Building a DIY Music Server

[di-fi]

29 minutes ago, Exocer said:

Would you say the ikea board is worth skipping in favor of the Panzerholz?

110%! I put Panzerwood boards under; server, endpoint, dac and amp. Everyting became more quiet and precise. The next step is to make and install 3 feet à la Taiko Daiza for each board.  I am aware it will not become a Taiko Daiza but they will be better than without the feet. No regrets. 

 

When choosing the type of board or feet do some research what kind of vibration control you try to achieve. Emile explains on WBF how the Daiza work. Panzerholz boards absorb vibration, the feet have a minimal contact surface and are made of a copper disc and a tiny Panzerholz hollow foot with each a foam insert. They are as important as the board itself (and then there is an awesome CNC spiral cut I have to skip) . 

 https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/product/daiza-isolation-platform/

 

[di-fi]

16 hours ago, Gavin1977 said:

D31.23245S.001 works fine for me -2666MHz which is the max stock frequency.  It’s cheaper, unless you configure settings to run the faster RAM that Angelo mentions above.  Sourced from SOSElectronics - good service.

Hi,

 

Do you mind sharing how much you paid @ SOS (for 8GB?) ?

Also what would be the price and speed difference?

Thanks!

 

D31.23245S.001 

VS 

D31.23245S.002

 

Spec

• Module TypeWide Temperature ECC UDIMM
• Memory TechnologyDDR4
• Frequency2133/2400/2666/2933/3200
• Density4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB
• Voltage1.2v

 

[di-fi]

On 5/14/2023 at 10:35 AM, Gavin1977 said:

If you don’t do upsampling, than 2666 MHz ram will be fine, the faster speed module that Angelo uses will benefit you if you intend to upsample.  Otherwise not much, if any, difference.

 

Please note the motherboard is only designed for 2666Mhz, might take some optimisation to get 3200 to work.

The price was very reasonable - ask them for a quote.

Thanks ,

No up sampling here, so I'll probably go for the 'slower' but more expensive 😁 8GB DDR4. The D31 has a surprisingly good price at 25% of what Mouser seems to charge.

And also for me it seems cheap even compared to the more expensive 8GB Apacer SODIMM sticks I used to buy there (but equally competitively priced).

 

If someone is interested; currently delivery time =  4-6 weeks

 

• Apacer DDR4 ECC DIMM 2666-19 1024x8 8G / D31.23245S.001 :  $33 + VAT 
• Apacer 8G / D31.23245S.002 : $27.80 + VAT

 

https://www.soselectronic.com/en  Gabriela Hricová @ International Sales

 

 

[di-fi]

On 6/2/2023 at 4:14 PM, MarcelNL said:

now to tackle one of the last hurdles; passive cooling of the Solarflare, already got the heatpipes and clasp, now to find the adapter plates and tinker the heatpipes to a suitable heatsink...

Think I'll just drill 4 holes and tap M3 thread to hold the clasp in place

 

 

 

Hopefully some inspiration: like this maybe?

- 

https://griggaudio.de/produkt/solarflare-glasfaser-kit/

 

@StreamFidelity

 

 

 

[di-fi]

6 hours ago, Marcin_gps said:

the impact of network can be heard simply, because the network connection is active whether we send data or not.

***

In my personal system I've now eliminated wifi completely. I'm running the JPLAY app on M2 Mac Mini which is connected to XACT S1 (switch) and the XACT S1 (switch) is conected to XACT S1 (server/player). 
 

 

 

Finding wifi being worse than Ethernet cables, I realize your listening ritual must be a desktop experience to get the best out of the XACT S1.
That seems a significant compromise for whom prefer listening not from behind a desk.

Would a wired iPad (Pro M2?) with « wifi not connected »  have the potential to be comparable in SQ to the M2 Mac Mini to allow for a more flexible choice of listening position? 

[di-fi]

On 8/19/2023 at 1:57 AM, Marcin_gps said:

 

My listening ritual is on a sofa with an iPad in my hands. To be able to 'see' XACT S1 in the home network again I have to connect one of the ethernet cables back. It's just for more critical listening I isolate my 'audio' network from my main home network by disconnecting the cable going to router from XACT S1 switch (this is possible once XACT S1 server/player and Mac get their IPs assigned by DHCP server running on the main router).

 

I am just curious because in your post you seem to suggest in your personal setup by disabling wifi and adding a XACT S1 (switch) you virtually eliminated all network noise resulting in better SQ even for files played directly on the server.
Control point - switch - server

 

Then you added disconnecting from the router besides not using wifi while only using a M2 Mac Mini to control the XACT S1 server over Ethernet, I get that. In that scenario I tried to suggest you could have the same control point with your iPad (wifi disconnected) over Ethernet to the switch with the advantage of controlling from your listening position instead.

