Pink Faun 2.16

[rickca]

On 8/13/2020 at 10:37 AM, flkin said:

 

RAMtiming and voltage adjustments for better sound

 

This is a really outstanding post!  Thank you!

 

Just this week, I made some changes to my PC and had to Load Optimized Defaults in the BIOS.  I thought I'd restored all my preferred settings, but I forgot about the memory XMP profile.  So my DDR4 2800 memory was running at the base rate of 2133.

 

I couldn't figure out why everything sounded so different!  Your experience with fine tuning voltage is fascinating.

 

PS:  This is why we need good quality motherboards.  When you're tuning things, the tuning system has to work properly.  I once had an expensive TV with an extensive CMS (color management system) for calibration.  Problem is the CMS had all the bells and whistles but didn't give consistently accurate results.  This is really just as important as all the flashy features that motherboard manufacturers highlight in their marketing material. 

 

 

[Armsan]

On 8/14/2020 at 4:54 AM, flkin said:

 

Hey Jord, thanks for your tinned-copper cable recommendations and also the advice about RAM for my tests. Of all my recent tests this year, these are the ones that made the most difference.  😄

 

Can't wait to see what new developments your team has managed to develop for the next streamer.. 

+1, looking forward to know how much better can the PF 2.16x sound in the next iteration, and if my minimalist SW use, ( only HQPLAYER embedded without upsampling and HQPDcontrol), can be surpassed.

[flkin]

One thing to add about the Ultra heat sinks I mentioned a few posts before. They are pretty tall and isn’t able to fit into the Pink Faun 2.16x case without slight mods. 

 

Used as shown in the picture, the fins will touch the cover.

 

 

 

 

But the fins can be rotated slightly to avoid this. Then the heat sinks just barely fit with some pushing.

 

 

Also these heat sinks are not suitable for those using 4 memory UDIMMS as there isn’t enough space to fit the fins. It’s only suitable for alternately used memory slots. That said, the heat sinks are beautifully made and look the part too.

 

It could be just the burning in of the new RAM, but the sound seems to have gradually improved after the installation of these heat sinks 
 

[Redphu]

Hello all

 

I've been following the PF for quite some time and finally made the jump from the Sonore signature Rendu.  Glad to see that were able to squeeze even more sound out of this beast.  It'd be interesting to see if the tweaking will close the gap in performance of the the 2.16x and ultra.  Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.

[flkin]

Welcome to the club! The 2.16x platform can be tweaked quite a bit - especially if you use AudioLinux or Euphony for the OS. Mine came with the highly configurable AL but I've switched to the simpler Euphony with good results. Try the RAM switch and tweaking, made quite a difference for me.

[MarcelNL]

Can someone elaborate what AMD CPU the PF is using? I'm currently on an older 5 1600 using Daphile as OS, am using the Apacer which does make quite a difference compared to the LPX Corsair I had previously. Next is tinkering with RAM settings, IF my MB allows (if not I'll get a different MB or even CPU and MB, as I want to ditch the graph card, using a CPU w graphics seems a good move)

[flkin]

My PF (mid-2018) is using a Rizen 1700x. 
 

Under Stylus it’s hardly stressed more than 1-2%. With HQPlayer, most upsampling apart from the hardest configurations mostly work too. 

[MarcelNL]

thanks!

I dug in a bit and it appears that all newer CPUs with GPU included have very few cores, and I want something with more grunt for better dynamics (currently present), guess I'll need to swap the MB for more PCIe slots.

 

[flkin]

More info about the 2.16 Ultra. Pre-production units have been shipped to dealers for listening tests.

 

https://nintronics.co.uk/blog/post/pink-faun-216-ultra-review.html

 

In addition to our own mods to date, looks to have a new motherboard/CPU, adjusted power supply and that interesting sounding Farad Ultracapacitors. I wonder how this is deployed?

[flkin]

A little late but for the record:

 

Stereophile Dec 2020 issue, page 85 by Kalman Rubinson who reviewed it and said :

 

" The Pink Faun 2.16x Streamer is, sonically, as perfect a stereo source component as I have used. The sound I have enjoyed from it has been consistently satisfying and often breathtaking. It is expensive, big, heavy and bold. It is also silent and a pleasure to use. Highly recommended. "

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/pink-faun-216x-music-streamer

 

[aangen]

So this thread has gone to sleep. Just as I find myself in possession of a 2.16 purchased from a former fanboy in this very thread.

Why did he stop posting?

What happened to all the enthusiasm?

