JCAT Net Card Femto

[mourip]

Once installed will the Femto card be automatically recognized by Windows 10 without the need for special drivers? 

 

Are there any settings for the ports that are beneficial?

 

I have one ordered and will use it in bridged mode...

[mourip]

Whew! Thanks...

 

Polish customs seems to grind slowly!

[mourip]

On 5/3/2019 at 7:14 AM, Marcin_gps said:

Hello Guys, 

Just a quick update: both JCAT NET Card FEMTO & JCAT USB Card FEMTO are back in stock and all pre-orders will ship on Monday. 

Regards, 

Marcin

 

UPS shows my card as on the way now!

 

Really looking forward to it....

[mourip]

On 5/7/2019 at 7:42 AM, Dutch said:

Mine as well!

 

The cards seem to be stranded in a warehouse in Ozarowice for the last three days...

[mourip]

19 hours ago, Dutch said:

 

Sorry to hear that mourip! Mine was delivered yesterday so it may have something to do with your tracking not updating or waiting for pick-up. I hope you’ll receive it soon!

 

(and I can tell you it’s worth the wait, installed cold with a brand new PSU I can already clearly hear the improvements; so much more micro detail/less smearing which’ll give improvements over the whole range!)

 

Thanks Dutch. I am curious. I am in the US. Are you? 

 

My tracking information still shows the card still in the UPS warehouse in Poland. It arrived there 4 days ago. I know that the tracking could just be off but it is consistently updating the location daily. I wonder if any others have their card stalled there?

 

Marcin said that he will look into it on Monday...

[mourip]

Thanks for checking with UPS. Sounds like their tracking is not so hot for international orders.

 

Very much looking forward to your card.

 

How was the Munich show?

 

Best,

Paul

[mourip]

The card did arrive! I guess that UPS has issues with international hand-off for tracking?

 

It was extremely well packaged and looks great.

 

Impressions to follow after some break in.

[mourip]

I have the new card installed in my Roon Core server. My Roon endpoint is a NUC running AudioLinux(AL).

 

Out of the box the card offered an improvement. I spent some time tweaking the NIC settings in my network bridge configuration and then listened for a while. At some point I had a Oops! moment. I had forgotten to hook up the 5v connection to the card from my HDPlex LPS so I had been running on PCI bus power. Once connected, there was a very clear change. "Clear" is the best word to describe it.

 

I will not go farther into sound quality changes now since the card is too new but I can already say that the card is worth it.

 

One caveat or rather a pointer. I have an ethernet cable going directly from my NUC to the JCAT NIC in my server. The JCAT is bridged with my onboard NIC, which is connected to my LAN. When I started making the suggested changes to my bridge network settings, each time I made a change(s), and then saved it, the connection to my NUC would drop briefly. It would return quickly but Roon would stop on the endpoint and the NUC would stop showing as available in Roon. The fix was easy but it took a while to find. With a connection established to the NUC using Putty, all that I needed to do was to stop audio services in AL and the restart Roon Bridge. I had to do this multiple times while making and testing the network config changes.

[mourip]

On 12/21/2017 at 10:57 AM, Summit said:

 

I use the NET card in bridge mode. I have tried other ways of connecting it and liked the bridge mode best with my uR.

 

I have never had any FMCs in my audio system and believe that the gain you my get from the fiber insulation (in theory) is small compared to the loss of using more cheap clocks and switching regulator etc that is often used in FMC.     

 

Based upon Marcin's recommendation of only using one of the JCAT ports when bridging I am doing that and using my onboard NIC for the LAN connection. I was using FMCs to go from my onboard NIC to my LAN switch and powering the clean-side FMC from an LPS. That worked fine until recently but for some reason I cannot get my FMC's to link up.

 

Are you isolating your network bridge on the LAN side?

 

[mourip]

2 hours ago, Marcin_gps said:

I'd also try bridging both ports on the NET Card. 

 

Regards, 

Marcin

 

Thanks Marcin. I will try that.

[mourip]

1 hour ago, Summit said:

 

Sorry am not sure I understand your question. If you’re asking if I use fibre optic, the answer is no. I have LPSU on both the LAN card and switch though.

 

I was wondering if you were using any method of isolating your audio system grounds and power from the rest of the LAN and AC wiring.

 

I use an large isolation transformer with all audio equipment plugged into the same AC power strip. I use fiber to isolate from the connection out to the LAN. 

 

I did note that you were not using fiber and I agree with or at least understand your reasoning.

 

Thanks!

