Exocer Posted October 9, 2020 Share Posted October 9, 2020 On 10/6/2020 at 1:45 AM, Soul Analogue said: I have used Connor winfield ocxo with great result...just note that the buffalo only works with LVCMOS output clocks....CMOS output does not work This sounds interesting. It would be great if you could share some more details of the Connor Winfield clock you've used. lwr 1 Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 On 10/9/2020 at 2:15 PM, Exocer said: This sounds interesting. It would be great if you could share some more details of the Connor Winfield clock you've used. After a brief chat with Soul Analogue, he confirmed that the following clocks should work with the Buffalo Switches: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/connor-winfield/OH4610LF-025-0M/5641634 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/connor-winfield/DOCSC012F-025-0M/7100177 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/connor-winfield/DOCSC022F-025-0M/5399016 I would not know where to begin so I will do some digging and report back when time permits. Brief update on the new Mundorf Silver/Gold "24" pin ATX connector... I have doubled the ground and 5v cables and the system feels a bit more smooth/effortless. Not sure how else to describe it. Nenon 1 Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 22 minutes ago, tgb said: I think I'll have a try with the OH4510LF. I have a MPaudio module to deliver a nice a 3.3VDC... I guess it could work. You're welcome, all I did was look up LVCMOS OCXOs @ 25Mhz on Digikey and @Soul Analogue confirmed the results. @tgb, looking forward to your project with the OH4510LF. Best of luck, and hopefully the results are worthwhile! lwr 1 Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 19 minutes ago, Soul Analogue said: Managed to take sometime to do the wirings for the LPS during the weedend..... Looks very well built! What will this be replacing? Interested in your before and after impressions. Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 2 hours ago, Soul Analogue said: nth is replaced...it is just my first attempt of LPS to power the EPYC.... not bother to listen CAS with SMPS ATX psu....not even with ATX DC converter module.... Acknowledged. You could have also replaced a less prominent off the shelf LPS for all I know 😀, but I see and agree with your approach although I am indeed listening with an SMPS for now. Hopefully this changes soon. Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 41 minutes ago, ASRMichael said: Looking forward to any joint ventures you have together. @Nenon Ditto this. Excited for the further advancements you will bring to the DIY community. Sean Jacobs has been a pleasure for me to do business with. Great guy! Nenon 1 Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 47 minutes ago, Nenon said: I am confused by this question. The Ubiquiti Edge Router is a router. D-Link DGS-1210-10 and Buffalo BS-GS2016 are switches. So I did not chooses the Ubiquiti Edge Router over the D-Link/Buffalo. I use both. We've talked about this, but here is my story on network equipment and how it all started. Some time ago, I looked at my network, and decided to try a couple of things there. My Internet provider (Xfinity but also most ISPs in the US) send you an all-in-one network device that has at least 4 functions. It's a cable modem, a network router, a WiFi access point, and a network switch. Some have more features like phone gateways, firewalls, etc. Given that it does so many functions, it is: a. a cheap and crappy device that does a lot of things but nothing really good; and b. a device that has somewhat high current requirements (in order to be able to perform all functions). Because of “b” it does not come with a typical 12V / 1A brick power adapter, but you have to connect it to the mains and it has a built-in SMPS. In other words, not easy to power up with a LPS unless you open it and do some mods. I thought, what if I can find an all-in-one device that can accept DC power. I started looking for one, talked to several people at Comcast/Xfinity, but it turned out there is no device with DC input that is certified by my ISP for my area. This is when I started looking at what other options I've had. And I realized that I would have to use separate devices. It made sense to try that. We don’t use surround receivers that can do everything in our high-end 2-channel systems. We use separates. Let’s try this with the network equipment, which in a way can be considered a “source” for our audio system when streaming Tidal/Qobuz. I decided to try using a separate cable modem (just a modem without any other features) and a generic Wifi Router. That was an immediate (small) improvement even before powering with LPS. Then I powered the cable modem with a LPS and that was a bigger improvement. Then I tested different cable modems and