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A novel way to massively improve the SQ of computer audio streaming


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Most important: please realize this thread is about bleeding edge experimentation and discovery. No one has The Answer™. If you are not into tweaking, just know that you can have a musically satisfying system without doing any of the nutty things we do here.

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43 minutes ago, greenleo said:

The low power setting.  All cores being used at the moment.

 

Did you try with just one core running?

 

I know you want to hear all 4, just wondering.

Synergistic Research Powercell UEF SE > Sonore OpticalModule (LPS-1.2 & DXP-1A5DSC) > EtherRegen (SR4T & DXP-1A5DSC) > (Sablon 2020 LAN) Innuos PhoenixNet > Muon Streaming System > Grimm Audio MU1 server > (Sablon AES) Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC > PS Audio M1200 monoblocks > Salk Sound Supercharged Songtowers

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Akasa has 5 new Dawson canyon fanless cases out.

 

Meitner ma1 v2 dac,  Sovereign preamp and power amp,

DIY speakers, scan speak illuminator.

Raal Requisite VM-1a -> SR-1a with Accurate Sound convolution.

Under development:

NUC7i7dnbe, Euphony Stylus, Qobuz.

Modded Buffalo-fiber-EtherRegen, DC3- Isoregen, Lush^2

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3 minutes ago, lmitche said:

I'm curious. Could you please tell us where you saw this?

 

http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl=product/product.list.tpl&type=Fanless Chassis&type_sub=Fanless NUC

 

only two useable ones 

Meitner ma1 v2 dac,  Sovereign preamp and power amp,

DIY speakers, scan speak illuminator.

Raal Requisite VM-1a -> SR-1a with Accurate Sound convolution.

Under development:

NUC7i7dnbe, Euphony Stylus, Qobuz.

Modded Buffalo-fiber-EtherRegen, DC3- Isoregen, Lush^2

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I am still trying to decide on a nuc which can act as an AudioLinux roon server which will upsample to dsd 512 in roon without overheating. I currently have AudioLinux on a 2012 Retina Macbook Pro, and it definitely overheats with this task. 

 

I first thought that the nuc8i7beh would be the answer, but several people here have mentioned that it overheats. I've toyed with the idea of nuc8i7hvk or hnk, and this idea is very appealing to me, but there are many reports online that these also run hot and that their fans run continuously. This may not be so bad, since this computer would be in my basement. 

 

Has anyone found a nuc that will work well for roon upsampling and AudioLinux? Maybe I should trade the duties of my MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro I use for Izotope RX, but I'd really hate to give up the processing speed for Izotope. 

 

Thanks,

  Ron

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30 minutes ago, greenleo said:

7D running all cores with SMPS > 7CJYH with LPS-1.2

That surprises me.  Were you running the 7D at the standard 15W TDP? 

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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15 minutes ago, greenleo said:

An impression of NUC7i7DNBE(7D) powered by LPS-1.2

 

** No A/B performed.  Please take this impression with a grain of salt.


How I test:

After booting up the Headless running NAA in standard mode, I used the LXQt to set it to extreme and fed it by HQP in the LXQt.

 

I tried two tracks. The first was my favorite live track. More imperfection was revealed which indicated a better SQ (but worse to the ear). The second track was about a group of children entered a room and then sang songs with the female teacher who played the piano. The sound images of the footsteps, the cries of the children when entering the room, the piano, ...etc were more pinpoint.  To quote an old cliche', I've never heard it sounded that good.  

 

I attempted to do other comparisons but couldn't, say, to compare with 7CJYH powered by the LPS-1.2.  My powering system of the 7D was too fragile.  When I unplugged the LAN cable from the 7D, the power went off suddenly.  It took me quite sometime to switch it on again.  An A/B/A would be out of question--at least I couldn't trust my audio memory to that extent after such a long time.  A/B could be done but would not be conclusive, anyway not in my POV.  For gold ears and trained ears(I'm neither), probably a pretty useful conclusion may be drawn.

 

It's pretty hopeless to compare with the 7D using the SMPS, the comparison that I'm most interested in.  So what I did was listening to my favorites for an some time.  I was in audio bliss and found the music more pleasing.  Could it be placebo?

