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I have owned the SotM before and it is broken. And i buy Elfidelity as the replacement. My first impression is the sound a bit blur than before. But i am still happy to keep it as I would like a budget card for my bedroom PC. There is already a big improvement from motherboard USB port. Sotm/PPA is a PCIe to USB bridge card, while Elfidelity is connect to USB panel within motherboard. They all perform power filtering and accept LPS. But Sotm/PPA has clock chip while Elfidelity does not. According to Elfidelity say, they believe their approach is better than Sotm/PPA due to simplicity in signal path. (ICH->USB directly, instead of ICH->PCIE->USB) To my ear, Sotm perform better than Elfidelity. But Elfidelity exceed my expectation with 1/10 of Sotm price.

Considered 300W LPS but it kills my budget. My DLNA DAC feed by LAN instead of USB. I will pay more attention on LAN isolation instead (Running Minimserver). But if i am using USB connection, probably I will buy the 300W LPS. A good LPS definitely improve the HDMI ouput. Compared a normal PSU with the HDplex 100W LPS - Better contrast, color is more vivid, squeeze details in dark area and lines are more solid. But AV function does not justify for an expensive LPS. FYI. AQ jitterbug also provide some improvement in HDMI output.

I also owned Elfidelity USB card. With LPS supply to the USB card, they perform well with the price tag of USD 25. Of course you cannot compare SoTM / PPA as they are in different price range. But if you are looking for causal listening with bedroom PC, this should be a great choice. For the PCIe noise absorption card, they need time for run-in. They improve my video output. There is no harm to try with only USD 25.

My old QNAP NAS installed with Minimserver and KODI. As the hardware is outdated and not powerful enough to handle HEVC 4K, I have choose to build my own one. Building process is really straight forward. Remember to choose the GX16-2 connector for the case. The Nano 250W DC-ATX must be placed close enough to the GX16-2 connector. Power connection chain as below 100W LPS (19V XLR output) -> GX16-2 connector on the case -> Nano 250W DC-ATX (19V input) -> Motherboard/SATA power connector Configuration HDPlex H5 Gen2 case for passive cooling (Can handle 95TPW CPU) HDPlex 100W LPS (Clean power is important for both Hifi and AV purpose) HDPlex 250W DC-ATX (Convert the 19V output from LPS into MB/CPU/SATA power) Gigabyte M.ATX G1 Sniper M7 Intel i5-6500 Skylake (65TPW, CPU power should able to handle HEVC 4K) Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit Crucial MX200 M.2 500G SSD (Make it simple without SATA cable) Broadcom 1G Fiber LAN card with SFP (For LAN ground isolation) Elfidelity Rainbow Sugar 2 (For noise absorption)