Building a DIY Music Server

[Exocer]

8 minutes ago, Nsxturbo said:

I am using Windows LTSC with Audiophile Optimizer. For playback software(no frills our streaming, just local files)I use Bughead Emperor. I also use Jplay for both Qobuz & local files, but honestly in my system Bughead gets the nod, but is is very utilitarian😆Also files copied to the Zzyx drive sound better than those played from the Intel 660’s via VROC.

The Extreme, even without XDMS is more resolving and lower noise floor, and I would describe it as calmer but with greater dynamics than our facsimiles. With XDMS, it is a whole different level of refinement with an even lower noise floor and then add to that more detail, soundscape depth and width and overall I would call it a beautiful but with lightning quickness and explosive dynamics sound. It truly is State of the Art Digital. Paired with the Horizon, It is no doubt digital endgame playback.(At this moment in time.) Emile and his team at Taiko, I believe will leave no stone unturned in both software and hardware development. I am awaiting my Taiko switch and network card, then down there is a lot more exciting developments.  “I might have to kill another hobbie and get a side hustle just to keep up😂

BTW, our Extreme copies are in no way chopped liver and would best 95% or more commercial offerings!

Thank you. While I do not have a dual cpu rig, I and a few others can confirm that the Hammond 159zj chokes restrict dynamics of the ULPS, increase the noise floor and reduce overall resolution compared to our more recent discoveries:

 

1. Hi-B cut chokes thread: 

2. Mundorf VN180-10 chokes which I am REALLY impressed with in my own build (along with a few others).

 

I do not expect you to entertain the modification of your ULPS at this point, but I’m sure we would all be curious of how much these higher quality inductors/chokes narrow the performance gap in such a resolving system.

[Nsxturbo]

4 hours ago, Exocer said:

In additional to this - can you share some details about the slabs of wood you’re using for vibration control? 😎

The material is good grade Baltic birch(to eventually be replaced with Panerholtz) the two pieces of birch have a low pressure inner tube between them and Rollerball ball bearings have one cup on the top, but the bottom sits directly on high hardness porcelain. (A La recording engineer Barry Diament of Sound Keeper Recordings.) So the equipment floats on the x y & z axis. I would ultimately put a Taiko Daiza platform between the equipment and the bottom of the Rollerball cups to drain the internal oscillations from the equipment.

[MarcelNL]

we simply need a nice gathering with a shootout and a beer or two

[Nsxturbo]

4 minutes ago, Exocer said:

Thank you. While I do not have a dual cpu rig, I and a few others can confirm that the Hammond 159zj chokes restrict dynamics of the ULPS, increase the noise floor and reduce overall resolution compared to our more recent discoveries:

 

1. Hi-B cut chokes thread: 

2. Mundorf VN180-10 chokes which I am REALLY impressed with in my own build (along with a few others).

 

I do not expect you to entertain the modification of your ULPS at this point, but I’m sure we would all be curious of how much these higher quality inductors/chokes narrow the performance gap in such a resolving system.

Look as a DIYer at heart, I have followed all those discoveries, and that part of me wants to know how close we can get! But in reality it’s hard to keep up with a company run by a brilliant guy that’s will to use a lot of his vast revenue stream to keep advancing digital software and hardware. Let’s hope that some of that continues to trickle down to the DIY audiophiles. Also, I know what I’ve invested in DIY over the years and if I add that all up I’m definitely to the cost of entry into Taiko’s ecosystem! It just wasn’t one lump sum all at once😉

[Nenon]

19 minutes ago, Nsxturbo said:

I am awaiting my Taiko switch and network card

 

You are in for a treat. I have been listening to mine for the last 4 hours. First impressions are really good!