realized that they make a difference too. There were two modems I liked, but I eventually settled on the Arris SB8200 cable modem that takes 12V DC. At this stage my network looked like this: Arris SB8200 cable modem (powered by LPS) --> Linksys WiFi Router --> audio network. The next step was to revise the Linksys WiFi Router part. I tried powering it with LPS. It was an improvement but still noisy. I suspected the WiFi part of it was the noisiest part, so I decided to try splitting this into two components - a simple router and a WiFi access point. I started looking for well designed and very simple routers. I wanted to get something that accepts DC power, does not consume a lot, and it's a solidly designed but yet simple router. The $59 Ubiquiti EdgeRouter seemed really good. I bought one and it turned out it sounded really really good when powered by a LPS. Big improvement. My network at that stage was: Arris SB8200 cable modem (powered by LPS) --> Ubiquiti Edge Router X --> audio network on one port of the router; WiFi router on another port of the router The next step was to decide what to do with the WiFi. I still thought my WiFI router / access point was generating a lot of noise. The general wisdom in the forums was to galvanically isolate (with fiber optic) the audio network from the router/modem/WiFi. But what I have noticed was that the fiber optic changes the sound, and not necessarily for good. And I thought that approach was wrong in general. I kept asking myself an interesting question. What part of my network is my "audio network" and is the cable modem and router a part of it? Absolutely, they are a part of the audio network, so that type of galvanic isolation did not make a lot of sense to me. What I mean by that is that if fiber changes the sound, I should be careful where and how I use it. And also I should consider the upstream devices to be part of my source and treat them as if they were a part of my system. This is when I came up with a little unusual solution here - instead of galvanically isolating my audio network from the modem/router/WiFi, I considered the cable modem and router to be a part of my audio network and galvanically isolated the WiFi and the rest of my home network from everything else. In order to do that, it would have been best to have a router that has an SFP (fiber optic) port. This is when I decided to try the $99 Ubiquiti Edge Router X SFP. It is essentially the same router as the Ubiquiti Edge Router X but with one SFP port. Both routers sounded the same. The only difference was that one had a SFP port. The next experiment was interesting, though. My network at this point was the same: Arris SB8200 cable modem (powered by LPS) --> Ubiquiti Edge Router X SFP --> audio network on one port of the router; WiFi router on another port of the router But now I had the opportunity to move the WiFi router to the SFP port, which would essentially galvanically isolate the WiFi (and my home network) from the rest of the network. I also had to use a fiber media convertor for that. Connectivity between the router and WiFi looked like this: Ubiquiti Edge Router X SFP (SFP port) —fiber—> Fiber media convertor —copper—-> WiFi access point I did quite a few tests but quickly realized that galvanically isolating my WiFi was a clear winner. Also, please note that in this set up the power supply of the fiber media convertor or the ethernet copper cable to the Wifi access point did not make a difference. My network since then has been: Arris SB8200 cable modem (powered by LPS) --> Ubiquiti Edge Router X SFP --> audio network on one port of the router; WiFi router connected (with the help of a fiber media convertor) with fiber optical cable to the SFP port on the router. All that took place last year. I shared with some friend and on a couple of forums, and people who tried it liked that approach. A year later, I look at people's signatures (systems) and can't believe how many people are using the Ubiquiti Edge Router X SFP router. The Ubiquiti router and the cable modem are not designed for audiophiles. They are in a small, compact, cheap case. People with resolving systems know that vibration isolation on network devices matters. Just moving them to a better case would actually be an improvement. This is how I started thinking about this project - create a better case with the Gaia feet I've used in some of my projects. But now that I am working with Sean, it would be really cool to also add two rails of his power supply. One to power up the router and one to power up an external network device such as a cable modem. