.

 

(1) I am planning to mount the net card FEMTO in the audio PC, assuming that it would have the most effect downstream. Is that a good idea? Or should I put it in the control PC (which is optically isolated and in another room) and use it instead of the dual fiber NIC?

 

(2) Assuming I put it in the audio PC, and given that the control PC has the dual fiber NIC (+ stock RJ45 NIC), how would I go about bridging?

 

Any advice welcome!

[bodiebill]

Update to the previous:

 

I managed to bridge the two SFP ports of the Intel dual fiber NIC on the HQP server PC with Audilinux. SFP port 1 is connected to the main router and port two semi-directly to the NAA endpoint in another room, as follows:

 

main modem router => CAT7 => MikroTik SFP switch => fiber => Server  SFP NIC 1 <BRIDGED WITH> SFP NIC2 => fiber => 2nd MikroTik SFP switch => CAT6 => NAA endpoint

 

No doubt the sound has improved, and this is even without the JCAT net card FEMTO!

 

I like the idea that there is some optical isolation, although I prefer copper downstream SQ-wise.

 

Still planning to put the net card FEMTO (when it arrives in a couple of days) in the NAA endpoint PC, but correct me if I am wrong to do so...

 

[bodiebill]

7 minutes ago, bodiebill said:

Update to the previous:

 

I managed to bridge the two SFP ports of the Intel dual fiber NIC on the HQP server PC with Audilinux. SFP port 1 is connected to the main router and port two semi-directly to the NAA endpoint in another room, as follows:

 

main modem router => CAT7 => MikroTik SFP switch => fiber => Server  SFP NIC 1 <BRIDGED WITH> SFP NIC2 => fiber => 2nd MikroTik SFP switch => CAT6 => NAA endpoint

 

No doubt the sound has improved, and this is even without the JCAT net card FEMTO!

 

I like the idea that there is some optical isolation, although I prefer copper downstream SQ-wise.

 

Still planning to put the net card FEMTO (when it arrives in a couple of days) in the NAA endpoint PC, but please correct me if I am wrong to do so...

 

 

[bodiebill]

Today I received the net card FEMTO. Too early for SQ impressions: I will give it some time to burn in first.

 

As regards the external PSU, it says 5V/2A min. Of course more than 2A will be OK, but would a higher voltage be OK also? And if yes what would be the maximum voltage?

[bodiebill]

1 hour ago, StreamFidelity said:

I also disabled everything unnecessary in the network adapter according to the JCAT manual.

 

Is it needed and/or possible to change such settings under Linux?

[bodiebill]

4 minutes ago, Patatorz said:

Already asked but Marcin Mentioned  he has Limited knowledge on Linux.

Antonello (Gentooplayer) said that you can play with kernel in gentoo. There is also other parameters but very unclear compared to what Marcin propose on Windows.

Piero (Audio-Linux) : no feedback. 
 

I would need to deep dive next week to try to make some correspondance between the windows parameters and Linux parameters.

 

Thanks. Maybe less is needed on Linux to tune down network parameters. Similar to the fact that the likes of AO and Fidelizer are not needed for Linux. Just guessing... 

[bodiebill]

Last week I received a JCAT net card FEMTO (JCF) and it lead to some experimenting that I would like to share here.

 

For my dual Linux PC setup I had to make a choice whether to first put it in the server with HQPlayer embedded or in the NAA endpoint. I started with the latter as intuition told me that the card would have the most effect downstream. As shown below I was wrong (again 🤔). I had to use a riser cable as my Streacom does not allow for direct plugin of the card.

 

Out of the box I immediately heard more detail with the card in the endpoint. However the sound was not yet listenable: classical violins where strident and harsh, and it lacked the holographic experience that I am looking for. This was to be expected (as others have written here), so I first let the card burn in for 4 days. The sound improved, but I was not happy yet. Some of the stridency was still there. For comparison I used a Beethoven violin sonata (opus 12-3, 2nd movement with Haebler and Szeryng) because it tests the soul versus stridency of the violin and credibility of the (to me) familiar piano sound as recorded by Philips.