 

At this very moment my 2.16 is causing me to grin a great deal.
It’s like having a new friend that I need to get to know. 
 

A bad time for all of you to step away.

[Armsan]

OK aangen let’s wake up😃 so I’ll share with you my latest findings around my PF.

 

If you are willing to sacrifice convenience, if you don’t stream from Tidal or Qobuz, if you don’t mind to get up from your listening chair to load the next album or song, you may want to try my way. The idea is to get rid of Wi-Fi, switch and router of your home network.

In this path, I tried a previous iteration with very good results, which consisted in having a second router, isolated from my home router. It is a very rewarding experience listening to our system without all the garbage that our home routers inject in the music. I don’t use switches between my sound equipment for many years either, implementing for long network bridge, a very easy process now with AL.

But, if you want to go extreme, listen to your system without wi-fi control point and with no router supplying IP addresses.

I installed a second machine, curiously a PF AV Streamer power supply that I assembled with a low power processor and mini ITX board. There I installed a relatively light Windows 7, and on top DHCP Server and Upplay as control point.

Yes, I do have to do a little physical exercise, (but that’s good, isn’t it?), but the sound is the best ever I have achieved, in my system and room.

Let’s see what comes next.

Cheers.

 

[flkin]

18 hours ago, Armsan said:

OK aangen let’s wake up😃 so I’ll share with you my latest findings around my PF.

 

If you are willing to sacrifice convenience, if you don’t stream from Tidal or Qobuz, if you don’t mind to get up from your listening chair to load the next album or song, you may want to try my way. The idea is to get rid of Wi-Fi, switch and router of your home network.

 

 

Hey Armsan, you can have the cake and still eat it! 😄

 

You can play music without the network even when playing Tidal or Qobuz. Just buffer the music with your playback software, then either switch off the network card in the streamer or remove the LAN cable entirely. 

 

I did the latter with my PF and compared the sound of Tidal files with and without the network physically attached and found little difference. Thereafter I relied on full buffering of streaming tracks before playback only.

[Armsan]

4 hours ago, flkin said:

 

Hey Armsan, you can have the cake and still eat it! 😄

 

You can play music without the network even when playing Tidal or Qobuz. Just buffer the music with your playback software, then either switch off the network card in the streamer or remove the LAN cable entirely. 

 

I did the latter with my PF and compared the sound of Tidal files with and without the network physically attached and found little difference. Thereafter I relied on full buffering of streaming tracks before playback only.

 

Thank you flkin for your suggestion and advice.

But, please tell me: when you remove the LAN cable and stay full isolated from your home network, how do you control Euphony, which is I believe your are usin now? And, how do you supply IP adreesses if you want to use a media Renderer?

 

Here, the SQ difference is major, when my PF AV Streamer supplies the IP addresses needed for Minimserver and MSB Renderer V2, instead of any router. Or, when I enable MPD and Upmpdcli in the PF 2.16X, and output from PF USB Bridge to MSB Pro USB.

I prefer the more relaxed and timbre lifelike of the former way.

[flkin]

19 hours ago, Armsan said:

Thank you flkin for your suggestion and advice.

But, please tell me: when you remove the LAN cable and stay full isolated from your home network, how do you control Euphony, which is I believe your are usin now? And, how do you supply IP adreesses if you want to use a media Renderer?

 

You are right in saying once I disconnect from network I cannot make changes to the playlist or control Euphony. But in Euphony, there is a function to set a timer to disconnect network for X minutes. Thereafter it will reconnect automatically again. The latest software version has a timer bypass by pressing the streamer on/off button - something I can't seem to get working but that's just me.

 

If I wanted to, I can commit to listening to local tracks in the playlist for any period of time or a max of 2 tracks for streaming. Or a mixture of the local and streaming tracks. All the while being disconnected from the network.

 

My PF is all in one streamer doing both file server and renderer functions so I don't have other network connectivity or ip issues. I haven't tried to connect the PF as a file server only and using an NAA end point under bridge mode and then use the disconnect function in Euphony. I wonder if this works? 

[flkin]

The Pink Faun Ultra has won the top streamer 2023 from a China HiFi blogger Springson. 

 

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI1NTMwNjQzMQ==&mid=2247502952&idx=1&sn=2df797a12b017332910ea3134851da11&chksm=ea3573b8dd42faae05457f2920d14977c76aac460c4f4390a7a1b329ca4d014ed4e50f1b299e&scene=178&cur_album_id=1342622178533244929#rd

[flkin]

Also some Pink Faun news buzz:

 

They are developing a new usb extreme card that has 5,000,000uF super caps and possibly 3 external power inputs for the usb module, clock and 5V to DAC

 

The mother of all usb cards! 