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I am doing this for myself. But if it turns out to be something good, I can make a couple of units for people to try. And if I get a positive feedback, we can make it a product. But I need to be careful now what I am posting and obey the forum rules. Hopefully my story above makes sense and helps some people to improve their networks, and respectively their streaming quality. Thanks Nenon, FWIW, I believe @RickyVmeant the Juniper SRX300, which is a router with the Broadcom chipset. @seeteeyoumentioned this as well when I asked the same question a page or so ago. Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 42 minutes ago, Superdad said: I would not bother with any of those C-W clocks you linked to. Phase-performance of those is far worse than a good Crystek $10 XO. All you get with a $58 OCXO (besides a current-hog for the oven and a huge footprint) is a bit of frequency stability—something which matters not at all in the application. To get decent low phase noise from an OCXO you either have to pay $350+ (and that’s at 200+ quantity) or scavenge particular clocks off of retiring 4G cell tower boards (that’s what the Chinese ham guy BG7TBL does; in fact the -125dBc/Hz at 10Hz offset 10MHz units he offers for $90 in a box are a steal). Thank you @Superdad. The BG7TBL does provide an audible improvement in my system feeding the ER, itself powered by the LPS 1.2 @ 12v. Mine came with the FE-180 and not the DAPU. For switches which are not ready to accept reference 10mhz clock input (the Buffalo in this case) something like the CW would seem like an improvement over the stock clocks although I do not know the specs of the included clocks. I'm guessing Crystek or SiTime clocks are the only worthwhile replacements. Aside from the Uber expensive PF clock, and CW clocks, options appear to be a bit slim. It would be nice to use the extra two outputs on my BG7TBL for something 😁. Edit: @tgb you may be interested in this info as well. Superdad 1 Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 34 minutes ago, Superdad said: The SiTime MEMS oscillators do not offer very low phase-noise performance at all. Even the SiT5711 favored by some (probably for its 3.3V input, small footprint, programmability, and fancy gold color) is only -109dBc/Hz (at 10Hz offset for 10MHz unit). For comparison the $10 25MHz Crystek 575s we use are running about -108 to -112. Compensating for the 2.5 octave difference that -110dBc/Hz average equates to about -119 if that 25MHz Crystek was a 10MHz clock. So why pay $150 for just unneeded long-term frequency stability. For these applications it does not matter at all if the frequency drifts a tiny bit over time! The ruggedness of the SiT5711 is something we will give it. As a MEMS device it will perform better in a vibrational environment that most crystal-based clocks. But still not low phase-noise... Well what frequencies are you looking for? There are (from Crystek, NDK, and a couple of others), some very low-phase noise XOs under $100. But finding stock for 24.0MHz and 25.0MHz is not easy (whereas the audio-related rates of 22.5792MHz and 24.576MHz and x2 those are readily available). But those will not get you into the -125dBc/Hz to -140dBc/Hz (@10Hz for a 10MHz) that a fine SC cut OCXO will. But there you are looking at $375-$875 per piece... And again, don't look to Connor Windfield for those (C-W is in the -90 to -100 range at best). Spend some time at Dove and your head will spin: https://www.doveonline.com Here is a nice clock: https://www.taitien.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/XO-0136_NJ-10M-6800_series.pdf -135 at 10Hz is a nice place to start! But don't ask the price or lead time... Or really go for it with one of these: http://magicxtal.com/products/?S=20&C=36&I=82 -120 at 1Hz!, -144 at 10Hz. Those are $1,200 each if you order five pieces... Indeed. But not without a really good programmable synthesizer to make the frequencies you want... Very informative post! Thank you. Taking a moment to process it all... As for frequencies, we are interested in 25mhz LVCMOS output in this context. It would be great if it were at least possible to equal the (supposed, and unmeasured) -125dbc/hz of my reference clock. As for programmable synthesizers, I would not know where to begin with this approach but it does sound intriguing to research further. Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 16 minutes ago, basillus said: Andrea Mori at diyaudio have developed them the last 15 years, but still it looks like, that I am the only one, there is interested in his 25MHz or 6.25MHz crystal GB with his new clockboards and I don’t understand why and the price isn`t near PinkFaun, but maybe the crystal and clockboards are... Sorry, it is frustrating. ;0) It would be great if you (or Andrea) could provide some datasheets with specs. Is there a URL? Phase noise specs at 10MHZ appears to be one of the defacto specs which would interest us, also, frequency stability. Perhaps that will allow some of the industry pros (and those of us learning) to weigh in on performance and increase interest level :). Link to comment
