Build a dedicated Audio PC

[tony]

oh god im in trouble then max i can put in mines 32gb ram but 8 a nice number and then multiply by two for overkill factor but i am the sort to do fifty things at once then wonder why its gone horribly wrong.

Apologises my sad sense of humour. I am using a laptop with 6 and aspire to 8 so I think you are doing fine. Like this thread hopefully a nice spec (Affordable) for a dedicated pc comes from it

[nige2000]

oh god im in trouble then max i can put in mines 32gb ram but 8 a nice number and then multiply by two for overkill factor but i am the sort to do fifty things at once then wonder why its gone horribly wrong.

Apologises my sad sense of humour. I am using a laptop with 6 and aspire to 8 so I think you are doing fine. Like this thread hopefully a nice spec (Affordable) for a dedicated pc comes from it

no worries i was only jesting too,
bottom line i think 8 plenty, ram ain't that expensive anymore for desktops it will be the least of the worries the expensive stuff will be the power supply and cpu cooler if you want to be completely passive

nige

ps updated post on page 4

[nige2000]

tried jplay on friends vista laptop without external dac, complete waste of time not worth comparing to anything although its a mediocre laptop seemed well able run jplay seamlessly with no other processes a good dac would go a long way.

i tried to put win 8 on bootcamp on the macbook pro retina im having some issues and haven't been successful yet but im sure ill get it installed in the end. thought the macbook been a solid state drive and 8gb ram and runs very quite most of the time (it does have a fan) but still has to be one of the most suitable laptops to use for jplay with a suitable dac and to compare audivarna to jplay and its very portable too.

im still convinced and confused why my pc onboard dac is better than the arcam rpac for jplay is there anything i could have missed.

edit: had faulty usb cable rpac is better

[Claus]

im still convinced and confused why my pc onboard dac is better than the arcam rpac for jplay is there anything i could have missed.

There has been very stubborn reports over on the Danish forum that a PCIe, Firewire or Thunderbolt sound card is better than USB. This argument is based on the fact that this is the choice of most recording studios using Protools or similar recording solutions. I have a Firewire Protools system myself with external hard drive for audio only, but I have never put into my hifi system. Maybe I should try it ;)

[Fran]

Power supplies are a big part of the performance.....

[nige2000]

Power supplies are a big part of the performance.....

is it because my power supply and cpu is passively cooled?

[markof]

hi mark

im relativity new to hi fi so im not that familiar with the jargon but i had noticed previous that you were working with a mac mini and the jkdac32 in conjunction with audivarna plus and that was the route i was hoping to take with my pc running osx. it was only when KM said to try jplay with win 8, i had all the parts here so i gave it a go. i was horrendously distraught to find betterment in jplay as my operating system of choice is osx.
in layman's terms i hope you can make some sense out of this:
there is almost as much difference to switch to jplay from audivarna as from itunes to audivarna and its only when i switch back i notice the loss
i tested with wav rips and flac files of music i wont want to hear for a good while
i didn't change the hardware for first session of testing using the build in onboard dac
i was hearing aspects of the music that wasn't there before or a bit mushed up, i was more aware that there was two speakers in the room, and more surrounding, sharper cleaner, crisper i think i was listening to it at lower volumes and still getting all the aspects of the music. and a bit more dynamic (god ye are going to think im a babbling idiot)
im not finished testing yet but im pretty sure jplays going to win out

only one thing that might be in audivarnas defense because running osx on my pc is a hack its onboard sound card is not exactly a native device so its utilization may not be as optimised as win 8, ill ask some freakishly good audio guys about this onboard audio osx vs win 8 thing but id imagine they'll tell be there should be nearly nothing in it.
on osx i could not tell any difference between onboard dac vs my rpac i showed no preference to either so i used onboard dac so i could have the rpac for my macbook.
now for the really shocking part jplay is better with my onboard audio than with my rpac by a good margin although id like to try a change in usb leads though i have an direct adapter ordered on ebay. shorter has to be better eh. but id still be surprised if it makes all that much difference (but i still have to check)

things to test yet
macbook with audivarna and rpac vs jplay with rpac EDIT macbook wins Rpac sounds worse on jplay (go figure)
install win 8 on bootcamp on macbook to test jplay on it (this is a a bit of hastle wont bother unless i get a request)

ok tested pc osx + rpac vs macbook + rpac both audivarna no noticeable difference (not that i expected any)

audivarna far far far easier to use and far less buggy when im swapping gear around,

jplays inconvenience factor is going to hold it back

tried jriver win 8 too, but not done any testing, first impression is its not as good as audivarna with itunes intergration
cheers nige

