Under $4K Roon server with clock input and best quality ethernet out?

[ecwl]

With $4k to blow, I'm a bit confused by the objective of the upgrade. I was able to see your first ever post about your preferences for further upgrades. 

 

My take on the digital end is that the primary sonic issue that might have room for improvements would be related to high impedance (and maybe low impedance) leakage current related to the switch mode supplies of Chord TT2 & M-Scaler. And you have your mind set on using USB to power the M-Scaler. So in my mind, upgrading the Roon Core server is likely to get you the lowest yield benefits. My guess is that the following are the highest yield upgrades:

1) Using unshielded Ethernet cables

2) Maybe replacing SoTM switch with the EtherRegen

3) Using battery powered supplies for M-Scaler & TT2 or a reasonably high-end linear power supply (without blowing up the units)

And they all cost significantly less than $4k (maybe with linear power supply, the sky is the limit)

 

But I also think that you mentioned you tried EQ and didn't like DiracLive but that's a fairly automated process so definitely there is a lot of hit and miss that I've seen. Ultimately, having a USB microphone (miniDSP UMIK-1) and learning how to use Room EQ Wizard is exceedingly cheap but also time-wise expensive. But addressing frequency response and room acoustic issues scientifically are often the most cost effective way to upgrade the sound (not randomly adding more and more room treatments which I've seen so often, or using room calculators without actual measurements). I recently just upgraded my convolution filter with an additional virtual bass array using Acourate and the sound is quite dramatic, more than any network tweaks can possibly get. The learning curve for this type of manual tweaking is high. And if you really hate it, you can just hire people to create convolution filter for you, e.g. https://accuratesound.ca.

 

You have a great system. Maybe you already have a great room which is why you're trying for these really specific tweaks. I don't have a great room and I don't want to turn my living room into a hi-fi shop. I don't have my latest correction filter but the one from a few weeks ago was attached. So unless you have a phenomenal frequency response from your speakers you're proud to post, I think there is probably lots more audio bang for the buck waiting for you in digital room correction than what a new server can offer.

 

 

 

[ecwl]

1. The problem with the Sablon shielded cable is not the shielding. The problem is that you’ve just grounded all your components together because of the termination of the shielded Ethernet cable, and could potentially have rendered that expensive SoTM switch of yours useless. Since CAT6 unshielded cables are super cheap on Amazon, you really should try replacing all the Sablon shielded cable with CAT6 unshielded cables and see if you like the sound better.

2. I personally have been debating whether to get a switch like EtherRegen or SoTM network switch. Or the Farad LPS. In the end, I decided against it and just use the stock supply for M-Scaler but started feeding it with Toslink to eliminate ground noise, leakage currents, etc. So unfortunately, I don’t have further experience on this but if you’re set on this, lots of other members on this site have discussed EtherRegen vs SoTM I believe

3. Yeah, I would never use REW to create a convolution filter. In fact, while I would be willing to use REW to tune out the major bass peaks using parametric EQ, I would be very careful about overdoing it. And I would not use parametric EQ to adjust the midrange or high frequencies. This is where there is quite a bit of experimentation and learning and it’s the reason why it’s very time consuming to construct proper DSP for a system or create an optimal convolution filter in Acourate.

And yes, when I used to only do parametric EQ, I did have a slight 4dB bass rise sub 200Hz. But with the convolution filter, I find myself preferring music without that extra bass. I definitely tested a lot of target frequency responses until I found one that I like.

[ecwl]

8 minutes ago, jbm_2021 said:

I honestly am not able to follow this "The problem with the Sablon shielded cable is not the shielding. The problem is that you’ve just grounded all your components together because of the termination of the shielded Ethernet cable, and could potentially have rendered that expensive SoTM switch of yours useless. "