Best investment to upgrade my digital chain?

[creativepart]

My $.02... I have the SoTM SMS200 Ultra, the SP500 Power Supply and Chord Qutest powered by a Sbooster power supply. I feed the SMS200 Ultra via a separate low cost switch so, my setup is kind of similar to yours. It's sounds pretty good. But like you, I assume it could still be better.

 

I looked at a lot of the same things as you. I concluded that a used TT2 would "probably" be the best next step up. Either that or go to a HoloAudio Spring Level 3 DAC or similarly priced DAC.

 

I decided the least expensive thing to try was HQPlayer via Roon. It's a couple hundred dollars and it was easy to set up. You get a 30-day Free Trial but I like the sound improvement enough that I bought the license on day three of the trial.

 

I started with 708/32 PCM settings and an included filter that was developed to be a "software Mscaler" with a million taps. That worked really well and the sound was improved for a couple hundred dollars. Since then with some more trial and error I've switched the HQP settings to DSD256 and I like that even better.

 

I'm still convinced a DAC upgrade would improve things even more - and the TT2 or the Spring Level 3 or similar would be further improvement. But I'm happy enough at this point to hold right here for a while more.

[creativepart]

While many swear the PSU upgrade made a huge impact, I have to say I didn't notice much difference. Mostly, everyone says it's so. So, maybe it is and I just don't hear it.

 

Rob also says that Toslink is best to him - and I know for a fact that in my system this is far from true.

[creativepart]

21 minutes ago, frieddr said:

Upsampling in Roon to 768 definitely adds space/separation.  Subtle but real.  I can't yet figure out how to get HQPLayer to play through Roon to my SoTM streamer.  

You have to install the NAA player from the SoTM admin login and the set HQP to use that NAA.

[creativepart]

1 hour ago, llatpoh76 said:

The SRC•DX is the other piece of the puzzle, but Windows with the ASIO driver is highly recommended as it is rather iffy on Linux.

Nope, don’t go there. The SRC-DX doesn’t work with the SoTM device. I bought one, when it didn’t work I contacted the developer the same day it was delivered. He took it back, reluctantly, and charged a restocking fee.

[creativepart]

It's a problem with some Linux Audio module. Sonore has put a work around in it's admin panel that you can click to automatically install and set a volume setting that solves this issue. But SoTM doesn't and doesn't provide SSH Login for a user that is Linux Savvy to modify the Linux Kernal to fix the issue.

 

On my SoTM after installing the SRC-DX the output volume was so low that you couldn't tell that there was any sound from the unit. However, if I raised the volume to it's highest point I could hear it a little. So, it was working.

 

When I contacted the developer he wanted me to request a SSH login from SoTM and custom install a Linux Audio setting module and then set up some specific volume settings in the module. I refused to attempt this. The developer said he did have one user that had done this step and found it to work. I didn't want to do command line Linux customization to get the product to work - which would have required me to do this each and every time I updated the device's firmware.

 

The developer said he would charge a restocking fee of 10% and I complained. I had the unit only one or two hours. He said, "Send it back and I'll do what I can about the fee." So, I sent it back in the oem packaging and shipping materials and he refunded my purchase price minus the full restocking fee.

 

It does say in a disclaimer on his website that "some linux" devices have a sound issue - but to me the SoTM is a plug and play device. Sure, like many devices it runs on a custom Linux background but I didn't expect it to be a "Linux device." And, the developer had run into this previously with the SMS200 - why not disclose that up front before purchase, as well.

 

If I sound bitter it's because he didn't disclose the SoTM problem and charging a restocking fee seems unreasonable in this instance. He told me if I sent it back with all the OEM packaging and shipping that he'd see what he could do about the fee. I expected him to wave the fee. The unit was new and unused in OEM packing. So, when he charged the $50 fee without comment I felt taken advantage of.

[creativepart]

I found it puzzling at first as well. Don't fret. It works great.

 

First, go into Eunhasu Music Player (at the IP address set for the SoTM)

Go to Control HQPlayer NAA and click on it to install it on your SoTM

Then if it's not "active" after install (I think it will be) click on it to activate it.

The go to Roon Settings > Setup > Add HQPlayer

Then start HQPlayer on your computer - don't exit it, you can minimize it be leave it running

While HQPlayer is running go to the program title in the top menu bar and choose Preferences

There will be a lot of settings - I've added a photo of mine. You'll see the Backend setting, the device setting, etc. In time you'll learn how to set those.

You close the Preferences settings box after clicking OK. Still keep HQP application running on your computer.

Go To Roon > Settings > Audio > and select HQPlayer as the output. There are some basic settings there, too.

 

That's it. Let me know if you have more questions. Here's some photos to help:

 

[creativepart]

As you see above... you don't have Roon Ready Active, you have HQPlayer Active.

 

Then when you output Roon you don't output it to the SoTM you output it to HQPlayer

 

This works when you set up HQPlayer to use the SMS 200 via the HQPlayer NAA backend

 

[creativepart]

You mentioned upsampling with in Roon... did you turn that off? You should. I don't do any DSP in Roon - I let HQP do that.

 

Also, notice that I've set my Buffer Time to 10ms. You might try increasing that to 15 or even 30ms.

 

Also, I noticed something similar when I set the output to 768/32 and then played 48khz files (it only did that when playing 48khz files). It worked better at 708/32.

 

Just experiment around.

 

PS. My Roon Core is a 2021 Apple iMac with M1 Apple Silicone.

[creativepart]

7 minutes ago, frieddr said:

Really, really thank you!  You advice is spot on.  Upsampling makes a real difference!  

And it's a lot cheaper than a new DAC or Mscaler!

[creativepart]

4 minutes ago, frieddr said:

Hey did you ever experience pops or snow at 768K.  Something about my chain makes higher than 192k hard to digest...  

Sometimes when playing Qobuz 48k PCM files at 768k I had some glitches, but not at the slightly lower 708k. But now I'm using DSD256 all the time without any problems. Putting in 10msec of buffer helped as well.