Build a dedicated Audio PC

[sbgk]

re cast iron not sure I'd want anything with iron in it inside the pc due to magnetic effects

re usb cable, next step is to have the ground and +5v separate from the signal and separate from themselves.

[tony]

[/quote]No cheap sources of 3m i pulled the plug on the group buy coz too much hassle and delay (i can be quite impatient)
Mouser is where i got 2 sheets and you could call it €50 per sheet

one sheet is definitely worth it, but by no means any way near the top of the list

Im sheilding with copper tape/foil or copper braid
Made this one up yesterday
its good (2nd best) but not the best i think its because its twice as long as my others
i have it in an envelope here to send up to you for testing

[/quote]


Thanks look forwrd to putting some time aside to test TZ yun/Elijah/your Cable and a dog lead I got from Ken!

€50 a sheet.Crikes that is mad. I still hark back to the last testing/meet up. Yours was a different beast(zuma) to mine. Haswell, power implementation and different usb cables. They sounded to me indistinguishable. The wadia and meitner had the edge and that as far as I can see was down to the dac chips. Granted the gap had closed considerably. If I thought the copper divider/brass lump etc could bring this further happy to have a go as the meitner is a non runner and reenforcing the floor for a 10yr wadia disk spinner is not an attractive option either. I don't think I could ever consider going back to cd's probably because I never liked them anyway.

BTW did you suggest adding more batteries had an impact. i.e daisy chain the current two up to four. Just for clarity I have linear/battery on the pico and linear and battery on the 5v mobo. So add two more batteries to that arrangement?

I still need to load music onto my ssd and try it with a 5v linear supply that is sitting around. My current arrangement is clunky with the hdd outside the zuma.

Adam is the brass lump just sitting onto of the cpu? Have never seen brass squared off like that maybe I just haven't looked.

[jesuscheung]

does sunlight also affect SQ?

i start to notice when sun goes down, about 5-7 pm, my PC has maximum airy/mellow/least-strained sound. it is comparable to my house's CD player setup. one has dirty power. later has sort of clean power.
so i guess 'airy' is more software player/OS related. less power related.

[nige2000]

re cast iron not sure I'd want anything with iron in it inside the pc due to magnetic effects

re usb cable, next step is to have the ground and +5v separate from the signal and separate from themselves.

thx never even thought of that, it would be a miracle if i didn't magnetise it machining it

ive no +5v in the cable as its for the ciunas,

do you mean this sort of separation?


i use 6 0.4mm solid core silver wire in a teflon sleeve, two cores each

it wouldn't surprise me if further separation had a positive effect

Do we need a gnd wire with the ciunas?
i keep forgetting to try just the signal wires on their own when im making up a cable

Ultimately i think we should do away with the usb cable and place the dac in the pc case right beside a usb3 header and solder it direct.

i plan to place my msi B85 on a sheet of mdf to do all sorts of weird testing incl the ram power mod

[nige2000]

does sunlight also affect SQ?

i start to notice when sun goes down, about 5-7 pm, my PC has maximum airy/mellow/least-strained sound. it is comparable to my house's CD player setup. one has dirty power. later has sort of clean power.
so i guess 'airy' is more software player/OS related. less power related.

your not alone music sounds better in the dark dont know why
could be a distraction factor?

[jesuscheung]

don't think so! in the morning, when i close my eyes, i am in the dark, i don't feel better SQ .

i start do something weird to my pc. i put a big massive piece of heavy stone on top of my PC to stop PC from vibration. the SQ changes in a bad way. intense.

i guess PC's vibration must be absorbed. not by force of stabilization haha

[tony]

does sunlight also affect SQ?

i start to notice when sun goes down, about 5-7 pm, my PC has maximum airy/mellow/least-strained sound. it is comparable to my house's CD player setup. one has dirty power. later has sort of clean power.
so i guess 'airy' is more software player/OS related. less power related.

your not alone music sounds better in the dark dont know why
could be a distraction factor?

I think it is distraction factor. No logical reason but night time always best for me as well. I think it is just generally a
more relaxed time for most people. A live concert in daylight never works for me but a dark dingy theatre at night is the bees knees. Couldn't imagine dancing in the disco in broad day light!

[nige2000]

No cheap sources of 3m i pulled the plug on the group buy coz too much hassle and delay (i can be quite impatient)
Mouser is where i got 2 sheets and you could call it €50 per sheet

one sheet is definitely worth it, but by no means any way near the top of the list

Im sheilding with copper tape/foil or copper braid
Made this one up yesterday
its good (2nd best) but not the best i think its because its twice as long as my others
i have it in an envelope here to send up to you for testing

Thanks look forwrd to putting some time aside to test TZ yun/Elijah/your Cable and a dog lead I got from Ken!

€50 a sheet.Crikes that is mad. I still hark back to the last testing/meet up. Yours was a different beast(zuma) to mine. Haswell, power implementation and different usb cables. They sounded to me indistinguishable. The wadia and meitner had the edge and that as far as I can see was down to the dac chips. Granted the gap had closed considerably. If I thought the copper divider/brass lump etc could bring this further happy to have a go as the meitner is a non runner and reenforcing the floor for a 10yr wadia disk spinner is not an attractive option either. I don't think I could ever consider going back to cd's probably because I never liked them anyway.

BTW did you suggest adding more batteries had an impact. i.e daisy chain the current two up to four. Just for clarity I have linear/battery on the pico and linear and battery on the 5v mobo. So add two more batteries to that arrangement?

I still need to load music onto my ssd and try it with a 5v linear supply that is sitting around. My current arrangement is clunky with the hdd outside the zuma.

Adam is the brass lump just sitting onto of the cpu? Have never seen brass squared off like that maybe I just haven't looked.

i wasn't fully picoless at that meet up i think/hope ive advanced the build since then, i thought that day Pearses build sounded marginally better than mine when we did the comparisons with the same usb3 os and the ciunas.
ive been tuning the pc to what i think sounds best on the eist dubhs, its sounds different on Quads,
im probably a detail junkie as long as i can have it without loosing the emotion of the tracks, (probably why i like MQn so much)

one good linear can supply several batteries as long as theres one battery per device/component and has suitable capacity i dont think there will be any benefit of having two batteries per component/device

id like to do some more nerdy comparisons with Pearse and try the pang usb card my audio pc, i doubt this will be possible at the Birthday bash, (dont particularly want to be standing at a pc all day theres other things to see/hear)

Anyone willing to come back to Moynalty (they fixed the roads, mostly)
(should be worth the trip)

[nige2000]

don't think so! in the morning, when i close my eyes, i am in the dark, i don't feel better SQ .

i start do something weird to my pc. i put a big massive piece of heavy stone on top of my PC to stop PC from vibration. the SQ changes in a bad way. intense.

i guess PC's vibration must be absorbed. not by force of stabilization haha

i like reading your posts, make me laugh!!

just had a mental image of you
sitting on your pc......
real still.......
with headphones on
testing....

very funny

[Sligolad]

Anyone willing to come back to Moynalty (they fixed the roads, mostly)
(should be worth the trip)

Hi Nige, just got my audio PC back from Seb yesterday so would be willing to travel down next Sat or Sun if that suits!
Cheers, Pearse.