TLS THE ONE Server

[Ricones]

@Superdad According to the shipping manifest, the unit was shipped from a TLS branch in BC.  I find it hilarious because the sound of the server is very unlike the Canadians: its is very forward, in your face.

 

@flkin As far as I know the English language has a saying that goes something like this: don't judge a book by its covers.

[seeteeyou]

I was sorta thinking about Miles Davis (Kind of Blue) when I saw that name on page 2.

 

No trade war in Canada, and no parts from Huawei as well. No wonder they're getting things done over there.

 

Apparently he's joining the ranks of Paul Hynes and Peter Bradstock since they're quite fond of taking their sweet time to fulfill orders, coincidentally some of their products seemed to be reviewed (or owned) by Roy at some point while it's important to understand that patience is a virtue. LOL

[auricgoldfinger]

deleted

[charlesphoto]

Sounds like this hometown company might be adding “Labs” to their name soon.... (think LH and Welbourne). Sorry for your experience so far. 

[Nenon]

5 hours ago, Ricones said:

@Nenon I strongly disagree with your statement. In my case I have paid in October of 2018 for a server with a given configuration to be delivered by the end of that year. Don't know the terms of the agreement between Adrian and @hieukm However, according to US law, upon purchasing an item one has a grace period to decide whether one keeps or returns that purchase.

 

I guess you did not catch my sarcasm. I would have never had the patience you guys had. 

[Ricones]

@Nenon Sorry I missed it. I am quite upset about the whole situation. While the TLS shows promise there is a long way to go and I am not willing to wait anymore.

[Superdad]

8 hours ago, Ricones said:

I suspect the screw was holding the motherboard. Found two more loose screws inside when I opened the server. I also have a picture of the inside but will have to ask Adrian before publishing it.

Upon opening the server I have founds that the mobo power connector was hanging in the air.

 

That is atrocious! It is not as if motherboard power connectors just slip off and on easily.  So it is clear they simply stuffed the parts in the case (forgetting to to tighten several screws) and did not even test it before shipment!  (How could they without the power supply connected?)

 

And this is a box you paid $8K for and waited 7 months to receive?  Yikes...

 

By the way, the chassis they use comes with perfectly lovely plated/polished custom screws to attach—in the pre-countersunk holes—of the perimeter of the top and bottom panels.  (See: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/20528-js-2-power-supply-installed/?do=findComment&comment=390254).  So why the tall, unplated brass cap screws—which will eventually oxidize and turn green?

Also, it appears they may have forgotten to peel the protective plastic frisking from the bottom panel.  If the unit gets hot that will melt. 

Looking closer at your photos, it looks like the center of the bottom panel is bowed outward. Is it? I can’t imagine what sort of force or weight would cause that.

 

One last bit of wild speculation: I have for many years received boxes of parts from all over the world, and the ONLY country that ever sends swollen cartons fully covered in that distinctive yellow packing tape is China. While I know there is a large Asian population in Vancouver, it is also possible that your box went first from China to Canada to avoid the current 25% tariffs.

 

I hope you are able to get everything sorted out and that your costly new music server produces sound that you enjoy. Yet it is easy to understand your frustration so far.

 

[hieukm]

I think everybody was right that the China trade war has screw up Andrian import plan. Thats why he is delivering from Canada. Also explains why he has no control over the products. However, this is no excuse for the performance of TLS and quality of the one server ricones has received.

 

How was the sound by the way, @Ricones??

 

 

[Ricones]

16 hours ago, Superdad said:

Looking closer at your photos, it looks like the center of the bottom panel is bowed outward. Is it? I can’t imagine what sort of force or weight would cause that.

 

And this is a box you paid $8K for and waited 7 months to receive?  Yikes...

 

I suspect there was an over enthusiastic chap with a screwdriver.  There is no weight in the middle of the box, just the three OCXO modules very well screwed in. The fact that the top cover kept its shape further adds weight this hypothesis.

 

@Superdad You are also right on all other counts. 
 

[Ricones]

@hieukm It is not my place to comment/speculate on Adrian/TLS internal business operation. I am sure he is a law abiding person that wants to do and does the right thing. My concern is with the terms of the commercial contract and how they were (not) met. 

 

I have paid for a self-contained audio appliance with 3 OCXO clocks and 2TB low noise SSD. What I have got is a (promising) prototype that requires significant configuration. Of the 3 crystals, 2 are connected while the third has the a wire going nowhere. There is a 1TB WD blue SSD. The USB stick  appears to be configured with audiolinux ram2 (according to Piero of AudioLinux) that requires a two 2 PCs set-up, thus not self-contained. Besides branding, it is not clear to me if the boot image is customized for TLS. I suspect it s not. 

