alba63

Ok, I forgot to first run AO after switching to core mode, enable media player support etc. Tooke some time, but now I I got it running. As for the sound, there is quite a difference to mini server mode, however not yet sure if it is overall better, or more musical. I will report back later. Thank you! Sent from my GT-N7100 using Computer Audiophile mobile app

Thank you for your answer. So I tried to run core mode, unfortunately after booting into Core Mode I get an error message, saying DSOUND.dll is missing from my computer, therefore Foobar will not start. In GUI mode or mini server mode this does not happen and I can use Foobar without problems. Does anybody know how to fix this error? Thank you Bernhard

I am a bit late to this thread, but I have an important question: SO far I thougth that Core mode is only available in a dual PC setup, but not on a single PC. Is this true or can I playback and operate a single PC also in Core mode? So far I use AO both on Win 10 and Win12Server in Minimal server mode. Thank you Bernhard

I have a PC with dual boot, one with WIn 2012 R2 optimized with AO, fidelizer and JPlay, one installation with Win 10, only mildly optimized for everyday tasks. Sound output is via optical out of my soundcard to my DAC. Yesterday my graphic card (Quattro 620) stopped working so I had to take it out. Now my question is: For my setup (single PC solution), will it be better to... a) go on working with just the internal graphic (integrated Intel graphics, fast enough for Photoshop, Lightroom and video) or... b) try to find a low ´profile graphic card? I am not versatile enough with these kind of things, but what speaks for a) seems to me that there is no extra PCIe card that consumes power and may (or may not) compromise audio quality. What speaks for b) is that internal graphic calculations are obviously an extra task for the cpu and may also compromise audio quality. Does anyone have experiences comparing those 2 solutions? Thank you Bernhard

Hmmm, that makes me thinking: I have a similar issue, but no Pachanko involved, just a HDPLex: I just got a HDPlex 100 (they currently don't have the 300W). I got it together with the HDPLEX 250W DC-ATX. I started with directly powering my 2 SSDs from the 100W PSU via the USB3 cable (5V output), and the results were quite stunning. I then went further: Connected the 19V output of the 100W linear PSU with the 19V input of the DC-ATX, and from there I connected the main 24pin cable and the 12V CPU cable to the Mainboard. The computer did not boot: HD booted, CPU fan started, re-stopped, restarted, but screen remained black, no BIOS even. I put my normal ATX- PSU back inside, but unfortunately the same behaviour. I checked the connections to the mainboard many times, all was ok. I finally took out the graphic card and the PC booted again - running on internal (CPU) graphics. Before I tried it out, I measured a power consumation of 60-just below 100W for my PC alltogether. Even if the computer may have been underpowered (HDPlex is actually a 160W device), can that damage the graphic card? I mean I am happy that the mainboard and RAM isn't kaputt, for the cpu I do not know, I swapped the Xeon against an older i5, I will check the XEON tomorrow.

So I will add my own experience report with the Pachanko SATA reference cable that I bougth roughly 10 days ago. Recently I have upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10 and regained my interest in optimizing audio quality, the PC being my main source of music. I haven't got a CD player since many years. After trying and buying Audio Optimizer, Fidelizer and Jplay I was already quite happy, then started to look at some hardware optimizations and I decided to give the Pachanko SATA cable a try.I was hesitating for a while, because I hadn't hear of any of those (cable) companies before: Chan from Pachanko recommended me to start by replacing the OS disc cable with their "SATA Reference" cable. Not an easy decision, with more than 200 Euro for 20cm of cable, but - to make it short - this must be one of the most surprising investments in HiFi I have made in many years. From the first minute I could hear better clarity, added space and a more solid and dry bass. After the recommended first 100 hours of burn- in the cable added a smoother sound, and even more "air". What used to be a more 2- dimensional music stage has now become much more 3-dimensional and so much more natural. I now hear no longer a "big HiFi sound", but a bunch of musicians making their music. Most impressive! I also swapped the cable yesterday for the standard one, to compare the sound: It was still a good "HiFi sound", but the magic was mostly gone. The described effects are only fully audible on my Win 2012 server installation (I run a dual boot PC), on my everyday Win 10 installation (which is only partly optimized for audio) there is still a lot of added transparency and air, but the sound is quite a bit colder and less dynamic. Nevertheless nice to also hear it there. Heck, even Youtube sounds better now than before :-) The surprising aspect of this is that the Sata reference is currently the only "audio grade" hardware part in my PC, and already it made such an impact. The negative effect is now that I surely want to go further (read: spend more money): Replace the other SATA cable for the music data SSD, and the standard "Be Quiet!" PSU. Of course the impact that such a cable can make will always depend on the total quality of the chain. In my case it seems that the standard PC was the weaker part, and optimizing it allows to show more of what the amp, loudspeakers and the DAC can do. Chan from Pachanko was also very friendly and his advice was spot on. Bottom line: Although this kind of money is a lot for 20cm of cable, I consider myself lucky to have tried it out. A very good investment... Bernhard

