Building a DIY Music Server

[MarcelNL]

6 minutes ago, di-fi said:

I have a problem with Romaz being the audiophile we all know for many years of sharing his subjective experiences (I have various Romaz pages bookmarked). He is a leader having many followers. A very inspiring audiophile to follow because of very detailed experiences he shares with the community.

 

Now suddenly he pops up on a commercial WBF page heavily promoting very expensive cables (in the ++ US$ 1000 range) that according to Romaz make a US $200 device sound better than a US$ 30K Extreme (does it sound to good to be true?). Also according to him all thoses cables sound better than anything else because of a secret cable treatment that Romaz knows together with the owner of QSE. No detailed Romaz style reviews / descriptions and trials this time, a few paragraphs only.

Romaz also seems to have acces to all these cables and he can even have his personal cables treated as well at QSE. He also designed himself a few of thoses new cables. Orders currently seem to come in by the hundreds without listening (30 day trial). People order 5 or 6 cables at the same time adding up to $10k or $20k orders. The new owner just bought the business in 2021.

 

This makes me wonder what exactly is Romaz commercial interest in this? He made it very clear he is sharing his promotional talk in a specific WBF commerical segment paid for by QSE. Confusing for me and apparently also for  @kennyb123&@Blackmorec who he kind of aggressively accused of trying to get to understand this secret cable treatment. Now they, as I was, thought they were talking to the @romaz we all know , but this almost seems an other Romaz (II) strictly talking about QSE in this commercial segment of WBF and as far as I know not anywhere else where we usually can exchange with Romaz (I). I find this very confusing. It seems to me he used his (well known) name Romaz , maybe unwillingly, to help facilitate the sale of QSE cables. We'll see how this develops, maybe I am wrong but I find it a little awkward.

 

I have my doubts too...smells of snake oil or it's April closing in pretty fast?

[MarcelNL]

6 minutes ago, Dev said:

how is a commercial product part of a DIY thread ? 

IMO since DIY is also using commercial products? I'd love being able to draw my own UPOCC copper but will leave at buying it ;-)

[MarcelNL]

1 minute ago, Dev said:

 

My experience has been slightly different - I find that every component has an optimal temperature range that it performs the best. In my case, which includes the motherboard/cpu/ram combo, sounds its best at 38-44deg C. Anything lower or higher, has an impact on the sound. This is probably why in my setup running Euphony v4, Roon and Stylus doesn't sound too drastically different as some claims it does it their setup.

agree, I was referring to that combo but indeed there are other items that have a different sound optimum temperature

[MarcelNL]

good to know that not using a fuse is great for sound AND saves 5K ;-)

 

without any info on a 'treatment' NOS (not otherwise specified) I'm wary, for sure there are things that work (heck I'm doing some crazy stuff in my own builds) yet the claims that were made are kindof incredible...if it sounds too good to be true and all that...

[MarcelNL]

2 minutes ago, Dev said:

 

Here is some food for thought on the fuse side of things. Note, using or not using a fuse for sound quality is one thing, using it for safety is another :-)

 

https://www.verafiaudiollc.com/products/best-audio-products/swiss-digital-fuse-box-52299809

 

safety, PAH ;-)

 

I smell smoke, or the fire alarm does it ;-)

 

seriously, I know....yet a few months ago during a listening session we smelled 'hot metal'....and after an hour or so I started investigating...and it turned out that the one piece WITH a fuse was in meltdown....a bought (I know , misstake nr 1) LPSU for the switch and router was overheating to the point where the transformer coil melted.

[MarcelNL]

I'm game trying that experiment if QSA sends me a free 5K fuse and whatever fuse holder they choose...I have actually listened to a 10 cm piece of bare wire and compared that after cutting it and soldering back together,, the difference is not trivial.

 

 

[MarcelNL]

yeah I'm wary as well...