 

On the upside, Adrian has used good components inside (Mundorf capacitors all over, Connor-Winfield OH4610LF crystals). Although not burned in, and not optimized (using default configuration) the sound is good! 

[guiltyboxswapper]

4 hours ago, Ricones said:

@hieukm It is not my place to comment/speculate on Adrian/TLS internal business operation. I am sure he is a law abiding person that wants to do and does the right thing. My concern is with the terms of the commercial contract and how they were (not) met. 

 

I have paid for a self-contained audio appliance with 3 OCXO clocks and 2TB low noise SSD. What I have got is a (promising) prototype that requires significant configuration. Of the 3 crystals, 2 are connected while the third has the a wire going nowhere. There is a 1TB WD blue SSD. The USB stick  appears to be configured with audiolinux ram2 (according to Piero of AudioLinux) that requires a two 2 PCs set-up, thus not self-contained. Besides branding, it is not clear to me if the boot image is customized for TLS. I suspect it s not. 

 

On the upside, Adrian has used good components inside (Mundorf capacitors all over, Connor-Winfield OH4610LF crystals). Although not burned in, and not optimized (using default configuration) the sound is good! 

 

Oh wow.  $8k+ for that?  I do hope it comes through in the end.  Your a better man than me, I would have sent it back already...

[Ricones]

This is a larger post. If interested in what TOS sounds like feel free to jump to the last section.

 

About me

Been an audiophile since early teens. Many moons ago I have built for personal use audio phono adapters, preamps and power amplifiers, using both tubes and solid state. My first degree is in CS thus I have an idea about digital filters and know my way around a command line.  

 

Interests 

I don’t have any affiliation with anyone or any products I mention in this post. For full disclosure, a few years ago I have bought from @Superdad the awesome JP-1 power supply and USB Regen.

 

The gory details

I have also successfully built several CAT systems. Based on this experience I have concluded that to get a good sound one needs (i) low ripple, low impedance power supplys, (ii) low current, underclocked mobo/cpu, (iii) OCXC clocks for USB, network & bus, and (iv) low latency, real-time, stripped down OS. Adrian’s TOS seemed to address all those points.

 

The unit I have received may have HW issues. When powering up one normally hears the POST beep/s. I don’t think I have heard twice the same beep sequence. I have had several instances when pressing the power button did nothing, both on power up as well as power down. It may very well be that the system OS stick is misconfigured. This is TBD.

 

The machine is powered by a Celeron J1900 running at 1366 MHz. While up sampling PCM to 192 KHz works fine I am not so sure how it will cope with DSD. Given the small amount of RAM  (8MB, 1333MHz, unbuffered, non-ECC) you can only run safely audiolinux in headless mode.

 

Roon with a large database, 2TB in my case, is slow to initialize. I think it may take several days to complete.
Copying files over the network to the internal SSD is slow, with speeds ranging between 0KB/s and 9MB/s at peak (average 2-3MB/s). I am dead sure it is not the network fault nor the fault of the source HTPC. 

I have found out that the machine can not update the Roon database and copy files on the SSD at the same time.

 

As of now I am not able to set the machine in RAM mode nor am I able to upgrade HQPlayer, or anything else for that matter. The current USB stick used for booting needs further configuration. System optimization (RAM boot, extending stick partition, etc.) is not that easy a process and could be catastrophic if you don’t know what you do. I would have expected to be already configured. A back-up stick would be a good idea.

On Monday I will be speaking with Piero of AudioLinux to help me with configuration and optimization issues. 

 

The Test System
My current system is a very revealing one but is a mixed bag. Properly tuned puts out an incredible sound field (at the cost of a hefty electricity bill ).

Speakers: In-wall Wisdom Audio LS75i with LS90i, in-wall subwoofers. Mid base and high frequencies (275Hz onwards) sections of the LS7i are powered by Krell Solo 575; ATI AT542NC for subwoofers. In-wall speaker cables from Analysis Audio; Big Silver Oval XLR interconnects from same Analysis Plus. 

Everything but the amplifiers is powered from a modified Furman Elite 20i with TimePortal cables from the Upgrade Company. 

Network: Audiophile switch with LPS from TLS; SotM ISO CAT6, AudioQuest Vodka and Diamond Ethernet cables.

Processor: Trinnov Altitude32. Arguably, one of the best HT processor on the planet. It is an excellent Roon endpoint but does not have an USB input. To connect CAT to the processor via USB I am using Berkeley USB Digital Interface with cables from Synergistic Research: Galileo SX AES-EBU and Galileo SX USB. All this just to be able to listen to @Miska 's HQPlayer through my system. Why? Because it is the best up-sampler I have heard so far. Although limited on library features when it comes to SQ is several orders of magnitude above Roon, which I also like.

