Building a DIY Music Server

[RickyV]

2 hours ago, Nenon said:

I don't know the price. It was a four rail Sean Jacobs DS3 LPS, similar to what Innuos uses. Probably best to contact Sean Jacobs for that. http://www.custom-hifi-cables.co.uk/home/power-supplies/dc3-power-supply

I asked Sean if he is willing to sell some boards to the DIY community, but he is currently away. We'll probably get an answer next week.

Yes that would be fantastic if he would sell regulator modules for the DIY community for a fair price. I now use the newclassd 5A regulators.

[rickca]

@Nenon how do those linear regulators work if you are feeding them 3.3V, 5V and 12V?  Don't they need somewhat higher input voltage to be effective?

[Nenon]

10 minutes ago, rickca said:

@Nenon how do those linear regulators work if you are feeding them 3.3V, 5V and 12V?  Don't they need somewhat higher input voltage to be effective?

They need higher voltage. The 3.3V and 5V are fed by ~11 VDC. The 12V by ~19VDC.

[rickca]

4 hours ago, Nenon said:

They need higher voltage. The 3.3V and 5V are fed by ~11 VDC. The 12V by ~19VDC.

Can you tell us more about these regulators?  That seems to be a large voltage drop for linear regulators.  Is it a single stage?  

[amolan]

Hi Nenom,

 

Where did you get this wonderful toroidal ? I never see something like it before.

 

Regards,

 

Alexandre.

[mourip]

On 1/11/2020 at 10:00 AM, Lobbster said:

Thanks for posting this, your attention to detail inspires! 

 

Would you consider less powerful hardware if the only purpose was Roon without any additional processing?

 

In my case all the heavy lifting is at the end of the line, resampling by the network DAC and DSP by the Preamp. I currently use ROCK on a NUC7i5 and am wondering if a new server with AL in Ramroot and netcard bridged to DAC will lift my boat.

 

 

I am running my Roon server with an i3 board in a fanless Streacom case with a JCAT Femto card in it. The server runs Windows 2019 with AO with Roon Core as the shell replacement. I have one 19V power supply to an HDPlex 400 converter and a 5V feed to the OS SSD and music SSD. Bridged JCAT outputs with one going to a NUC running AL ramroot. My purpose in mentioning this is that Roon server by itself does not really require a lot of horsepower and sometimes simpler is better.

 

Not trying to hijack the thread but only to mention that for many a powerful CPU may not be needed or even ideal.

[dminches]

1 hour ago, mourip said:

 

I am running my Roon server with an i3 board in a fanless Streacom case with a JCAT Femto card in it. The server runs Windows 2019 with AO with Roon Core as the shell replacement. I have one 19V power supply to an HDPlex 400 converter and a 5V feed to the OS SSD and music SSD. Bridged JCAT outputs with one going to a NUC running AL ramroot. My purpose in mentioning this is that Roon server by itself does not really require a lot of horsepower and sometimes simpler is better.

 

Not trying to hijack the thread but only to mention that for many a powerful CPU may not be needed or even ideal.

 

I also thought that less powerful CPUs would result in lower noise levels.  However, the folks at Taiko Audio who produce the Extreme and Evo found in their research and over-powered CPUs resulted in better, quieter sound.  I can't confirm this since I haven't heard an Extreme but that's what drove their decision to have a dual Xeon configuration.

 

[Lobbster]

Aren't the Taiko's are doing some very heavy lifting as single box solutions (HQP etc). If it was only a networked server how far do we need to go, or faster is better as long as you can keep processor power consumption to the fanless case limits?

 

The common parts seem to be high VRM Mobo (that sounds good), Apacer Industrial ECC RAM, NetCard, fanless case, shielded cabling and the best power supply you can muster. If the most you're calling on the server is for Volume Leveling in Roon, does an i9900 processor still sound better than lesser alternatives?

 

Any idea which Optical Network Card Taiko is using?

I was thinking about this as an alternative to the JCAT and let my switch do the bridging https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Express-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network/dp/B00LPRRJFG/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=StarTech+PEX1000SFP2&qid=1579018111&sr=8-2

With a couple of StarTech 1000BASE-ZX SFP's

 

Sorry if this is OT.

