Absolutely Silent Audiophile Music Server

Chris,<br />

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I like the look of that case, it's got a "purposeful" look about it.<br />

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Solid state hard drives must be amazing. That's my next upgrade. I've got an HTPC case and by using an AMD4850e I have one system fan set to slow, the other disabled, and just a heatsink on the CPU, no fan. The only thing I can hear sometimes is the hard disk though I've minimised that with some rubber grommets.<br />

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Makes me wonder what's next ... An Origien case maybe ?<br />

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I'm using Vista and am really enjoying it having disabled a number of the services that I know won't impact security or privacy. Given WASAPI and ASIO I'd be interested to see you build a Vista system.<br />

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Chris,<br />

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Sorry yet another post from me ... just picking up on the white noise issue that you had with XP. Are running your audio playback software as a high priority ? This should help to prevent such occurrences with the system ensuring that your playback works at the expense of slowing down other processes.<br />

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I'm not sure how you set XP applications to run as a high priority all the time. You can certainly change it within the task manager. Within Vista it's simple to set the application to always run in high priority.<br />

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Matt.

Hey Chris. Some nice pictures and commentary, once again. I too just finished this same configuration about a month ago and have some observations, not only regarding the case itself, but of the lengthy and technical build process of a music server as the two go hand in hand. In retrospect, I should have posted in the Music Server section.<br />

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First, the shock of almost total silence is so amazing with this case, I can't believe that more people haven't discovered this fanless option for other applications. Makes you realize what horrible levels of noise we deal with in the office.<br />

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Of course, we still have noise from our NAS drives, fans from Plextor drives, and some other accessories, but things are notably quieter and my machine is dead quiet.<br />

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By the way. Has everyone seen the application for iPhone called "Decibel"? It's great and allows you to measure room noise, useful when you are comparing components. Yet I digress...<br />

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The Zalman is built like a tank and is dead quiet. However, I have some concern that there are hotspots in the machine accumulating from improperly configured heat sinks on the motherboard. You see, the one issue with this machine is that it really needs to be thought thru and configured so that each chip set on the motherboard is properly equipped with heatsinks/bars that transfer the heat to the external case walls and heat sinks. This is fairly straight forward for the CPU. However there are other chip sets on the motherboard that one must consider as well, including any video related chipsets. For anyone with a Lynx sound card, I called Lynx and was told that heat produced by the card is negligible. Thus, avoiding hot spots is paramount and takes some noodling. Use the thermal paste generously...<br />

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My configuration included the Asus P5Q-EM baby AT motherboard as well (CPU INTEL C2D E8500 3.16G): it includes a fairly decent onboard video card, negating the need for an external PCI card which might include a fan of it's own. The Zalman comes with it's own fanless power supply, but apparently many of these are defective and go bad immediately: not sure if Zalman has solved this yet. One computer tech I spoke to said he doubted the effectiveness of this heat-sink design and warned that the motherboard may burn out within a year or so. Nevertheless he said it sounded impressive.<br />

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Here are a few suggestions from one quiet pc site:<br />

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* Generous use of thermal paste <br />

* Use of rubber screws and o rings for installation of anything that moved or spun (ie. HD and optical drive)<br />

* Avoid use of spining components at all costs, such as fans.<br />

* Keeping the machine as bare-bones as possible: this is a dedicated music server and nothing should be installed that might add unnecessary noise. That means, no devices or device drivers that might interfere with the audio signal.<br />

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Per the hard drive, I too looked into Sold State but was told by more than one tech that the units weren't up to spec as are regular spinning drives, and that you needed to spend $2k to get a decent one. I bought a WD GreenPower 500 gb hard drive / $89.99, as they are said to be the quietest of the regular drives. I made sure it was mounted with rubber screws and dampened with o-rings so that nothing touched the mounting rails that might transfer vibration. When SS drives come down in price and improve, I'm sure I will make the easy upgrade.<br />

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Per the white noise/clocking issue you spoke of via the Lynx card, I haven't yet experienced this. I heard that if you play a track and simultaneously change a variable, such as the track name, that you produce white noise. However I tried this at low volume and didn't find it to be true. I only heard the music stop for a minute.<br />

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Per Tim Marutani's suggestions, I am using the legacy driver 057g with all of Tim's setting suggestions. I highly recommend anyone calling Tim for help on this lengthy and technical process. He's constantly testing new equipment and consults to pros in the industry. (Hope you don't mind my saying so Tim.)<br />

