DCaswellUK

Hi Everybody, there seem to be hardly any reviews of this dac so I thought to consult the forum. They are now becoming available for around £900, making them more attractive. If anyone can offer an opinion then I’d be grateful. Many thanks, David Caswell

Hi Kelly, I'm really grateful for the help and advice. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to respond. Your second post was especially helpful, it may have saved me from an expensive mistake. Listening to my existing setup yesterday I'm beginning to think of staying with it..The jplay two computer setup is really good, and as I've kept jriver to version 18, I can still use this excellent interface to control it. I was thinking that maybe audiophil's AO might perhaps be a better next step. The reason for thinking of a streamer/dedicated pc was really that a bespoke device like the microrendu/auralic aries would have been designed by experts who know how to configure things in an optimum way (as regards the hardware)..with proper consideration to power supply etc..This kind of thing is really beyond my current knowledge. Thank you again for your help, Kind regards, David

Hi Everybody, If anyone could offer some help with the following then I'd be very grateful: My current setup is a two pc one, streaming via jplay or jriver. The next link in the chain is a yellowtec puc2 converter, feeding an old benchmark dac1. I'm thinking of going over to a streamer, but one issue is that the yellowtec requires more power than a single usb can provide. Presently this is not an issue, as the two headed cable of the puc can both be serviced in the computer. Most streamers however, only have the one usb out. I did think that an ifi usb power unit might do the trick, but am not sure if this will work, or if it will have a negative effect on sound quality. If anyone has any ideas on this then I'd be very grateful. As time moves on, many second hand options are becoming accesible to people such as myself with a relatively limited budget. I was looking at the Bryston bdp1, the aries, the microrendu etc, all of which can be had for a very reasonable price on the second hand market. The bryston and the aries would not present me with any problem, the aes out will go dircetly to my dac with no issue. The microrendu, or an aurender n100 would need a solution to the yellowtec issue. Searching for a streamer has two distinct parts: the ability of the machine to provide great sound, and secondly the capability of the software/app to control the playback. This seems to be an issue with nearly all of the devices, if user reports on forums are to be taken into consideration. Some guidance in this area would also be appreciated.... Thanks for your attention and for any help that you might be able to give. KInd regards, David Caswell

Hi Phil and everyone, interested in the optimizer after having read all positive feedback. I'm still in the dark days of the PCI card, and wanted to ask if it is possible to use the software with a lynx pci card? I'm currently running win8 with the old 18c lynx driver, the last one that supports KS. It works fine in this setup, both with jr and jplay. I'd also need to update my mb to a 64 bit capable board, and finding a suitable board with pci support might be challenging. I'm very happy still using a soundcard, and don't really want to change to usb while the card still has some mileage in it! Many thanks for any advice that you can give. Kind regards, David Caswell

The ma does have an ssd option, but this still has a fan, at least this one here does! When operating in clamshell mode the fan is really very noisy..although in 'normal' laptop operation the ma is almost silent. It also lacks flexible connectivity: there is no ethernet port, only two usbs and a thunderbolt. It does however make a great controller for jriver, via gizmo. Diogenes, could you tell me if win 8 has sonic advantages over win xp? I'm not sure whether or no to upgrade my os in the caps1. Does wasapi offer an improvement on asio? Many thanks if you can help with this. Regards, David Caswell

Hi, it's me again, with a solution to my own problem! Being new to computers I had no idea that that pci cards, risers etc, can have different specs. The intel d945g board needs a rev 2.3 card to work, it won't work with older riser/pci cards. Thanks to Martin Walker at Sound-on sound for this advice: PCI Soundcard Compatibility Issues I post this link just in case anyone else should come up against this problem. Partly the issue is that the custom backplate and riser that is made for this motherboard is hard to find now..but having finally found one the caps 1 server is now up and running and sounding terrific. Being that it is made of "yesterday's" components, it was possible to source the parts at a very reasonable cost. The biggest saving was on the case, a tendraw rather than the origenae, and the lynx aes card was heavily discounted. A final saving was to use win xp instead of the latest version.. Thanks so much to Chris for the detailed article on how to build the pc. I know it's not a state of the art machine these days, but nevertheless it sounds great and has allowed me to organize my music in a very neat way. Best regards, David Caswell

Hi Everybody, firstly I'd like to say thanks for the all the info contained within this site, it has been really helpful and interesting to learn about the world of computer audio. This is a new area for me, and with all the help and resources that you have on offer here, I've been able to construct a caps 1 server. It works very well- out of the case! I have not been able to install it in the enclosure because I cannot get a PCI riser card to work with the intel D945gsejt board. The lynx aes16 card works perfectly if installed directly into the motherboard's PCI slot, but the moment I connect it with a riser card the display goes black. When I remove the riser, and reinsert just the lynx then all functions perfectly again. I'm now on my second riser card, and it is doing exactly the same as the first one and frustration levels are rising!!! If someone could help me then I'd be very grateful. Incidentally the case I'm using for this project is the tendraw h-125...it is identical to the caps1 recomended enclosure the origenae m10 as far as I can see, only about half the price! Thanks for any help that you can give me with this, Best regards from the UK, David Caswell