Building a DIY Music Server

[Nsxturbo]

Sorry Nenon,

 

I know your post was for Ray’s benefit, but I just couldn’t help myself to respond😉 And I promise to get back on topic soon and post my own developing experience of my current Sage WS C621E build (which is sounding quite splendid right now with the transplanted Xeon 4116 & 6 sticks of RAM from my Supermicro build & the 2nd Xeon 4116 & 6 more sticks of RAM added!)🤗 Ugly open case build as it is right now.

 

You know Ray, the warm glow of the tubes really clashes with cool display of the Dave anyway! My Dave drives my 115db/w Bd Orphean horns brilliantly but for some reason that SET amp keeps finding its way back in-line, even with the clashing glow🤔!

 

Cheers,

Todd

[Nsxturbo]

Thought I post a quick Buffalo BS-GS2016 clock replacement observation to the other datapoints posted here. I recently inquired about having Lars at New Class-D change the frequencies of some Neutron Star clocks I’ve had for years to 25Mhz to put them to use in my stable of Buffalo switches. I was pleasantly surprised that he said, no fee just shipping to and from him. I collected the 3 I have and started to box them up and realized one was already 25Mhz, Nice😊!

I decided to start with my POE version BS-GS2016 because of Nenon’s warnings about how hard it was to remove the stock clock. Well my hot air SMD station actually got it off with not to much trouble. Please take into consideration, my photo is one of the initial experimenting stage, just to get it up and running to see if the difference was easily noticeable. So it is not the most beautiful work😉. I’m currently using the companion New Class-D 12v power supply to power the Neutron Star clock, and I use an MP Audio 5amp 10 parallel LT-3045 regulated power supply for the switch. I’m using 2 more LPS powered  Buffalo switches before this last switch and I run optical fiber into the PCIe StarTech PEX1000SFP2 card in my Taiko Extreme copied server.

 

Well Let’s just say I’m quite pleased how the modded switch sounds! It is just better in every possible description of musical performance. For anyone who has used really good master clock like the Mutec or Cybershaft, it is the same type of improvement. Just more organic, better flow, better precision, noticeably more refined across the audio spectrum. I’m quite happy to stream from Qobuz for hours. Really much more musically satisfying. (Still not quite as good as playing the same track from the VROC drive and a small but notable step further behind playing the same file from the Optane drive with no network connection, which still remains the most resolving playback on my current setup.)

 

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a Pink Faun clock in the not to distant future for comparison. In the meantime, it’s always nice to be able to repurpose existing equipment that was sitting unused and get such a musically satisfying improvement to my current system😃.

 

 

 

[Nsxturbo]

Ok I’ll admit I’m kind of shooting in the dark here, but does any DIYer know what brand this capacitor is? There is no name on it just the logo.

[Nsxturbo]

2 minutes ago, basillus said:

It’s look like this: 

https://www.amazon.com/pcs-1000uF-Radial-Electrolytic-Capacitors/dp/B00I4QYRT2

Sure does! Thanks for the help bacillus.

[Nsxturbo]

As usual, anxiously awaiting your findings and optimizations Nenon! 
Also quite interested in what your collaboration with Taiko will yield for DIYer’s. (Hopefully, some full-size case and passive cooling options for Sage 621E owners 😉)

[Nsxturbo]

12 minutes ago, Nenon said:

Emile's team is designing a chassis with CPU coolers. We'll see some drawings early January. I'll share those as soon as they are available. 

Great to hear. I look forward to it!

[Nsxturbo]

Looks promising Nenon. I will be in for sure. The extra room and full-size PCI slots are great. 
2021 is going to be an awesome DIY year!

[Nsxturbo]

Wow Nenon, I did not see this coming!

Quite an interesting development and sounds like a real game changer. I can imagine the improved dynamics this will bring.

Good times ahead!

[Nsxturbo]

Hi Nenon,

 

For those of us willing to purchase the Mundorf 15.5AWG wiring, will you still be offering the preferred capacitor selection for the unregulated power supply?
 

For some of us, we are willing to outlay the additional funds rather than compromise the performance. We early adopters, who already invested in all the Taiko Extreme clone components, and have realized sonic performance surpassing  of all of our prior DIY Music Server builds, are hoping to extract as much performance as we can.

 

I figure if I can get 90% or more of the performance of Emile’s masterpiece, for less than half it’s total cost of entry, I’m still doing great!

 

[Nsxturbo]

Here’s my version 3 of Nenon’s unregulated LPS powering my Taiko DC/ATX and my Asus WS-621 Sage. Still breaking in and obviously, some bypass cap differences, Mundorf Supreme silver/golds and Jupiter copper foil beeswax. All of these were ones I happened to have on-hand. Also one Mundorf 47000mF  AG with the 2- 47000mF HC’s. Plus the Saligny mosfet rectifier.

