CAPSv4

[nige2000]

ah i thought we had frightened you away

we compare our gear quite regularly and our opinions with ca equipment don't differ much

im gonna throw a spanner in the works power supply wise
this is a full atx sequenced linear multiple rail power supply
http://www.teradak.com/cases/21.html

there was a group buy a while back but theres a nice bit of info in this thread
Pearse and seb has one
maybe they can comment on their experience
http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/ ... hl=teradak

but by looking at the internals it should be much better than the item audio ps which i believe is this
http://www.itemaudio.co.uk/prestashop/p ... x-psu.html
which is undoubtedly the best switching mode atx supply ive tried to date

usb cards and cables are an easy add on upgrade

jcat usb card is detail driven :) (but needs the 3.3v injection like itemaudio specified)
these ppa usb cards are a more smoother presentation

http://ppaproduct.blogspot.tw/2013/07/a ... -card.html

usb cables

http://ppaproduct.blogspot.tw/2013/07/usb-cable.html

and yea some of pangs stuff is extra mad
wouldn't have faith in everything :)
id get it difficult to have faith in the ifi Gemini either coz its just not that simple (ive made a few usb cables)


any thoughts on dacs yet?

[Sligolad]

Hi Steve,

I would concur with Nige on the power supply but it is an added box with lots of cables on a large umbilical.
Depends on how far you want to go down the rabbit hole!!

If you want to start to work up then I have an SOTM USB PCI card (CA, small green computers & others are still pushing these) surplus to requirement which you can have at half price as a starting point, we can corrupt you later with Nige Custom, JCat or PPA USB cards for comparison :-)

I also have 2 iUSB 5v supplies surplus to requirements so you could borrow these for evaluation if you wanted to hold off on the USB card right now, again half price if you want to keep it.
You could try one on USB and the other to supply 5v to the SSD Drive with the Operating System.

These all get you some of the way but once you hear good clean power there is no going back!

Just last week I installed JPlay 6 on my old Sony VPCSB1A9E/B Laptop which is still a serious piece of kit even by todays standards and fed it into the Big7, I thought it sounded OK until I then connected my Audio PC and I was surprised at the diference and how much better the music was with a tricked out PC.

Cheers,
Pearse.

[nige2000]

Hi Steve,

I would concur with Nige on the power supply but it is an added box with lots of cables on a large umbilical.
Depends on how far you want to go down the rabbit hole!!

my thinking was the pc would still operate as a regular pc with the teradak psu (zero hassle)
also im not so sure that a pc with the superflower 750 atx would be a clear margin ahead of the wadia in all aspects
also all potential upgrades are mostly add ons instead of replacement components

shopping list would be
fractal node case http://www.scan.co.uk/products/fractal- ... ith-usb-30
the gigabyte h97 board http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte ... -micro-atx
probably need an i5 cpu if dsd on the fly conversion is required http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-co ... o-84w-reta
teradak psu (need to be contacted shipping will be painful)
8-16 gb cl9 1600-1800 ram http://www.amazon.co.uk/HyperX-Savage-1 ... z+CL9+DDR3

could stop here and would wax the floor with the capsiv

[Steve]

Not quite frightened off, just bewildered by all the info and options!!

Firstly, many thanks for the advice (and for your offers on some of the available kit that you have Pearse!)

Am I right in thinking that the Teradak thus takes the place of all the other individual PSU upgrades and that the feeds from the umbilical cord thus separately power motherboard, JCAT/SoTM USB card, SSD, etc? And that this is what you mean when you refer to "good clean power". So as Nige says, it's just one power solution with zero other hassle. (Or am I being overly optimistic and simplistic here?)

Thoughts on DAC's...
Initially I had thought of first sorting a dedicated computer with the above power and USB tricks - and then sampling a range of DAC's over period of time.
But as it's the DAC that probably gives the Wadia it's signature sound, it's probably the DAC that I should start first with. Not saying that the DAC has to sound like the Wadia - just that if it's the DAC that really drives the sonic "signature", then probably best to start with getting a DAC whose sonic signature I'm most happy with. And then getting a computer source that extracts the best possible performance from said DAC. (Within a budget of course!!)

Current thoughts on DAC initally are to sample tubed output DAC with non-tubed output DAC.
I really love the valve qualities via both power and pre amps and could never see myself go back to SS. So I'd like to see if same applies to DAC's..
Thoughts on possible DAC's in each category?
Tubed: Lampizator or Lector Digicode
Non-Tubed: Millions of options I guess! Had thought of Meitner, Eximus.
I'm guessing there's a significant difference in presentation between the tubed and non-tubed. So comparisions will have to start there..

And Nige, you have indeed focused on the most significant point for me. Starting point in sound performance needs to be at Wadia level, can't be going backwards...

[Sligolad]

Teradak Pics below with top off.....

[nige2000]

Not quite frightened off, just bewildered by all the info and options!!

most guys get startled by all the info think its a big task and end up doing nothing
but its not really not any more because the availability of some off the shelf parts, couple years ago was a different story

Firstly, many thanks for the advice (and for your offers on some of the available kit that you have Pearse!)

no probs we learnt the hard way we might as well share what we learnt :)

Am I right in thinking that the Teradak thus takes the place of all the other individual PSU upgrades and that the feeds from the umbilical cord thus separately power motherboard, JCAT/SoTM USB card, SSD, etc? And that this is what you mean when you refer to "good clean power". So as Nige says, it's just one power solution with zero other hassle. (Or am I being overly optimistic and simplistic here?)

if your taking everything to the extreme it would be over optimistic/simplistic to suggest the teradak is the ultimate solution
the pc is a very noisy environment
the idea is to reduce contamination where possible so having separate (as in one each) 5 volt rails for operating system ssd, usb to dac, the mainboard 5v, etc is most optimal
2 12v rails one for the cpu and another for the mainboard 12v

the teradak has good linear rails there seems to be 2 12v but i think theres only one 5v rail
however that just means its just not the end of the road
that said i wouldnt be surprised if teradak would add in a couple of extra 5v rails on request

edit after looking at pearses pics theres only three rails 12,5,3.3

[tony]

I think Steve you need to host a CA/DAC meet that will make all clear as mud. Just make sure if Nigel is involved you have a lot of floor space for power supplies and batteries etc!

[nige2000]

I think Steve you need to host a CA/DAC meet that will make all clear as mud. Just make sure if Nigel is involved you have a lot of floor space for power supplies and batteries etc!

i doubt steve is looking for our level of insanity
think its plug and play system more so than the user needs to be ca engineer solution

[rickmcinnis]

So if one is feeling lazy - concerning the add on USB card - you would go with the PPA card? Not the silly one for me.

This does make a real difference? I know I have gone too far with my OS to allow normal driver installation though it is still possible I would need to insert the stuff into the registry myself.

So at this point how much difference do you hear between the base PPA and your concoction?

I know you have commented on this before - wondering if your impressions have changed.

[nige2000]

So if one is feeling lazy - concerning the add on USB card - you would go with the PPA card? Not the silly one for me.

well your the diy type youll be making your own
:)

This does make a real difference? I know I have gone too far with my OS to allow normal driver installation though it is still possible I would need to insert the stuff into the registry myself.

So at this point how much difference do you hear between the base PPA and your concoction?

i prefer mine over the jcat and the jcat over the ppa v2
i even modifed the ppa ocxo usb card coz i didnt like it as much stock

I know you have commented on this before - wondering if your impressions have changed.