[dminches]

1 minute ago, Lobbster said:

Aren't the Taiko's are doing some very heavy lifting as single box solutions (HQP etc). If it was only a networked server how far do we need to go, or faster is better as long as you can keep processor power consumption to the fanless case limits?

 

 

The current top-of-the-line Extreme comes configured to run Roon only, not HQP.  It can run HQP but I don't believe that is their recommendation configuration.  The older unit did run HQ Player out of the box.

 

 

[Nenon]

On 1/11/2020 at 10:36 AM, RickyV said:

Where did you get the transformer from and curious about it’s casing. 

 

On 1/14/2020 at 6:05 AM, amolan said:

Where did you get this wonderful toroidal ? I never see something like it before.

 

The transformer is from Toroidy. It's their Supreme Audio Grade V2 version but customized for the requirements of this project. Their transformers are 10x more expensive than similar specs Chinese transformers. I have seen them on some ultra high-end gear recently. The Cerat Kassandra 2 REF DAC comes to mind, but I've seen them at other places too, just can't remember now. They come epoxied in the case by default. 

[amolan]

Hi Nemon,

 

Thanks for your feedback.

[RickyV]

28 minutes ago, Nenon said:

 

 

The transformer is from Toroidy. It's their Supreme Audio Grade V2 version but customized for the requirements of this project. Their transformers are 10x more expensive than similar specs Chinese transformers. I have seen them on some ultra high-end gear recently. The Cerat Kassandra 2 REF DAC comes to mind, but I've seen them at other places too, just can't remember now. They come epoxied in the case by default. 

Thanks for the info didn’t know them. I am using this one for my NUC server and hopefully soon for the eindpoint NUC too. It has 4x21V 2A and cost me about 170 euros.

 

[Nenon]

Thank you for all the comments, suggestions, feedback, messages, etc. You guys are great!

 

I have made some changes to the original configuration.

 

1. I changed the CPU from Intel Core i9-9900 to an Intel Core i9-9900K. I have always used the 9900K in my Intel Core builds. But I wanted to try the lower TDP 9900 instead. However, @StreamFidelity made a good comment, and I changed it back to the i9-9900K. That’s what I am using now. 

 

2. @marce was quick enough to make a comment before I had a chance to make the change. But it was a good comment. I ran separate ground wires from the ATX connector to each regulator. I was planning to do that anyway. It’s done now. I ran the additional ground wires to pins 5 and 7 on the ATX connector.

 

 

3. This may be surprising. I changed the motherboard. It’s a long story, but I always wanted to try the ASUS Z390-I ROG Strix Gaming Intel LGA 1151 mini ITX motherboard. 

I tried it, and I liked it a lot. And I decided to keep the ASUS. It’s great. 

That is consistent with the AMD motherboard I use - ASUS X470-I ROG Strix Gaming AMD AM4 mITX.

 

I am now back on track and will post the few remaining parts of the build soon. 

 

 

[dminches]

Nenon, we need the updated pictures!

 

[rickca]

On 1/13/2020 at 11:45 PM, rickca said:

Can you tell us more about these regulators?  That seems to be a large voltage drop for linear regulators.  Is it a single stage?  

@Nenon I'm still curious about this.  But please carry on with your build first.  So far it looks beautiful.

[Nenon]

19 hours ago, rickca said:

@Nenon I'm still curious about this.  But please carry on with your build first.  So far it looks beautiful.

 

I know I did not respond to you. They are called CHC-REG and are designed by Sean Jacobs. I was looking for a link on his web site but could not find a lot of info. There are two regulators on a board, one board per rail, so it is some kind of dual regulation. I did not want to post too much, provide close up pictures, part numbers, etc. due to respect of Sean's intellectual property. I saw Taiko SGM's regulators on aliexpress the other day cloned by the Chinese and am cautious what I post. 

[Nenon]

Time to make some cables. 

 

 

I use Mundorf 15.5AWG silver/gold wire in organic cotton sleeves, soldered by WBT silver solder, and shielded with JSSG360. 

More about these cables in the following posts:

On 1/4/2020 at 9:53 AM, Nenon said:

Happy New Year, everyone!