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I did encounter a bass distortion problem during playback of several of my tracks stored on the Thecus NAS, but quickly discovered that these tracks were ripped improperly using XLD. I re-ripped them in MediaMonkey and they sound fantastic.<br />

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What Dac did I go with? Over the past year or so I've listened to many Dacs on several high end machines, both at shows and BAAS events, and have learned a lot. My ears tell me that there is a "DAC sound" that we need to accept when comparing to CD, but that some Dacs are certainly better than others. Many Dacs roll off the highs and sound as if they are under a blanket. The Berkeley Alpha Dac seemed to me to limit this tendency more than any other I heard, and also produced an amazing soundstage, even in my small and poorly dampened room. It makes redbook ripped tracks sound better in many ways than they do from my cd player. This is precisely what I wanted from my music server: not just music organization, storage and efficiency, but better sound than I had before as well. I won't say too much about the unit until after Chris has done his writeup, but I can say that it sounds really amazing in so many ways and adds depth and dimension to the soundstage that I never expected. I also am impressed by it's revealing qualities: the decay of instruments like cymbals is just so detailed and probably due to the improved soundstage. I am definitely hearing things I never did before...<br />

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One last suggestion is the Elo Touchscreen, which retails for $700 and up but can be found in excellent condition on eBay. I found the 1529L there (used) for $220: a commercial touchscreen by Elo that is built like a tank. The touch potential isn't all that great for the days, weeks and months of time you will spend tweaking the system and ripping your cd collection: you're better off using a mouse here. However for fun and easy playback, the touch screen is great. I have it mounted on top of my stereo rack with cordless mouse/keyboard stored down below, out of sight. You have great control of most everything in MediaMonkey.<br />

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This brings me to my last comment: the user interface. MediaMonkey Gold is great and does an amazing job of storing reams of music data and tag info. However it is sloppy (on XP), seizes up constantly, such as when it is attempting to read a new cd, and doesn't usually tag your discs via the web properly. One is doomed to manually enter info on many cd entries and this can take foreeeeever. I prefer a simpler overall approach, without an explorer tree and other options, if at all possible. Finally, the learning curve is lengthy and one really needs to be a tweaker to setup and maintain one of these systems with this program. I have become pretty good at it. But I cannot say that it is "intuitive" after playing with iTunes, Sonos, and even Windows Media Player.<br />

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I'm curious to know where you found the Zalman TNN 300 for such a low price. I can't find it for less than $650 anywhere.

Are you using XP Pro or Xp home on this system ? Have you or any of the other forumn members developed a preference for either option<br />

Hi Twist - XP Pro only because I have a copy.

Thanks for the write up Chris.<br />

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This is not a plug for my local audio shop but I am fortunate enough to live near a high-end audio shop (as its name implies). Goodwins has some gear for mere mortals but seems to focus on the no-budget crowd. <br />

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Anyways, like most of us, I am looking for DACs and thought it would make sense to check out Goodwin's selection. One of the managers at Goodwins (whose name will remain anonymous to protect the innocent!) was excited to show me a new set up which he called something like, "The once in a decade paradigm shift in high-end audio." <br />

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Incredibly this was pretty similar to the Zalman/Lynx/Windows XP/Berkeley systems discussed here on CA:<br />

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http://www.goodwinshighend.com/silentmusicservers.htm<br />

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Goodwin's spin on the new "technology" was not what I had expected. They were focused on the system's ability to rival the best CD units in the world irrespective of price and convenience. The manager believed that this computer-based system was more than competent; the paradigm shift for him was that this quality is now available to "Us mortals" (e.g. for well under $10k) and provides the bonus of a music server. In fact, we spent an hour in what I will call their $100k+ system room and this computer-based system was one of their main music sources. The system sounded fantastic, but given the price that should have been expected.<br />

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For those of us who are not engineers, I see that Goodwins can configure computer-based systems at what appears to be a reasonable rate. This shop has been around for a long time and appears to be both passionate and competent in my view. Most interestingly, it is good to see high end audio starting to embrace computer-based systems, rather than lecturing me how outboard DACs have been obsolete for over a decade.<br />

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Hi,<br />

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I found the Zalman TNN-300 at NewEgg.com for about $550 plus shipping.<br />

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Regarding my edition of XP, I use XP home and was told that there is no known differences between the two for this purpose.<br />

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/LM

Hi Steelman - I'm glad you mentioned this! I talked to Alan Goodwin a couple weeks ago about the systems he is offering. Strangely enough I've had this system in mind for quite a while and it works out great that Alan is offering this to customers unwilling to piece it together themselves. But, I do have the other offering from Goodwin's (component style chassis) on the way here for review!<br />

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This is really great news for high-end audio. Has there ever been a better and more exciting time for our wonderful hobby!

