SOTM sMS-200 Ultra NEO or SOTM TX-USBultra ?

[AnotherSpin]

On 8/10/2019 at 3:22 PM, satbox said:

Hello,

 

My audio system is the following: QNAP TVS-471 NAS-->Router-->Acousence Giso GB-->headless custom PC based on a Intel I7 6700K / SATA Filter III / tX-USBexp-->T+A DAC 8 DSD-->Rouge Audio Studio N-7-->Magico A3. The custom PC is running Windows 10, AO and JRiver.

 

I want to upgrade the rig (of course goal is to enhance SQ) and I thought to one of these two solutions (unfortunately, I don't have the budget to buy both...):

-add a SOTM sMS-200 Ultra NEO and use it as renderer via DLNA

or

-insert a SOTM TX-USBultra between the PC and the DAC

 

My intention is to continue to use JRiver which is my preferred player.

 

What is the best solution?

 

Thank you !

 

You may look here: 

I t is very long thread, but the main idea is that with the approx. the same budget or less you may have a DIY renderer which would provide much bigger upgrade to SQ than commercial renderers, such as SOtMs or Rendus. And I can confirm, power supply is critical.

[AnotherSpin]

32 minutes ago, emcdade said:

I am a subjectivist but there is way too much magical thinking in that thread.  Getting a clean electrical signal to the T+A Dac is the only goal and it isn’t rocket science.  I use the Matrix Audio usb card with the latest crystek clock and a linear power supply, and I suspect even that is overkill.  

 

Feed the DAC8 DSD512 with Roon’s Smooth minimum phase filter, it’s the best I’ve heard in my system and I’ve tried quite a few DACs.  It actually makes a real difference.

 

 We are speaking about rendering options. If SOtM is considered, why not look on the same type solutions with better processing power and better OS, etc.?