[auricgoldfinger]

6 hours ago, flkin said:

Also some Pink Faun news buzz:

 

They are developing a new usb extreme card that has 5,000,000uF super caps and possibly 3 external power inputs for the usb module, clock and 5V to DAC

 

The mother of all usb cards! 

 

Good way for PF to sell Farad power supplies.  😉

[flkin]

On 3/14/2023 at 5:44 PM, flkin said:

Also some Pink Faun news buzz:

 

They are developing a new usb extreme card that has 5,000,000uF super caps and possibly 3 external power inputs for the usb module, clock and 5V to DAC

 

The mother of all usb cards! 

 

Just visited Jord at Pink Faun in Rhenen, Netherlands. The new Ultra USB bridge card is not quite ready yet. Will be out later this year - likely before the end of 2023. It's a significant upgrade to the existing bridge, perhaps an entire new device is a better description not just an iteration. It will have only one external DC input.. phew!

Still in the prototype stage with only 2 boards competed. But fortunately I had a chance to listen to it. Looks like we're going to have spend a little on this... :-D

More descriptions and pics to come when I find time to write up the visit. The case below isn't the final one.

 

[MarcelNL]

USB is sooo 2020 ;-)

 

My hope is on the Taiko modular TACDD direct from CPU to I2S.

 

we need a shootout when the time comes... 

[matthias]

On 3/14/2023 at 11:42 AM, flkin said:

The Pink Faun Ultra has won the top streamer 2023 from a China HiFi blogger Springson. 

 

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI1NTMwNjQzMQ==&mid=2247502952&idx=1&sn=2df797a12b017332910ea3134851da11&chksm=ea3573b8dd42faae05457f2920d14977c76aac460c4f4390a7a1b329ca4d014ed4e50f1b299e&scene=178&cur_album_id=1342622178533244929#rd

It seems he didn't review Taiko Extreme and Antipodes Oladra as TOTL servers, also not reviewed XACT S1 as newcomer.

 

Matt

[flkin]

6 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

USB is sooo 2020 ;-)

 

My hope is on the Taiko modular TACDD direct from CPU to I2S.

 

we need a shootout when the time comes... 

 

PF are the first to do I2S PCIe card with ultra clock, as you already know ;-)

 

They did indicate that they will be applying the same SuperCap tech on their I2S card also. Already planned for. 
 

I’m lucky to have a rare chance to listen to the current I2S, current USB and the coming new USB Ultra cards in the same system. All with Ultra clocks. Let’s just say I’ve reserved one of USB Ultra cards already. 
 

I think it’s good to see companies pushing PCIe tech, makes high end sound affordable for the DIY crowd. 

[Elberoth]

I'm glad they are using supercaps - they dramaticly lower the impedance of the PSU (all those LT3045 LDOs are great, but have high output impedance). 

 

They have already been using supercaps on the Ultra server PSU, but not on the USB card itself.

 

I kind of DIYed PF Ultra server solution, using ultra low noise regulator from Ian Canada with his supercapacitor module to power Pink Faun Ultra OCXO USB card :

 

 

 Those two caps are 325F each and have ESR of just 1.7mΩ. 

[flkin]

Haven’t seen a PF inspired DIY streamer yet. First one! Nice looking, care to explain the interior?
 

Didn’t the PF Ultra use supercaps only for their clocks?

[Elberoth]

The big toroid transformer feeds a 12V ultra low noise power supply module for the mobo (via PicoPSU). The mobo is a AS Rock J5040-ITX board - same as used by Ideon, 432 EVO and other server manufacturers. 

 

First of two blue transpormers feeds two LHY Audio 5V ultra low noise power supply modules (based on LT3042 regulators) that power two SATA SSDs.

 

The second blue transpormer feeds Ian Canada Linear Pi Solo MKII 5V ultra low noise power supply module, which powers Ian Canada UcConditioner 5V ultra capacitor signal conditioner board, which in turn powers the Pink Faun USB card. 

 

There is also a Schaffer IEC inlet / fuse holder / power switch / mains filter module on the inlet.

 

At present server runs Audio Linux with Roon Bridge installed.

 

The next step will be to replace 12V PSU + Pico PSU with 3 separate linear PSUs to power the MoBo (3.3V, 5V and 12V).