[SK8]

7 hours ago, Nsxturbo said:

Look as a DIYer at heart, I have followed all those discoveries, and that part of me wants to know how close we can get! But in reality it’s hard to keep up with a company run by a brilliant guy that’s will to use a lot of his vast revenue stream to keep advancing digital software and hardware. Let’s hope that some of that continues to trickle down to the DIY audiophiles. Also, I know what I’ve invested in DIY over the years and if I add that all up I’m definitely to the cost of entry into Taiko’s ecosystem! It just wasn’t one lump sum all at once😉

Same here. Inspired by Nenon and others in this forum, I started to build my own DIY C621e last year and chose the hardest path of doing the DIY chassis myself. Made a few changes in design and to use different components following others' discoveries including the Mundorf VN180-10. Can only spare one or 2 days during weekends to do some work so the progress is slow. My target is to have the DIY C621e and Nenon V3 in a single box, and add the Taiko PCI DAC card when it is available in the middle of this year. Thanks again for your sharing and continued support to the DIY community. 

[msb1]

Hi,

I'm currently using the onboard ethernet port to connect my Euphony PC and would like to try something better.

I did try an Asus Card with an SFP port but found the internal rj45 port better.

 

Any recommendations of Euphony 4 compatible PCI Cards?

 

Thanks

[MarcelNL]

2 hours ago, msb1 said:

Hi,

I'm currently using the onboard ethernet port to connect my Euphony PC and would like to try something better.

I did try an Asus Card with an SFP port but found the internal rj45 port better.

 

Any recommendations of Euphony 4 compatible PCI Cards?

 

Thanks

Solarflare x2522+ springs to mind, yet that is for use with fiber but it should provide a chance to play with DAC (Direct Attach Copper) cables too as they use SFP+ for a connector

 

 

[msb1]

52 minutes ago, MarcelNL said:

Solarflare x2522+ springs to mind, yet that is for use with fiber but it should provide a chance to play with DAC (Direct Attach Copper) cables too as they use SFP+ for a connector

 

 

Thanks. Would you happen to know the difference between the x2522 and x2522+?

[MarcelNL]

the Solarflare site shows the plus version comes with onload, which IMO is not needed but given the fact you probably do not want to buy a new card ($$$) either one is a good find.

The regular card can be set to low jitter, which IMO is important.

[seeteeyou]

On 2/28/2023 at 4:25 AM, Nenon said:

I am doing my own experiments with QSA as well, such as treated capacitors, chokes, and transformers, but those will take more time. 

 

I'm looking forward to the successor of DC4 in the future

 

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/qsa-lanedri-series.36078/page-12#post-858713

Quote

Where I expect to see the greatest gains, beyond the gains from a QSA-treated component like a DAC, for example, is with a QSA-treated power supply for that DAC. While treating the SMPS for DAVE will undoubtedly have positive results, there are advantages to treating an over-specified linear PSU because they have much more conductor in them. The amount of conductor in a 600VA toroidal transformer, for example, is just so much greater than what is probably in the entire DAC. Other things like the chokes and internal DC cabling should have significant impact, too.

 

---

 

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/qsa-lanedri-series.36078/page-10#post-857365

Quote

While both cables improved with treatment, the lower purity 3N cable improved much more dramatically to the extent that it now outperformed the 7N cable. The 3N cable just sounded more alive and had more presence. The 7N cable sounded more lifeless but also more smeared and closed in.

 

I just wanna highlight the fact that plenty of materials with 2N (i.e. 99% purity) copper could be acquired from these folks in LA

 

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-foil-7440-50-8

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-coil-7440-50-8

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-wire-7440-50-8

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-block-7440-50-8

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-sheet-7440-50-8

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-metal-7440-50-8

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-busbars-7440-50-8

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-samples-7440-50-8

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-insulated-wire-7440-50-8

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-conductor-paste-7440-50-8

 

And then they've got 2N copper oxide as well

 

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-ii-oxide-wire-1317-38-0

https://www.americanelements.com/copper-oxide-pieces-1317-38-0

 

---

  

14 hours ago, Nsxturbo said:

BTW, our Extreme copies are in no way chopped liver and would best 95% or more commercial offerings!

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/113ngwq/w790_motherboards_from_asus_asrock_and_supermicro/

 

At some point maybe some of us would also consider upgrading to the latest Pro WS W790E-SAGE SE?

 

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/w790-motherboard-discussion-thread.39131/

https://www.servethehome.com/new-workstation-kingpins-intel-xeon-w-3400-xeon-w-2400-and-w790-launch-asus/

Quote

To put this in a bit more perspective, here is an ASUS Pro WS W790 a platform we will review in the next few weeks on STH.

