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Sure OP should be aware that - whilst his long term strategy develops - USB is not the only way to feed a DAC ...

At first I thought HQPlayer Trial version had limited functionality. It doesn't. I proceeded anyway hedging that I could make it work for me if I adjusted sufficiently. I even spent a long time re-tagging my large flac Library just to indulge HQPlayer's curious mores. HQPlayer is not a Player as such. It's a DSP engine - at which no doubt it excels - and is the right upsampling solution for some people. If you're used to tag-based selection of music in foobar2000 - especially on the fly [you choose what you want, when you want, and you can make instant decisions freely - all reflected in a playback queue - moreover you may want to use bespoke tags and bespoke algorithms to select/Filter music] - HQPlayer is only going to frustrate the heck out of you. otoh if you like Albums and the pretty pictures that go with Albums - whether they correctly match your specific CD issue or not - and just want to hit play and interfere no more whilst the Album proceeds - then HQPlayer might be up your alley. I don't want Album Art at all - or wiggly lines - or smoky background things - neither of which you can get rid of - or anything else like that. I reduce foobar2000 to monochrome as I am interested only its function. I want to be inspired only by the music or by stylistic preferences I choose or create myself. I can play 16/44.1 flac x 4 in foobar2000 on my PC which - like your NUC - barely sweats the CPU at all. Some people swear by low power in the PC/CPU. Also I am religiously offline (may not be important to you) whereas HQPlayer wants to phone home after v 4.16x or something. You have a lot to think about. I think you are wise to focus on exploiting the hardware you have. You may like the idea of HQPlayer eventually. Or some other approach favoured by other enthusiasts. But you want to go in eyes-open. Wish you all the best! CDs are great! [imho]

The OP is like me in that his priority is playing CD rips, he values tags, he knows the usefulness of foobar2000, he's not convinced at this time about upsampling and his instinct tells him that his "server should, above all else, be the highest quality possible ... source for the DAC." After years of developing a great sounding system I am yet to venture into serious upsampling. If and when I do it will be either PGGB or intra-DAC. I tried HQPlayer and loathe it ergonomically. I don't use my HQPlayer license: it's been a total waste of money for me. foobar2000 is much more useful. The OP knows how to - and wants to - browse and select files for play in foobar2000 based on columns i.e. tags ... this is my first prerogative. OP you don't have to limit yourself to 4 columns! You can have as many as you want including bespoke. HQPlayer is a total infant in comparison and will never be any substitute for foobar2000. My ears are quite happy with Sox x4 in foobar2000. The OP is unlike me in that he's willing to use a phone/tablet at the listening position. All in all my advice would be to do a lot more research, discovering what he really wants. Yes this Forum is a truly great resource. Trial and error is unavoidable and, so, due diligence is wise. He's happy with the new NUC on LPS. Be patient. Buy some CDs instead. It's all about music, right? He will still have the CDs in years to come. Most of us agree about clean power.

Footnote: Mark Levinson's insight into health and well being may derive from his expertise on the female orgasm. (You know that takes a special kinda guy.) He has been married once to Kim Cattrall from 1998 to 2004, whereas she has been married three times - the last time to Mark. Anyway - from Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Cattrall): Her third marriage, from 1998 to 2004, was to American audio equipment designer Mark Levinson; the couple co-wrote the book Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm (2002).

