Build a dedicated Audio PC

[Frizzup]

Greetings from litttle New Zealand......its Frizzup who posted the results from the ethernet card experiment.

Just recognised that my Jplay forum note caused some confusion so I've posted some edits as follows based upon Jplay 5.1...no other sub-release or special from Josef or Marcin

Edit 1: Sorry for the confusion – For those that read an earlier version of my post for 'LargeDrives" I meant the Jplay registry setting of 'DriverBuffer'. Corrected above.

Edit 2: For those interested in Single PC setups. I tried the Audio-PC configured as a Single (Control/Audio) combined with only the on-board Qualcom Ethernet Controller, (No TP-Link Card in the system), and Ultrastream worked OK using jplaymini with a settings as low of US=25 and DriverBuffers=0. So only in a dual set-up was the motherboard ethernet controller causing Ultrastream not to work.

Cheers
Frizzup

[nige2000]

THIS IS A COPY OF MY POST IN JPLAY FORUM

Great bit of work.
its a shame to have to buy ethernet adapter and lose the expansion slot on your case after buying a pc for the job.
Good that you have solved it.

i'd imagine there are many people building or buying pc's for the purpose of jplay. and its good to note and avoid the Atheros AR8151 chipset.

i am able to get to 28 us on my build but no further without a click or pop (dropouts), and there is a few people with ethernet chipset/driver issues and some wont work on ultrastream at all.
so its plausible that jplay will work better/worse with different chipset/driver combinations.
it may be necessary to get a list of ethernet adapter configurations that work really well and work poorly or not at all, so that people in the market know what to buy or avoid.
As you can get 25 us on the tplink which is a good result it would be a preferred chipset, am i correct in saying that the chipset of the tp link adapter is either Realtek RTL 8168B/8111B, do you know which it is? i couldnt find it.

i think anyone that can achieve us=20 should post their motherboard and/or ethernet adapter model.

in single pc mode with the atheros adapter what ultrasize could you achieve? (just curious)

thanks for the informative post

nige

[tony]

Saw some of this last night certainly would be worthwhile if a list of suitable network cards/controllers was available.
We are safe enough with the DH77EB Intel board as that works in Pearse's and is the board that Fran has gone for?

I am chomping at the bit to at least start purchasing some of the parts. I am kinda set on the plex h5.s case with the pico power supply.This comes in at €260. The mobo is £98 and the following link has the i7 3770. Can Nige or Fran just confirm that what is for sale there is all I need. My understanding this is just the chip there is no fan or heatsink but I don't need that as the case satisfies the requirements.

I know I know the i3 will be enough but again my understanding is that in this case the only extra cost i have is the difference between circa €125 and hopefully €255 for the chip.

The only other way of making it much cheaper is to use an existing case with an outboard fan? I have only ugly medion or spurious upright megasize cases which to me would destroy the whole concept.

[Sligolad]

That certainly is interesting, Pearse. I wonder does it also effect Jplay in standalone, single PC mode? I seem to remember that Jplay uses the network card in some way even in standalone mode. Does anybody know more about this?

BTW, in that post on Jplay forum he mentions Largedrive or some such - what is this variable & where is it found - it's not in the register variables that I see. Has Jplay release moved on & I missed the new version?

Tonight, in between productions builds of my devices, I took some audio breaks & did a bit of experimenting. I think I'm more confused than before :) I changed the Bitstream form native to 32, as you suggested. It allowed me to go from about 200 US down to 120 (this is still on my netbook, btw). However, when I changed the buffer from Directlink to any other value, I get no sound. Odd, as the prompt suggests " if you experience drop outs or no sound, increase the buffer"

Hi John, even with the mighty Zuma I get no sound when I change Drive Buffer in Registry settings to anything other than 0 with Ultrasize on low setting so there is something peculiar going on in JPlay there, I have not tried changing Directlink to see if buffers here will stop music, a test for today.

Seb is calling around today with Maciej for some listening and testing, Seb hoped to have the Eximus with him but it did not arrive yet...bummer as I liked the sound of it in the listening room. Maciej is bringing round the Lampizator Level 3 DAC which was the only other DAC on my list before I bought the Meitner so it will be a busy afternoon.

[jkeny]

Hi John, even with the mighty Zuma I get no sound when I change Drive Buffer in Registry settings to anything other than 0 with Ultrasize on low setting so there is something peculiar going on in JPlay there, I have not tried changing Directlink to see if buffers here will stop music, a test for today.

Seb is calling around today with Maciej for some listening and testing, Seb hoped to have the Eximus with him but it did not arrive yet...bummer as I liked the sound of it in the listening room. Maciej is bringing round the Lampizator Level 3 DAC which was the only other DAC on my list before I bought the Meitner so it will be a busy afternoon.

AH, right, thanks for reassuring that it's Jplay is the problem.

Would love to hear the Lampizator at some stage - I've read a lot about it - didn't know that there was one in the country? Look forward to your listening impressions.

[jkeny]

Based on the issues arising with Jplay I'm beginning to favour a single PC approach controlled remotely. I don't want the hassle or ugliness of a LAN cable (necessary for Ultrastream) between two PCs & I don't want to chase down what the best ethernet controller is. I reckon the Jplay user group will tease out what the important variables are. Until then I will work on trying to get my single PC Jplay running Ultrastream at low latency. The frustrating thing is that low latency seems not to be achievable for everybody & yet what the determining factors are is also not clear yet

[nige2000]

Pearce

what ultrasize are you achieving in single and streaming mode with 24/96 audio at 24 bitstream and drivebuffer =0 without glitches?
just trying to get a handle on whats achievable

[nige2000]

Based on the issues arising with Jplay I'm beginning to favour a single PC approach controlled remotely. I don't want the hassle or ugliness of a LAN cable (necessary for Ultrastream) between two PCs & I don't want to chase down what the best ethernet controller is. I reckon the Jplay user group will tease out what the important variables are. Until then I will work on trying to get my single PC Jplay running Ultrastream at low latency. The frustrating thing is that low latency seems not to be achievable for everybody & yet what the determining factors are is also not clear yet

im aiming for single pc use as well
jplay seems to utilise the ethernet adapter even in single mode with ultrastream as i posted before disabling ethernet adapters = no sound. therefore it will affect single mode too.

[jkeny]

im aiming for single pc use as well
jplay seems to utilise the ethernet adapter even in single mode with ultrastream as i posted before disabling ethernet adapters = no sound. therefore it will affect single mode too.

I disabled my ethernet card & wifi card & still get sound??? Another mystery

[tony]

quote sligolad

Seb is calling around today with Maciej for some listening and testing, Seb hoped to have the Eximus with him but it did not arrive yet...bummer as I liked the sound of it in the listening room. Maciej is bringing round the Lampizator Level 3 DAC which was the only other DAC on my list before I bought the Meitner so it will be a busy afternoon.[/quote]

Sound like tough work! but somebody has to put the legwork in. I will be jealous when up to my neck in plaster dust this afternoon.