ensrettet

I'm very happy with the sound i get from a combination of HD800 + Lehmann Audio Black Cube Linear + Audiolab MDAC. Compared to the Grado GS1000i, the HD800s seemed to be a bit bass shy. The bass is there, along with superb mids, lots of detail and wide soundstage. Just need a bit more volume as they are harder to drive. I did try the HD800s with my Musical Fidelity M1 HPA and although it had no problems driving them, the combination lacked the warmth and richness i prefer from the Lehmann. I'm thinking about getting a Schiit Mjolnir and a Toxic balanced replacement cable for the HD800s when funds permit.

The Streacom FC5 is a nice case, i've had my eye on FC5-Z77 Fanless Media PC as a potential replacement for my self-build AMD E350 based music server. Just waiting for the 3770T CPU to become available and also the PCI-E version of the SOtM USB card before I can make a move. The link may also give you ideas about compatible motherboards and optical drives for the FC5 case. I noticed benefits from using a SOtM tx-USB card so I can recommend that. I also use the SOtM SATA and fan filters but haven't done any testing to confirm what effect they have. I don't use my E350 for Video but a quick Google suggests other do and it can handle it well. The dual core 1.6Ghz CPU is relatively weak (e.g. System Monitor on Linux consumes 50 percent of both cores) but 18W consumption should make it easy to keep cool with a FC5 case. Here is a comparison of game performance using onboard graphics (not the same thing as video playback granted) AnandTech - The Brazos Review: AMD's E-350 Supplants ION for mini-ITX

I've had good results using a SOtM dx-USB HD converter to feed my M1DAC (original model) via the AES/EBU input. Wider soundstage and placement of instruments and vocals seems better defined, easier to identify the components. (compared with using coax and a Vlink1) I also have a Vlink 192 which i've not tried with the M1DAC but have tried with my Audiolab MDAC via coax and it suffered drop-outs at the start of tracks. This was before I upgraded the MDAC firmware so this may be resolveable. The MDAC reported a small difference in the frequency compared with the direct async USB connection (maybe the reclocking is part of the timing issue). The June 2012 issue of hi-fi news has a USB DAC review where they gave the M1A DAC "highly commended" and reported that the async USB had a low jitter of 14ps. For material of higher resolution than 24/96, the balanced input, fed by a USB-S/PDIF converter would be the way to go. If you can get a demo model (converter) on loan to try before you buy, even better.

Hi, I decided to go with a Paul Hynes SR1-9, hopefully will be ready in a month or so. After lots of running in, my Audiolab MDAC is sounding better so the next step will be a MPAX power supply upgrade and i'm thinking about getting a power regenerator for audio sources, maybe a ISOL-8 PowerStation or PurePower 700. Its a shame the MDAC doesn't have a AES input as i'd like to compare it with the the M1 DAC fed via AES from the SOtM converter. Regards, Martin

I ordered my MDAC mid-November and was lucky enough to be part of the Feb 13th batch that landed in the UK, so it got installed last week. Initial impressions, its a very solid unit, build quality seems good. First listen used a USB connection from my music PC (normally used with M1 DAC) and using the built-in headphone amp. With no running in, the sound seemed flat, no detail, no soundstage and seperation, almost like listening to low quality lossy material. Connecting by coax via SOtM USB-S/PDIF converter didn't seem to make a difference for better or worse. Connecting it to my M1 HPA headphone amp did improve things but not enough for me to enjoy listening. After 10 hours or so of Enya on repeat, the bass became more pronounced and I started to hear a bit more detail. Although this sounds negative, I had the same reaction when I bought my Arcam rDAC and compared it to my M1 DAC. I'm happy to give it time to run in properly and will be ordering the M-PAX power supply when it becomes available. Regards, Martin

