Dav9

Also in full agreement that experimenting to optimize spk placement/AVreceiver setup/room acoustics should be a primary initial focus. Jim Smith's work, what little i read awhile back, was very good and helpful. For example, I found myself in my room, that his finding that an optimum spk setup was with L/R fronts separated by a distance of about 0.82 that of the distance between L/R's and the listening seat.......based on what he considered optimum of course.....but he came to this conclusion from thousands of set ups, in all types of rooms with a huge variety of equipment and spks. A worthwhile, generalized starting point for experimentation. Also worth trying out is placing, if possible, your listening seat at around 0.38 from the back wall of the long wall unit length, to provide the most even bass as as a compromise of the long wall room 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th room nodes SPLs. So for a room 10 feet long, the listening position would be 10 x 0.38 = 3.8 feet = 45.6 inches from the back wall. Avoidance of large bass peaks and nulls permits any additional EQ to be quite effective. Again, a variety of room shapes can alter these rectangular room setup starting points. Works to within inches in my rectangular L shaped room sitting in the end of the long part of the L. Experiments that are essentially free to try out and modify for your particular space. Having installed and setup hundreds of home theatres, i find their sound for music is usually challenged because of 1. spk placement ......the owners desire to put spks inside cabinets......don't get me started on that....general spk placement too wide/high/close to front wall, etc.. 2.using an AV receiver for sound reproduction. 3.an inexpensive hdmi bluray/dvd player for a source. Although some of the newer AV receivers with well developed spk and room correction EQ are quite awesome in taming the bass, the multipurpose design of AV receivers with their higher levels of EMI and RFI and design compromises leaves them, in my experience, lacking in the emotional analog liquidity of a dedicated 2 channel system. I noticed a disappointing lifelessness appear when transitioning from even my budget 2ch separates to a good sounding.....for an AV receiver.....Anthem. Mind you Anthem does digitize all incoming analog inputs so that probably had an effect. As a side note to how sensitive analog signals can be disrupted, I was once dumbfounded when my 3D soundstage completely collapsed to 2d. Back tracking my actions, turned out it was from pushing my equipment rack back closer to the wall......only a few inches.....which brought the folded pwr cord of my pwr bar too close to the back of the Pioneer Elite receiver I was using as a pre amp at the time. That's all it took. Hence, I also suggest considering a 2ch integrated or inexpensive pre/power amps that allow HT bypass. If you are open to buying used from Agon or elsewhere your budget will go farther. Any day now i should receive the Rogue Audio Sphinx integrated that I had them add a HT bypass to. I was leaning a bit to buying a used 2ch Rogue Audio Perseus ht bypass tube pre and then the rather intriguing Job 225 power amp, but decided on a more simple and economical approach right now. Mitebbots, is there any way you can also try out a better quality source in your system. Such as borrowing your Cary Audio friends' cd player or source. I am not familiar with parts in your multimedia HTPC but i suspect that is also a considerable bottleneck to the good SQ you desire. Have a look at one of the basic CAPS v3 designs.......something with hdmi out. A kit build or even a prebuilt one with an economical case along with a used ht bypass integrated could fit in your budget. cheers, David

Alex, thanks for the feedback and tip re Toshiba card, I now have one on the way given it is at a good price compared to others at that speed I saw advertised. At 240MB/s the newer Toshiba cards will be closing in on the approx max operating speed you calculated.

Has anyone tried a 600x speed/90MB/s card to find out whether they improve the SQ/boot speed in a MM even further and are worth the extra cost over the 22MB/s cards, I am curious to know before choosing one to buy.

Those interested in using a mac mini as a dedicated music server may want to keep an eye - or ear- out for the dB Audio labs Revolution Media Server which debuted at RMAF. In communication with Eric Hider at dB Audio about the server he shared the design focus was upon producing analog sonic attributes, namely fluidity, overtone transfer, and decay retrieval. Through listening and making alterations he has incorporated a couple dozen things that he believes would have been missed by a design focus strictly on number measurements-cpu speed, noise levels,etc. One so far unique difference that Eric says they achieved was thru the removal of 200,000 lines of OSX code by a Senior Linux programmer he hired. I am certainly no software engineer but that alone has me intrigued as in the PC world users are reporting substantial SQ improvements moving to WS 2012 running Audiophile Optimizer. The typical audiophile hardware improvements of power supply, memory, and SSD upgrades are also included. So now I am torn........just as I was headed in the direction of doing a tricked out CAPS type build with an optimized WS 2012 OS the option to get my unibody MM modded or just purchase a prebuilt one comes along.

Separate +12V psu to each of the mobo and cpu could work, i am taken to understand, if the cpu is powered up first. Anyone using this arrangement and any issues?

Hi Mike, I believe that's it..... I'm late to the game again! Saw that one recently but didn't connect the dots.....For not much more than the price of a regular pico Pang's could offer good value. In addition to upgrading the wire loom I was hoping he was going to work his magic and mod the stock pico components but this doesn't appear to be the case. So Jplay developer(Marcin?) suggested something along the lines of separate psu to each the usb card and the OS sata drive, basically leaving the ATX supply for only the mobo and cpu? If one was to apply a separate +12v psu directly to the cpu is that workable for powering up delays or is that sequence handled by the +12V the mobo receives from the ATX? That would leave last on the priority list an external eSata storage drive if I am following your line of thinking correctly.

