Article: SOtM Launches sMB-Q370 Motherboard

[MarcelNL]

designing MB's is not my expertise either, yet I too fail to see the argument(s) for buying this MB as much as I applaud the effort to produce an audio oriented MB. Other than the designation 'for audio' there is not much to hold on to, yet.

 

Having heard the major differences between MB's and CPU;s ( I went through 5 MB and 5 CPUs on my quest) I tend to lean towards the conclusion that a.o. power to the CPU is king for Audio (as well as the nr of physical cores) so you'd expect special attention (and information) on that aspect in due time 

[MarcelNL]

9 hours ago, Enosh said:

If I need to choose between this motherboard and a nice linear power supply to upgrade the pc, which one would you recommend to upgrade first? 

Without knowing how that PC is built and nobody having ever heard the MB, nor anyone knowing what Linear PSU (and at what price) you have in mind there are just too many variables to answer.

In the end you need both a good MB and a good PSU. 

[MarcelNL]

this is a similarly pointless debate as all others about 'blind listening''versus 'show me the measurements' etc, but I'll humor one fact....the VAST majority of cars that had their suspension 'designed on the Nürburgring' supposedly to create fast lap times are being found far too lumpy during reviews by well respected car journalists and professional drivers.

[MarcelNL]

You should let the objectivist come up with a statistical justification for which measured parameter he thinks to differs across MBs is detectable at what threshold of change and then throw enough MBs with identical parameters at a crowd to see if that is true....

 

Correlating measurement data POST facto to an observation is not how science works. The scientist comes up with an a priori hypothesis and designs the experiment 

[MarcelNL]

3 hours ago, botrytis said:

 

 

In Non-science world, a theory is considered a guess. In science it is based on fact and is reasoned by logic.

 

Hypothesis = Theory for non-scientists.

fact in your science therefore cannot be overturned by new information ? There are quite a few examples that have proven to be wrong, let's start with the 'fact' that the earth is flat, that the logic by which it was kept in place was flawed was not discovered until (much) later but flawed it was.

 

please read up on how science works before writing such nonsense

[MarcelNL]

In daily life I try to keep a couple of scientist on track by making sure they don't get lost in the corridors of the things that happen in real life. If you want a pissing contest please organize it in a brewery of your choice, I have no issue with folks not believing there is more than what can be measured but I hate the pointless I am more right than you debates over this, especially when folks start  to throw in the their heritage as a justification for being right. 

[MarcelNL]

3 hours ago, davide256 said:

Pity theres no standards committee/agreement on what makes a CPU/MOBO combination work better for audio. Until that happens, each new product just looks like a shot in the dark.

in mu experience thus far having many direct phases for the CPU is a bonus for sound quality, as well as having more cores do very little.

From a pure computing aspect the Intel NUC I started with was overpowered, now I'm abusing a 12 core CPU.

I guess that pro/heavy OC oriented boards will do better.

[MarcelNL]

that sounds comparable to my observations and those from others based on what I read and heard...although I cannot imagine that one needs 12 cores for running a linux distro and some I/O and I did not find as much of a difference when going to higher speed CPU;s as with more cores...I'm unable to explain. the end result is good enough not having to,,,,

 

 

 

 

[MarcelNL]

Great point you make here, I have been inquiring with Pink faun to modify my MB and you made me wonder why they propose two clocks...I probably only need one, since I'm using a Solarflare and have the ultra OCXO on the I2S bridge!

[MarcelNL]

That is exactly what I did...was just wondering if there is any part of the MB that would benefit from a better clock?

The chipset? Indeed the CPU? (always assumed they have their internal reference)?

[MarcelNL]

(what I can say is that the ultra OCXO on the I2S transformed the output more than I expected)

[MarcelNL]

what I read until now it seems as if the PCI bus has it's own clock...YMMV....I'll wait for the more informed response from Jord....