Build a dedicated Audio PC

[nige2000]

no antivirus or firewall on mine either, i considered my operating system to be disposable and if i buggered it up id just start again, but i did intent to try to put on some protection without affecting performance.

fran loving the mods, any pics yet,
the passive coolers are far too expensive still and it shouldn't be necessary
i think going fanless is an advantage but its a small one, everything counts though

[tony]

USB3 WTG arrived first thing this morning.Thanks Nige.

Had a couple of emails from Larry in Plex. Seems he is possibly releasing a linear supply shortly to go with his case. Also interesting he is working on some type of dedicated pc audio board that would replace the pico bit.

In two minds now if this stuff is going to be available shortly I am inclined to take back the maplin supply and go with his kit.

US on single pc i3 on the spendors with Frans Croft and passive pre sounds great.
I am at 150 so hoping WTG stick brings me down. I aint going to get to religious on this as sound is fine at the current setting but just to confirm how far down it will go will try it out.

[Ken Moreland]

No anti-virus here either, Tony. The low US was achieved on Nige's PC and my Ciúnas. The best I can get to is around 120 to 130 with reliability in my ancient P4. The improvement from 160 was down to the TP-Link PCI network adapter (cost around 12euro) and I can't get any lower. I think the US figure is an important measure of the excellence of the audioPC , see Nige and Pearse's gear. It would maybe be helpful if everyone could post their best US figure and their views on how it correlates to better sound.
KM

[nige2000]

No anti-virus here either, Tony. The low US was achieved on Nige's PC and my Ciúnas. The best I can get to is around 120 to 130 with reliability in my ancient P4. The improvement from 160 was down to the TP-Link PCI network adapter (cost around 12euro) and I can't get any lower. I think the US figure is an important measure of the excellence of the audioPC , see Nige and Pearse's gear. It would maybe be helpful if everyone could post their best US figure and their views on how it correlates to better sound.
KM

we will have to look at the us again ken,
i havnt been able to achieve us=30 since, only differences that might matter is that it was your ciunas and your usb a-b cable, can see what other things would affect it. might come down to you again and give it a short test, and leave the i3 build with you

[Ken Moreland]

Nige, you're welcome to pop round. FWIW my USB cable is an Elijahaudio Isolate Cu http://www.elijahaudio.com/products.html with no 5v power through the cable. I'd appreciate the loan of the i3 (as you know I'm thinking of building one as I'm getting influenced by the success of the other builders here) although my old Pentium (rescued from it's fate in the recycling centre to be my streamer) now my AudioPC is doing a fine job. I'd hate to build a new one and get worse figures.
KM

[tony]

Alright I think my situation just using laptops that I used for internet browsing away from the hifi caused the problem for me. I felt I had to have antivirus but always disabled it when using it for jplay. It makes the dedicated route all the more obvious and compelling.

It would seem that to get lower US it will require PC's. Has anybody got lower than 150 using a laptop? If low US is the holy grail the nucs and laptops are in trouble.

Nige your mention about checking out the insides of the wadia will probably not happen.That yoke cost circa €10k new cant see anybody prepared to dissect it. Anyway John pointed out one of the secret ingredients i.e the dac chip which is no longer made. The transformers or power supplies weight a tonne and fit in with the theories taking hold here that power supplies are hugely important.

[Ken Moreland]

I would hesitate to say that low US=good music but the best PC's get low US and from the little I've heard of it low US sounds good. Other factors such as noise etc have been shown to be detrimental but is it possible to get low US with noise etc present?
Have you tried UltraStream on one laptop (without Avast) and checked your lowest value?
KM

[tony]

Would need to confirm but think it was 160 on one and dropped to 150 with 2.
I dont have SSD drives there is 6g ram in each laptop if memory serves me right. one is i5 and the other i3 both have fans.

[Diapason]

Nige your mention about checking out the insides of the wadia will probably not happen.That yoke cost circa €10k new cant see anybody prepared to dissect it.

Correct!!

[nige2000]

Nige your mention about checking out the insides of the wadia will probably not happen.That yoke cost circa €10k new cant see anybody prepared to dissect it.

Correct!!

point taken,
still like to know the way it works though,
the meitner didnt seem to benifit from the changes/additions we made for last fri as much as the ciunas, Could this be because the meitner has these problems solved inside, as we are attempting to solve at pc level