Apparently to be released soon is PPA's micro ATX Pico psu with silver/copper pwr leads......how much this improves usb card SQ (along with helping CPU, PCIe, and SSD/CF OS) should be interesting.......giving the option of using one clean LSPU in a tidy arrangement, with an ATX mobo at least. paul professional audio studio: October 2013

Paul, I have been contemplating a similar conundrum as yourself. What SQ differences would there be between a single or dual CAPS Carbon/Zuma running WS 2012 AudiophileOptimizer and a good streaming system? To upgrade the SBT SQ you could consider a couple options........swapping the SMPS of the SBT for a dedicated linear one made by, for example, Welborne Labs Squeezebox Power Supply Upgrades A second option I am interested in considering myself is the Sonore LMS capable products such as the SOtM mini server and their optional matching mBPS-d2s battery psu or their one piece Sonic Orbiter with built in battery psu (both of which would need a usb to spdif converter in your current set up). Either of these choices connected to an AR-T Legato usb to spdif converter would prove most interesting imho. A spdif output one box solution from Sonore is the Rendu Network Player that Chris C reviewed favourably here on CA. So either the upgradability, tweaking (fun or obsession/distraction?) and possible superior SQ of PC path or the greater perceived simplicity of a streamer front end, perhaps allowing one to actually spend more time enjoying listening to music and reducing feeding the minds/ego attachment to "upgrade itis"? Cheers, David

yobigc, some random, biased, thoughts/perspective for you: Have you confirmed that bass response is not being limited by the placement of the speakers in that particular room? Because this was your primary concern and experimenting with placement is free and requires only a little bit of time, I suggest you start there if relocating the spks is at all possible. Is the room volume quite large? This will reduce the room gain in the bass region. The 4300 Marantz is an entry level model from pre Audyseey days isn't it? A newer receiver with more advanced spk/room correction can help significantly in dealing with peaks and nulls in the bass response. I would optimize spk placement first though.....it really can make a massive difference in alot of rooms. Adding a sub will of course help quite a bit in the lower and mid bass and usually increase the clarity above those frequencies with the fronts alleviated of the need to produce below say 80Hz and provide more of that "punch" you are looking for. AV receivers are however notoriously noisy with EMI and RF, have multiple features, compromised signal paths, and poorer quality analog output stages - creating conditions unfavourable to accurate reproduction of delicate analog signals. The quality of the Dac is only one of the factors. In playing around with a usb to spdif converter feeding the dac in my Anthem receiver I notice an improvement over hdmi from my mac mini but the "digititus" and lack out inner detail remain compared to using my dac straight to a power amp. Depending on your priorities and budget, the addition of a 2 ch integrated amp with a home theatre bypass is an option. Lots of choices used on line from Audiogon, for example. Feed the integrated with a budget asynchronous usb dac from your computer. This approach will increase sound quality but reduce your ability to deal with the bass....although you could get a sub with built in room correction abilities for your 2 ch sources going thru the integrated amp, such as Paradigms' PBK models. Quality two ch room correction for the fronts will cost muucho $$$ though.

You could also get one of the inexpensive Usb to spdif asynchronous converters like the Musical Fidelity V Link. I also second the notion to do what you can to convert your music files to lossless (aiff, flac, etc.)

After hearing from someone that unchecking the Spotlight preferences didn't stop Spotlight from running I Spotless to turn it off (and back on if desired but I've left it off): http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/18141/spotless Have you done the other free software mods to the mini that are available?

Paul, have you looked at the SPDIF NOS Metrum Octave dac? Similar in price to the Proton but in high demand now with apparently a waiting list. Impressive accolades especially when upsampled with Pure Music and fed with a Off Ramp 4 usb to spdif converter. Substituting a V Link instead could keep the combo price down. There is a thread on this site plus a full review at 6moons.com.

Hi Brett, usually the higher the amp input Z the better so 100k and 200k may work fine, depending on your source output. To allow getting a range of volume from say 9 0'clock to 3 o'clock on the volume knob I believe the designer tested some different input and output Z's by calculation using a speadsheet program or something....check with him though. You can find their discussion with image links below. See bottom of page 16 in first DIY link for some model types (don't think the HT bypass is listed there yet, it was only a couple of days ago he told me it was doable). A pic of the attractive 2 in 2 out single ended model is on page 7 of audiocircle link. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendors-bazaar/176847-warpspeed-optocoupler-volume-control-4.html http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=97379.120

As you are likely aware, volume control is a key component in obtaining high quality sound. There is a newer improved LDR (light dependent resistor) passive vol control being discussed on Audio Circle called the Warpspeed Optocoupler you may also wish to investigate if suitable for your system. If you don't need an active preamp in your system the WS seems like an interesting option. The designer has recently confirmed he can also do a HT bypass model in single ended form.

You might want to have a look at Pure Music, one of the more popular music playback software for OSX. They offer a free 15 day trial period. In addition to the improved SQ vs iTunes, I get good use out of it's highly regarded dithered volume control using Remote app on my iTouch. Very handy especially if obtaining sufficient compatibility running your dac straight to your power amp, removing the preamp from the system for maximum transparency. The wired4snd dacs I believe have a decent enough output stage to drive an amp directly, given interconnects less than a few miles long and high enough input impedance of the amp.