 

Let's see if there were anyone who might also get their hands on the big brother, fingers crossed for those reviews.

 

---

 

IMHO it would be pretty "funny" if Innuos were also having their own QSA-treated flavor of PSUs down the road, one day they might even end up beating the "stock" version of Extreme + BPS combo at a fraction of the costs?

 

https://innuos.com/statement/

Quote

The STATEMENT Next-Gen Power Supply Upgrade is the result of Innuos ongoing Research and Development efforts in close collaboration with the long-term partner Dr. Sean Jacobs.

 

(It didn't take much to beat XDMS with Roon, with the right hardware that is.)

[seeteeyou]

On 6/24/2022 at 10:39 AM, Nsxturbo said:

And now using Bughead Emperor music player with no network connection and Majority Clean and Lemonade(Pretty rudimentary user interface, but great sounding)

 

YMMV, foobar2000 sounded MUCH better under Windows 11 Preinstallation Environment but nothing special at all with anything else

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63515

Quote

Another fact that I have verified is that the difference between F2k and BH (Infinity Blade) is very small, always in favor of Infinity Blade, but I have updated the Bass libraries that this program contains, and the improvement has been very evident, now Infinity Blade sounds much better than F2k.

 

Direct links to update the Bass libraries as follows

 

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bass24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassalac24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassasio14.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassdsd24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassenc24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassflac24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/basswasapi24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/basswv24.zip

 

---

 

BTW, it's never too late for anyone to join the party since we just managed to reach yet another milestone

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63442

Quote

I have removed F2k, BugHead, DSDTranscoder, and the ASIO drivers (DIYNHK and IFIUSBAUDIO), and the resulting size of the Win11 PE_MINIMAL boot.wim is 93.4 MB, so I think the goal of getting below 100 MB is achieved.

[baconbrain]

7 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

BTW, it's never too late for anyone to join the party since we just managed to reach yet another milestone

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63442

 

Great project! Btw I echo the thoughts of this member:

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63518

 

[MarcelNL]

I just completed a LPSU with two 150VA Toroidy Ag trannies, Saligny active rectifyers, the now retired LL2773's in common mode and plenty of Mundorg 4 pole AG caps. and SJ DC3 modules all linked using AWG14 UPOCC...just to power the router and audio switch. Using a vintage Philips broadband speaker for now, the whole set just installed 2 hours ago but it sounds as if the PSU is doing some serious magic!

 

 

[SK8]

16 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

 

YMMV, foobar2000 sounded MUCH better under Windows 11 Preinstallation Environment but nothing special at all with anything else

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63515

 

Direct links to update the Bass libraries as follows

 

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bass24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassalac24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassasio14.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassdsd24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassenc24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/bassflac24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/basswasapi24.zip

https://www.un4seen.com/files/basswv24.zip

 

---

 

BTW, it's never too late for anyone to join the party since we just managed to reach yet another milestone

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63442

Thanks Seeteeyou. Yes I think I will try Windows 11 PE when I finish my PC. Just want to ask if Windows 11 PE can support the dual Xeon on Sage C621e and whether it is possible to assign drivers, processes and player to run at a designated processor. Thank you.

[seeteeyou]

1 hour ago, SK8 said:

Just want to ask if Windows 11 PE can support the dual Xeon on Sage C621e and whether it is possible to assign drivers, processes and player to run at a designated processor.

 

https://twitter.com/aionescu/status/1536494552105766912

https://github.com/winsiderss/systeminformer/issues/1286#issue-1275412776

Quote

Process Hacker is being renamed to System Informer.

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=62001

Quote

2. Processhacker does not work well and cannot kill processes, nor stop or suspend services, it must be done with "pskill64.exe, "psservices64.exe" and "pssuspend64.exe", although it is useful for everything else such as viewing services and active processes, establish priority and affinity of apps, etc.

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63285

Quote

4.PROCESSHACKER: It doesn't work to suspend or kill processes or stop services, possibly due to some service that you have disabled, but it does work for everything else you can do. To kill or suspend processes I use pskill64.exe and pssuspend64.exe, and to stop post-boot services psservice64.exe.

