My C.A.P.S. is C.R.A.P.S (bummed)

Hmm, I think C.A.P.S. has nothing to do with this one :~)

Incredibly useful post Chris. I guess my attempt at humor was completely lost on you. So if I don't use your exact components or config, it's somehow not a small low power CLIENT (still not clear why you claim these things are servers with no data being streamed; the NAS IS THE SERVER).

I'll delete my post after lunch.

I guess my attempt at humor was completely lost on you HiFi Tubes. I always denote my less than serious posts with a smiley face :~)

"So if I don't use your exact components or config, it's somehow not a small low power CLIENT"

I have no idea where you came up with that statement. I do know the C.A.P.S. server is a specific design. Your comments are like saying my Volkswagen Jetta is craps when you really have a Ford F150.

"(still not clear why you claim these things are servers with no data being streamed; the NAS IS THE SERVER)."

This is something people bring up frequently by people looking to make mounds out of mole hills. I'm not the inventor of language and terminology. A server is any computer that provides a resource. For example DNS lookups go usually from one computer to another and another and back to the client. Each of these computers are called servers.

In the music server world something like the C.A.P.S. computer is a server because it provides a resource(s) to listeners. A NAS is also a server because it provides a resource to the listener.

This is a fun hobby not to be taken overly serious in my opinion.

I'm in a bad mood, sorry. Your post was not what I expected from the mod of the site; rather than stimulate, you chose to kind of demean my efforts. I don't care if no one posts; it's kind of slap in the face when someone takes the time to , and decides your thread should be home to their "less than serious" posts.

Is there any way you can connect an optical digital cable between your computer system and your DAC? This could eliminate if the issue is down to some form of ground loop, etc.

Eloise

PS. I do think it's fair for Chris to defend his C.A.P.S. setup - the whole point of it (as I read what he stated) was a set list of components that he had spent time testing and knew worked as a configuration. If people deviate from then then all well and good, but it's no longer a C.A.P.S. setup.

The title for your thread is badly chosen and is the reason your post has not been taken as seriously as it could have. It has nothing to do with the Computer Audiophile Pocket Server.

So Chris has a monopoly on small form factor PC sources LOL.

OF COURSE MY SYSTEM IS NOT A CAPS, I cleary stated it's C.R.A.P.S.

That's all mine. You can borrow it if your source had issues, regardless of your choice of C.R.A.P. components.....

Have you been able to try the suggestion I made ... or are you just going to defend your poor choice of thread title!!

Eloise

I don't use Toslink. I would guess I won't hear the noise as Tos. is immune to EMI/RFI correct?

If I connect a Toslink cable from Oppo to one of my DACs, I do not hear the noise. Nor on a digital RCA coax. It's always when do an analog connection between components, and when I directly connect the Lynx via AES to the DAC. Before I got the Lynx cables, I tried the EE DAC usb to my PC, and heard the same noise.

What I summarized clearly points to the PC's motherboard or PSU as the source of this coil whine, however, this noise has always been here! It is just not being filtered anymore. The solution that will no longer work, I fear, is simply finding a cable the the Cardas GC which stopped the noise in the past which was EMI, whereas now I believe the noise is riding the AES cable itself.

2 cheap PSUs from work did could not be fully tested as I did not have SATA power adapters to boot into the OS (where the noise really kicks in).

I think it is the 3200hd onboard or the picopsu power supply (its AC brick).

If I disconnect AES, and the noise relents, if I hook up an analog cable ( as I stated above) between Oppo and preamp or other components, EMI from the PC seeps into the system.The noise was previously being filtered when I was using the 1616M and external Microdock; it is currently being filtered by the Matrix Mini-i DAC/headphone amp as I don't hear any noise on my headphones, BUT the Matrix when connect to my pre/power results in the noise as it is directly connected to the Lynx AES16. This really had me wondering about my tube power amp, but I tried my ganiclone and the same noise crept in. Took apart motherboard and tightened mb standoofs and grounded my picopsu power supply to chassis fully - no joy.

So it can't be power line based as I am connecting analog cables; Oppo is powered down to IIRC and the pre is passive!

Need to get whatever is causing this CRAP out of the system entirely; I had thought of just adding a dedicated C.R.A.P.S. but if this one is spitting out nasties, I can't keep it.

I'll try another PSU tonight, possibly order 3 for testing, and then try a new board (or new build) if all else fails. Another test would be to take the noisy Matrix analog output and instead of running it to my tube power amp or gainclone, try my Raptor headphone amp.

Chris, if I vented at you, sorry, but semantics matter. I personally find the current application of the word server in PC-audio confusing , and ill-informed. With apps like JRMC where one can have many PCs unified and controlled by one another via LS, especially so.