[mourip]

27 minutes ago, One and a half said:

That works for me. The LPS that’s connected to the jcat is the same as the audio system power from a Topaz.

the power to the music server where the Jcat is installed, is for operation reasons from a 230V UPS with a step  down transformer to 120V.

 

Thanks. My JCAT is running off an LPS on my Topaz also, as is my server. I will try using both JCAT ports and see how it goes.

[mourip]

On 5/16/2019 at 5:14 AM, Marcin_gps said:

I'd also try bridging both ports on the NET Card. 

 

Regards, 

Marcin

 

I tried bridging the two ports on the Femto card and that worked for getting the fiber link up. Sounds great. I may still try switching back to the on-board NIC to see if I can get it to work and if taking that load off of the Femto is worthwhile.

 

Thanks Marcin. Great product.

[mourip]

I am still enjoying this card but feel that my server OS is holding things back.

 

Has anyone used it with Windows Server 2019?

 

Thanks!

[mourip]

22 hours ago, Marcin_gps said:

 

There is a guide I wrote available for all customers who purchased the card. Please send me a PM if you have not received it. 

The article is not publicly available - it's a free bonus for everyone who purchased the card.

 

Regards, 
Marcin

 

Thanks Marcin. I did follow your excellent guide when I bought my card last May.

 

Are there any new configuration changes that would apply specifically to WS2019?

 

Thanks!

[mourip]

On 11/6/2019 at 9:32 AM, thuandb said:

Yes, running WS2019 Core with JCAT usb and net Femto cards with great SQ.

 

I finally got WS2019 up and running with Audiophile Optimizer and my JCAT Femto card.

 

It sounds much better than Win10.

[mourip]

On 12/31/2019 at 9:42 AM, StreamFidelity said:

Hi Marcin,

 

are there any considerations to offer an optical fiber connection at some point (e.g. Asus XG-C100F 10G network card SFP Plus Port)?

 

I'm asking because my switch SOtM sNH-10G has two SFP ports.

 

Regards Gabriel

 

My system is set up with a clean side and a dirty side with isolation using a big transformer. My server was connected to the LAN side with an optical cable using FMCs. The FMC on my clean side was powered by an LPS. My FEMTO card has the two ports bridged with one port going to the LAN and the other directly to my Roon endpoint. On a lark I decided to remove the optical isolation and just use an ethernet cable to my stock Cisco router. To my surprise I liked the sound better. Perhaps the issue was with the FMCs themselves? Perhaps sometimes simpler is better?

 

I am just pointing out that for me in audio sometimes theory does not always account for what I subjectively experience. Or perhaps I am working with the wrong theory or do not really have a good handle on it?

 

Either way the FEMTO card has been an excellent addition to my system, surpassing the two port bridged Intel card that it replaced.

[mourip]

Hi Marcin,

 

Have you ever considered adding an input for a 10M reference clock to the Femto card?

 

Is this something it might benefit from or does this even apply to the way the card works?

 

I am considering adding a EtherRegen switch to my system. It allows for a 10M reference input and so this thought came to mind.

 

Best,

Paul

[mourip]

On 2/18/2020 at 3:46 AM, ASRMichael said:

Re Femto Drivers. As owners are aware when you purchase the Femto there is a guide on how to get the best SQ by changing driver settings, well in Windows at least. As for Linux I believe it's just a generic driver. Generic what does this mean? it simply doesn't have all the settings Windows driver has, so can't be optimized?, is it an inferior driver?, if so, then can the driver be improved?/optimized?

 

Try the AudioLinux thread here. I am pretty sure some of those folks have used the Femto card with AL and they are a very collaborative group.

[mourip]

Apacer SSD..hmmmmm

[mourip]

On 2/6/2020 at 11:37 AM, Marcin_gps said:

Current JCAT NET & USB Cards will not be updated / replaced

 

In another thread @romaz  is talking about XE versions of both cards now out in the wild...

 

Whaazup? Change of direction?

[mourip]

4 hours ago, One and a half said:

Propose (will it work?)

Router -> Switch -> Baaske filter -> Music Server Internal NIC 

JCAT Port B -> Lumin U1

 

This is similar to what I did until I got the EtherRegen switch however I bridged both Femto ports and disabled the internal port. It sounded great. I was very surprised at how the bass tightened up with the Femto card.

 

Once I got the ER from Uptone my config changed. I had originally thought that I would keep my Femto card bridged and just put the ER between the server and endpoint but instead I opted to follow Uptone's suggestion. I disabled the bridged ports on my server and now just use one port out to the ER A side which also connects to my LAN. The ER and the Femto make a wonderful combination. Somehow very synergistic.