 

---

 

First of all, always get the latest version of System Informer here

 

https://github.com/winsiderss/si-builds/releases

 

For instance, we're downloading a copy of systeminformer-3.0.6264-bin.zip

 

https://github.com/winsiderss/si-builds/releases/download/3.0.6264/systeminformer-3.0.6264-bin.zip

 

As usual it's just a matter of reducing the overall footprint and therefore we don't need to extract everything at all, simply keep both amd64 and amd64\plugins folders.

 

(Deleting amd64\x86 would still work.)

 

   Date      Time    Attr         Size   Compressed  Name
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  ------------------------
2023-03-07 07:32:06 .....      2379776      1046950  amd64\x86\SystemInformer.exe
2023-03-07 07:32:08 .....           64           69  amd64\x86\SystemInformer.sig

 

Here are pskill64.exe and pssuspend64.exe

 

https://live.sysinternals.com/pskill64.exe

https://live.sysinternals.com/pssuspend64.exe

 

---

 

Then take a look at both links for further details

 

https://github.com/winsiderss/systeminformer/issues/553

https://github.com/winsiderss/systeminformer/issues/583

 

It's supposed to look fairly similar to something like this

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5zktpf/winafc_tool_to_set_the_affinity_for_a_specific/

 

---

 

Other than that, Process Explorer could be yet another viable alternative

 

https://live.sysinternals.com/procexp64.exe

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

 

Plain and simple

 

https://geek-university.com/set-process-affinity/

https://www.windowsdigitals.com/how-to-set-process-cpu-affinity-priority-permanently-in-windows-10/

 

---

 

To get the ball rolling, check this out before reading the PDF file on top

 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/64929-windows-pe-as-audio-os/#comment-1199556  

On 5/24/2022 at 5:47 PM, bodiebill said:

In case others want to try something similar, here are the steps I took, where the initial ones are inspired by @samotc's valuable guide.

 

And then here's yet another relatively easy way with Make_WinPE and System Informer

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63183

 

Read either forum thread linked below and pay attention to the password

 

https://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=22608

https://msfn.org/board/topic/183451-make_winpe-boot-and-make-pe-wim-file-from-x64-windows-iso/

bootwimb

 

Download a copy of Win11_English_x64.iso from the official servers (i.e. software.download.prss.microsoft.com) of Microsoft

 

https://ave9858.github.io/msdl/#2069

 

Get the latest version of Make_WinPE

 

https://github.com/wimbrts/Make_WinPE/releases/latest

Quote

All Versions have Picture + Sound + LAN Internet support and support Portable Apps - Run Apps via Desktop Icons or Launchbar
Add_Drivers folder - Add your Drivers folders e.g. for your WiFi Network card

 

Finally the ASIO driver for each specific USB DAC could be extracted like this

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63240

[seeteeyou]

I just wanna say hi to @gstew while hoping that you'll be ready to pick up where Windows XP cMP / cics memory player left off, one of the OG tweakers (nagual19) from the good ol' days of Computer Audio Asylum already dived right in

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=62382

Quote

I was following your perfectly documented optimizing guides of Windows 11 PE builds in this thread, using initially the Win10XPE Toolset (like in your PDF guide in the first post of this thread), all the way to the above quoted ULTRASLIM AUDIOPHILE PE build. Thank you again, it really is miles above any sound I ever heard of any Windows.

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=62388

Quote

You struck GOLD, regarding the sound quality, makes you think how much flavo(u)r different, more or less "bloated" Windows Versions (Server, Server Core, 10, 11, different patch levels and builds) have.  WPE is the first one that lets the soul of the music perfectly shine through. IMO & YMMV, of course.

Out came music, not sound, or so I thought. Now comes your tweaked PE iterations with MUSIC in uppercase and I can't be more happy.

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=62392

Quote

Great to have a cMP person around. Always helps to have people with experience with extreme Windows tweaking/stripping around to push things further. There aren't too many of us around anymore -- most have moved onto Audiophile Optimizer or similar, it seems. Hard to blame them in some senses -- this stuff isn't for the faint of heart and can take a lot of time and effort, so it's easier to have something like AO do it "for you," but the sonic results are superior, I think we can all agree, if you take the time.