@sik_lescinovid I've used Voyage MPD with both the rDAC and M1 DAC and haven't had any issues getting them to talk. The Voyage team seem to have created some good, generic default settings. The only problem I had was getting my external NAS drives to mount but that is down to my lack of Linux experience rather than anything to do with Voyage. Most of my music is ripped CDs, with only a very small number of 24/96 Flacs so (on the PC serving the rDAC) I currently have the MPD format hard-coded as format "44100:16:2" as it doesn't like "*:24_3:2" (but this is Lunbuntu 11.10 64bit with MPD 0.16.6, not Voyage) The PC serving the M1 DAC uses a SOtM USB-S/PDIF converter which works fine with the "*:24_3:2" format. @Eloise I recently tried some A-B testing with the same source, same USB cable (Wireworld Silver Starlight), same Headphone amp (Musical Fidelity M1 HPA), same headphones (Grado GS1000i) but the M1 DAC was plugged into an Isotek power conditioner, Wireworld Stratus mains cable, SOtM USB-S/PDIF converter, XLR cable into the M1 DAC. Overall I preferred the M1 DAC, it was more clinical and lean, not as warm as the rDAC but with a wider soundstage and better separation of instruments and vocals. I do like both DACs however and I am not disapointed with either. Kind regards, Martin

My first impressions of the rDAC were not so good, compared to my Musical Fidelity M1 DAC it seemed bright, fatiguing and lacked detail. Quality was particularly bad using Voyage MPD from an Asus eee netbook (but mostly the fault of the netbook). I tried a minor wallwart upgrade from Maplins (no appreciable difference) and later got a Teddy rDAC PS. The TeddyPardo powersupply totally transformed its performance. Bass was more clearly defined and precise, sound staging improved. This (or an equivulant power supply) upgrade would noticeably increase the cost but even at the 500GBP mark, I am still happy with the price/performance ratio. As I type, I am listening to the rDAC with a Musical Fidelity M1 CDT transport as source (connected via coax) and the sound (to my ears) is as good if not better than listening to the same files via USB.

I had a similar idea, unfortunately my Alpine ida-X305 only supports mp3, wma or aac. I tried using alac and aiff but it causes issues with the unit connecting to the ipod. I ended up using itunes to convert a selection of aiff files to 320k aac, which work fine. In the case of the above unit, as far as i know it does bypass the ipod dac but doesn't support lossless formats. Also found some compatibility issues with my iphone, whereas ipod nano and touch worked fine. I use FlacPlayer to play 24/96 flac files on my ipod using the usb camera kit connector but i don't think the headunit would recognise those either as they are not in the local itunes library. If you have a different headunit, YMMV Regards, Martin

The usb input on the M1 DAC is not very good (imho) and once you have added on the cost of a USB-S/PDIF converter, you are in the territory (cost wise) of better options. I would recommend you consider the Audiolab MDAC, which gives you the option of trying the headphones directly into the DAC or continuing to use your Burson. Also has 24/96 async USB and some excellent reviews. Edit- i understand that the latest M1 DAC now has the Vlink 24/96 async built-in which should give better results than the version I have. I do like the sound from the M1 DAC but I would still recommend considering other DACs. Compared to the Arcam rDAC, the M1 sounds lean and clinical but plenty of detail. Recommend you audition before committing if possible. YMMV Regards, Martin

I have the same case and same CPU but a different motherboard. In my system, I use a full size ATX fanless PSU which no doubt contributes to the heat inside the case. Mobo http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-e35m1-m-pro-amd-hudson-m1-amd-zacate-18w-pci-e-20-%28x16%29-ddr3-1066-sata-6gb-s-micro-atx PSU http://www.scan.co.uk/products/400w-psu-seasonic-x-series-x-400fl-90-eff-80-plus-gold-eps-12v-fanless-%28heatsink%29-atx Tried running it without a fan on the CPU heatsink and left it at the BIOS/EFI temperature monitoring screen. The Silverstone ML03 was placed on a middle glass shelf on an equipment stand, with the stand placed on a desk in a small room with several computers running. Room temperature around 23C. After about 3 hours, the temperature had reached 80C and I decided to shut it down. After screwing the small fan (supplied with the mobo) to the heatsink, the operational temperature was steady at 55C running Linux Mint and playing music. I suspect your PSU will run cooler than mine and 60C is comfortably within the thermal limits of the CPU (90C). It would be worth having a look at what alarm/shutdown options you have in the BIOS and setting an appropriate limit.