Exocer Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 1 hour ago, basillus said: It`s a long thread, but here are a couple of links, but there are many other “test” in his threads. Andrea does it in his sparetime and is a hobbyist. https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/261651-tempered-master-clock-building-low-phase-noise-jitter-crystal-oscillator-post6360033.html https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/261651-tempered-master-clock-building-low-phase-noise-jitter-crystal-oscillator-post6368700.html https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/261651-tempered-master-clock-building-low-phase-noise-jitter-crystal-oscillator-post6345475.html The specs do look very good per my untrained eye. @ around 10hz they are all at least -120dbc/hz at 10Hz. Any info on the form factor? Edit: I see the photos of the form factor. This could be an interesting alternative. Will do some further digging on the thread for pricing info etc. Link to comment
Exocer Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 @jean-michel6 thanks for sharing your experience going the SoC route. I will most likely follow suit as I contemplate my upgrade path from an ITX motherboard an i7 8700T. In other news, I have completed my MPAudio dual output LPSU. It uses a pair of ALS-HPULN modules, Mundorf Silver/Gold 15.5 AWG wire and GX-16 connectors. Output is measure at a perfect 5V. I chose not to shorten the transformer wires in the event that I want to replace it later and re-adjust the module for higher voltage. The intended usecase is for whichever audiophile-specific USB/Ethernet card I go with in the future. This is my first attempt at this so please do not hold back on criticisms 🙂. I also have a Sean Jacobs DC3 12v LPSU in the works. After all of the recent talk of 10v I wish I would have had Sean tune the modules for 10v output ;). The plan, to break in both LPSUs is to try various combinations of 5v/12v on my pair of Buffalo switches. OAudio 1 Link to comment
Exocer Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 7 hours ago, Soul Analogue said: Not bad for a first attempt. What is the current spec of each rail? The Primary (Live and Neutral) and Secondary transfo wires and output wires had better be twisted for "natural" RFI/EMI rejection. The chassis had better connected to the mains ground, for two reasons: shielding and safety (it keeps you alive if the mains happened to be shorted and you happened to touch it) Link to comment
Exocer Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 19 hours ago, Soul Analogue said: Not bad for a first attempt. What is the current spec of each rail? The Primary (Live and Neutral) and Secondary transfo wires and output wires had better be twisted for "natural" RFI/EMI rejection. The chassis had better connected to the mains ground, for two reasons: shielding and safety (it keeps you alive if the mains happened to be shorted and you happened to touch it) I have speced each rail for up to 3A output at 5v with this transformer. giving 5.7V per rail. I misread your question. @Nenon- hopefully you do not mind these posts :). SJ DC3 is a work in progress now and I should have some pictures tomorrow evening. Link to comment
Exocer Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 41 minutes ago, Csaba said: The configuration of my new Control PC is shaping nicely and I have been thinking about the following build: Morherboard: ASUS Z390-I ROG Strix Gaming mini ITX (familiar to many of you as I am following some recommendations regarding previous builds) CPU: i9-9900 (not the K version, as I am a little bit afraid of overheating in Streacom FC-10 case) RAM: 2 x 8Gb Apacer ECC RAM (D31.23245S.001) Hope it will be compatible with the motherboard. Any experience with this specific RAM under the mentioned item number? Boot drive for OS and Roon Core: Could you please advice a new Optane model, as MEMPEK1W032GAXT is not available anymore? Storage drive: Would need 1Tb or 2Tb internal storage. Your kind advice would be highly appreciated and were thinking about M2 SSD. There are cheaper solutions but concerned those will generate more noise. Thank you very much in advance for your advice. I use this exact RAM with the Asus z390-i ROG Srix motherboard. Zero compatibility issues. Csaba 1 Link to comment
Exocer Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 @Soul Analogue - A job well done. In admiration of your creativity and technical skills. Do you have access to any of high end commercial offerings to perform comparisons? Also, interested in learning about what you're upgrading from with this build. Cheers! -Rob Link to comment
