Build a dedicated Audio PC

[nige2000]

Next Friday night would work for me too.

Nigel I have a 32 Gb Verbatim USB3 Flash Drive which I have been using for playback off and on for the past year and I always found when its used it always sounds better than files played back from external or internal drive, I have not tried it yet from 5.1.

Oh good, a similar experience, maybe not mad after all!!!
its a smallish difference, its possible to miss on a quick comparison.

[jkeny]

Next Friday night would work for me too.

Nigel I have a 32 Gb Verbatim USB3 Flash Drive which I have been using for playback off and on for the past year and I always found when its used it always sounds better than files played back from external or internal drive, I have not tried it yet from 5.1.

Oh good, a similar experience, maybe not mad after all!!!
its a smallish difference, its possible to miss on a quick comparison.

You guys are using your USB 3 sticks in a USB 2 port, right?

[nige2000]

Next Friday night would work for me too.

Nigel I have a 32 Gb Verbatim USB3 Flash Drive which I have been using for playback off and on for the past year and I always found when its used it always sounds better than files played back from external or internal drive, I have not tried it yet from 5.1.

Oh good, a similar experience, maybe not mad after all!!!
its a smallish difference, its possible to miss on a quick comparison.

You guys are using your USB 3 sticks in a USB 2 port, right?

the storage usb3 is in a usb2 port but im still getting good speeds 80mb/s on a file transfer.
i have a preference for the usb 3 ports, my wtg is in one and the dac in the other,
id like to try all in usb3 ports but i have only two.
i might look at getting a pcie usb3 card so that i can disable the usb2 drivers as their affecting my latencymon results

[jkeny]

the storage usb3 is in a usb2 port but im still getting good speeds 80mb/s on a file transfer.
i have a preference for the usb 3 ports, my wtg is in one and the dac in the other,
id like to try all in usb3 ports but i have only two.
i might look at getting a pcie usb3 card so that i can disable the usb2 drivers as their affecting my latencymon results

Yea, but what I'm trying to ascertain is - if the USB 3 stick is responsible for the improvement or the USB3 port? You've answered my question, I think - you are using USB2 ports but you also say you prefer USB3 ports?

[nige2000]

the storage usb3 is in a usb2 port but im still getting good speeds 80mb/s on a file transfer.
i have a preference for the usb 3 ports, my wtg is in one and the dac in the other,
id like to try all in usb3 ports but i have only two.
i might look at getting a pcie usb3 card so that i can disable the usb2 drivers as their affecting my latencymon results

Yea, but what I'm trying to ascertain is - if the USB 3 stick is responsible for the improvement or the USB3 port? You've answered my question, I think - you are using USB2 ports but you also say you prefer USB3 ports?

the kingston WTG stick works very well, stable and sounds better in a usb3 port, im assuming its to do with faster speeds and/or better/more stable power.

Even for non audio related stuff i prefer the usb3 ports over usb2, seems to preform better with usb2 devices.

so the answer to your question is both the usb3 port and the usb3 stick seem to be of benefit, id like to try with all usb3 ports, to see if there's another improvement. (this would mean i need 3 ports but i only have two ports)

the i7 build i have has 10 usb3 ports it would be perfect for testing alot of theories,
but with its current configuration its not at the races with my zuma type build or my i3 build with the maplin ps, and i don't feel like dismantling it to test a theory.

should be worth testing the kingston usb3 in the nuc, did u get the msata?

[tony]

If you guys are going ahead friday night I should be able to get there.Looking forward to figuring out what all this windows to go brings.

[Fran]

Ok, looks like friday night is a go so...

[nige2000]

we would want to figure out what we want to test, i suppose we would want to set up all the pc's then switch between them, but that would mean we would all need monitors and keyboards and mice and all power cables and maybe electrical cable and adapters.

Are we testing both 2pc streaming and single,

ill probably bring a couple of ssd drives and usb keys, different types of ps for the pico psu's, two builds and focus on one

tony could you bring your laptop id like to try the WTG stick in it with my usb ethernet adapter, in theory it should work

in order of importance where i think the improvements for me are

Lowest stable ultrasize
maplin power supply
clean/seperate power to dac
usb WTG in comparison to SSD
USB3 storage in comparison to storage on WTG or SSD

[tony]

No prob I will bring whatever is required. Will bring the 2 laptops and cuinas dac and a few cables. Let me know if I should bring something else.

[jkeny]

Let's try & establish what we are testing on Friday in Fran's & do some prep work before getting there so that we don't spend our time simply configuring everybody's set-up.
I thought we already agreed that we should simply test 1PC config initially anyway? I'm not sure what pre-configuring we can do on this though.

If trying to test 2PC set-ups we need to do some prep & decide:
- use direct connect via a LAN cable, not a router
- use a single ControlPC & change AudioPC (device under test DUT)
- ensure that the IP addresses are pre-configured between controlPC & AudioPC - maybe someone should post the settings we all need to apply in advance?
- I'm sure there are lots of bits I haven't covered - please fill in the gaps