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Building a DIY Music Server


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1 hour ago, elan120 said:

JCAT XE USB card is capable of running PCM at 1.536MHz.  I ran it using HQPe with no issue.

 

 

into a Holo May? ive read some folks had issues getting jcat xe to run 1.536mhz specifically with May. maybe its resolved now, not sure

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9 minutes ago, mrkoven said:

 

into a Holo May? ive read some folks had issues getting jcat xe to run 1.536mhz specifically with May. maybe its resolved now, not sure

No, I have no experience with May, the DAC used is a Terminator, and that has no issue accepting 1.536MHz of PCM input signal.

 

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11 hours ago, mrkoven said:

 

into a Holo May? ive read some folks had issues getting jcat xe to run 1.536mhz specifically with May. maybe its resolved now, not sure

I "think" it was dependent on the may FW version, not sure though

My rig

 

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35 minutes ago, Gavin1977 said:

Same here - no issues with 1.536mHz and JCAT USB Xe 

 

Which DAC?

 

i saw a post in the holo may thread that turned me away. maybe it works with May, maybe not. dont really want to spend $1K to try it w/o some concrete first hand confirmation

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Hello, I'm following this topic for a while. I build my Audio PC. I would like to ask you guys what are next steps to improve sound of my PCAudio.

I'm using

Windows 10

WD hard disk RE 8TB SATA 3, 8Gbs, 7200rpm, 256MB GOLD

MotherBoard LGA 1151 Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Elite RGB Gaming ATX

Intel CPU Core i9-9900K 3,6/5 GHz

Ram DDR4 16GB 3200Mhz G Skill RIPJAWS V (2x8GB kit)

SSD Kingston A2000 1TB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x4NVMe

USB card Femto 

-Foobar2000...Sound is not to bad, but I have problems with playing DSD formats. Sometims are working sometimes not.

-Tidal....I'm disapointed with sound quality. In tracks I'm hearing sss in higher tons

-Spotify....Most tracks are in lower sound quality, but ok.

-As DAC I'm using Loxije D30 with Burson Opamp

 

Everithing is in HDPlex H5 with HD plex 400 W HiFi DC ATX nano Combo.

 

Is there some steps to pimp setup, bios,...,

 

V

20210712_173026.jpg

20210712_173031.jpg

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2 hours ago, VaG said:

Hello, I'm following this topic for a while. I build my Audio PC. I would like to ask you guys what are next steps to improve sound of my PCAudio.

I'm using

Windows 10

WD hard disk RE 8TB SATA 3, 8Gbs, 7200rpm, 256MB GOLD

MotherBoard LGA 1151 Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Elite RGB Gaming ATX

Intel CPU Core i9-9900K 3,6/5 GHz

Ram DDR4 16GB 3200Mhz G Skill RIPJAWS V (2x8GB kit)

SSD Kingston A2000 1TB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x4NVMe

USB card Femto 

-Foobar2000...Sound is not to bad, but I have problems with playing DSD formats. Sometims are working sometimes not.

-Tidal....I'm disapointed with sound quality. In tracks I'm hearing sss in higher tons

-Spotify....Most tracks are in lower sound quality, but ok.

-As DAC I'm using Loxije D30 with Burson Opamp

 

Everithing is in HDPlex H5 with HD plex 400 W HiFi DC ATX nano Combo.

 

Is there some steps to pimp setup, bios,...,

 

V

20210712_173026.jpg

20210712_173031.jpg

 

I didn't study things enough to know exactly why you have the hard drive, but you could get rid of that, esp. with the 1TB NVMe SSD.

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15 hours ago, mrkoven said:

 

Which DAC?

 

i saw a post in the holo may thread that turned me away. maybe it works with May, maybe not. dont really want to spend $1K to try it w/o some concrete first hand confirmation

image.thumb.png.c4dd41bf760aeb382162d068ab20d63d.png

Definitely works - I tried it with Holo Audio May.

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4 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

What I would do with single cpu server.
 

1 - Euphony - You’ll be able to run Ramroot & buffer tracks. This means your hard disks should not have much activity whilst playing music. 

2 - Taiko ATX card

3 - Linear Power supply

4 - Jcat Ethernet card

 

& so on. You asked!! It all depends on your budget. 

I understand. I thought that it is possible to setup sistem  a little. Not just to buy best things right now.

Thx.

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16 minutes ago, VaG said:

I understand. I thought that it is possible to setup sistem  a little. Not just to buy best things right now.

Thx.

Ok sorry misunderstood what you were looking for. Turning off as many USB ports in bios. Leaving one for mouse or keyboard. You can try turning turbo on or off. Leave with you to decide. 
 

I’ve played a lot with bios settings over the last two years. Now mostly keep things on auto. 
 