Exocer Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 5 hours ago, Nenon said: I am cleaning up some of my older parts and servers and have one of my previous AMD builds that is collecting dust. Specs are: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-I Gaming mini-ITX motherboard 2 x 4GB Apacer D31.23185S.001 32GB Optane MEMPEK1J032GA01 Streacom FC9 ALPHA HTPC Chassis Gaia feet As you can see in the pictures I have installed a heavy duty Jaeger connector (really the best I could find) for the CPU/EPS connector. I can provide the matching connector on the other side. There is also a m.2 to PCIe extender installed in case you need to use two PCIe card. I had the USB card installed on the motherboard PCIe slot and the network card installed on the extender part. There is a m.2 Optane card on the bottom m.2 slot with Euphony installed (license is not included). I have some additional connectors (DC connectors and a grounding post) installed on the back side: They currently go to 4 x Sean Jacobs regulators. Unfortunately, I would have to remove those. Sean has an agreement with Innuos not to sell regulators inside a computer. Now that I am affiliated with Sean, I would rather not cause troubles. Although I made this way before I had any affiliation with Sean. Too bad, because that was an excellent power supply, and a lot of Mundorf silver/gold wire will get wasted. I can help the new owner with some advices on how to power it up. When I remove the regulators, I estimate there are about $1500 in parts inside. I haven't decided how much to sell it for. When I do, I will list it. But if you have any questions feel free to PM me. If you add USB and NET cards and a good power supply this would be a very competitive server/streamer! Easy starting project for someone who wants to get involved with DIY server building. Solid build. Still contemplating whether to go i9 9900k or to upgrade to full ATX z490/w480 based board with top tier 10 gen CPU. Leaning towards the latter for the built in remote management functionality. It would be great to not have to drag my server to another room and connect my desktop monitor to play with RAM settings :). Link to comment
Exocer Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 5 minutes ago, Nenon said: Cut the +12V wires on the 24-pin ATX connector. For the Asus ROG Strix i z390 from your first build in this thread, will one need to omit the +12v wires from the 24 pin if using a dedicated 12v EPS rail? Link to comment
Exocer Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Thanks @seeteeyou,I am looking forward trying Windows eventually. For those who have tried both Linux and Windows, is there an opinion on which one sounds better with streaming? Or is this too general of a question, given the multitude of configurations/flavors possible with both? Cheers, Link to comment
Exocer Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 53 minutes ago, Nenon said: With my dual Xeon server, I prefer a stripped-down version of Windows LTSC and process Lasso to configure process affinities. This sounds better than Euphony on that particular server. Also an advantage of Windows is the ASIO driver that you can install and configure Interesting. Is it fair to say that the process lasso benefits would likely not translate to a single CPU server? Process Lasso seems useful for both single CPU servers and dual CPU servers on paper. Wondering how close one of your amazing single CPU systems could get to your dual Xeon, using the same Windows OS/affinity control. Link to comment
Exocer Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 1 hour ago, Exocer said: Interesting. Is it fair to say that the process lasso benefits would likely not translate to a single CPU server? Process Lasso seems useful for both single CPU servers and dual CPU servers on paper. Wondering how close one of your amazing single CPU systems could get to your dual Xeon, using the same Windows OS/affinity control. I will try on my own and report back my findings in due time 😎. No dual CPU rig to compare with though..... It will be a Linux/Windows comparison. Link to comment
Popular Post Exocer Posted December 9, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 9, 2020 16 minutes ago, dminches said: Based on my experience, I would give the power supply the largest rating and I think it is the limiting factor. Going to a Sean Jacobs DC4 was a game changer. Not only is it a great power supply but it allowed me to increase the max CPU frequency and turn on things like hyperthreading in the BIOS. Before this I had to limit things. Also, software needs to have multiple factors. There are operating system choices and music playback options. And then you have Lasso and Audiophile Optimizer, among other add-ons. Most definitely. Upgrading to the PH SR7T provided the biggest improvement to date in my system. It exceeded my expectations and continues to improve just several weeks in. bit01, mikicasellas and dminches 1 2 Link to comment
