JCAT Net Card Femto

[elan120]

Reviving this thread...I had a chance to install JCAT Net Card Femto two days ago, while it is going through the burn-in period, and linear power supply on its way to me, I am already very surprised how much improvement this new card be able to deliver.  It is like having an entirely new system, and everything is just so...musical.  I am looking forward to install my LPS later this week when it is delivered, but even without it, the improvement is well deserved the recommendation.

[elan120]

5 hours ago, lateboomer said:

 

Thank you and I hope to find out more from user implementation and impression. This is very important product yet very much less talked about.

I will post more of my impressions later this week, once I have the LPS installed and past the recommended burn-in period for the JCAT Net Card Femto.  Not sure why this product wasn't discussed more, and I also had a hard time finding user impressions while doing my research, but I sure am glad I decided to give it a try because the improvement isn't even subtle.

[elan120]

4 hours ago, GUTB said:

I was impressed with the PPA v3 USB card. This thread makes me want to pick up the JCAT and do a shootout.

That will be an interesting comparison since I have a JCAT USB Card Femto installed as well.

 

My earlier post was for JCAT Net Card Femto, which is their Ethernet card...just in case it was not obvious.

[elan120]

1 hour ago, simonklp said:

Kindly please also advise your hardware setup for better understanding of the effect of this JCAT Net Card. Thanks.

I have both JCAT Net Card Femto (JS-2) and JCAT USB Card Femto (LPS-1) installed audio PC connected to IsoRen (LPS-1), then to iFI iUSB 3.0 Micro (LPS), then to Singxer SU-1 (LPS-1, highly modded), then I2S out to Holo Spring KTE DAC.

 

As a side note, I received the JS-2 on Thursday, and connected it to power JCAT Net Card Femto.  Using a good linear supply also helped improve the sound quality, and I plan to let it burn-in for few more days to see if there is more improvements/changes, but for now, I am very much enjoy this new addition be able to provide.

[elan120]

Just now, simonklp said:

Thank you for your information. What player software are you using? Is it HQPlayer? I suppose you have another PC for running this software and connect to the Audio PC over network, and this Control PC does not have the JCAT Net Card Femto. Is this correct? Thanks.

I am currently running single PC setup, and using HQPlayer upsample to DSD512 output via ROON.

[elan120]

13 minutes ago, simonklp said:

Thank you again for your kind reply. But I do not understand why you need to use the JCAT Net Card Femto for the playback if you are using single PC setup.

I have my music files stored in NAS, and using JCAT Net Card Femto allows simple bridge mode setup.

[elan120]

11 hours ago, simonklp said:

Thank you very much for your information.

 

But is there also any information about how the effect of this JCAT NET Card on SQ when compared to an optical network via a optical switch between PC with HQPlayer and the NAA?

 

The reason why I ask this is because I think that the effect of the NET Card is to reduce both jitter and electrical noise. But for the optical network, it can also reduce electrical noise by providing galvanic isolation. For jitter, some of the CA members claim that optical network induced additional jitter.

 

Therefore I am interested to know if this NET Card can improve the SQ when compared to the optical network. Thanks.

 

 

I have some experience using FMC (MC220) in my chain, I had PC > FMC > NAA > iFI micro iUSB 3.0 > Singxer SU-1 > Holo Spring DAC setup for couple months, while there maybe some sound improvement but it was hard to detect, any improvement could just be placebo.  In the attempt to improve this setup, I tried using better power supply (LPS-1) to power downstream FMC, as well as using shorter optical cable, but the sound improvement seem to be the same.  After this experience, I decided to try direct connection from PC > JCAT Femto USB Card > iUSB 3.0 > Singxer SU-1 > Holo Spring DAC, and this clearly brought better result - better detail, more space between instruments, bigger sound stage..., and shortly later, I added IsoRegen before iUSB 3.0 with even better result.  With this experience, I decided to add JCAT Femto Net Card about 10 days ago, and was shocked (for the lack of better word) at the improvement.  First, I connected my NAS > WiFi extender > JCAT Femto Net Card using power from PCIe while waiting for my LPS delivery, and the sound quality improvement was very easy to detect, from the moment I ran this new configuration, the music just came alive, very lively, 3D, musical, not to mention the typical description of detail retrieval, sound stage dimension, and air/space between instruments.  I was expecting some improvement, but not to this level for sure.  Since then, I received and installed my JS-2 few days later, and JS-2 helped smooth out the sound even more, along with continued burn-in helped removing the tiny bit of harshness in the high frequency area.  The final change so far was connecting both NAS and WiFi Extender to JCAT Femto Net Card in bridge mode, this also has helped bring out improvement slightly. 

 

My experience with FMC only limited to MC220, but by reviewing the components used on the PCB, the switch mode power supply voltage regulator along with the crystal used, likely will induce much more electrical noise as well as jitter compare to JCAT Femto Net Card; if I have some time available later on, I might put my O'scope on the output of MC220 voltage regulator to see what level of noise it has, but my experience modding my SU-1 and other products show output noise for these switch mode voltage regulators typically are in low mV level, while good linear voltage regulators are in low uV level, and in addition, the high frequency noise generated from them.

 

Hope this helps, and as typical, this is my experience with my system...YMMV...

 

 

[elan120]

1 hour ago, mourip said:

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...

The Intel driver can be downloaded here:  https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/59064/IntelEthernet-Server-Adapter-I350-F2

 

When you receive your card, there is a recommended settings that is helpful to get the most out of the card.