For me it has been just 12 years or so. Me too I am in a never- ending process to "cobble together" a digital system and still my memory tells me that it would not take much in analog to overtake those efforts quite easily in terms of - well, just what you say - musicality, flow, directness, aliveness - which for me is more important than dynamic range, frequency response etc. Without being a specialist in acoustics or electronics, I still tend to assume that it has to do with things like micro or nano-timing that are not yet truly understood in music listening and reproduction. Guess I will end up with a turntable side to side with the digital convenience machines. Each ones it's place.

Thank you, before I spend lots of money for a commercial HiFi (linear) PSU, I'll look into this. I copied your answers with the pic.

Hmm, I must say my knowledge of electronics is close to zero, I know how to build a PC to my wishes from standard components, but I never have learned to solder (maybe I should!), let alone more complicated things. As I said, I would like to first power my 2 SSDs. The UpTone JS-2 has 2 outs with selectable Voltage. Could I simply power the 2 SSDs from those outputs? In this case my computer being a PC (not a Mac) should not happen, a SATA SSD is a SATA SSD. The upcoming JS-1 - as far as I have understood - only has one output - does that mean only one SSD could be connected? In this case I'd need 2 of them, which would match the price of the JS-2.

Thanks Alex. I have read around in several forums and threads, and I had the feeling that a battery driven PS like the Bakoon BPS-02 would have been a good unit for me. Unfortunately it seems that it is discontinued. I would like to start by externally powering the SSDs (OS and music). Are you aware of a not to esoterically priced solution that delivery the cleanest possible power for an SSD? Thank you. Bernhard

Not sure if I am in the right sub forum here. I very recently bought myself an audio grade SATA cable and found it to create quite a stropng effect on audio quality. The increase of definition and clarity is quite obvious (even without the effects of so called burn- in). Now I just learned that there are SSDs that have a PCI-Express interface with much higher transfer rates than SATA 600. I did not know that those exist, also my current Asus Mainboard does not yet support them. So my question is: By my own amateurish logic "no cable at all" should always be superior to even the best cable. Therefore better SQ to be expected with those PCIe SSDs - the only factor I can think of the other way round is that a PCIe SSD cannot be powered separately (or only in a complicated way) and therefore has no access to clean power from battery or a linear PSU. Thanks Bernhard

Sorry, I have been on vacation. I'd like to find a normal priced hardware setup for a dedicated audio PC, I only found a high end setup on your site, with quite expensive components. I'd first like to set up the machine as a single audio PC, and then in a dual PC setup where I use my normal PC as control PC. So I already have 2 SSDs for that audio PC, I'd like to learn about the best options for 1. CPU 2. Mainboard 3. Audio card (RAM probably not being that big of an issue...) I will run Win server 2012 R2 on this computer.

Thanks, that was helpful! regards Bernie

Hello, I have a question in regard to Fidelizer Pro and Audiophile Optimizer. After having installed the Fidelizer pro and done the optimizations, on every startup the Fidelizer Pro Popup Window would show to tell that it is doing it's work. As my last step in AO was to switch from GUI to mini server mode, the popup window now doesn't show up. Does that mean that I may have (by a wrong setting in AO) disabled Fidelizer, or ist the missing popup window just a result of the switch to mini server and the lack of the default Win GUI? Thanks Bernie

"Hip"? Led Zepellin is now "classic Rock", "Oldies but goodies". Not much to do with "Hip". That aside, as for cable burn etc., there are lots of people who can hear the effects of different cables, "burn in" etc. I have heard it quite extremely with new components like sound cards etc. And of course I am aware of those people who claim to defend "science" doubt all of those things. My general experience in those cases is that in most of the cases, the problem is that the models that those people apply are too simple. Human perception and the human brain is more complex and less understood than anything else, and while the basics are pretty much clear, the finer aspects are not. Listening to hifi music reveals that there are much finer aspects to sound than frequency spectrum and dynamics (= loudness of signal). Then there is interaction with the psyche of the listener which can make a dramatic difference in the listening experience. How do you want to measure that? Not possible. But of course in the end this is all irrelevant. Some people can see/ hear subtle nuances, some cannot. There is not much to argue. It is just how we are made. All different.