Building a DIY Music Server

[MarcelNL]

4 minutes ago, Downtheline said:

Nope Anil's from Whatsbest forum. Jay's looks nice though. I actually wanted a black one but his wasn't yet available when I got mine! 

Just out of sheer curiosity, what does one buy when selling an Extreme?

 

[MarcelNL]

O jeeezzz, so you are saying that once I go mono when the RCA 70A arrives I am done with digital?

[MarcelNL]

I owuld not doubt the difference, or relate it to something being wrong...IME getting phase aligned or timing correct has a large impact on how our brain suddenly is freed up from doing sound processing allowing us to hear all notes much more clearly and that often has a large impact on bass.

[MarcelNL]

I'm keen on hearing your verdict on Palladium and Platinum, I'm currently evaluating a.o. those metals as capacitor and found they have a very distinct fingerprint (more difficult to assess with multiple coatings over (hopefully0 red copper but still.

[MarcelNL]

looking forward to your findings!

[MarcelNL]

5 hours ago, Gavin1977 said:

How long does it take Nenon v3 to warm up, do people leave theirs powered 24/7?

yup, where breakin in may be speeded u by stwitching on and off  few times.

[MarcelNL]

2 minutes ago, oneguy said:

You’re probably probably looking at 200€ and 30-35 days lead time. That’s what I was quoted at. 

sounds familiar...yet the saligny power is a simple screw on system, so you should be able to drop it in without having to cut any wire after unsoldering the normal Saligny.

 

 

[MarcelNL]

Interesting to see the rectifier arrived in the US earlier than at my house not a hundred miles or so away, same happened when the ATX shipped.

 

[MarcelNL]

1 hour ago, JayM said:

Some people who had additional orders with us received their Caps/rectifiers earlier (shipped last week) to combine the shipping. All other orders will be picked up by the shipping carrier tomorrow morning👌

sweet! we geta touch of the stellar Taiko customer service here :-)

 

thanks for explaining!

[MarcelNL]

is it me or could the solder/contact pads on the Taiko rectifier been larger? 

[MarcelNL]

Vibor makes some great stuff, I have also converted to unplated  after listening proved me that each plating has a dictinct sound fingerprint!

 

[MarcelNL]

the Femto NVME SSD sounds by far the best in my system, better than Optane M.2. I have the flacs ona Samsung 970 evo which is not too bad, I hear others recommend Sabrent Rocket 4 plus.

For a MB I can recommend the Gigiabtyte Aorus Master 14 direct power phases (power is king in digital), it should have three direct PCIe lanes yet at some point M.2 shares them so check features against your needs carefully.

I think it is quite similar to your MB, not sure if the expenditure is worth it

[MarcelNL]

I was referring to the Samsung Evo or Sabrent Rocket for storage indeed, I'm using the femto for the OS (that is where it's impact is largest, and I convert all local FLAC's and load to RAM before playing)

[MarcelNL]

When I get my server up and running again...just switches it off to save some heat generation during the heat wave, and now the MB shows error messages that may be pointing at a dead CPU or lost BIOS...

I plan to tinker with some OS again, will try Euphony again, was not smitten by the previous version and still curious about LTSC

[MarcelNL]

Daphile has the option to pre convert FLAC files to WAV and store them in RAM.

 

 

[MarcelNL]

I'm running into a bit of an issue here, I switched off the server and LPSU for vacation and to aviud generating additional heat in the house during the heatwave.

 

Now powering it back on does not work, getting error messages from the MB but the strangest thing is that the LPSU shows 36V withoud load yet once I switch on the MB the voltage drops to 19 or so Volts, booting does not complete (which probably figures on 19V)....on the Taiko ATX a green led in the center is blinking, not having any more info than what is on the web makes trouble shooting near impossible....will see if I have a bog standard ATX lying around to try differentiate between the MB (or CPU) or the ATX/ LPSU.....damn... 

 

edit; additional observation: the voltage without load drops pretty fast without the ATX connected, where it used to stay at 35V for hours it now drops to 3V within a minute....that would IMO point at the LPSU (the Saligny power?

I'm hesitant to drop in the Taiko rectifier at this point....

 

Ideas anyone? 

[MarcelNL]

The LPSU appears to function normal, it now holds 35V when switched off like before. (with the ATX connected voltage drops like 1V/45sec or so), I disconnected the last Mundorf and reconnected it...magically all is back to normal or it was not off to start with. Once I switch the MB on the output voltage of the LPSU drops to 19or so Volts.

 

Just connected an old SMPS PSU and the Mb booted, one RAM stick in slot A1... everything looking normal so from here on step by step adding components....afraid the ATX is toast, but will measure all pins on all three cables first, no way that I'm aware to measure voltages on the ATX

[MarcelNL]

1 minute ago, baconbrain said:

 

The active rectifier on my ULPS died about 8 weeks ago which resulted in 0 voltage output...

 

I am certainly no expert but my guess would be the the problem lies within the ULPS.

thanks for that detail!

 

I'll probably put in the old Saligny replacing the power version, I just revived the MB so everything beyond the ULPS is fine...which is a relief, now just to see if the Taiko ATX is also OK...if so I can drop in the Taiko active rectifyer and finally listen to some music after three weeks (vacation etc)

[MarcelNL]

Just dropped in the regular Saligny, same thing...stable 36 V , slow discharge withoud load but once I connect the MB and switch it on the voltage drops to 19V...so I am thinking the ATX is faulty...

Main power was off in the 2 weeks, and I did indeed disconnect all cables between attempts trying to start from scratch each time.

 

Guess I'm in for a visit to Taiko, lucky it's in driving distance..

 

[MarcelNL]

Think I found the probable cause....a hairline fracture in the PCB right next to the power in connector. I never liked the way that part of the PCB sticking out in thin air, it's where some force is to be expected...where the other connectors are located the PCB is better supported.

 

invisible to the naked eye but using a stereo microscope it sticks (literally) out...(issue is more clear using two eyes on the scope)

 

 

[MarcelNL]

Music is on....using an old bequiet SMPS...sounds as if something is broken, or rather not right at all, but still, it's music

[MarcelNL]

15 minutes ago, elan120 said:

Is this the rectifier PCB or some other PCB?

the taiko atx pcb...

 

[MarcelNL]

7 hours ago, oneguy said:

Any idea what caused it? Are you using 14awg solid core going into the connector?

No clue, probably a combination of having the input Molex connector of the ATX on an unsupported part of the PCB combined with the use of 14 AWG UPOCC solid core (what else ;-) )

I never understood that design choice, if the choice was to stay away from a 'dirty' current carrying connector the PCB could still have been supported by a piece of wood or something, as in 'belt and braces'

[MarcelNL]

I will let all know how things go, I have no issue with the price point or how Taiko does what they do. Shit happens, and even when I do not understand the design choice for not supporting the input  Molex connector I recognize it may well be an 'inherited feature'.

I know what R&D cost, I am in that business myself. Just FYI, company tax is not that bad in the Netherlands if you set things up smart, it's the very reason why there are so many letter box offices of mulinational companies registered in the Netherlands ;-)

 

Heck, it may not even be the root cause...(and if so and IF the PCB is not multi layer a simple piece of wire bridging the gap might be a bandaid.

 

[MarcelNL]

15 minutes ago, frejo said:

Is this the memory now recommended for best sound? I think it is a different memory compared to the first post by Nenon?

you should be able to find the number in this thread and compare to confirm, I ordered this one one; https://nl.mouser.com/datasheet/2/24/Apacer_10132020_D31_23185S_001-1915731.pdf