 

The Sound

John Heron helped me set-up the Trinnov processor. At that time he said that I will listen to this system without any up-sampling whatsoever. Given John’s vast experience in the audio field I did not argue with that statement but I was highly skeptical. That started to change when I plugged TOS in my system. Despite the fact that Roon was thrashing the disk updating its database and that the system is not optimized, I was totally impressed with the sound:  very fast, detailed, great instrument separation, tight base, incredible slam. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Jim Glennie of James playing base on tracks “Sound” and “Seven” from “The Best Of (James Album)”.

 

 

@hieukm I shan't offer an opinion on what you should do next. However, I trust you have the record of your financial transaction with TLS and that you also kept all written correspondence. If you had any phone conversations with TLS I hope you wrote down, immediately after the completion of the call, everything that was discussed and that you have those records as well. 

 

[auricgoldfinger]

@hieukm Given the disaster described by @Ricones, I think you are deluding yourself expecting some kind of refund.

[davide256]

41 minutes ago, Ricones said:

This is a larger post. If interested in what TOS sounds like feel free to jump to the last section.

 

About me

Been an audiophile since early teens. Many moons ago I have built for personal use audio phono adapters, preamps and power amplifiers, using both tubes and solid state. My first degree is in CS thus I have an idea about digital filters and know my way around a command line.  

 

Interests 

I don’t have any affiliation with anyone or any products I mention in this post. For full disclosure, a few years ago I have bought from @Superdad the awesome JP-1 power supply and USB Regen.....

 

 

@hieukm I shan't offer an opinion on what you should do next. However, I trust you have the record of your financial transaction with TLS and that you also kept all written correspondence. If you had any phone conversations with TLS I hope you wrote down, immediately after the completion of the call, everything that was discussed and that you have those records as well. 

 

Please adjust your font size to standard

[Ricones]

@davide256 Thank for pointing out the font issue. How would I change that after posting the message?

[davide256]

may be too late, only so much time allowed to edit after a post. Consider it a plea for future posts. Composing off line is a great way to organize

thoughts but one has to be careful about font size after pasting if you don't want the audience to feel they are being "shouted at" (or worse

"whispered to")

[Ricones]

The font size was accidental. I apologize to anyone who feels I am shouting at them. @davide256 Once again thanks for pointing out the issue.

[auricgoldfinger]

8 minutes ago, Ricones said:

The font size was accidental. I apologize to anyone who feels I am shouting at them. @davide256 Once again thanks for pointing out the issue.

 

If you're composing off line and pasting, highlight the entire post and click the Tx button (second to last button from the right) to remove the formatting.  When you submit reply, it will post with the default Audiophile Style font.

[FredM]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:35 AM, hieukm said:

Hi Ricones, 

 

I am in a similar situation. I am waiting for his delivery supposedly in this week. Will update once i got the tracking.

Regards, 

I’ll send you a PM shortly

[FredM]

On 6/13/2018 at 2:34 PM, FredM said:

This is THE ONE box solution I have been waiting for. My search is over!

 

For those who are interested, let me summarise my journey and thoughts for a top notch One box solution:

- At first I was looking at decent Roon endpoints, with the Metrum Ambre highest on my list. For the money an excellent product, but the lack of upgradeability (ie psu, OXCO clock) made me hesitate. I also would need to sort out a NUC or something for Roon Core and music storage (currently a standard desktop PC with NAS).

- Then I had serious thoughts for a SoTM stable, which offers a great and flexible upgrade path (swapping cables and adding ie clocked switch, psu and OXCO clock boxes). Especially the improvements of an additional OCXO clock is very interesting, given the positive experiences on the web (Mutec, Cybershaft, SoTM, ..). When aiming at a higher level this would mean several devices and create a whole spaghetti mess in and behind my cabinet (also acting as an antenna). And quite expensive considering the amount of required power cables and wall sockets or power strips for 5-8 devices.. my tipping point was when the importance of the clock cable was experienced (seen here on CA, thanks for sharing), this appears to have a big impact on sound quality, but also significantly adds to the cost (cost could be half of the price of the master clock device itself). So I definitely decided that approach won’t suit me either..

- At the same time Antipodes announced there new EX and CX lineup. I very much fancied the CX, being an one box solution with Roon Core and (optional) internal SSD storage, so possibly only one power cord in with a direct digital signal out: very slick! The whole new architecture is also very promising, even with an integrated psu in a separated chamber of the unit. Antipodes also has an excellent service reputation and for offering an upgrade path for the older/legacy models. Unfortunately the CX didn’t appear to have a Master clock input, otherwise I was ready to bite the bullet.. shortly after the P2 was announce, this is (again) an add-on for the EX or the CX. Here we go again I thought.. I wanted to stick with a one box solution, so I decided to pass.

