Build a dedicated Audio PC

Anything to do with computer audio, hardware, software etc.
nige2000
Posts: 4253
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:47 am
Location: meath

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by nige2000 »

tony wrote:I have cat7 it was circa €7 for 5m all the way from hong kong or china. Meant to be double screened etc.
that worries me a bit
we did a comparison between the meicord and my ebay cheapest cat 5 available, theres a goodish lift in sq

i had the ebay cat 5 at your gaf when my pc slightly bettered yours in the relatively like with like power supply comparison
i think had you had the meicord or something of the same quality that day it would have bettered mine by a clear margin

im after ordering two cheapish cat 7 cables one from uk other from south korea
if these dont give me a similar lift that meicord had ill probably get the meicord begrudgingly

btw ordered haswell parts this morning
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/streacom ... dy-w-o-psu
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-h87i ... i-mini-itx
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-co ... tio-retail
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/230989519028?ssP ... 1439.l2649
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/390461064094?ssP ... 1439.l2649

i still have 16gb ram which ill divide out between control and audio pc
and im still swimming in a sea of linear supplies

i recon ill have it wrapped up at less than €600
which is the price of some nice speaker cable or interconnects

i have high expectations for this config
hopefully i wont fall flat on my face
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
mick
Posts: 178
Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2010 1:33 am

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by mick »

I am the proud owner of Nige's Haswell build audio pc. The quality of the sound through my system now is the best I have ever had. A special thanks to Nige as I could never have done it without his help.
The soundstage is cavernous. It seems,you could walk around inside it. Bass is deep and well controlled. Midrange is wonderful and the treble is sweet and airy.
Voices in particular have a presence that is palpable. The sound is seamless with no one area dominating. You could listen for hours with no hint of fatigue. Just sit back and enjoy the music.
What more could one ask?
By the way what importance is attached to the control pc?
Here we go again.
nige2000
Posts: 4253
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:47 am
Location: meath

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by nige2000 »

mick wrote:I am the proud owner of Nige's Haswell build audio pc. The quality of the sound through my system now is the best I have ever had. A special thanks to Nige as I could never have done it without his help.
thanks it was an interesting fruitful build
The soundstage is cavernous. It seems,you could walk around inside it. Bass is deep and well controlled. Midrange is wonderful and the treble is sweet and airy.
Voices in particular have a presence that is palpable. The sound is seamless with no one area dominating. You could listen for hours with no hint of fatigue. Just sit back and enjoy the music.
What more could one ask?
By the way what importance is attached to the control pc?
dangerous dangerous questions
unfortunately absolutely everything matters
its just more improvement and expense
Here we go again.
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
Sligolad
Posts: 1089
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:52 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Sligolad »

Control PC has much more importance than I would have believed.....

I had a good laptop as a Control PC for over a year and recently went for a completely silent build with a Cirrus7 for Control PC but it came with the usual SMPS at 19v.
From day one it was a sweet looking bit of gear but I struggled with it in terms of what I had come to expect from my system in overall sound.

I finally got the Anker 19v battery supply this week and what a difference, all of a sudden the magic is back.
Kudos to Nige and John for pointing me in the right direction.

Cheers,Pearse.
___________________________________________
SD Card DAC, Gryphon Essence Mono's & Pre Amp, Wilson Alexia 2 Speakers,VPI Scout 2 & Supatrac arm, Studer A812 R2R.
tony
Posts: 3144
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:36 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by tony »

nige2000 wrote:
tony wrote:I
i think had you had the meicord or something of the same quality that day it would have bettered mine by a clear margin

im after ordering two cheapish cat 7 cables one from uk other from south korea
if these dont give me a similar lift that meicord had ill probably get the meicord begrudgingly


i have high expectations for this config
hopefully i wont fall flat on my face
If memory serves me right on that day you had similar zuma except asus board in yours but you had a better control pc I think with linear power I had a laptop so there was more than cat7 cable. I can't see packet loss being the issue pinging any device on a network and if you are getting no fails there is no loss. It is John's talk about timing and that I don't understand so maybe with a better constructed network cable the 'timing' works out better. TBH Nigel I would be shocked if a meicord lan cable generated a massive difference between two otherwise equal set ups(but who knows) Will see how all this pans out got my anker battery charger today so will try that out on the usb.That will allow me use the 5v linear supply on the laptop(when I remember to order the converter cable/connector again here you can spend €10 to 100's on this.

Will eventually build another pc for control/audio the asus or gigabyte where the choice but it seems haswell might be in the mix now. If it gives such a good improvement might just go for a compatible haswell board for my current streacom case and reuse the dh77 mobo for the control pc. Of course Nigel will next move to all haswell mobo's!
GroupBuySD DAC/First Watt AlephJ/NigeAmp/Audio PC's/Lampi L4.5 Dac/ Groupbuy AD1862 DHT Dac /Quad ESL63's.Tannoy Legacy Cheviots.
tony
Posts: 3144
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:36 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by tony »

Sligolad wrote:Control PC has much more importance than I would have believed.....