In both scenarios no router and no wifi involved to virtually eliminate all network noise or is there a difference?

[di-fi]

On 8/24/2023 at 6:36 AM, Marcin_gps said:

with iPad I still need the connection to main router (wifi). 

Except when utilizing a Lightning / USB C to Ethernet Adapter. Connecting the iPad directly to the XACT S1 switch via an Ethernet cable eliminates the need for a router in the setup (unless JPLAY does not allow for this).

Sorry to persist in my assertion, as in your arrangement, aiming to minimize network interference similar to the Mac Mini, assuming that the iPad's network port does not introduce more noise, all the while utilizing JPLAY.

The iPad's more user-friendly interface could prove advantageous for any (diy) server, especially considering the claimed high sound quality it offers for critical listening. At that point I would gladly accept one more cable in my setup.

[di-fi]

On 8/30/2023 at 4:04 PM, matthias said:

Just for reference:

Emile from Taiko Audio prefers a wifi solution for his upcoming Taiko router. He would never do this if wifi is inferior from a sound quality POV.

 

Matt

 

But  @Marcin_gps seems to suggest here that in his personal setup by disabling Wi-Fi and adding a XACT S1 (switch) plus using JPLAY he virtually eliminated all network noise resulting in better SQ even for files played directly on the server.
Control point - switch - server

 

Contrarily to Taiko, in his setup @Marcin_gpshas to disconnect from the router (besides not using wifi) to obtain the best SQ. Note we are talking files from a NAS or local SSD. Emile does (still) not claim the best SQ in his setup when files are streamed.

 

For playing local files I tried introduce the idea to explore an iPad (no Wi-Fi) connection in his setup to resolve the UI being somewhere on a desk in the room.

 

 

On 8/31/2023 at 8:44 AM, MarcelNL said:

if we only could tap into the knowledge behind that ;-)

yep! (2x)

[di-fi]

48 minutes ago, matthias said:

The approaches are different.

Taiko Audio evaluated both methods and came up with a wifi solution which outperformed wired.

So it is not about the principle but about the implementation.

One interesting post is this one:

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/taiko-audio-sgm-extreme-the-crème-de-la-crème.27433/page-943#post-897728

You get some nice insights when you do a search on WBF with "wifi" and "Taiko Audio".

BTW, I am sure the JCAT approach with the 12k switch does sound very good too.

 

Matt

 

Thanks. I'm aware of the information in that thread, but I missed that part about it. From what I gathered in the discussion, Taiko utilized an extremely low-power 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi setup (we are only talking control UI here) , which yielded excellent results with the MikroTik mAP Lite acces point, or something similar with better integration into the Extreme router.

 

Besides the choice of the OS, the quality of the Ethernet setup and upstream network implementation plays a crucial role in the sound quality of DIY servers. This aspect is often underrepresented in SQ evaluations here, alongside the differentiation between local file storage and streaming services.

[di-fi]

On 8/31/2023 at 10:17 AM, seeteeyou said:

Personally I wouldn't even bother with any streaming services at all and therefore the whole point of having a router would be moot,

In reality, a significant number of Taiko Extreme owners have shown a preference for using Roon as their primary listening platform. This has led Emile to dedicate continuous efforts to ensure his server remains impervious to Roon updates and changes, striving to bring streaming sound quality on par with that of local files.

 

But what about the majority of DIY server owners here? Do they share the same concern regarding Roon and streaming?

 

At the same time, it's important to recognize that one can have a preference for local files. However, this preference often depends on how we define 'local files,' whether in comparison to streaming options or independently.

 

 

Quote

For example what I do nowadays is purchase files from Qobuz, but I always select the 16/44.1 uncompressed .wav version in the downloads section. Most of the time these sound better then the 24/96 etc versions

 

Quote

Further to this I have to rip it to uncompressed .wav to the Extreme's local storage if the goal is to achieve a similar sound signature.Note this is not a declaration of superiority for the uncompressed .wav format as there are many factors in play here. Compressed flac files are smaller in absolute size which turns it into a file transfer versus decompression game with differing noise signatures depending on the construction / configuration of the server's hard- and soft-ware. With that said, uncompressed .wav from local storage sounds closest to a CD transport.

 

 

[di-fi]

24 minutes ago, jean-michel6 said:

How is done the cooling ? 

Temperature	CPU thermal trip support PECI
FAN	5x 4-pin fan headers (up to 5 fans) System level control PWM fan speed control 5 fans with tachometer status monitoring Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) fan connectors