tz1963

I've been powering both with a Keces P8. The Gigabyte was already very good, but I could not get rid of glare in the high notes, for example choral or soprano voices. That has now softened quite a bit.

I have a Supermicro X10SBA-O, which I power with a Mini-box.com picoPSU-150-XT – 150 W DC-DC ATX power supply. It replaces a Gigabyte ga-n3160tn and the Supermicro is clearly better, simply quieter and less glare. For those considering the X10SBA, it can be quite picky with RAM, so I had to get new RAM rather than use old ones that I still had, adding to the cost. But I was wondering if it was better to power it with a 12v 4-pin DC connector. Would that be an improvement? And which one should I get? Any suggestions would be helpful.

I'll leave it for someone else to answer that, because I have no idea

The first decision you have to make, I think, is whether you want low power, in which case something like a SoC Supermicro or DFI BW171 appear the preferred choice, or a high-power one that can do upsampling in HQplayer. I personally went for the low-power option, got a Gigabyte GA-N3160TN, which has a 12v DC-power in, which can take LPS and typically takes less than 1 AMpere.

This worked for me once, but you may have tried it already: pull the powerchord out of the socket. Sometimes it is not enough to simply switch off the PC. Probably won't work, but just in case you had not tried.

Answering my own question here, in case anybody is interested. I am using W10 Pro remote desktop and had the setting 'play sound on this computre' rather than on the remote computer (which is my audio PC). This meant that, whenever I tried to use the remote desktop, I could not set Dirac as the sound device, though it still played somehow, but without going through Dirac.

Hi, I installed AO with Dirac and Jriver and it all worked well. Then when I restarted the PC Dirac had disappered from sound playback devices. It is still there in audio controllers, with up to date drivers, and I can launch it, but I cannot select it in control panel > hardware and sound > sound. I only find 'remote audio' there. Thanks.... OK, I solved it, though I'm not sure how....

One more Eitr > Job Integrated user here. Very pleased with the result, even straight out of the PC.

Thanks for that. What should I do, if the library is fairly large? I have been using the add library function, but that does not replicate the file structure of the disk. Is there another way of doing this?

Can someone tell me what the best way is of loading albums in the HQplayer library. I have all my albums in folders in windows explorer, but when I try to get HQplayer to enter these into the library, it makes a mess of it and leaves out many albums. Thanks...

I have the Gustard A20H and, having had several sabre dacs, such as the EE Minimax, I would listen to a few dacs and to which dac chip you like. I personally would not just go back to sabre, because I just prefer the AKM dac chip. But that's a matter of taste and what fits in you system.

Thanks for that. But I wonder if others would also like to comment, because I have read that some people find that the Jcat USB linked to the Intona gives better sound quality in their system. And then there is the question of whether the Gustard dac, with its I2S input would not be better served with a Singxer U-1, with its Femto clocks. More comments would be welcome...

Believe me, I have looked, but could not find the answer anywhere: which of these three is the most effective upgrade? I have USB Regen, fed from a PC, with no moving parts, running HQPlayer, but otherwise no computeraudiophile parts. I also have an Audiophileo which is not connected, because I do not hear much of a difference. The USB cable is some cheap Wireworld one. I know that people sometimes combine different appraoches, but I want to choose one of them only, so as not to spend too much--$700 max. My dac is the Gustart A20H, feeding a Nord OneUp power amp, going to Amphion Argon 3S speakers. The sound is pretty terrific as it is, but I can hear that the PC signal is polluted. In reading on this forum, I find that some people say that a Jcat-Intona approach is better than getting the SotM SMS-200. And some people seem to suggest that getting the Singxer SU-1 is the best option, because it can get a I2S straight to the Gustard, which may be its best imput. What should I do?

Yes, it took me a while, but I'm slowly beginning to understand how this works. I'll be looking at another way than Dirac to create a filter, so that I can use it in HQP.

@bibo01 and Kal Rubinson Thanks very much. It is exactly what I need to know. And I will look into the possibility of using HQP's convolver, getting the best of both worlds.