I had a good laptop as a Control PC for over a year and recently went for a completely silent build with a Cirrus7 for Control PC but it came with the usual SMPS at 19v.
From day one it was a sweet looking bit of gear but I struggled with it in terms of what I had come to expect from my system in overall sound.

I finally got the Anker 19v battery supply this week and what a difference, all of a sudden the magic is back.
Kudos to Nige and John for pointing me in the right direction.

Cheers,Pearse.
Pearse your sound was excellent do you think the cirrus is now beyond what you had? My understanding is the cirrus soundwise wasn't working out the laptop was better. Just wondering are you back at square one?
GroupBuySD DAC/First Watt AlephJ/NigeAmp/Audio PC's/Lampi L4.5 Dac/ Groupbuy AD1862 DHT Dac /Quad ESL63's.Tannoy Legacy Cheviots.
tony
Posts: 3144
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:36 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by tony »

mick wrote:I am the proud owner of Nige's Haswell build audio pc. The quality of the sound through my system now is the best I have ever had. A special thanks to Nige as I could never have done it without his help.
The soundstage is cavernous. It seems,you could walk around inside it. Bass is deep and well controlled. Midrange is wonderful and the treble is sweet and airy.
Voices in particular have a presence that is palpable. The sound is seamless with no one area dominating. You could listen for hours with no hint of fatigue. Just sit back and enjoy the music.
What more could one ask?
By the way what importance is attached to the control pc?
Here we go again.
Great result for you Mick delighted you got such a leap as you have always thought your vinyl set up was ahead. Is it closer or do you think the CA build has moved beyond that? You are using the JKDAC32?
GroupBuySD DAC/First Watt AlephJ/NigeAmp/Audio PC's/Lampi L4.5 Dac/ Groupbuy AD1862 DHT Dac /Quad ESL63's.Tannoy Legacy Cheviots.
nige2000
Posts: 4253
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:47 am
Location: meath

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by nige2000 »

tony wrote:
nige2000 wrote:
tony wrote:I
i think had you had the meicord or something of the same quality that day it would have bettered mine by a clear margin

im after ordering two cheapish cat 7 cables one from uk other from south korea
if these dont give me a similar lift that meicord had ill probably get the meicord begrudgingly


i have high expectations for this config
hopefully i wont fall flat on my face
If memory serves me right on that day you had similar zuma except asus board in yours but you had a better control pc I think with linear power I had a laptop so there was more than cat7 cable. I can't see packet loss being the issue pinging any device on a network and if you are getting no fails there is no loss. It is John's talk about timing and that I don't understand so maybe with a better constructed network cable the 'timing' works out better. TBH Nigel I would be shocked if a meicord lan cable generated a massive difference between two otherwise equal set ups(but who knows) Will see how all this pans out got my anker battery charger today so will try that out on the usb.That will allow me use the 5v linear supply on the laptop(when I remember to order the converter cable/connector again here you can spend €10 to 100's on this.

Will eventually build another pc for control/audio the asus or gigabyte where the choice but it seems haswell might be in the mix now. If it gives such a good improvement might just go for a compatible haswell board for my current streacom case and reuse the dh77 mobo for the control pc. Of course Nigel will next move to all haswell mobo's!
no not that day
the day we used the laptops as control pcs
the ethernet cable on its own is making a good improvement im certain of that
the question is will all so called cat7 cables yield similar results as the meicord
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
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Derek
Posts: 1164
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:28 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Derek »

mick wrote:I am the proud owner of Nige's Haswell build audio pc. The quality of the sound through my system now is the best I have ever had. A special thanks to Nige as I could never have done it without his help.
The soundstage is cavernous. It seems,you could walk around inside it. Bass is deep and well controlled. Midrange is wonderful and the treble is sweet and airy.
Voices in particular have a presence that is palpable. The sound is seamless with no one area dominating. You could listen for hours with no hint of fatigue. Just sit back and enjoy the music.
What more could one ask?
By the way what importance is attached to the control pc?
Here we go again.

Hi Mick,
Congratulations on the new toy, I'll have to invite myself to yours again soon.
Fair play to Nigel a real gent when it comes to helping out.

I don't know why I follow this thread, I don't understand 90% of it, but it still fascinates me.
NigeAmp, NigeSD DAC, Airtight ATM-4, Ruark Accolades, Pink Triangle TT, Roksan Artimiz, Clearaudio Discovery, Tom Evans Microgroove Plus, Fran DAC, Dalkey Audio Interconnects.
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Ken Moreland
Posts: 814
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 7:47 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Ken Moreland »

Congratulations Mick, and welcome to the slippery slope. You probably need another Haswell as a Control PC too! :) KM
i5 QuietPC , JplayFemto , Singxer SU-6 , Holo Audio Spring DAC ,LAB12 Preamp, Roundtree Mono Amps, Rosso Fiorentino Elba 2 Speakers
.
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