You can have a look here also. 
 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/58514-diy-project-high-performance-audio-pc-with-high-quality-wiring/?do=findComment&comment=1033801

 

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1 hour ago, AngeloVRA said:

Various posts of AS people building music servers have inspired me to build my own. I figured its my turn to share my humble build as well

 

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I started by ordering a 4 rail SR7T from PHD back in October last year. Although there were (extended) delays, I was one of the lucky ones to get mine just a few weeks before PHD closed down its business. I was able to get 4 rails on it:

-       19V/10A adjustable to 15V/6A, 12V/5A, 9V/4A

-       12V/10A adjustable to 9V/7A, 7V/5A, 5V/4A

-       12V/6A adjustable to 9V/4A, 7V/3A, 5V/2.4A

-       12V/6A adjustable to 9V/4A, 7V/3A, 5V/2.4A

If I could do it all over again, I would opt for 5V/6A instead of 5V/2.4A from the 12V/6A rail.

 

I wanted to use an HDPlex H5 chassis (so I could install USB/Network card direct to motherboard without use of riser cables) but was informed they were out of stock, probably till August so I decided to go with a Streacom FC10a instead.

 

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Having decided to mount the Taiko ATX DC-DC converter behind the front panel, I disassembled the front panel to drill and tap some blind holes so I can securely fix the Taiko ATX onto it.

 

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2 Jaeger 3-pin terminals were also installed on the rear panel. 1 to receive the19V to supply the Taiko ATX and another to receive 12V to supply the CPU EPS if I didn’t like the SQ of 12V EPS from Taiko.

 

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I confirmed most appropriate orientation of the Taiko ATX (connectors up or down). Connectors on the bottom yielded a position that would be much easier to wire. This position also gave the shortest possible 24 pin ATX cable from Taiko ATX to motherboard

 

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For the CPU, I opted for a single Xeon W-1290 which has 10 cores, base speed of 3.2Ghz, Turbo speed of 5.2Ghz. This went onto a Gigabyte W480 Vision D full size ATX motherboard. This setup required the Streacom Thermal Riser HT4 so that the heatpipes could vertically clear the VRMs, and the extended length heatpipe set LH4 as the standard ones were about 2 cm too short.

 

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Initially, I only used 2 pins (+12V and Gnd) for the CPU EPS cable. For the ATX cable, also the minimum, 1 pair each for 12v/5v/3.3v and their respective grounds. I listened to it for over a week and then gradually added 1 pair of wire at a time. Each time, the additional wires gave me an uptick in fullness and dynamics. 

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The wire itself could probably carry the current but the limiting factor was the current capacity of the pins. Utilizing more pins allowed more transient peak current to be delivered. I ended up fully populating all power connectors.

 

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The molex pins have two tabs on the top that slide into channels inside the Molex connector (e.g. both should be at 12 o’clock for the molex pins to slide in and lock properly. 

The Mundorf SG 1.5mm (AWG 15.5) is very stiff so I had to make the pin for one end, insert it into the connector at motherboard side, shape the wire towards the connector at Taiko ATX side, and only then crimp the molex pin at that end. This way the pin would be orientated correctly to slide in and lock properly.

I opted to use the gold plated Molex pins because they have a bigger current capacity. There are also 2 sizes: 1 for 18AWG wire, and another for 16AWG wire.

 

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I opted to use bare Mundorf wire and use oversized Teflon tubes (2-2.5mm for 1.5mm wire, 1.5-2mm for 1.0mm wire) so that the resulting insulation would be mostly air. As a bonus, this was also much cheaper.

 

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Crimped solid core wires have a tendency to shake loose after some handling so I decided to also thinly solder the already crimped connection.

Next was the power supply cable from the Jaeger chassis connector at the back of the server to the 6p input connector at the Taiko ATX. While a single pair of 1.5mm Mundorf SG should be able to carry the required current, the limiting factor would be the current carrying capacity of the molex pin contacts. As mentioned earlier, I had decided to use all 6 pins. For each polarity (positive and Gnd), I opted to use 1 length of 1.5mm AWG15.5 wire plus 2 lengths of 1.0mm AWG18. On the Jaeger connector side, simply twisting the 3 wires together seemed messy as the resulting wire won’t fit neatly into the solder cup of the Jaeger connector. I decided to use a WBT copper cable sleeve to crimp the 3 wires together, with only the 1.5mm wire coming out the other end which can then be neatly soldered into the Jaeger connector terminals.

 

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RAM is Apacer ECC industrial, wide temp (-40C to 95C), 4 x 4GB for a total 16GB.

Music data storage is 2 x 2TB Intel 660p M.2 NVME which also has very low power consumption (40 mW at idle, 100 mW when active)

 

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OS drive is an 118 GB Intel Optane 800p which is relatively cheap, has very low read latency at 7 microseconds, and low power consumption (8mW at idle, 3.75w when active). This was mounted on an M.2 to PCIE adapter card which allowed me to install it on the 1st PCIE slot, direct to CPU.