 

 

I looked up some stuff and found a reference to a computer repair company previously located in Brussles which relocated  2013 to the address they are using for the cables...a house 1out in the middle of nowhere in the Ardennes. Now I DO get cottage industry and all that but even the marketing lingo is lame at best IMO;

 

Metal Molecular Activation Technology (MAT)

Musical Metal molecule Alignment Technology (MMAT)

Skin Deep Compensation Technology (SDCT)

 

Ultimately all of that does not matter if it works and folks are willing to shell out the disgusting amounts of money they are asking, it's just that I won't be one of them. 

(I suspect it's a cable burn in treatment at best, something like putting 100KV through a cable)

 

and no this is not to make me feel better, I'm just sceptical of the claims that are being made by folks as they are a bit too haphazerd. 

[MarcelNL]

16 minutes ago, Superdad said:

 

Why has nobody brought up the possibility (likelihood) that the QSA "process" is a cryogenic treatment?  
There are many variations of such and if done correctly it is highly audible and effective. Long ago I worked with a firm specializing in it. They offered their services and proprietary process (rate of cooling, final coldest temp., how long at that temp., then how long and rate of bringing back up to room temp.) to golf club manufacturers, cutting tool makers, drum kit cymbal and drum head/rim assemblies, and to audio manufacturers. It was great, but when done on cables (or capacitors) with Teflon insulation, it would double or triple the already exceedingly long time that Teflon takes to "burn-in."

probably because I was the only one offering a theoretical underlying 'treatment'?

Cryo is also possible yet I expect that other cable companies tried that, if the result would be earth shattering it would be around. I have some cryo treated stuff and there is a result but it's not something I'd describe the way this is being written about 

[MarcelNL]

I plan on using Celeron, sp d; 1400

[MarcelNL]

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

[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

 

 

[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.

[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!

 

 

[MarcelNL]

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

[MarcelNL]

does anyone know if the Asus ROF crosshair viii x570 is compatible with the Apacer ECC (unbuffered) RAM?

 

would be a shame to buy it for 18direct phases and PCIe external power to find out I now have two sets of RAM that are incompatible (have a ECC Buffered set lying aorud already)

 

 

[MarcelNL]

so the Asus rog VIII extreme does accept ECC (unbuffered) RAM...big question is....is it worth the 300 euro over the Gigabyte Aorus master that has 16 direct phases vs 18 on the Asus while both have external PCIe power input....60A power vs 90 A...

 

power is king in digital so I'm inclined to give it a go with the Asus

[MarcelNL]

low power draw is nice add on, from my experiments it is low latency and somehow (perhaps directly related to latency) the type of memory cell. Pseudo SLC sounding better than Optane.

[MarcelNL]

nice idea!

 

I'd be interested in a direct comparison of this option, the taiko NIC and a passively cooled Solarflare X2522 on low latency setting.

(finally the heatpipe clasp I'm going to modify and use for the solarflare did arrive)

[MarcelNL]

too bad it's all windows ;-)

[MarcelNL]

another question, did you compare the intel card before and after the Taiko script?

[MarcelNL]

and on another note, these appear fairly generic network settings...pretty sure I came across some of these when adjusting the firmware settings of the Solarflare card....lemme check... 

[MarcelNL]

38 minutes ago, VaG said:

Takio SFP NI = Taiko Audio Extreme Network Card ?

https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/product/taiko-audio-extreme-network-card/

 

yup

[MarcelNL]

1 hour ago, baconbrain said:

Good one! Any heat issues with the Digitus Card and which SFP module are you using?

most NIC cards are designed for server rooms...so they tend to run hot at ambient temp since server rooms are freezing cold...

I'm having to adapt the Solarflare x2522 with heatsink and heatpipes or it'll cut out in 5 minutes flat due to temp issues.

 

 

[MarcelNL]

Just completed the second 36V cable so I can experiment with two Taiko ATX modules, just before the new CPU and MB.

 

[MarcelNL]

On 4/10/2023 at 9:08 PM, MarcelNL said:

Just completed the second 36V cable so I can experiment with two Taiko ATX modules, just before the new CPU and MB.

 

No dice....apparently the 12 V on the ATX connector of the MB has the same ground plane as the EPS connectors

....does anyone know if the ATX needs 12V for the MB to work? (I guess it does)