...beryllium tweeters eh? Focal? Floor standing or stand mounts? Utopia? Do tell :-)<br />

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PS. what exactly is Amarra? Is it a software player, replacement for iTunes? Just curious as we haven't heard any more but you are still listening with it so must be good :-0

Hi Tim - I have some Focal Electra 1007 Be speakers in here right now. They are stand mounted with great build quality and sound. I'm working on some Utopias, but that's going to take a while :-)<br />

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Amarra is a software application that works in conjunction with iTunes on a Mac. Amarra bundled with the Sonic Studio 304 FireWire DAC or Digital I/O is a great solution. Since it's in Beta still I won't go into all the details as they may change.

Chris: is the addition of Solid State Drive the main reason for the sound reduction..?<br />

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If so,<br />

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What's the Mac equivalent....<br />

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A SSD modded Macmini? Can you get such a thing.....?<br />

A SSD added to a Mac pro (with various low fan noise software apps?)<br />

or perhaps A solid state Macbook....(or can you mod an old macbook and add an SSD?)<br />

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AB<br />

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I'm looking into updating a Mac Cube as a music server.<br />

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It's a fanless design to start with, but was left in the dust when Apple moved to processors that required fans due to generated heat.<br />

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I've only recently started the project and therefore not a lot to report yet, other than a limiting factor being it can only support apps that can run on PPC chips (Intel based processor upgrades are NOT possible in a Cube, and would eliminate the fanless aspect in any event).<br />

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As an example, iTunes is not a problem, nor likely to be one anytime soon, but Songbird has not yet been ported to run on PPC-based Mac machines.<br />

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With Chris' permission, I'll share my progress, albeit slowly.<br />

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clay<br />

Hi Clay - Please do share your experience!

[OT] Hi Chris, I'm curious to your impressions of the Focals esp on the highs, any idea on when you'll be ready to post them? <br />

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I've got the Focal Twin 6 Be with (I think) the same Beryllium tweeters and I really like them. I A/B ed them with the Adam professional monitors who use Ribbon tweeters and liked the Focals better.<br />

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Cheers,

H Vincent - The Focals are very nice speakers. The beryllium tweeters are wonderful. I'm going to be using the Focals with a couple integrated amps in for review. After those reviews I'll post my complete review of the 1007 Be speakers.<br />

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Since the Focals arrived I switched back to my Avalons for about 10 minutes and that was it. I prefer the beryllium over the ceramic drivers. Both are still very capable, but given the choice Be wins.

is there anybody who tried to use mdf or wood as a base for computer motherboard with separate power supply with no fan or even battery power for different components of the computer? any component recommendations?<br />

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i am also wondering if anybody had an opportunity to directly compare Nova Physics Memory Player with Naim HDX Hard Disk player.

Hi limesinferior - Wood can certainly be used but it's pretty hard to do it fanless. Wood doesn't provide any heat disipation like the Zalman.<br />

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I've heard good things about the Nova Physics player. The Naim HDX is simply a computer with a $100 motherboard in a nice case.

Four years ago I started researching PCs. At the time I wanted a gaming computer and all I knew was that I wanted it quiet. I stumbled onto a silent (fanless) computer in a Zalman TNN500AF case. It was ridiculously expensive but I told myself that the case would last forever and could be upgraded. This is the computer that led me down the path to computer-based audio.<br />

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Well, the time came to upgrade... and Zalman had discontinued the case. No updates for compatible motherboards or other components. I'm stuck, and will have to buy a new computer from scratch.<br />

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Curious after reading this topic I went to Zalman's Web site. Apparently the TNN300 is listed, but the "Compatible Motherboard" list hasn't been updated since 2006. So... you may end up with an expensive, unupgradeable case unless you want to do a lot of experimentation to find motherboards that will work with it.<br />

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I have no quibble with the quality of the Zalman product. It was worked perfectly. It's just that the motherboard in mine has problems, and none of the boards on Zalman's old list is still available.<br />

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The TNN300 is still being used by others (as of this writing), so maybe it will last longer than the TNN500AF.