Am looking for some advice on external power options for the SOtM hx-USB hd usb-s/pdif converter Currently the converter is feeding a M1 DAC via AES/EBU but I have an Audiolab MDAC on order and the intention will be to switch to coax to feed the MDAC and compare with its async USB. I am happy with the quality of the sound I am getting via the USB power but I always had the intention of taking it to the next level via external power, partly on the strength of the improvements I heard from my Arcam rDAC when the wall-wart got replaced with a TeddyPardo rDAC PS. As I understand it, this would also allow me to switch off the USB power on my SOtM tx-USB card in my music server. So far my short-list is - Paul Hynes SR1-9 TeddyPardo TeddyDuet Kingrex PSU II (9v) SOtM mBPS-d2s 9v battery I'm guessing I will not get the same level of improvement that I got from upgrading the DAC power supply but I am definately a believer in the value of clean, quality power. Paul Hynes has an excellent reputation; the TeddyPardo supplies are a known quantity for me and I highly regard them; the Kingrex I don't know and the SOtM battery supply is more expensive and likely to have a shorter lifespan ? Would be grateful for any opinions, particularly from anyone who has upgraded their SOtM dx-USB HD with external power. Many thanks, Martin

I ordered a full set of SoTM products from Simple Design in August, they were dispatched the same day and 3 days after clearing US customs, they were in the UK, despite hurricane Irene's best efforts. The Paypal acknowledgement had a US Postal Service tracking ID so keeping up to date on progress wasn't a problem. Very happy with the service and would definately order again. Even factoring in delivery and Import VAT, the price was competitive. Regards, Martin

I recently built a new music player PC with a SOtM tx-USB card and found that (with the USB2ISO plugged into the SOtM tx-USB) it prevented data going to my Arcam rDAC (usb LED on the DAC showing 'red', power to DAC but no USB connectivity). Without the USB2ISO, it worked fine and using the USB2ISO on another computer, the isolator worked fine. On an older system, I was running a Thinkpad with OpenSuse/MPD with the USB2ISO into a MF VLINK and didn't hear any issues. I'm wondering if the variable factor is the PC's USB ? I'm generally happy with the isolator and use it as part of my upstairs rig where it plugs into a USB port on the front of a mini-tower case.

If MPD is not running at the moment, recommend you attempt to start this up manually e.g. From the command-prompt as root, do a '/etc/init.d/mpd start' Then a 'ps -ef | grep mpd' If mpd has not started, recommend you have a look in the mpd.log 'more /var/log/mpd/mpd.log' and have a look in the system log for any recent messages that might be mpd related 'tail -n100 /var/log/syslog' Also in /etc/mpd.conf, replace localhost in the parameter bind_to_address "localhost" with the IP address reported by running a '/sbin/ifconfig' e.g. 192.168.1.65 and check the connected devices via a 'aplay -l' and also in /etc/mpd.conf, confirm your - audio_output { .. device "hw:1,0" match the card and device numbers reported by 'aplay -l' Can also try using 'plughw' instead of 'hw'.

