Build a dedicated Audio PC

[Ken Moreland]

Lead Acid batteries arrived yesterday via UPS , ordered last Thursday. I have them wired across the Maplins and set all to approx 12.5V. The wiring to the battery contact is a bird's nest which makes Nige's mole grips look elegant but it works. If you're buying from Farnell (or elsewhere) get some of the little crimps to complete the wiring with your order . These cost a few pence but you can't order later on your credit card , orders must be over 20euro.

The sound has better body and sweeter detail and some additional finesse. The Maplin/battery combination seems to run very cold . The Maplins are cooler than when they worked alone. Recommended.

[nige2000]

Lead Acid batteries arrived yesterday via UPS , ordered last Thursday. I have them wired across the Maplins and set all to approx 12.5V. The wiring to the battery contact is a bird's nest which makes Nige's mole grips look elegant but it works. If you're buying from Farnell (or elsewhere) get some of the little crimps to complete the wiring with your order . These cost a few pence but you can't order later on your credit card , orders must be over 20euro.

The sound has better body and sweeter detail and some additional finesse. The Maplin/battery combination seems to run very cold . The Maplins are cooler than when they worked alone. Recommended.

thats great news
you can get crimp on terminals at any auto garage they might not be pretty though
(ive a bag of em out in the shed and thats just too far away)

[tony]

Tony - you'll get them in Radionics.....

Thanks Fran but might have a bit of a problem on that.Placed the order with farnell. Will talk to them tomorrow and see what the story is re delivery.

[nige2000]

Tony - you'll get them in Radionics.....

Thanks Fran but might have a bit of a problem on that.Placed the order with farnell. Will talk to them tomorrow and see what the story is re delivery.

the control pc tony?

at the rate mqn's improving we will only need one pc

anyone want to buy two ethernet cables with cat 7 written on them?
preliminary results wasn't great, one was slightly better than the other but nothing like the meicord was
i need to give it a more comprehensive test though.

also im showing a preference for z87 chipset because of better stability at weird bios settings

[jkeny]

at the rate mqn's improving we will only need one pc

Yea, it's showing real promise! Surprised nobody else here has tried it.

[tony]

Haven't had the time but the reality is like the bits is bits brigade once you are married to something in this case Jplay even a trial of something new is difficult to rush to embrace. Another excuse is meicord cable came and made some time to listen to that this morning. Also got usb cable from Nigel(thanks again) so now with a bit of difficulty have the usb key from the control pc powered by the anker battery also (couldn't believe that with the skip load of cables lying around I have no long straightforward usb male to male(i think).

Too early to say but the shelby lynne replacement song you look good to me(oscar peterson) sounds very acceptable to me.The double bass guys 'dobie do's' are in your face certainly not in the background. I am using 4/4 on core server audiophil so maybe some others might think it too soft. Personally it sounds like liquid gold but that is just my thoughts on it.

On the farnell battery order any budding CA battery heads will have to wait until november the 2th for next delivery. As Fran advised radionics have them but price wise they are nearly €20 more expensive. In some ways glad as it is going to make me hold off and see what develops on this thread. Solar might be the preferred option come november. When I had a little think about it I just realised the batteries now being used are just the 'motorcycle' batteries mentioned awhile ago when car batteries were king. I spoke to a guy in europower at the time and he recommended a different battery for this purpose. Might chase that up again and try it as a comparison if it checks out ok.

[nige2000]

you changed a lot of stuff this morning tony
one thing at a time, or you wont know if your going forward or backward
id put a question mark over the double use of the anker battery pack

what battery was recommended by europower?

id like to try a couple of these
http://www.ev-power.eu/LiFePO4-w-PCM-6V ... html?cur=1

can we have a meicord review?

[tony]

Ok super quick Meicord review using beloved Caetano Veloso David Byrne track. Meicord wins. I did 4-5 changes and even though digital cables do nothing and I am highly susceptible to hifi suggestive disease the meicord is just richer and brings more body to the sound.
The cat 7 cheapo is just thinner sounding and noticeable lighter all round . The sound without meicord is very nice and as I have said many times before if one ignored all this it is possible to get to a really nice level without going to this torture to get that extra bit.

All committed CA disciples will need the meicord to strengthen their faith.

On the lifepo4 will investigate and I think that is the route I will go unless the europower man has a better suggestion.
At least it gives a different battery type to compare and since the lampizator level 6 is off the menu for this decade one last spend of €100 hopefully will slip under the radar.

On the anker I disagree Nigel see no reason why running 2x 80ma units off this supply is going to degrade anything. The anker either can do that or requires a phone or notebook light to keep it on.

Unless your dual battery control pc/audiopc is out of this world I hope to come out of this testing with zuma controlpc very much on the long finger.

[nige2000]

shipping nearly doubles the price of two lifepo4 7ah 12v unfortunately

meicord opal damn it 100 euro for a cable that doesn't even have cat 7 written on it

batteries on pico and cpu are a good upgrade well worth 40 euro

im not saying two operating systems on one anker might be bad, it likely is an improvement, i just think suppling them separately would be a worthwhile test.

[Ivor]

here ye go... http://www.raspyfi.com/