 

On the subject of DC cables:

I have experimented with a lot of DC cables - different materials (i.e. silver, copper, silver/gold, different geometries (i.e. starquad, twisted pair, etc.), different insulators (i.e teflon, cotton, etc.), different brands (i.e. Neotech, VHAudio, Mundorf, etc.), different gauges, and even with different connectors where possible. I can write pages and pages on my experience with DC cables so far, but here are my two recommendations.

 

1. For a budget DC cable, it's hard to beat the 16 AWG Ghent Audio Neotech 7N copper cable  with JSSG360 shielding. It's a no brainer and easy recommendation. 

 

2. My absolute favorite is the Mundorf 15.5 AWG Silver / Gold wire - https://www.partsconnexion.com/MUNDORF-72180.html. Wrap each wire in a cotton sleeve (not mandatory), twist the two wires together, solder it with good solder (I use WBT solder with silver content), and you will be amazed. 

 

I had an audio designer/manufacturer at my house a couple of weeks ago, and I was telling him how big of a difference the DC wires make. I currently use 6 rails on my computer. I told him to pick one of the 6 cables, and I will replace the Silver/Gold cable with the 16 AWG Neotech 7N copper / JSSG360 from Ghent. He picked a random rail. I replaced one of the cables on that rail, and our jaws dropped. The silver/gold wire sounded so much better. Don't get this the wrong way, though. The Ghent cable is a huge upgrade to any stock cables. But the silver/gold takes your system to another level. 

 

I don't know how they compare to the Paul Hynes cables, but I would put them against anything out there and don't think they would embarrass. They do take some break-in time, though. But they sound great from day one.

 

These cables are easy to make if you can solder. Hit me on PM if you have questions how to make them. I've made a few for friends and am willing to make a few more just so we can spread the word out. But my spare time is more valuable and I don't plan to spend it making cables :). Just a couple, so we can gather more feedback in different systems. 

 

On 1/4/2020 at 8:22 PM, Nenon said:

 

I don't want to derail this thread with DIY cables, there are plenty of other threads on that, but for completeness, here is what you need for 1 foot cable:

 

Wire: https://www.partsconnexion.com/MUNDORF-72180.html - 2 feet

Cotton: https://www.partsconnexion.com/COTTUBE-72533.html - 2 feet

Whatever connectors you need, i.e. https://www.vhaudio.com/oyaide-dc.html

Techflex cable sleeving to decorate the cable: https://www.vhaudio.com/heatshrink.html#techflex - 1 foot + a little extra

And some heatshrink: https://www.vhaudio.com/heatshrink.html#heatshrink - 2 pieces to go over the connectors

I use WBT solder: https://www.vhaudio.com/heatshrink.html#solder - 1 foot is plenty

 

For the JSSG360 shielding, you would need some tinned copper braid. Plenty of options on that:

https://www.partsconnexion.com/tinned-copper-braid.html

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003HGHQYM/

the 1/4'' should be fine for a two wires cable.

and some plumbers tape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XCWQ4D2/

There is a lot of info how to do the shielding, please search the forum.

 

Making the cable:

Cut two wires to your preferred length.

Insert each wire in its own cotton sleeve.

Slightly twist the two wires together. BTW, I just realized I have not twisted mine. 

Insert the twisted wires in the first tinned copper braid.

Wrap the tinned copper braid with plumbers tape.

Insert in the second tinned copper braid.

Do the JSSG360 shielding - connect the first braid and the second braid on each side. 

Insert in the techflex cable sleeving.

Add heatshrink at both ends.

Solder the connectors (don't forget to insert the back part of the connector before soldering). 

Heat the heatshrink in place. 

 

Hope that helps. Please share your impressions if you try it. 

 

Here is how the cables look inside:

 

I need 4 umbilical cords for this build. 

- The regulators for the PinkFaun USB bridge with ultraOCXO clocks are inside the power supply chassis. That one would need a GX16-2 to DC2.5 connector.

- The other 3 umbilical cords are for connecting the two chassis (for the 3.3VDC, 5VDC, and 12VDC ATX connector). 

The Voltages feeding the 3.3V and 5V regulators are the same. So it is safe to use the same connectors and cables (GX16-3 pin in this case). They are slightly different, because one of these rails is 5A, the other is 1.5A. But nothing would explode if you mistakenly swap them. However, as it can be seen on the picture below, the 1 foot cables are short enough, and it would be difficult to connect them wrong... swapping out #2 and #3 from the picture below would require some creativity as one of the cables would be almost impossible to reach. 

