ClothEars

I finally got a Delkin 64Gb card to try and hey presto - I find it is slightly superior to the SP Gaming card. The Delkin has a very clean liquid presentation allowing lots of micro details to come through. Complex mixes with lots of instruments involved are more separated and delineated allowing a more intimate involvement in the track. The sound stage is not quite as wide as the SP Gaming card however this is only a minor difference. What becomes obvious is that the general presentation of the SP Gaming card seems a little bit coarse compared to the Delkin which is very smooth and controlled. So the Delkin is my new reference however it cost me AUS$188 compared to the SP Gaming card which come in at AUS$20 so the SP Gaming is the best value for money by far. Whether the extra cost for the Delkin is warranted is up to the individual.

Looking at YouTube videos of people breaking down a micro SD card you can see a processor and several miniscule surface mount capacitors. In my experience whenever capacitors are present they have an affect on the sound and I believe each company also has its' own proprietry processor. That MAY be an explanation as to why they sound different.

I don't use 8Gb cards any more because they aren't generally available with 128Gb or larger fast becoming the norm.

Yes - you burn/flash a micro SD card (minumum 8Gb) with the image file available on the sOTM web site for version 5.51. Here is the link - the download is at the bottom of the page. https://docs.sotm-audio.com/doku.php?id=en/eunhasu/burn_sdcard_image It doesn't matter if the micro SD card is bigger than 8Gb as the image is for a partition that is around 7.8Gb. Each micro SD card seems to have a particular sound signature and I have found the SP Gaming card to sound the best to my ears. I have just ordered the 64Gb Delkin Power micro SD card referred to earlier to give it a go. It will be interesting to see if the extra expense is worth it. 😃

The card is burnt from an image file that is just under 8Gb so it doesn't matter what size the card is as long as it is at least 8Gb. SMS-200 then reads the 8Gb partition. Why the card makes such a difference remains a mystery but to my ears (and quite a few other users) it does.

I have tested all the cards in the photo below. I concur with the observations @Mahler and Bach on Computer has made regarding varying performance from different brands. For me the Silicon Power Gaming card is the best. I tried other variations of their cards but they were not as good as the gaming card. The Verbatim card was the next best followed by the Samsung cards and PNY. The Sandisk cards were poor performers irrespective of the speed class utilised. I too found them harsh with a narrow soundstage and thought if I heard an SMS-200 using one of their cards I would not be that impressed. Also I found speed had nothing to do with subjective performance - faster cards did not outperform their slower brethren. I'd like to give the Delkin UHS-II v90 and ADATA UHS-II V90 cards a go however they are quite expensive compared to the cards in the photo. I'd better start saving!!

I have done extensive SD Card testing and found the Silicon Power Gaming card to be the best. They present a bigger sound stage and greater depth with excellent detail. I was actually surprised that they could make such a difference but they do.

It may be that the TCP/IP address for conection to the SMS-200 has changed. This used to happen to me after updates sometimes however I fixed the address on my router and no longer have problems. You can search your network connections using your router setup page and check if you have the correct TCP/IP address for the SMS-200.

I use MPD and select the DoP setting. Works a treat. 😃

And if you are like me you might have missed the updates to: – mpd 0.23.13 – upmpdcli 1.7.9 – bubbleuUPnPserver 0.9.update46 – HQplayer networksudiod (NAA) 4.4.0 Full details are here: https://www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/english/recently-updated-the-release-repo/

I now use a Curious Cable Ethernet for the final connection to the network. There is no shield connected to the connector housing. Once I heard the system without the network connected I had a reference sound that I set about trying to get as close to as possible but still connected to the network. As @Dandou has pointed out, without the network connection you cannot control the MPD playback which is impractical for a listening session. So down the rabbit hole I went and this is my network signal path now, which gets me to about 90% of my reference sound (ie. no network connection). Frtizbox 7490 modem/router (with linear power supply) -> Cat6 ethernet cable -> Netgear GS105E switch (with linear power supply) -> Curious Ethernet Cable -> SOtm SMS-200 Ultra Neo (with SOtM sCLK OCX10 clock) and USB attached 4Tb HDD library. To try and get that last 10% I'm waiting to see the new EtherRegen offering and hopefully I'll be able to use the SOtM clock with it.

I can confirm this observation which has changed my perception on what matters in getting the best sound. I use an attached 4Tb hard drive as my library directly attached via USB to a SOtM SMS-200 Ultra Neo. The SMS-200 is connected to the home network via ethernet. I had always assumed that the network connection had no effect on the sound as all the file data comes from the HDD and the network connection was simply there to provide control access to MPD on the SMS-200. Through another thread I was prompted to detach the ethernet cable whilst a playlist was running and I got the shock of my life. The sound was substantially improved in every regard. This was a very unsettling discovery as it meant that even though the network connection was not in the file signal path it was certainly affecting the quality of the sound. Oh, how I wish this was not the case. So now I'm travelling down the rabbit hole of minimising the effect of the network on my system and, I now understand why some members have gone to considerable effort to address this element of their systems.

Did you mean PNY sd cards as I can't find ENY brand?

Thanks May. I would also like to report that version 5.3 does not have the problem of glitching I experienced with version 5.2 and it sounds better as well.

Does anyone know whether the external clock input requires a sine wave or square wave input?