 

From the start I noticed that a good external power supply really makes a difference for the JCF, as expected, so for the comparisons below that remained a constant. For now I am using:
iFi power 9VDC => DLS-HPULN LT3045 => 7.7VDC => (Chinese) LT3045 box => 5VDC.

 

In the comparison table below, I is the initial setup with JCF in the endpoint. Time to try the card in the server in several setups, namely II to IX. For this I replaced an Intel dual fiber card by the JCF. I experimented with and without fiber and same for bridging.

 

Bridging to me appears beneficial (notwithstanding Miska's advice against it for HQP-NAA). In Audiolinux I SW-bridged all 4 available server NIC's which includes the 2 JCF NIC's. It appeared that SQ improved as follows depending on which 2 NIC's were used:
stock in & stock out << JCF in & stock out == JCF in & JCF out << stock in & JCF out

so I am using the latter now.

 

For now I have decided to keep setup IX -- although SQ-wise hard to distinguish from copper-only setup VI -- as it saves me the work of changing a long run of hidden fiber cables to CAT6 cables, and gives me the piece of mind of having some isolation between server and endpoint.

 

Changing the net cards in the server also changed the fingerprint for the HQPe software, so I will have to ask Miska for a new license key after having verified that everything is stable.

 

Reactions / similar experiences / suggestions welcome!

 

[bodiebill]

My previous post is a mouthful, so I want to add that the JCAT net card FEMTO in the end resulted in an important improvement in SQ. I am enjoying a very natural, full, richly detailed but musical, dynamic and spacious sound, which is a clear step up from my previous setup with fiber cards in both PC's. 

[bodiebill]

36 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Great report, and kudos for the experimentation!

 

Did you try a configuration - let’s call it X - which is the same as IX, except you bridged both JCF ports, while keeping the 2-switch chain between server and endpoint?

 

Hi austinpop, that's a good one, I didn't. Luckily it was simply done by moving one cable from the stock to the 2nd JCF connection. IX and X are close in SQ but I slightly prefer IX which sounds a little fuller and more at ease. One might expect both ports on the optimized JCF to sound better than only one combined with a stock port, however 2xJCF also means that the card draws more current and maybe that explains the difference. I also remember Marcin saying somewhere that he prefers using one JCF port rather than two.

 

Below is the updated tabel. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

By the way, switch 1 is a MikroTik 305 and switch 2 a fanless Cisco 2960G.

 

[bodiebill]

10 hours ago, Miska said:

 

One configuration which I recommend to use is missing from the picture:

Here "switch2" is of course needed only if the two switches are in different rooms. But this starts to look a bit like a network.

 

 

My network looks like this, massively simplified:

 

Each switch is in a separate room. There's a CAT6 going from central patchbay (machine room) where "switch1" is to every room and then every room has a room specific switch which are switch2 - switch4 here (there are more, but this is simplified). This is already something I'd call a network. Every server can play music to any of the endpoints there. In reality I have couple of more servers and endpoints, but full picture would grow pretty big. One of the endpoints is actually a Merging Hapi, so not all are NAA.

 

Thanks Jussi. My configurations are also somewhat simplified. I left out my NAS (which I only occasionally turn on for backup) and a wireless router.

 

I have setup your configuration (the simple one on top). To do this I had to swap my two switches as the MikroTik has only one RJ45 connection (and 4 SFP cages) and the Cisco has multiple RJ45 connections (and only one SFP cage).

 

In the table below I have added two configurations: XI is yours and XII is the bridged one which is the same as IX only with both switches swapped.

 

In bridged mode the server acts as a software switch and I know you do not like that idea. And you are probably right in terms of proper network topology. However, I like the SQ best with bridged mode (in this case XII). I am more inside the piano (hearing individual hammer strokes) and the violin soars more and is less strident.

 

I would not call myself a subjectivist (I do make decisions based on ratio and/or theory) but in the end this audio hobby is empirical with one simple aim: goose bumps.

Actually, your software helps me achieve that 🙂.

 

Sorry if we drifted somewhat off-topic, but the main thing for me was how to best utilize the net card FEMTO, and I am happy with the result.