The fourth cable is a GX16-4 pin. That's a higher voltage, and it's important to make it impossible to plug it in the wrong hole. Hence, the 4-pin connector. 

There is a fifth cable in the picture - the long one - that is going to an external Sean Jacobs LPS and will power the CPU/EPS. I like that, because we not only have a dedicated rail for the CPU but also a dedicated toroidal transformer. That provides an extra level of power isolation. And the CPU is the best to isolate. Of course that means another power cord, fuse, vibration treatment, etc.

 

Btw, these cables are very flexible and stay the way you bend them without fighting to go back to their original position. They are the best DC cables I have heard. Highly recommended.

 

EDIT: Here is a step by step guide on how to make these cables:

7 hours ago, elan120 said:

Cables...

 

After having the EPS and ATX power supply built, I now move into cable making phase, while working on the first cable, I decided to record the sequence in more details to share here, hopefully this will help more people interested in trying out the long discussed Mundorf solid core silver JSSG360 DC cable.

 

1. Slide cotton tube over the Mundorf solid core silver hook up wire.

 

2. Solder wires to the connector.  In this cable, I have GX16-4 on one end and Oyaide DC-2.1G on the other end.  I started this wire from the GX16-4 side.

 

3. After the wires are soldered, slide a short heat shrink tubing over the cotten tubes to help protect the end.

 

4. Reassemble the GX16-4 connector.

 

5. Twist the two wires.

 

6. Getting the Oyaide DC-2.1G side ready.  Slide the connector outer shell over the wires, cut two pieces of heat shrink tubing.  The smaller diameter one is to protect the positive lead after wire is soldered to the connector, and the larger diameter heat shrink tubing is to help protect the cotton tube ends.

 

7. Solder wires to the connector.  It is easier to solder the negative lead to the connector first, and then solder the positive lead.

 

8. Heat shrink the smaller tubing over the positive lead solder join.

 

9. Slide the larger heat shrink tube over the end of cotton tube.

 

10. Test the connector to make sure wires soldered is open.

 

11. Slide the outer shell over the connector.  It is a good idea to check continuity again after the connector is reassembled.

 

12. Base cable completed.

 

13. Now we will start working on JSSG360 shielding by sliding the tinned copper braid over the base cable from the Oyaide connector side.

 

14. Wrap the tinned copper braid with teflon thread tape.  It is easier to work with using 1" wide gas pipe tape.

 

15. Teflon tape wrapped cable.

 

16. Before sliding the second layer tinned copper braid, wrap a short section of teflon tape over the end of first tinned copper braid to protect the end and prevent the wires from braid from interfere with the second layer tinned copper braid while sliding over the first one.

 

17. After the second layer tinned copper braid is slided over the first layer, don't forget to remove that short section teflon tape.

 

18. Cut one piece of adhesive lined heat shrink tubing and slide them over the end of two tinned copper braids.

 

19. Apply heat to heat shrink tubing.

 

20. Do the same two steps (18 and 19) above for the Oyaide connector side.

 

21. Check continuity between the tinned copper braid and the connector to ensure it is open.

 

22. JSSG360 shielding completed.

 

23. Next is to dress up the cable by cutting the Techflex sleeving to proper length and then slide over the JSSG360 shielding completed cable.

 

24.  Final step is using the same adhesive lined heat shrink tubing to bond them together.

 

 

Hope these are clear and simple to follow.  Enjoy building them.

 

I will now move on to work on ATX and EPS cables.

 

 

Okay, let's fire up this guy now... if I don't post in a while it either exploded or I am really enjoying the music 

[Lobbster]

Wow, this thread is a treasure - thank you !

 

Interesting that you swapped mobos. I was googling 'which mini itx motherboard highest vrm' and the Asus was high on everyone's lists. So the RAM is non-ECC?

 

Great post!

[Nenon]

1 hour ago, Lobbster said:

Wow, this thread is a treasure - thank you !

 

Interesting that you swapped mobos. I was googling 'which mini itx motherboard highest vrm' and the Asus was high on everyone's lists. So the RAM is non-ECC?

 

Great post!

 

Yes, the Asus is really good. I had good experience with the AMD ASUS ROG. This one is arguably even better. 