Thanks for this Read your blog entry over coffee this morning and was greatly amused. Enough to actually watch the YT video. The ML/DH thesis is that a finely tuned reverb algorithm aka C Wave Tech. - embedded in a chip - doesn't just sound better than PCM without C Wave, it contributes enormously to your well being and health - not to mention the health of the whole audio industry. On the plus side, ML does demonstrate with hand gestures the reverb idea - saying that samples are extended at a barely audible level. But to anyone checking themselves from the neck up yes it all goes downhill from there. Key points for me are: 1. What is C Wave Tech.? and its relevance? OK we have an inkling what C Wave is - sample reverb so to speak. But what is the theoretical if not empirically anchored link between C Wave experience and health? "Brain stress" which is manifest in measurements of CNS, kidney and liver function. Nothing about the nature of the brain stress. Nothing about the physiological context for link with CNS, kidney and liver indices. We are not even told what these physiological indices are. It's OK to take a "top-down" approach to research - demonstrate an effect reliably - and then set about explaining it - even if later. But you would want to demonstrate that effect robustly - and we are very far indeed from doing that here. 2. The "experiment" - The Independent Variable has 3 conditions: a) no music b) PCM music c) PCM + C Wave Tech. On his laptop he has data for 4 subjects and I'm pretty sure it was "within Subjects" meaning each S participated in each level of the IV. There are 3 Dependent Variables: - CNS something or other - Kidney function - Liver function He demonstrates to the hapless interviewer - obfuscating with the allure of coloured shapes with no explanation of why colours and shapes, why those colours and shapes - I think they are just major RGB shading of cells in an Excel spreadsheet - but the chromatic rectangles (are intended to?) come across as having magical properties. Later ML says the "doctor" tested 50 people "informally". Interviewer says, "So validated?". ML: "Oh yeah". Even with only 4 Ss the Results - provided they were procured legitimately (from an experimental Design pov) could be highly suggestive indeed. But we're not even told whether the Ss' participation in IV conditions was randomised vs. sequential. Much worse - we have no theoretical link between "Brain Stress" and the chosen CNS/Kidney/Liver measurements. We don't even know what they were such that we could guess. Just "Do something about it before it makes you sick." Notwithstanding all this ambiguity there is great certainty about how "terrible" these health indicators are when you dip into PCM music unremedied with C Wave Tech. With C Wave Tech. "Listening to music makes you stronger." "You wannit to!" 3. The honesty/BS patter. Early in the video at 1:50 ML says, "We're the only company that can explain, measure and fix the digital audio problem - and we have a patent and a solution ... that's a serious development with a lot of implications." Sound familiar? Don't even need to name Bob Stuart/MQA but it's almost precisely the same idea. To keep the digital gravy train on track we're going to hold ourselves as keeper of secrets, reservoir of genius, and hawker of relevance to your satisfaction. Just trust us. Our horizon is the whole digital music industry. Our idea is patented. The proof of the pudding is in the eating - and we are quite relaxed about that because of the confidence we have in our invention. Also highly reminiscent of that ridiculous QSA promoted on WBF. Later in response to the proposition that audio is 50% Science: 50% Art ML says, "Most audio is not very scientific and there's very little art ... the audio world is now all about making money from music lovers ... it's a world of disappointment." There's a lot of charm (and bluff) between the spoken lines throughout the whole video. Also "We're not for everyone." He wants you to buy into the idea that Hi-Fi is like a 1966 Fender Bass. You will never need to upgrade. 4. I'm not an expert on body language. But how you feel when you engage with someone is indicative of something - in you - or in the other. ML is cowboy-like. Very deliberate. Thinks before he speaks. Is not afraid of interruption. rhs of mouth upturned as he speaks and I'll bet a video analysis could correlate extent of gurn and effort-to-convince-of-the-unproven. I did watch the few seconds following 16:50 several times because of the winning smiling on ML's face when he was talking about the Dutch mastering engineer to whom 24/192 is just like mp3. 5. The Interviewer is sycophantic and yields obsequiously to ML at every turn. 6. I'm sorta glad I've never owned a ML amp. They must have a good reputation for some reason or another. 7. There's great underlining of the pro-health and anti-negativity attributes of C Wave Tech. as the video winds up. Just the ticket for old men with more money than sense - and who can't hear very well anyway. "We're coming up with an alternative universe ... in a sense ... There's a link between PCM and negativity ... I don't want to talk about it because there's no material to back up what I'm saying." [all around 20:00 give or take] Honesty - Bite me. Really I don't get why a 74 yo intelligent, nice guy with a good reputation wants to leave a legacy like this. Same for Bob Stuart and whoever condones that QSA rubbish on WBF.

... refers specifically to film rather than music; nevertheless, ideas and principles no doubt translate to audio. My thoughts were: a) Where there's a will there's a way. Chief cause of loss is failure to backup. If something is lost, it wasn't important enough to the custodian. b) Archivists need to employ competent and conscientious people. Not always a primary concern where all that matters is the next $/£/€. c) Software decoders should be archived along with the media. These need to be standalone - offline - self-sufficient. Even better store media with relevant format converters and update periodically. Thing is - in the commercial world these priorities are mere ideals. Private individuals who care enough about their music can rely on themselves (as long as their mental capacity endures) to preserve ... an argument in favour of ownership - and against streaming where providers are sooner or later capricious. The article is gloomy, depicting the inevitable tension between "Art for Art's sake" and the dollar. Time is money. Money wins. Time dispenses with Art. Think of the Blues and Jazz (recorded on to shellac) that would have been lost but for Joe Bussard. The largest part of Rockabilly as a genre - there are no master tapes. Same even for some 60s and 70s gold dust.