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=62420

Quote

I too am conviced that any manual ways (including trial + error as always in life) tweaking OS is the waytogo for best music reproduction and/or smallest disk & RAM footprints.

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/4410-windows-11-pe-audiophile-creation-guide/?p=63288

Quote

I’ve been involved with a lot of Windows tweaking and slimming over the years, and nothing has excited me as much as PE/this project. I missed the cics days over on Audio Asylum by a year or two, but I’m familiar enough with it to know that this project is the closest we’ve gotten with modern/non-XP Windows to that era. Just being able to kill lsass.exe without much consequence is alone a huge deal, even the cics folks had to work to get that done on XP ten plus years ago. Jesus Cheung’s Win 7 tweaking at Tir Na HiFi didn’t get this close, IMO AudiophileOptimizer or other programs have not gotten to this level, pkshan’s Win7 or Foobar projects did not get this good or this far, etc. Samotc foremost but also seeteeyou should really be given credit where it’s due in finding and exploring PE, it sounds great and is leagues above other Windows in its ability to slim and tweak. Thanks!

 

https://www.my-hiend.com/vbb/showthread.php?p=252643#post252643

Quote

在我的環境WinPE的聲音更能聽到音樂的表情.

[flowcharts]

I recently bolted a Hifi 2000 heatsink to the top of a Streacom HT4 heat pipe riser in an attempt to improve thermals -- it did drop 4-5 degrees, so it stayed and a new top panel was needed.  This one's made of 3mm matte carbon fiber.  The carbon fiber itself has an impact on SQ as well (an appreciated one, in my case adding more body to the sound & a slightly more 3d/tangible stage).  Now I just need to get the stupid heatsink aligned😪

 

Also trying out this nvme to sata adapter for $35 on Amazon.  Nothing to say on SQ yet, but I can confirm it does work in the second m.2 slot in my Z590 mini ITX with SATA completely disabled.  I know it's not the preferred approach, but it could be a good workaround for those with similar setups/storage needs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MarcelNL]

just give getting rid of all the metal casing parts a go, it's refreshingly good!

[Nenon]

Anyone considering buying a used Taiko Extreme server in the US? Send me a msg if you are. Trying to help a friend. 

[flowcharts]

Just for fun & some extra practice -- too many changes to comment on sound quality, but someone else should give it a shot.

[drjimwillie]

11 hours ago, flowcharts said:

Just for fun & some extra practice -- too many changes to comment on sound quality, but someone else should give it a shot.

It looks great.

Will you Please tell us more about it?
Which USB card is it?

Did you install the carbon fiber and the heat sink?
Is the carbon fiber for vibration isolation, and heat dissipation?

 

[flowcharts]

@drjimwillie It's the USB XE, and I just added the carbon fiber portion for emi shielding/absorption

[flowcharts]

I've been looking at new motherboards lately.  Coming from a budget Asrock ITX board, I've been missing the additional pcie slots.  I want to stay on the z590 platform so I can continue using the rest of my current hardware, but have a board with room to grow in the future.  I've been looking at the EVGA z590 Dark.

 

From what I can tell, it looks like it has a lot of the features recommended around here, and some others that fit in with the conventional widsom.

• 10 layer pcb
• 21-ish power phases, 90a
• 2x cpu 8 pin connectors
• shorter power paths -- the placement will allow for shorter ATX & EPS cables
• only 2 ram slots (perfect for me), and shorter path to cpu(?) - Whether or not Apacer ECC ram works here might be a deal breaker
• ability to disable m.2/PCIE slots with hardware on the board
• solid vrm/chipset cooling -- it has fans that will need to be removed, but the copper base layer would provide a good platform for modification to connect to the chassis heatsinks.
• Since this is an overclocking board, the bios should be pretty good from a feature standpoint

The only issue is the EATX form factor, which would require a new case, but I'm feeling empowered to go down the diy route here as well lately.

 

Are there any other factors or considerations I may be overlooking here?

[StreamFidelity]

12 minutes ago, flowcharts said:

I've been looking at the EVGA z590 Dark.

A very nice motherboard. If you are planning passive cooling with heatpipes, then this board will not work. The 2 ram slots block the way.