My impression after listening to version 2 for a couple of weeks, falls inline with Nenon’s description. Version 2 was super fast and wonderfully resolving but without any digital glare. I really loved it.
 

Initially version 3 was a bit disappointing because it definitely lacked the high frequency detail of version 2, but Wow, the bass had such weight, timber and authority and the soundstage was both wider and deeper! The more it broke-in and the more my ears adjusted to it, the more I thought there was no going back! I’m hopeful when the full complement of V-cap bypass caps arrive, that I’ll regain some of the additional “sparkle” that version 2 had. All-and-all, I couldn’t be more pleased with how well the Taiko DC/ATX with Nenon’s spec’d LPS are performing. My system has never sounded better. It’s nice to have such a resolving system that any new tweak is easily discernible.

 

 

[Nsxturbo]

20 hours ago, Nenon said:

 

I posted this two years ago. And I've had the early prototype for a few months before posting... WOW!!! Time goes so fast. Two years!

I was asked today about some Apacer RAM recommendations, and I realized I have stopped playing with computer parts over two years ago. I've said that before, but as soon as I heard the ASUS Sage motherboard and dual Xeon CPUs used in the Taiko Extreme, I realized I was done chasing the best sounding computer hardware. The goal from there was to focus on the best power supply and software settings. This is how the ULPS idea and Taiko ATX combo came up. 

 

After many discussions with Emile and visiting him in Oldenzaal, I was fascinated with the level of advancement Taiko had in developing their digital source. I knew I would never be able to win that chase with DIY. I also realized that the Taiko Extreme was just a platform and learned about many things that were about to come. Taiko is actively working on 17 big projects, including a network card, router, switch, massive battery power supply for the Extreme, a real audiophile battery management system, new massive GaN DC to DC ATX, XDMS player, etc. I don't have the full list as they would not share, but I would not be surprised if a DAC is in the works as well. It makes perfect sense to control the entire digital chain end to end, including all the network, vibration, and power. Anyhow, as I've posted previously, I ordered a Taiko Extreme server. It arrived recently and I have been going through a burn-in process.

 

The question of the decade is how does it compare to my DIY server? The first few days were quite underwhelming. I guess Taiko products suffer through some jetlag :). But it started to get better and better after that. I am planning to give it another week and put together my thoughts on how the two compare. No, my server is not better (as expected), but how much have I accomplished with DIY is very interesting to find out. I am as interested as you guys are, so stay tuned for that. 

 

Where do I go from here? Well, my DIY server was sold to a member here. My main involvement will be when I receive a Taiko DIY chassis. I will write a guide similar to how this thread started while building a DIY Extreme with some parts I have, and I will pass the rest on to the many talented DIY-ers here to push the boundaries again. 

With the 17 projects Taiko is working on and all the supply chain issues plus price increases, I guess we will need to have more patience on the chassis. For those that are impatient, the HDPlex solution I quoted in the beginning of this post still works but requires more DIY.  

 

I have a black Extreme on order. As a builder of a Sage WS621 that I’ve continually tweaked over the last 3 years(including your spec’d power supply with the Taiko DC to ATX converter) I’m quite interested in your take Nenon!

 

I think one of the biggest selling points for  purchasing an actual Extreme,  is Taiko’s customer service, ecosystem and their proprietary developments, including their upcoming music player plus all the other trick hardware on the way. Some interesting developments that I didn’t see coming at the Munich show! 

 

High priced products for sure, but it affords a lot of R&D for a very passionate Emile and his team.

 

Todd
 

 

[Nsxturbo]

I finally got around to making a passive heat pipe solution for my Xeon 3647 CPU’s. In my HDPLEX H5 case. Thought some of you guys who haven’t done it yet might appreciate the solution I came up with.

 

The first pic is of the unmodified  heat sink on the second 3647 CPU of the Sage WS621.

 

The 2nd pic is of the remaining copper plate of the same heat sink. I took the existing heat pipes and heat sinks off one by one with tin snips. Then, I used a torch and desoldered the remaining attachments from the copper base. Finally, I sanded and polished the surface.

 

The the last pic is of the HDPLEX copper heatsink sitting on its “new” copper base plate. I will use the torch with flux and solder the attach the two parts together, just like sweating copper plumbing pipe, the capillary effect will flow the solder between the two pieces and seal them together.

 

I’ll follow up with the completed set up with the heat pipes installed and mounted in the case. I’m waiting on some long heat pipes to bend to reach the other side of the H5 case. The second one should go way faster because now I know I can use a torch to remove all the radiator pieces from the copper base, I won’t have to tin snip off each on individually!

 

[Nsxturbo]

So it looks like there’s room for the full ULPS and the Taiko ATX inside the chassis. Is that correct?