Many thanks for your detailed impressions.
I find the complexities of hardware/software integration are really confusing but not too surprising that jplay should sound better than audirvana on a PC. I've found that Audirvana sounds best when working around the limitations of OSX core audio, talking directly to the DAC.
Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet at some stage and dual boot the mini to run jplay and hear how it sounds in my system.

I tried the direct connection method using USB adaptors between the mini and the JKDAC32 and while I was very impressed at first with the increased clarity, separation and deeper bass, I eventually found the sound to be a little harsh and fatiguing and have settled on an Elija Audio silver isolator lead (10cm lead in which the 5v pin has been removed) which retains the positive features without the occasional harshness of the direct connection.

All the best with the build.

Again, many thanks. Mark.

[jkeny]

Many thanks for your detailed impressions.
I find the complexities of hardware/software integration are really confusing but not too surprising that jplay should sound better than audirvana on a PC. I've found that Audirvana sounds best when working around the limitations of OSX core audio, talking directly to the DAC.
Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet at some stage and dual boot the mini to run jplay and hear how it sounds in my system.

I tried the direct connection method using USB adaptors between the mini and the JKDAC32 and while I was very impressed at first with the increased clarity, separation and deeper bass, I eventually found the sound to be a little harsh and fatiguing and have settled on an Elija Audio silver isolator lead (10cm lead in which the 5v pin has been removed) which retains the positive features without the occasional harshness of the direct connection.

All the best with the build.

Again, many thanks. Mark.

Mark, I've been doing some testing of my new DAC with Macs & Fidelia & Audirvana & comparing to Jplay. I'm not a Mac guy so I hadn't an opportunity to test this before but I was spurred on recently & borrowed a Mac Air on which to test
Summary of my results:
- Audirvana Plus (15 day trial): (with direct mode & integer mode turned on, bypassed vol control) - sounded a bit sibilant & harsh, maybe it could be described as overly etched
- Fidelia (15 day license - don't have the advanced version): (cant find a way of bypassing vol control so turned up full) - not harsh or sibilant but sounded too civilised (veiled?) & a bit rolled off in the highs. Lacking the excitement of that "being there" illusion.

- Jplay (running on single laptop - using JplayMini) - excellent - civilised but not rolled off, no sibilance, lots of sound stage; lots of presence!
- Jplay (streaming between 2 laptops) - even better - more of everything, effortless presentation.

Anybody else tried these different players?

Oh i hope to try out Amarra too

[nige2000]

was looking at jplay streaming two pcs seems even better

was looking at what minimum specs might be for pcs so i looked at what resource uses was while running jplay

ram requirement

single pc 4.6 gb ram with jplay mini
single pc with jriver 4.1 gb

streaming
streamer 1.9 gb with jriver
streamer 2.4 gb with jplay mini (dont know why its more)

audio pc
0.9 gb with both jriver and jplay mini

cpu requirements are minimal, any pc meeting win 8 requirements should be fine

[tony]

was looking at jplay streaming two pcs seems even better

was looking at what minimum specs might be for pcs so i looked at what resource uses was while running jplay

ram requirement

single pc 4.6 gb ram with jplay mini
single pc with jriver 4.1 gb

streaming
streamer 1.9 gb with jriver
streamer 2.4 gb with jplay mini (dont know why its more)

audio pc
0.9 gb with both jriver and jplay mini


Would assume you need to add more ram for the other processes required to keep the think functioning?
How much more? I reckoned 8-12gb for the streamer max covered off current requirements. The guys on jplay with 18gb and more I assume want to watch movies play games and blow dry their hair while listening to music hence these mad gb ram requirements.


cpu requirements are minimal, any pc meeting win 8 requirements should be fine