Exocer Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Dev said: In terms of tweaking, Linux is a bigger rabbit hole than Windows if you are proficient not only in terms of OS customization but also you could modify at the source code level which is not possible with Windows. when I moved from Windows to Daphile, I started liking what I heard but that slowly turned into a desire of wanting to do something more myself and that lead me to Audiolinux as Daphile is closed door. With Audiolinux, you would tweak something and then listen to compare even if I was happy prior to tweaking. It’s just the desire of wanting something more which slowly turned into an obsession. This went for a while, until I realized that I was no longer enjoying music as I used to but enjoyed tweaking on almost everyday basic. Nothing wrong tweaking, but this is not what I wanted and I am glad that there is Euphony to rescue. Not only Euphony sounds better than Audiolinux in “my” system, it also takes the headache of tweaking out of the equation by completely closing its doors (well only a very limited set which is very much manageable). it’s possible that Audiolinux hasn’t been tweaked to the extent it needs to be to compete with Euphony but I have no time nor desire to do this endlessly. This is why I am also reluctant to experiment with Windows. It’s my poison so far ☠️ But who knows I might change my mind later 😉 @lmitche you haven’t mentioned what those tweaks are which makes Audiolinux better than Euphony. Maybe it’s a trade secret or something you are selling ? Is there a tweaked version of Audiolinux that can be paid/bought ? 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. If you are selling something packaged (s/w only) similar to Euphony, please post some details as I am interested (and so are many here I guess), otherwise it really doesn’t help much for those of us who have no desire to tweak Audiolinux. on SQ and how much does OS, cabling and h/w, power supply helps - IMO, they are all equally important and I would put equal weights on each of them. To get the best SQ out of a particular system, they all have equal role to play and has a cumulative effect to the overall sound. You have encouraged me to try Euphony Stylus this evening and I am smiling from ear to ear with what I am hearing. The only downside is I was going to purchase an HQPE license just for the ability to use convolution filters (I have created some in REW recently and was very happy with them in combination with HQPE). I see no way to import these filters into Euphony based HQPE...so I need to read up on how to do that or reach out to support. I will purchase a Euphony license because it sounds A LOT better than what i'm used to (in my system). CPU is running 4 degrees cooler, the UI and mobile app are working well and i'm hearing major improvements in the PRAT department with zero CPU isolation or tweaks. All i've done is set tracks to buffer 100% before playing and enable Ram Root. Looking forward to a longer listening session tomorrow. Dev 1 Link to comment
Exocer Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 29 minutes ago, Holzohr said: You can open the HQPe setting page under ip_address_of_your_euphony:8089 user: euphony password: euphony This worked. Thank you! I was looking on the wrong port. Holzohr 1 Link to comment
Exocer Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 Earlier today I tested using motherboard USB output after having used this inexpensive PCI-E card for the last several months: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-2-Port-10Gbps-USB-USB-C/dp/B0897XXRXT/ref=pd_di_sccai_3/132-7185029-0609406?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0897XXRXT&pd_rd_r=4823990c-e545-49a8-95ef-b5d3079bc29b&pd_rd_w=Bifh4&pd_rd_wg=StAmc&pf_rd_p=c9443270-b914-4430-a90b-72e3e7e784e0&pf_rd_r=BDC3SZY063PYCNAHGP2D&psc=1&refRID=BDC3SZY063PYCNAHGP2D The above card is connected via the only direct to CPU PCI-E slot available on my Mini ITX board. The goal: To move my Startech NIC to the PCI-E (away from NVME to PCI-E converter) slot if motherboard USB sounded equal to the cheap ASM3142 based PCI-E card. Results using motherboard (USB 2.0 slots, via PCH): 1. Soundstage is a bit smaller. 2. A very noticeable amount of texture and detail is lost, especially in the low frequencies and midrange. 3. The presentation is "softer" sounding, not as "square". 4. High frequencies are a bit rolled off. 5. Background isn't as "black". Does it sound good though? YES, very good. Can see how this presentation would probably be preferable to those who prefer a more laidback less hyper detailed presentation. But it did not equal the cheap PCI-E card for me and I prefer the latter. Can't wait to get my hands on a JCAT Femto USB XE. Moral of the story: These cheap PCI-E USB cards provide a noticeable gain in SQ on the cheap. Happy listening all! ASRMichael 1 Link to comment
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