- After I had a listen at the 3.4 streamer over at PinkFaun, I also got the change to listen at the PinkFaun 2.16 streamer/server, which simply was impressive. Considering the version I heard didn't had any upgrades it sounded already really good. The very friendly Jord told me about the further options (like OCXO clocks, wiring, fuse, ..), and even the top of the line 2.16x model with a separate psu. Having listened at the 2.16, knowing it could even improve considerably with the upgrades (ie internal OCXO clocks), I knew this is the one box approach I fancied: A (roon)server with internal storage and clocks. Unfortunately all of this would exceed my budget quite a bit.. Not saying it is expensive. Of course a decent amount is involved, but considering the direct sale model I reckon it is still a very very interesting price / performance ratio and I bet service is also top notch! But still, unfortunately out of my league. (In the same week a full blown Streamer 2.12 (previous version) occasion appeared on a Dutch hifi site, after contact with Jord this model could be upgraded to the latest 2.16 spec (board/processor/RAM upgrade). I was very tempted, until finally..

- when the first rumours on a The Linear Solution Server appeared I contacted TLS and after an email exchange with Adrian (which was very responsive and helpful) this server ticked all boxes, a true One box solution. Where the PinkFaun did not fit my budget, The Linear Solution Server still asked for some stretching, but I was so intrigued with their approach and decided to order the One. Their impressive performance with clocked switches, the communication with Adrian and very useful first hand consumer experience/assessments gave me enough insights to make a calculated 'guess'. Worst case, it'll just be a very very good server. Best case, it’ll rock! It will be most interesting what effect the three(!) internal OXCO clocks, the power supply and of course the Dream OS (which seems to be something really special) have on its performance.

 

So my search for a single One box solution is finally over, now great times ahead!

 

I strongly regret posting this (post above). Please be aware doing business with TLS.

 

After being very very very patient and polite for more than a year with The Linear Solution, I realise I was naive. Now with 5 unanswered mails, I’m even being completely ignored by TLS (I’ll share some fact based experience later).

 

I’ll contact Chris to see how some of my previous posts can be deleted or edited with a line containing a proper context. I would hate it when other forum members would find themselves in a similar situation.

 

 

[Ricones]

@FredM.      I was one of those who red your post. Your reasoning in selecting this server there was correct though.

 

I have spoken several times with Adrian last week. We came to the conclusion that the server he sent is promising but underpowered and requires some more work. He described the next version of the product that if he is able to pull it off it will be something very appealing.

Regarding Adrian, he seems to be the guy who wants to do the right thing for his customers despite the challenges.

 

Sent the unit back and hopefully I will get the new version back by the end of July. Before sending the unit back I run the latest version of AudioLinux, v140. AudioLinux is the Linux variant Adrian modified for his server. It was a good sound but very different: it was smoother, laid back, lacking the slam and the aggressiveness of the sound produced by the software the server had originally.   

 

 

 

[auricgoldfinger]

1 hour ago, Ricones said:

He described the next version of the product that if he is able to pull it off it will be something very appealing.

 

Based on recent personal experience, I would consider this to be an empty promise.  Caveat emptor!

[flkin]

13 hours ago, FredM said:

 

I strongly regret posting this (post above). Please be aware doing business with TLS.

 

After being very very very patient and polite for more than a year with The Linear Solution, I realise I was naive. Now with 5 unanswered mails, I’m even being completely ignored by TLS (I’ll share some fact based experience later).

 

I’ll contact Chris to see how some of my previous posts can be deleted or edited with a line containing a proper context. I would hate it when other forum members would find themselves in a similar situation.

 

 

Hi @FredM

 

Sorry to hear about your issues with TLS. Please do detail your experience as it will surely help others to make an informed decision. I was actually looking forward to hearing how the TLS streamer sounded.

 

[FredM]

6 hours ago, Ricones said:

He described the next version of the product that if he is able to pull it off it will be something very appealing.

 

I’ve been there, more then once..

[FredM]

7 hours ago, Ricones said:

We came to the conclusion that the server he sent is promising but underpowered and requires some more work

 

I’m actually shocked at the state the OneServer has been delivered to you. Imho a prototype at best, by no means a finished product for the consumer market. 

 

How on earth did your unit pass the quality control (*), you received a $8000 server which is bent, doesn’t meet agreed specs, has a diy finish, contains the wrong software, parts are not connected and doesn’t work as it should. A complete disrespect to the buyers.

 

 

* in the email exchange with TLS an QA control/test bench was mentioned, now I seriously doubt that.