 

Opinion:

1. SQ wise 7D running single core with LPS-1.2 > 7D running all cores with SMPS (from my memory recall, hence more impressesional)

2. 7D running all cores with SMPS > 7CJYH with LPS-1.2  (from A/B/A/B, hence more conclusive)

May I conclude 7D running single core with LPS-1.2 > 7CJYH with LPS-1.2?  Plausible but not definite.  Humans tend to focus on what the original system was lacking and may conclude the SQ better for a new system.  However, the SQ of the new system could be just different from that of the original.

 

I would not draw any conclusions but urge other CAers to try and report back here.  For anyone interested in the UEFI BIOS setting, the following is the link.

 

 

 

 

I also like the i7 better, but instead of trying with LPS-1.2, I currently only have time to test it with JS-2 running all 4 cores.  The little time I had over this past two days, other than initial power up the unit new, currently draw went up to about 1.46A @ 12V, it settled down to about 460~470mA running extreme-2, which is very promising using LPS-1.2.  I will report back once I have more information.

 

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2 hours ago, elan120 said:

I also like the i7 better, but instead of trying with LPS-1.2, I currently only have time to test it with JS-2 running all 4 cores.  The little time I had over this past two days, other than initial power up the unit new, currently draw went up to about 1.46A @ 12V, it settled down to about 460~470mA running extreme-2, which is very promising using LPS-1.2.  I will report back once I have more information.

 

I very much look forward to your findings, Elan.  The sweet point (number of cores vs TDP vs process runng say "NAA vs ROON Bridge") could be very tricky in MPOV.

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Guys, two questions:

 

1) Is it possible this new solution NUC AL endpoint + NUC AL server be better than new Antipodes CX+EX? 

I mean, can we achieve equal or near SQ for cheap?

 

2) I've actually a Sotm Trifecta as Roon endpoint and a Roon Core server Mac Mini running from SDcard, MMK powered by Hdplex200. I PROBABLY will achieve best improvements changing my Mac Mini to a NUC AL than change the Trifecta to a Endpoint NUC AL?

 

What do you think? 

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34 minutes ago, Advieira said:

Guys, two questions:

 

1) Is it possible this new solution NUC AL endpoint + NUC AL server be better than new Antipodes CX+EX? 

I mean, can we achieve equal or near SQ for cheap?

 

2) I've actually a Sotm Trifecta as Roon endpoint and a Roon Core server Mac Mini running from SDcard, MMK powered by Hdplex200. I PROBABLY will achieve best improvements changing my Mac Mini to a NUC AL than change the Trifecta to a Endpoint NUC AL?

 

What do you think? 

I don't recall anybody posted impression of the CX + EX here yet.  However, Rajiv, our highly respected steward, used the Trifecta before.  Please goto the 1st post of this thread and search the index.  You would find something.  The history of how he changed his system in the past I found very interesting.  Worth to have a look.

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On 10/29/2018 at 2:46 PM, romaz said:

 

Even with the stock PSU, HMS is better sounding than Blu Mk2.  Does HMS improve with a better PSU?  Absolutely, yes, which makes a further case for the HMS. 

This is really, really surprising. What do you feel is the reason(s) the HMS sounds better considering the both M Scalers are said to use identical filters and the Blu Mk II uses no-expense spared ancillary components?   

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13 minutes ago, idesign said:

This is really, really surprising. What do you feel is the reason(s) the HMS sounds better considering the both M Scalers are said to use identical filters and the Blu Mk II uses no-expense spared ancillary components?   

If no measures were taken to reduce the rf generated by the Blu 2 fpga travelling down the bnc cables connecting to the DAVE (ferrites being the popular remedy here) it would likely sound worse in comparison to the M Scaler, which has better filtering built in.

Zenith SE > USPCB (5v off) > tX-USBultra 9V (SR4) > Sablon Reserva Elite USB > M Scaler > WAVE Stream bnc > DAVE > Prion4/Lazuli Reference > Utopia/LCD-4/HE1000se

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