To the best of my understanding, Lucey's "audiophiles" - about whom he was cruelly disparaging - are exemplified by the sucker taken in by the MQA little blue light. We have ridiculed those people too. Lucey has swagger - but imo he can carry it off. I'm glad he's been so emphatically outspoken against MQA ... especially as a Pro Audio guy with a good reputation as a mastering engineer. Thick with Neil Young of course. I count myself as an audiophile, and never considered he was talking about me. Even if he were, I wouldn't have been offended. I truly doubt he was referring to people who pursue good sound intelligently. Maybe I missed him being offensive in other ways. But if not I'd love to see him write a guest piece here. Probably too late given MQA RIP.

Nice article Chris. I am keen on (ripped) CDs and records for different reasons. Either way I am offline. I never have been, and probably never will be, an online subscriber. I've explained why many times. Multitude of reasons. tbh privacy isn't primary amongst them. Freedom from distraction is #1. SQ is #2. etc But I think your "message" is on beam. Culture shifts! Old understandings and shared values get dissolved into unrecorded history. Sometimes for good and too often regrettably. You say that in years to come "we" shall say "WTF" about music data harvesting - rather as we do now - with hindsight - about the good doctor smoking a cigarette. But I fear - just as young people today have never known freedom from cctv etc - and don't concern themselves terribly much with that fact - that mainstream folks will regard centralised "profiling" as ordinary. It's all very well in a proper advanced Western democracy, where (on the whole) the common sense of the people prevails. But we all should know that political stability of this kind is actually fragile. Anyway. Paradigms come and go. Perhaps "Computer Age" shall vanish before we know it. Then - how will the peace be kept with so many people roiling about on the planet. Data Big Brother will look like a pussycat. Data abuse should become indictable. But that isn't happening, and won't happen, because people just don't care enough. (Even if they did, the trajectories of capitalist fever, technology itself and the problem of international governance are hopelessly irrecoverable.)

The following may be relevant / help. If not – may be useful to someone else. AMD issue Installations whether auto or manual can result in MS "Standard NVM Express Controller" being replaced with rogue "AMD-RAID Bottom Device" Fix: In DevMan Right Click -> Properties -> Driver -> Update Driver > Browse > Pick from a list -> Select Standard NVM Express Controller See e.g. here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/nvme-founddetectedrecognized-in-bios-but-not/688de030-05c7-4c31-b6bb-57e12697b6d7 it seems like the AMD chipset drivers install the AMD-RAID Bottom Device drivers. For some unknown reason, Windows defaults to those drivers and it shouldn't. It should be using the Standard NVM Express Controller. This is probably why people who do a fresh install don't see this problem since the AMD-RAID bottom device drivers wouldn't be installed. These drivers are only supposed when setting up a raid array using the amd raidxpert utility.

1) My only experience with Solarflare was catastrophic - see But that was > 2 years ago and I wasn't looking for 10G - just best AIC. Drivers aside, my understanding is they (Solarflare AICs) get hot. Therefore cooling a serious challenge. Others are best placed to report 10G interest wrt Solarflare ... if people have tried them with 10G in mind that is. 2) Made of copper thus presumed not having same isolation property/potential as fiber.

Since long time I have been using Neotech NEMOI-1220 Rectangular OCC Silver for DIY AES cable 👌🔌⚡

2 different slots were like -ve and then +ve otoh. without trying different possibilities I could easily have missed a SQ jump. I had to flip AXF-107 to use in a PCIe x 4 slot (short side down) vs a PCIe x 16 one (long side down). Maybe not so much to do with turning caps 180 as reducing contact points in PCIe slot ... and 2nd slot being located as was first suggested to me - adjacent instead of remote from other Cards :-) well I doubt that the wire has much to do with it - what have you moved on to?

Perhaps my success has to do with AXF-107 in situ amongst 3 x CPU-direct parts/functions performing a single local playback role.

Paul Hynes SR7T Serial # 1 19V to HDPLEX DC-ATX 800W / Mundorf Silver-Gold loom 12V direct to CPU / Mundorf Silver-Gold Yes - my first trial I didn't like at all. A different orientation / location on the mobo ... something else. Did you experiment much? atm I conclude there is more scope than generally realised for cleaning up "dirty" mobo power.