linear regulator after pico or seperate power supply?

[billg]

I use a dedicated network file server. It's windows 2016 on ssd,  Audiophile Optimizer, music files on internal HDD with a SoTM noise filter, minimserver. I definitely prefer it to the qnap nas I previously used.

 

Of course you can trick this out forever with linear power supplies, network cards, cables, etc. 

 

See this Jplay thread for more details. 

 

[billg]

It's probably a good idea to read the thread I posted earlier. You'd learn how the music/file server is set up and some of the reasons it's a good approach, such as isolating the player from potential digital jitter and electrical noise contamination from the HDD (using wired ethernet connections). It hosts Minimserver which serves up the music library and performs any format conversions and dsp, thereby offloading these tasks from the player pc. Being on the home network, the music library is available to both my systems and to any mobile device, and externally if I wanted to open a port in the firewall. 

 

I have mounted the hdd inside the player pc, externally, in the nas, and now in the music server pc. The music server pc makes sense to me and IMO it sounds the best. I did some A/B comparisons but they can give false results and I don't rely on them. I prefer to listen over a period of time. I can't afford several Tb of SSD or I'd use them in the server instead of a hdd. 

 

Windows 2016 server is great OS when it is optimised for audio. AudiophileOptimizer and Fidelizer help achieve this and if you haven't heard of them I recommend you visit their websites and forums. You plan to use I2S (which I would like to try myself) so you won't use Jplay like I do. 

 

What OS and player software are you planning to use? You've obviously given a lot of thought on the hardware for a single pc player, but that's only half of the solution.  

 

[billg]

The thread on building a music server is on the Jplay forum http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/2403-jplaystreamer-how-to-improve-sound-quality-guide/

 

The "dedicated network file server" is the music/file server pc I built. It's a Lenovo M92p i5 with ssd for the OS, 8tb hdd with sotm noise filter for music files, 16GB ram, onboard network adapter. Wired ethernet to the router and player pcs. Software is windows server 2016, audiophileoptimizer, Minimserver, avconv (for transcoding). There are several hardware improvements I could make (psu, fanless) but there's more to  do on the player pcs first.

 

I run the music server and player pcs headless (no screen, keyboard or mouse) and use remote desktop for software upgrades/diagnostics. 

 

Jriver sounds good, esp the newest 64 bit versions and I run it on my 2nd system. It's very good at meta data. For my main system I use JplayStreamer (usb only) with bubbleds as control point on my android tablet. I'm told hqplayer is great sounding too.

 

Good luck.