BigAlMc

The problem here is that your finding (that the SPS-500 beats the LPS-1 and LPS-1.2) is the opposite of what many others here have found. I currently own all three of the above and the ONLY thing the SPS-500 beats either of the other two on is available amperage. The LPS1 sounds better, the 1.2 better still. Factor in your commercial interest in selling the SoTM kit and your post raises eyebrows. Dunno about the NUC vs SMS-200 claims but a lot of very experienced users (myself included) are very happy with what they are achieving with NUCs and I don't hear many others advocating the SoTM renderer as a step up. Cheers, Alan

Exciting stuff! Queue the inevitable Tidal vs Qobuz bakeoff posts.

The Curious has a great sense of energy and a really big soundstage. Probably the more accurate of the two. The Lush^2 is a bit more blurred but more musical at the same time. There's a texture that adds a bit of breath to the vocals. There's also great separation of the different instruments. Dunno how to describe it other than the Lush^2 just grabs me more. Cheers, Alan

I have the Lush^2, the original Lush, the Curious cable and the Sablon Reserva. I haven't changed the Lush^2 config for months and probably won't unless a few people say a new config is better still. I also haven't considered taking the Lush^2 out my system because it sounds terrific. It's a great cable and there's no need to experiment, unless you want to. The Lush^2 brings a great sense of musicality and separation of instruments and voices. I don't think you'd be disappointed. Cheers, Alan

There's a theory that having a lot of headroom, i.e. way more processing power than you need and loads of latency aids SQ. This in part is why Roon advocate a two box solution when any one box could comfortably do the processing needed. There are other factors but it's part of it. Roon supported list is meaningless. As long as the basic specs are met you're good. I wouldn't waste any time worrying about whether it's on their list. Cheers, Alan

Hi @Aberrant-Decoder and welcome to AS! Dunno about a sticky but that would be a good idea. For endpoint basics the following are popular: Boards NUC7CJPH or NUC7PJYH - with Akasa Newton fanless case or NUC7i7DNBE/KE/HE with Akasa Plato X7 case fanless case The first two are celeron based and cheaper. The i7DN models are i7 based, more expensive but potentially better. 4 or 8GB of RAM will suffice for an endpoint. You don't need anything else other than a decent PSU for the endpoint. Probably worth checking out the following thread: Any of the above models would also work for a server but you'll want to consider 16 or 32GB RAM. Also if you want to do heavy processing like upsampling you'd be better going with the i7 models. An SSD is optional if you want to store the music in the server (as opposed to on a NAS or suchlike). Finally, re this question: If you're using AudioLinux then you can save the system and settings to your USB memory stick that you boot off. So it's persisted in terms of how often you back it up. Hope this helps. Cheers, Alan

Have you checked that the USB port you're using to boot from isn't disabled or has power disabled? Cheers, Alan

So one question would be whether a celeron NUC with 8gb RAM and large Squeezelite buffers outperforms or equals the more expensive and reportedly better sounding i7DNBE board. Might be a cheaper way to NUC endpoint nirvana if the large buffers helps equal the SQ of the more expensive i7 board. Cheers, Alan

Thanks @seatrope, That's useful as it means the 8gb ram stick might be a gamble. Need to think about it. Hi Rajiv, Nope, not using the tx-usbultra at the moment so I guess that's an option. But brings other questions into play as I'd need to power it with the spare LPS-1 I kept 'just in case' 🙂if i want to keep the LPS-1.2 on the NUC. Putting a lesser able PSU closest to the DAC seems counter intuitive. Its also a backwards step in terms of the old spaghetti conundrum. Not ruling it out but needs some thought. Thanks @ciccio1112but I suspect its the i7 board draws more power than the celeron. Think I caught everything in the Bios but defo worth checking again. Oh well some options to consider before my next attempt. Cheers, Alan

Fell at the first hurdle. The Endpoint won't boot on the LPS-1.2 with both 4GB ram sticks in it. Considering buying an 8GB stick on the assumption that one 8GB stick uses less power than 2 x 4GB sticks. Its 1.2v per stick, right? Cheers, Alan