It also looks like with a different backplate full-size PCIe cards would fit in the MB slots, for those of us that use the full-size Asus HyperX m2x4 HD PCIe card.

 

It might seem kind of silly with a Taiko Extreme on order, but I kind of want to see this project through!(Trying to fight my ADHD tendencies😆)

[Nsxturbo]

Yeah, two of the 12core Xeons as opposed to the 10 core. I’ve heard they are a little more incisive than the 10 core, but that has never been an issue for me with the SET amps. And now using Bughead Emperor music player with no network connection and Majority Clean and Lemonade(Pretty rudimentary user interface, but great sounding) playing through my new Lampizator Horizon DAC with a great tube complement, I really can’t see how the Taiko Extreme server can improve on this very much.
 

I’m really most interested in going to the Extreme for all the upcoming proprietary Software, User interface and interesting  Hardware solutions coming down the road. It doesn’t hurt that Emile has some pretty incredible systems on hand to test everything he and his team come up with, plus a wealth of customers with a wide variety of state of the art systems.

I am also very curious to have a direct comparison to see how well we have done with our DIY highly optimized servers compared to certainly one of the top commercially available servers available today! 

[Nsxturbo]

I wanted to post some updated photos of my now 3yrs running Sage WS621E build. The project has been on the back burner since I’ve been pretty enamored with my Taiko Extreme and Lampizator Horizon! (I threw in a photo of them for fun) Anyway, I updated my Nenon V3 power supply with the 220,000mf Taiko Mundorf cap and the high current Saligny mosfet rectifier and put it with the Taiko DC/ATX power supply in a separate chassis, then fed the wiring to the motherboard through the bottom of my HDPlex case.(I missed the quick sell out of the Taiko DIY chassis and honestly couldn’t really justify the expense having purchased the Extreme.) I also added the Zzyzx M2 drive which I preferred the sound of over the Intel 900P PCIe card for the OS.

[Nsxturbo]

15 hours ago, SK8 said:

Interesting....

How would you describe the differences in sonic performance between the Extreme and the DIY WS621E? What OS and software are you running on the DIY WS621E?

I am using Windows LTSC with Audiophile Optimizer. For playback software(no frills our streaming, just local files)I use Bughead Emperor. I also use Jplay for both Qobuz & local files, but honestly in my system Bughead gets the nod, but is is very utilitarian😆Also files copied to the Zzyx drive sound better than those played from the Intel 660’s via VROC.

The Extreme, even without XDMS is more resolving and lower noise floor, and I would describe it as calmer but with greater dynamics than our facsimiles. With XDMS, it is a whole different level of refinement with an even lower noise floor and then add to that more detail, soundscape depth and width and overall I would call it a beautiful but with lightning quickness and explosive dynamics sound. It truly is State of the Art Digital. Paired with the Horizon, It is no doubt digital endgame playback.(At this moment in time.) Emile and his team at Taiko, I believe will leave no stone unturned in both software and hardware development. I am awaiting my Taiko switch and network card, then down there is a lot more exciting developments.  “I might have to kill another hobbie and get a side hustle just to keep up😂

BTW, our Extreme copies are in no way chopped liver and would best 95% or more commercial offerings!

[Nsxturbo]

4 hours ago, Exocer said:

In additional to this - can you share some details about the slabs of wood you’re using for vibration control? 😎

The material is good grade Baltic birch(to eventually be replaced with Panerholtz) the two pieces of birch have a low pressure inner tube between them and Rollerball ball bearings have one cup on the top, but the bottom sits directly on high hardness porcelain. (A La recording engineer Barry Diament of Sound Keeper Recordings.) So the equipment floats on the x y & z axis. I would ultimately put a Taiko Daiza platform between the equipment and the bottom of the Rollerball cups to drain the internal oscillations from the equipment.

[Nsxturbo]

4 minutes ago, Exocer said:

Thank you. While I do not have a dual cpu rig, I and a few others can confirm that the Hammond 159zj chokes restrict dynamics of the ULPS, increase the noise floor and reduce overall resolution compared to our more recent discoveries:

 

1. Hi-B cut chokes thread: 

2. Mundorf VN180-10 chokes which I am REALLY impressed with in my own build (along with a few others).

 

I do not expect you to entertain the modification of your ULPS at this point, but I’m sure we would all be curious of how much these higher quality inductors/chokes narrow the performance gap in such a resolving system.

Look as a DIYer at heart, I have followed all those discoveries, and that part of me wants to know how close we can get! But in reality it’s hard to keep up with a company run by a brilliant guy that’s will to use a lot of his vast revenue stream to keep advancing digital software and hardware. Let’s hope that some of that continues to trickle down to the DIY audiophiles. Also, I know what I’ve invested in DIY over the years and if I add that all up I’m definitely to the cost of entry into Taiko’s ecosystem! It just wasn’t one lump sum all at once😉