Hi LC - Good to see you here. I too have built a TNN500AF based computer. That case is a monster! I think these cases can last much longer than Zalman's production of them. I don't use the compatible motherboard chart on the Zalman site. I just look at the specs such as Micro-ITX motherboard and CPU less than 70 watts and go from there.<br />

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The 500AF takes a regular ATX board (I believe) and Intel socket 775 CPU, so you should be fine with upgrading if you want.

Good Afternoon: I recently built a very quiet Antec 300 with 3 120mm case fans, the CPU is AMD5600, Western Digital 320 gig internal HDD,also I use an EVGA eGeForce 8600GTS graphics card, the Mainboard is MSI K9Neo V3, the power supply is a Thermaltake 430WTR2. This case is the best I've used so far.

Thanks for the info Al. I'll be publishing my review of the mCubed fanless server recommended by Goodwin's Hi End in the next few days.

I don't see anything in your article about a video card, but the P5Q-EM has on-board video support so I presume that is what you used. The Zalman TNN 300 seems to want a video card installed in the slot immediately next to the CPU (like the old AGP configuration) so the supplied heat sink plate and pipes may be used, but they do not appear to even fit the newer PCIe video cards. How is the heat from the on-board video dissipated? …or is that a problem? The open case photo in your article appears to have a video card installed, but because the mobo pictured isn’t a P5Q-EM I’m guessing it is a Zalman stock photo; however it is a mirror image reversal of the picture on the Zalman website (that had me confused for a while). Also the next to last picture shows the optional audio amp mentioned in the TNN 300 manual, which could be confusing to your readers (it confused me until I read the manual). Why not use pictures of your build? <br />

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The TNN 300 manual, page 22, first shows a diagram of “Region B” and states if “the FETs near the CPU are located in region B, the RTB1’s (Rear-mount Thermal Blocks) cannot be installed.” But then at the bottom of page 22 another diagram identifies the exact same area as the “FET area” with the RTB1s installed, so the manual completely contradicts itself, on the same page! ...so who know which is right? Did you have any issues installing the RTB1s beneath the FETs near the CPU on the P5Q-EM? <br />

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On another topic, you mention that you managed to disable all but four services from starting upon the OS boot-up. Can you share with your readers which four services those were? …or perhaps list the five or six that involve some trial and error to disable? <br />

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I have been looking at the ASUS P5N7A-VM mobo. It seems to be very similar to the P5Q-EM, except it has one less PCIe slot in favor of another PCI slot, and it uses an NVIDIA GeForce 9300/nForce 730i Chipset which is described as a combination of the northbridge and video functions in a single chip with a very hefty fanless heatsink installed. The layout is so similar to the P5Q-EM that I expect it to meet the criteria for mounting in the TNN 300 case. <br />

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If you know of a retailer who still has the TNN 300’s in stock at a good price, could you let your readers know?<br />

Hi John - You've done some great research and it looks like you know exactly what you're doing. Very cool. <br />

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I used the onboard video which runs very cool as part of this music server. No need to dissipate the heat. I removed the video card heat sinks that came with case as I did not need them. I thought about using my own pictures of the build, but thought the stock photos were better than I could do considering a tight timeline. I did post a few photos of this music server being used in the TAD room at CES. I know they don't detail the inside, but one can see it in use in one of the best sounding rooms at CES this year. You make a good point about the manual contradicting itself regarding the Rear-mount Thermal Blocks. My only guess is there was a translation issue when the manual was put into English. I mounted the Rear-mount Thermal Blocks in the exact location of the diagram, in what appears to be region B. The Rear-mount Thermal Blocks are more of a hassle than anything. They fall off pretty easy and certainly have trouble when the unit is shipped. I am about to build one more of these TNN300 based music servers for someone and I'm not going to use the Rear-mount Thermal Blocks. This server runs so cool they are not needed.<br />

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As far as the services go I really should have documented the services better, or documented them at all! As I mentioned I'll be building another one of these so I can document the services in the coming weeks.<br />

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EndPCNoise.com should have the TNN300 in stock.