I'm not a Linux expert so the following is just the approach I take and not necessarily the best. I use Linux Mint currently and have also used MPD on OpenSuse but not Ubuntu, Mint is based on Ubuntu but the package management might differ slightly. First recommendation - use the Ubuntu package manager to install and set-up MPD. The later your distro, the increased likelyhood of getting a later version of mpd (0.16.1+ recommended). From your graphical desktop menu, there will be a link to a software installer, not sure what it is called in Ubuntu but typically there are two shortcuts, one for installing new software and one for checking for and applying patches. Inside the package manager, it should offer you a search facility where you can type in MPD. Select MPD and Apply, it should check and offer to install any dependent packages. Installing via package manager makes sure you have a basic functional system. It creates the mpd user account, the init scripts to start up mpd automatically and a sample mpd.conf file which is used to configure mpd. You can also install your preferred mpd client via the package manager e.g. gmpc I found the Voyage MPD site helpful in performing basic configuration. Following install, you can do a 'ps -ef | grep mpd' to confirm the mpd process is running. Also (as root or prefix command with sudo) a 'netstat -apn | grep mpd' to check the IP and port mpd is listening on. You may want to customise some of the default parameters in mpd.conf mpd.conf is located in /etc, you will need to edit as root or sudo as it will have been set-up as owned by user mpd and group audio. I use a command-prompt, su - to root and then use vi but alternatively you could temporarily chmod 777 the mpd.conf file to allow your desktop user to edit the file using a graphical editor if you prefer (and reset with a chmod 640 afterwards) Some of the important parameters - music_directory "/var/lib/mpd/music" To keep things as simple as possible, if you put your music files beneath the above directory and chown -R mpd:audio /var/lib/mpd/music then mpd should be able to scan and pick them up. Alternatively you can create a symbolic link to point to another location e.g. 'ln -s /home/myuser/music /var/lib/mpd/music/myuser' and place your music in your home directory or an external drive (if it is mounted) bind_to_address "0.0.0.0" If you are running the machine standalone and running a local mpd client such as gmpc then something like the above should work. If you want to use a remote client such as mpad then this will need to be the ip address of your machine. If you '/sbin/ifconfig -a', this will report your machine IP address If you 'more /etc/hosts', this will show if you have a hard-coded IP address and the associated symbolic name. port 6600 The port symbol may be commented out but it should default to 6600 if so. follow_inside_symlinks "yes" follow_outside_symlinks "yes" If you are locating your music library on another file system (apart from /var/lib/mpd/music) and are using a symbolic link to redirect mpd to look elswhere then this should be uncommented and set to "yes" # An example of an ALSA output: # audio_output { type "alsa" name "Arcam rDAC" device "hw:1,0" format "44100:16:2" } I use the above settings for my Arcam rDAC running on a self contained Linux Mint 10 system. From the command-prompt, do a 'aplay -l' to list your devices and the card/device numbers. e.g. the output I get from 'aplay -l' is - card0: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 3, ATI HDMI subdevices: 1/1 subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card1: [ARCAM DAC], device 0: USB audio [uSB audio] subdevices: 0/1 subdevice #0: subdevice #0 hence the 1,0 in the device setting. The 'name' can be what you want it to be. Other useful info - mpd is started via /etc/init.d/mpd and can be manually stopped and started via e.g. (as root or sudo) /etc/init.d/mpd stop /etc/init.d/mpd start The above is a script, so you can 'more' or otherwise look at its contents. Inside the script, the DAEMON symbol points to your mpd install; the MPDCONF points to the location of your mpd.conf If you are wanting to access MPD remotely then you will need to put your machine's IP in the 'bind_to_address' and uncomment the - zeroconf_enabled "yes" zeroconf_name "Mint10" If your machine is set-up to get its IP address dynamically, you may find it convenient to configure your router to give that machine the same IP always. If you are not using onboard audio devices and just want to use an external USB DAC then you might want to consider disabling the onboard devices in the BIOS. Sometimes devices can get assigned different 'card' numbers depending on whether they were powered up before or after machine boot-up. This can mean that the 'device "hw:1,0"' may need changing to 2,0 or other number. Better if this is unchanging. I don't have that problem with my desktop system, but did with an Asus eee netbook running Voyage. If you are wanting to install a later version of MPD, this gets a bit more complicated but the route I take is - download the mpd-0.16.5.tar.gz from the link on the MPD wiki to a directory where you have write access e.g. /home/username/Downloads su or sudo to root, change to that directory gunzip ./mpd-0.16.5.tar.gz tar xvf ./mpd-0.16.5.tar cd mpd-0.16.5 ./configure This will probably report some errors that need to be resolved, most of which will relate to missing packages. You can use the package manager to search on the names (or partial match) that ./configure is reporting and install the ones you think you need. When ./configure completes cleanly, it should report the music formats that it is able to support. You can then do a 'make' followed by a 'make install'. It will install the new MPD version to /usr/local/bin so mpd will need stopping via /etc/init.d/mpd stop and the /etc/init.d/mpd DAEMON parameter changing to point to the new version in /usr/local/bin. From the command prompt, you can do a '/usr/local/bin/mpd --version' to confirm the mpd version and the detailed supported file formats. Finally, remember to restart mpd via /etc/init.d/mpd start. If you have issues with the new version you built, you can always revert back to the default version by changing the DAEMON symbol in /etc/init.d/mpd Hopefully some of the above might be useful but bare in mind i'm not a Linux or MPD expert and others may be able to suggest a better route. Regards, Martin