Building a DIY Music Server

[fas42]

2 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

I could be missing something but, just unplug the AC adapter and run from battery. A separate docking station with extra battery IIRC might be also possible

 

A previous, HP, laptop gave the best sound, I found, when the battery was partially discharged, and the adapter was plugged in and running with a decent output current, recharging that battery.

 

My take on what was going on, is that the battery alone didn't have the stability, and current drive to run the circuitry with as little noise as possible - next, if the adapter was plugged in, and the battery was sitting at 100%, the adapter was merely ticking over, delivering only a light current; its internal circuitry wasn't geared to deliver low noise in this situation - the final option was to make sure the adapter was working hard, topping up the supply, and the battery then acts as an effective smoothing capacitance. Anyway, this is what worked on that particular machine - YMMV.

[fas42]

17 hours ago, GUTB said:

What is it?? What could be killing my soundstage and imaging performance? The only difference in the chain is a Supra toslink from the transport vs a Supra USB cable from the audio PC. Could a different mastering REALLY cause such a major change in soundstage and imaging?

 

The story of digital playback is that the slightest, absolutely slightest, lack of integrity in some area of the chain can wreck the presentation - mastering can change things, but the real loss of subjective SQ occurs because some part(s) of the circuitry is not performing as well as it needs to. Which part? ... How long is a piece of string ... 🤪

 

As people have replied, consider everything. The good news is that eventually the underlying culprit(s) can be all tracked down, and resolved - my guess, straight off the top of my head, is the USB link ...