Build a dedicated Audio PC

[Sligolad]

Finally got around to installing the PPA Clock today and there is a definite lift and music is just more present in the room, it is a recommended upgrade from me though I would not recommend it to those without either a dose of recklessness or good soldering and more importantly desoldering skills.
Getting the clock out was my biggest challenge but got there eventually!

In the process when I put my PC back together my PPA USB card started smoking when I connected back in the USB cable which was connected to the Meitner.....you can imagine the panic as the Meitner was connected and pulls 5v from USB.
Everything was OK until I plugged in the exterior USB cable then that dreaded smoke!!!

Anyway probably time to consider the JCat USB Card now as I would not like to take a chance on that happening again and damaging the Meitner.

At the end of it all after plugging the Meitner in to one of the board USB3 ports I can hear a nice improvement from the Clock Upgrade without the PPA USB card which is now Toast!

I installed the PPA Memory strips earlier and was not able to tell if there was any difference but I will leave them in as maybe the need time to acclimatise:-))...at least they have not negatively affected anything that I can tell.

Cheers, Pearse.

[nige2000]

I got some soldering and rework tips of YouTube
Basically I just shortened the leads a bit added more solder to the back and the gentle use of a screwdriver on the front while heating
Came out easy enough with that

I was too cheap to get the ppa clock
And as I intended to power via battery any way I didn't see the point of the transformer or caps

Anyway
More clarity, bass control, Notes finish better
Very crisp analog flow to it

Pearse you should try it with the Anker 5v as the mobo usb header sockets carry mobo noise

[darkpink]

What would be the best upgrade of usbcard, mobo clock, battery power for os ssd (got a LPSU to pico) or Ao optimizer?

[nige2000]

What would be the best upgrade of usbcard, mobo clock, battery power for os ssd (got a LPSU to pico) or Ao optimizer?

well the usb card and the mobo clock were very similar for me performance wise, but both require the cleanest of power supply for optimum preformance so theres likely either batteries or shunt type supplys needed also

but id just start with the cheapest and work my way

are you using server r2?

[darkpink]

well the usb card and the mobo clock were very similar for me performance wise, but both require the cleanest of power supply for optimum preformance so theres likely either batteries or shunt type supplys needed also

but id just start with the cheapest and work my way

are you using server r2?[/quote]

Yes I use r2. So would you go with usbcard before Ao?

[nige2000]

[quote="nige2000"} the usb card and the mobo clock were very similar for me performance wise, but both require the cleanest of power supply for optimum preformance so theres likely either batteries or shunt type supplys needed also

but id just start with the cheapest and work my way

are you using server r2?

Yes I use r2. So would you go with usbcard before Ao?[/quote]

r2 should be in min server mode,

power supplies are usually the cheapest sq

which mobo do you use

[darkpink]

[quote="nige2000"} the usb card and the mobo clock were very similar for me performance wise, but both require the cleanest of power supply for optimum preformance so theres likely either batteries or shunt type supplys needed also

but id just start with the cheapest and work my way

are you using server r2?

Yes I use r2. So would you go with usbcard before Ao?

r2 should be in min server mode,

power supplies are usually the cheapest sq

which mobo do you use[/quote]

I use a Asus B85M-G, ok as i tought at first, battery supply for the OS then is a good place to pick up the torch. How do you get in to server mode then? (Just installed R2)

[Sligolad]

Pearse you should try it with the Anker 5v as the mobo usb header sockets carry mobo noise

Had planned to do that tomorrow Nige but seeing your post I went at it first with the Anker battery, I was surprised that it seemed to make a good improvement.
I noticed the music was making a little skip every couple of minutes with the sync light on the Meitner flickering a little so either the Anker which puts out about 5.28 v was a bit much or the Anker was not getting enough power draw and was thinking about powering off the 5v supply briefly.

I switched to a spare iUSB I had which puts a very tightly controlled 5v and set this up but noticed the Mobo prefers for the clock to kick in at the same time as power up or else things can get messed up on boot so I wired it into the switch for ground connections I use for power up and all was working again.

Pushed the button on the JCat USB Card so hope it is worth the cost, hard to believe we can get much more out of the hardware but you never know!
The number of power supplies is getting serious now with all these mods.......

[nige2000]

I use a Asus B85M-G, ok as i tought at first, battery supply for the OS then is a good place to pick up the torch. How do you get in to server mode then? (Just installed R2)

In min server mode you need to be able to do everything from cmd prompt and total commander which will also need to be installed

So might be a good idea to get some t commander practice in first

[jesuscheung]

I start to realize win8.1+cmd.exe shell mode is better than r2+min server mode. Better yet, keep explorer as shell, so you don't lose the ability to customize graphic rendering which has serious impact on balance on all3 frequency ranges. Note that kernel mode isn't as good as one thinks because graphic is CPU rendered not hardware aaccerleratwd