The 2nd PCIE slot, also direct to CPU has a JCAT USB XE, externally powered by a PH SR7T.

The 3rd PCIE slot, also direct to CPU (PCIE bifurcation of x16 into x8/x4/x4), has a JCAT NET XE, also powered externally by a PH SR7T.

 

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Subsequently, I found out that the M2 Optane 800P needed a substantial heatsink as it really gets hot.

 

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All DC cables are Mundorf SG 1.5mm (AWG15.5) wires in oversized 2.5mm Teflon tubes with Jaeger connectors at the source and either another Jaeger or an Oyaide 5.5/2.1 mm DC plug on the other end. Surprisingly, cotton/silk tubing and JSSG360 shielding didn’t really work out for me in this scenario.

 

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In operation, I measured the following current consumption:

-       19V to Taiko:                        2.0 amps

-       12V to EtherRegen:             800 ma

-       12V to JCAT NET XE:         1.25 amps

-       12V to JCAT USB XE:        680 ma

BIOS Settings: After several weeks of trying various combinations, Ive settled on the following settings:

-       Turbo off

-       Hyperthreading off

-       C-States off

-       Onboard Lan Disabled

-       Onboard Audio Disabled

-       SATA disabled

 

Euphony is currently on Version 421 and will try 716 soon

-       Ramroot disabled 

-       CPU isolation is  0-1 stylus 2-5 gstp 6-9. Surprisingly 0-1 gstp 2-5 stylus 6-9 sounded different and worse. Probably because some cores run better than others.

-       Allocating IRQs to specific cores didn’t sound better for me.

 

Many thanks to all AS DiYers who have posted their builds and have unselfishly shared their knowledge and experience!

 

I see you've finally got your system together. Great work! I suppose I should stop expecting the prodding PMs from you now since you'll be busy listening! 😁 (All in good fun).

 

35 minutes ago, ASRMichael said:

Euphony Stylus only needs 1 core, 2 max. I would try allocating more to gstp audio services. 

 

This is spot on. gstp 4-15 worked best for me. Oh and allocating IRQs helped reduce the noise floor in my rig but only if done a specific way. 

 

So, tell us about the sound. How does it compare to what it replaced? What did it replace?

 

Cheers,

-Rob

 

 

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7 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

Well done and great post. I wish I could have the skills to make cables. Or maybe it’s a blessing I don’t! 😂
 

Euphony Stylus only needs 1 core, 2 max. I would try allocating more to gstp audio services. 
 

Cheers again for the post. 

@ASRMichaelmany thanks for the appreciation 🙏🏻 !

Yes, I tried allocating 1/2/3 more )and less) cores to gstp . Sonic character changed but “0-1 stylus 2-5 gstp” still sounded the best.  

 

7 hours ago, Exocer said:

This is spot on. gstp 4-15 worked best for me. Oh and allocating IRQs helped reduce the noise floor in my rig but only if done a specific way. 

 

So, tell us about the sound. How does it compare to what it replaced? What did it replace?

@Exocer Thanks for all the tips you generously shared! Most worked for me and some didn’t but all taught me something. 
 

Compared to the NUC NimitraS (also powered by PH SR7T) that it replaced, the new server is several steps up in all areas. Most notably it has more weight and gravitas, big room filling sound, macro and micro dynamics, more nuance, and much less digital edge/harshness. 

6 hours ago, mrkoven said:

great build @AngeloVRA nice job with the wiring

@mrkovenThanks!!  Yeah, the wiring is the main DIY issue as the rest is just plugging things in.  It also had a notable impact in my system. 
 

38 minutes ago, flkin said:

What an excellent effort @AngeloVRA! Look forward to hearing it! 😄👍🏻

@flkin  also Looking forward to your critique and improvement suggestions next week!! 😀😀
 


 

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On 7/16/2021 at 10:10 PM, Gavin1977 said:

Definitely works - I tried it with Holo Audio May.

JCAT USB Xe works with HQPlayer Windows (Aiso drivers) and embedded to 1.568MHz just fine so long as you have the right firmware on the May.  Software based PCM volume control in HQPlayer didn’t work correctly though with the May for me though, whereas DSD volume control was fine.  I never got to the bottom of that issue.

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12 hours ago, AngeloVRA said:

All DC cables are Mundorf SG 1.5mm (AWG15.5) wires in oversized 2.5mm Teflon tubes with Jaeger connectors at the source and either another Jaeger or an Oyaide 5.5/2.1 mm DC plug on the other end. Surprisingly, cotton/silk tubing and JSSG360 shielding didn’t really work out for me in this scenario.

Thank you for sharing :)

It would be interesting to have, if possible, more details about differences between "teflon tubes" and "cotton/silk tubing, JSSG360 shielding", from a sound point of view

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