The Apacer RAM is non-ECC. The exact model number is D11.2318FS.004. I just added that to my first post with specs. 

On this topic I have something interesting to report - this motherboard works with ECC RAM, but it uses it as Non-ECC. Oh, well... just when I thought I was done with RAM comparisons...  

[Nenon]

The server powered up just fine. I had some issues with a defective AsRock motherboard, which I replaced, but I ended up switching to the ASUS as mentioned in one of my previous posts. The ASUS is rock solid. I like it a lot. 

I did some quick BIOS tweaks for now but will go back there later to dive a little deeper. Basically I disabled everything that is not necessary - Wifi, Bluetooth, audio card, onboard NIC, LED lighting, etc. etc. I made sure the memory is running at 2666, made some tweaks of the CPU performance, disabled fan monitoring and so on.

 

The 32 GB Optane card is mounted on the M.2 slot on the bottom of the motherboard. The BIOS saw it without a problem. I will be using it for the OS later. I booted Euphony from a USB drive. All good! It started playing right away. The CPU temperatures are not bad after playing for several hours:

 

I did not want to transfer the Euphony license yet as it is used somewhere else currently. Plus I needed to contact Euphony support for that. Euphony does not let you install the OS on a hard drive (or Optane card in my case) if you don't have a license. But there is a trick I used. I have described it here:

On 6/30/2019 at 4:53 PM, Nenon said:

In my system Euphony sounds better when loaded from my Optane card compared to loading from a USB Drive. But the trial version does not let you install the image on your SSD or Optane card. I think this is a bad decision on Euphony’s side, because you cannot test the full potential of Euphony. However, it’s not difficult to install the image to your Optane card or hard drive/SSD from the command line. Here is a quick guide for those who want to try it. Important: All the data on your Optane card would be deleted. Make sure you know what you are doing. 

 

You would need to load a version of Linux on your server. You would also need to have root access to that Linux installation. In my case, I already have AudioLinux on a USB drive, so that's what I am using as an example below. Ssh to your server (username: audiolinux  /  password: audiolinux). Exit the Menu (CTRL+C). Type 'su'. When prompted for password, type audiolinux0. You now have root access.

1. Find the device name of your Optane card by examining the output of the  ‘fdisk -l’ command. In my case, it is /dev/nvme0n1.
2. Download the Euphony image: Run ‘wget http://euphonyimage-798b.kxcdn.com/euphony20190522v3.img.gz'. Find the most recent link from the Euphony web site. 
3. Install the image. First, run ‘ls’ to find the file name of the image. In my case, it is euphony20190522v3.img.gz. Run the following command: ‘gunzip -c euphony20190522v3.img.gz | dd of=/dev/nvme0n1’. Adjust the command with the correct image file name and device name (from #1 above) if needed.

Reboot and boot from your Optane card. Enjoy!

 

I booted to Audio Linux since I had this USB handy and needed root access. Downloaded the Euphony image and installed it on the Optane card per the instructions from the quoted post above. Removed the USB, rebooted, and all good - Euphony booted from the Optane card.

 

The things I configure in Euphony that make an audible sound quality difference are:

• Disable the software volume control on the DAC
• Buffer before play = 100%
• Use cache
• Enable ramroot

I will go back later and configure CPU isolation, but not now…

 

I configured Qobuz and access to my NAS-based music library and let it play. This computer would have a long burn-in process and will continue to improve in the next 3 months. But I am not done with it. Some finishing touches  and more pictures next. Stay tuned.

[LJONESATL]

Thanks Nenon.  You are a wealth of information. 

[Chopin75]

Thanks for posting this!

[austinpop]

Loving this thread, Brilliant stuff!

[Dutch]

Very interesting stuff in this thread, thank you for sharing @Nenon!

 

Did you BTW consider the other Asus heavyweight that would fit this case (though micro-ATX) the ROG Maximum XI Gene? It has two PCIe slots.

[StreamFidelity]

21 minutes ago, Dutch said:

ROG Maximum XI Gene

 

I am not referring to it, but I answer anyway. 😁

I use the ROG MAXIMUS XI GENE and it fits perfectly into Streacom FC9 Alpha (Black) - Desktop - micro ATX with HDPLEX 800W DC-ATX. I'm excited.