Building a DIY Music Server

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2 minutes ago, shahed99 said:

At the end, system matching is important. 

+100  All the way to the room and your ears.  That's why this hobby is so interesting, IMHO, as strange bedfellows can, sometimes, really work in one's system...and be another person's impossibility! 

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18 minutes ago, Dev said:

I am not looking into NUC and low power stuff - that road has met a dead-end a while back and have no desire to go back.

Do you mean as a server, or as an endpoint/NAA? 

[ted_b]

I gotta assume power supplies are half the budget.  Given what the likes of Sean, Paul Hynes, etc cost (although Nenon can maybe help here in a group buy :)  ) it will be a good goal to stay around $10k all in.  

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I know this is DIY. I am more like DIYALAIDRS (DIY as long as it doesn’t require soldering 😀). Am I still good?

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31 minutes ago, frederick184 said:

Which is why I don’t quite understand how someone can front-end their system with an Apple MacBook and call it good.

"Good" is relative; we don't all have the same opportunities or luck (or priorities) to go all-out on any part of our system, let alone most parts.  Congrats to those that can or will.  👍  But yes, I fully agree that a front end upgrade can and should be perceivable via sq.  What percentage tells a lot about how someone has had to put their system together. 

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Are those usernames on Marcin's forum any of us?  Anyone used MinorityClean before?  if so, with AO?  After AO? (I guess this should be another thread CTU 🙂 )

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I hope I am not going to hijack this wonderful thread but I've done a little searching and not found an answer.  What is TAS (Taiko Audio Server), is it both hardware and software, or a dedicated OS, or music software to replace or augment HQPlayer/Roon/etc?  I see some folks stating they are beta testing it, but also using HQplayer, etc.  A little confused, sorry for the OT.

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1 hour ago, ASRMichael said:

Good info thanks. I purchased my MB after seeing a few posts here also. I believe my Asus Maximum XII Extreme also has 16 power stages & no doublers. 

Can I assume the Asus is called Maximus, not Maximum, or are they different?  If Maximus, is this mobo $1500 and cost $160 to ship??  Yikes!

https://www.newegg.com/asus-rog-maximus-xii-extreme/p/1JW-000C-00U79?quicklink=true

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2 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

@Nenon It may help if you describe (or point at a location) your setup. The possible range between speakers and amps etc is very very wide.

And your taste in music, type of music (especially those selections you use for serious listening comparisons).

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14 minutes ago, ASRMichael said:

Is this effectively another HQPlayer? What are the benefits? 

It is offline and PCM result only, so DSD files will not be upsampled, only converted to PCM.  The offline process means that your cpu, during playback, will have less heavy lifting (all that is done during offline resampling)...and therefore you may well be able to play very high (i.e 32fs) PCM with much less effort.  The downside: lots more storage needs.  🙂

 

I will let the PGGB beta guys talk about the filter/dither choices, etc. 

Edit: I see there is another thread so discuss over there. 

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1 minute ago, NellyWhads said:

Edit: I will most likely be using the system directly plugging into a USB dac running Audiolinux headless with Roon for library management and HQP for PCM upsampling (Some short DSD upsampling tests of course, but not all the time)

I know its not always possible, but for HQplayer's sake it would be very good to move Roon core to a different machine (assuming Roon is feeding HQplayer).  Easier said than done.  I've been told that Roon is overly chatty, and when I separated the two the sq went to the level of direct local HQplayer library access..meaning Roon had no sq impact anymore.  YMMV.

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Gurkel,

Welcome to AS.  I think the general tenor of this thread is that a server with rigorous power yet delicate balance puts out the best sound.  It's clearly an overbuild, but that is the point.  Make sure the server is never thrown off balance.  And there are quite a few here that have put their money where their mouth is and invested in this approach..but only DIY.  Most here love to hear the Taiko feedback, but that only gives the thread a more assertive style to go find that...for something less than a new car.  And Emile (Taiko) is helping!!

 

So...all this is to say that you will not get very far in this thread, especially with yet no forum experience, to argue your diametrically opposed ideas, albeit good ones.   Start your own thread called something like "Why invest in big buck servers"?  or something.  Good luck.  I'll read it.  🙂

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4 minutes ago, Nenon said:

V2 gives you better clarity. V3 gives you crazy expansive sound (i.e. there are no wall boundaries in my room anymore type of thing) but you lack some clarity.

Thanks....so, V3 lacks clarity compared to what?  V2 obviously...but how about V1 or other psu/ATX combos?  I ask cuz I am a Tesla M3 owner, and when I purchased it back in 2018 the sales folks said mine (the dual motor all-wheel long range edition) lacked a bit of torque compared to the performance model.  HA!!  Mine will break your neck if not careful so "lack of torque" is hilariously misleading for my needs; I can get around ANYTHING and more torque would simply ruin my tires faster.  🙂  Anyway.....you get my question....the lack of clarity in V3 may even be less than rounding error in even our most revealing systems (sans Taiko).

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Delete

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4 minutes ago, Gavin1977 said:

So hoping they release a DIY version in the future.

Why wouldn't he?  He could bundle it with the Taiko ATX and instruct folks it must be connected through it (so as to power up correctly).  Maybe I'm missing something.  That handshake (USB to DAC) is probably the biggest handshake in computer audio, and if Taiko has such a world beater, proven to have value even outside an Extreme, do it!

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CTU, will running Hungry Bear's MC script affect (negatively) my HQPlayer install, or TightVNC connection?

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@Dev what sort of top do you have on the H5 case?  @StreamFidelity was prototyping an acrylic glass lid with holes which looked pretty cool (pun intended). 

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1 hour ago, NanoSword said:

I have to thank Nenon for sharing his experience with Taiko ATX. It is now easy to get high performance for everyone without paying huge amounts of money and we have many options for ULPS.

 

I live in the US.  What are my current options for having a ULPS built for me; this is wayyyy over my pay grade?  I already own the Taiko ATX and would possibly build or have someone like @lmitchebuild me an HDPLEX 5 encased server to replace my i7-6700k Win10 beast for HQP.  I have no intention of asking prices, etc publicly.  

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5 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Amazing.

+10

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Nenon,

this is an amazingly great service you are doing for the DIY (or DINYBHEWKWTAD, "do it not yourself but hire someone else who knows what they are doing").  Two questions:

1)  For those of us using HQplayer and it's NAA "endpoint" do the differences between V2 and V3 still show through when the server is not directly connected to the dac?

2)  For US prospects (I already own the Taiko ATX but no new server build yet) what is the best way to contact the US builder who has agreed to the $500 build fee?  Not ready yet, but would love to know reasonable build and delivery times, etc.

 

Thanks as always

Ted

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6 minutes ago, Nenon said:

But for heavy DSD upsampling, you may need more power. I think as a general rule if you can efficiently passive cool your server, the 5A will be fine.

My preferences are for the Holo May to see PCM as PCM and DSD as DSD, so my heaviest DSD lifts are DSD64 to DSD256 and some EC filter (so far).  But I've not come close to sizing a server yet, just know it will use the Taiko ATX, and therefore want to use the V3.