Hi @HeeBroG, Nope. You still use Roon app as controller and Roon server, so interface is the same. You just select Squeezelite as player under the Audio menu in Roon. So Squeezelite is where you're sending the music to, but your still using Roon to select what you're sending. Cheers, Alan

Thanks Rajiv, Yup, I tried that on the SE. Knew it used an SL endpoint but didn't realise it was also large buffers. Didn't think the SE had a lot of RAM. I played around last weekend, made progress but ultimately unsuccessfully, at trying Ray-Dudes instructions. Guess I'll reach for the screwdriver and some Putty later this morning 🙂 Cheers, Alan

Interesting stuff Rajiv and looking forward to those reviews. Meantime any commentary on the difference in SQ of using Roon Bridge vs Squeezelite with large buffers on the same Roon server? Put simply is it worthwhile for me to open my Endpoint, add another 4gb of RAM (which I have anyway) and try the large buffer size in the Squeezelite endpoint? Thanks, Alan

Thanks @Solstice380, We're good and I get where you were coming from but that's not what I was doing. Cheers, Alan

I said I was going to ignore this thread but not when I'm being attacked as a twit, a snowflake or the insinuation that I am either someone with an agenda or worse trolling this thread with my 'ambiguous' questions. Let's break it down shall we. I have been in the AL ecosystem since the 2nd of December 2018. That's what, 1 month, 1 week and some loose change. I am not a fanboy, I am not a diehard and I have no agenda. I am however seriously impressed with both Peiro and his work. That said if something better comes along I reserve the right to jump ship and will do so without apology or hesitation. That's just the audiophile game. My current favourite USB cable is Peters wonderful Lush^2. But same goes. I'll move on if I become convinced there is a better option. My current setup is an NUC with 16GB RAM (16 more on the way as the 2nd stick did not work and Crucial are replacing it for me) and 1 TB SSD running AL as Roon Server. Along with another NUC with 4GB RAM, no SSD, running AL as Roon Bridge or Squeezelite endpoint. I posted on here yesterday because as long as the cost was not too prohibitive then I wanted to try WindowsX for myself and do my own comparison. My questions were not in the slightest ambiguous. They were also not answered. Let's regroup. In reverse order. 5. Does your product support Roon and LMS? I assume it's a yes, but before I consider parting with any money I'd like to check. Please explain to me what is so confidential or proprietary that you cannot answer this? 4. How big is the footprint and how much RAM is needed to run solely in RAM? In fairness this was semi answered but it was a little vague. Some clarity would be great here. 3. Is is Server only or is there an Endpoint option? As per the description of my stack I'm running a server to endpoint setup and wanted to know if I can do apples to apples or not. Not that this is a deal breaker. But it's a basic question. Again please tell me why this one is also secretive and cannot be answered on an open forum for the benefit of others wondering the same? 2. Is there a trial option? Again very reasonable question. I'm happy to pay for a full license if I proceed and make your product my software of choice going forwards. But given I'd like to evaluate it then there is definitely no harm in asking whether you offer a trial option for just that. If the answer is no then that's fine too. But I fail to see why you cannot answer this publicly either. It's a very basic question. 1. How much is your Windows Ramroot offering? You answered that you do not support Ramroot. That's fine. Although you took the opportunity to throw in another insinuation about running in RAM having 'too much glare'. No one else in the NUC AL discussions is commenting on this but ok. This is the one question where I can understand you wanting to take it to PM. But I called out the double standard that you are happy to discuss Peiro's pricing publicly but need an NDA to reveal your own. The context is that not only did you discuss AL pricing but you then lobbed in disparaging remarks like "good for the money". Sorry but this is why people are attacking you on these forums. You seem to be playing a double game of lobbing insulting remarks and insinuations about your competitor but then hiding behind "let's take it offline" when asked about your own offering. So no, Keewatakee, you did not: You repeatedly ducked simple questions. I am not an AL fanboy. I was genuinely interested in trying your software if the cost wasn't too high. But I am no closer to understanding whether your software works for me or not because you ducked the questions time and time again. As for you @Solstice380 - you owe me an apology. I was acting in good faith and asking reasonable questions. You attacked me with personal insults for no good reason. Cheers, Alan