Build a dedicated Audio PC

[tony]

Thanks guys for bringing all your gear.Nice to get a benchmark. Nothing much to add to what is said above would concur with all. Can live with any of the sources but wadia and the meitner/pang zuma(was the best) are clearly superior but at a cost.

Didn't have time to compare the pang zuma/ciunas combination against the meitner. i.e to do it carefully to see if the pang stuff was bringing a noticeable leap. Gut feeling is it will be impossible to close the gap on the meitner. But as we know it costs approx 14-16 times the price of the ciúnas and I think we would agree that the difference between both set ups was not of that magnitude. It is a pity that the 'extra' bit of magic brought by the meitner is so expensive.

The Wadia if available secondhand and maybe as it gets older could be a bit of a bargain but sure it is very scarce and coveted so probably not an option for most. It's presentation/tone is very impressive but it is some beast. No doubt the power supply arrangement plays a huge part in the quality of playback and also the 24bit dac chip that John advises is not made anymore. It would be nice to try that chip in a ciúnas and see what it would do.

[wushuliu]

Has anyone compared Server vs. 8.1?

[tony]

Has anyone compared Server vs. 8.1?

I have copies of it on two laptops but not on usb so not possible for me to test. I imagine it will be close but server should have the edge it really is a minimal op system. Jplay forum probably has more comparisons done on that.

[nige2000]

Has anyone compared Server vs. 8.1?

R2 and 8.1 are very similar

server for dedicated audio Pcs and 8.1 for multi use
i would think.

for the record i prefer mqn to jplay mini
although some tracks were difficult to tell apart

[wushuliu]

Has anyone compared Server vs. 8.1?

R2 and 8.1 are very similar

server for dedicated audio Pcs and 8.1 for multi use
i would think.

for the record i prefer mqn to jplay mini
although some tracks were difficult to tell apart

thanks, I'll hold off on installing R2 then. I use my PC for other things anyway.

[nige2000]

was trying to go picoless the last couple of evenings,
i have succeeded with no switches or relays,
was an absolute miracle i didnt fry it with the testing (yet touch wood)

this means a lower noise floor, and more importantly light at the end of the tunnel for a total battery solutions 12, 5, 3.3v thats pretty much foolproof
this is better sound than tri-battery with pico

im not sure if it will work on all mobos

tested on a msi b85m g43

[Aleg]

was trying to go picoless the last couple of evenings,
i have succeeded with no switches or relays,
was an absolute miracle i didnt fry it with the testing (yet touch wood)

this means a lower noise floor, and more importantly light at the end of the tunnel for a total battery solutions 12, 5, 3.3v thats pretty much foolproof
this is better sound than tri-battery with pico

im not sure if it will work on all mobos

tested on a msi b85m g43

Nigel,
what did you do to get the boot-up power sequence going in the correct order?

(BTW, desktop mobo went to mobo-heaven last wednesday, hope to build new desktop this weekend :-(. )

Cheers

Aleg

[Sligolad]

Looking forward to more info on that build too....definitely the way to go!!

[tony]

Well done Nigel that looks like a potentially major break through. Hope it works for intel boards also.

[nige2000]

New solution new problems for optimum SQ

i had thought once i had clean power direct into the mobo i could get away with 3 batteries 12,5, 3.3,
as good as it sounds this way
there seems to be further improvement by having/keeping a separate 12v battery to cpu socket
separate 3.3v for the sandisk OS

external music storage drives will also require a separate supply

in the past i had thought smps power supplies were fully filtered though the batteries,
i gathered up some of the cheapest smps supplies to feed the batteries, and it sounded really really good
now i plugged out the 12v smps to battery only and to my surprise it actually sounded better/clearer
swapped in linear which sounded much better again but its still better without charging

One 12v power supply powering 2 batteries doesnt seem to be an audible disadvantage

im going to build three linear supplies with their own transformers and bridge rectifier's 12,5,3.3

i think double battery filtering would work well to (linear into battery into battery into device)
im not going to try this yet!

this noise seems to spread everywhere, seems to be necessary to separate and filter where possible

And yes this is scrounging looking for the half strands of hair, but all this combined will make a difference