Well I have a Mytek DSD DAC sitting right behind me in my office system, alongside a NOS1. You know what? I don't think I've ever even tried the Mytek with XX - it's just been used for DSD duties with HQPlayer via a Linux box. But once I've got a few admin things done today, I'll hook it up and compare it to the NOS1.

Mani.

I tried the BT connection again today just to make sure I  wasn't imagining things. Unfortunately, I wasn't. Don't get me wrong, the sound is not totally destroyed, but the magic is gone. Magic that I've just never heard before in my system. It's hard to describe. The closest I can get to is a 'sweetness' and 'delicacy' to the sound that seems very, very fragile to any changes.

I also tried RDC via the LAN. Far inferior to the BT PAN in my setup.

I'll try the BT PAN with a few USB permutations at some point (PCIe, USB3 internal, USB2 and loading all other USB ports, etc). But a couple of 5m PS/2 extenders arrived today. I'm going to test them to make sure they don't affect the sound at all and if not, I'll reinstall the monitor, keyboard and mouse in my main room. Sure I'm going to have to get up off the couch to use XX, which is probably quite a good thing in itself. But for this sound I'd walk to Peter's place and back if I had to.

Mani.

It's funny you should mention this. I've got a i7 3770K sitting on my desk right now. I want to 'upgrade' the music PC in my office, but as this uses a silent Zalmann TNN300 case (with heatpipes, no fans), I'm kind of constrained as to the max TDP I can use. Otherwise it would have been an i7 3930K sitting on my desk.

It should be quite easy for me to compare the 3770K to the hex-core 3960K (not a 3930K, but theoretically as good if not better), as I use the latter in Le Monster. I'm not sure that more horse-power necessarily guarantees better sound as earlier today I tried overclocking Le Monster and I didn't really like the affect on the sound - it was a little bit harder and more 'brittle' than normal.

Will let you know how I get on...

Mani.

Hi Juan, greetings from Houston!

I don't have time to write anything detailed right now, but I just wanted to check that you're using the correct IP address when setting RDC up. Referring back to an earlier screenshot I posted, are you sure you're using the bluetooth connection IP address?

Mani.

Yep, will do... when I have a bit more time.

Mani.

A very quick post for now... it's been a very long day and I have a long-haul flight tomorrow morning.

I finally got around to putting Le Monster down in the basement. This was a much more protracted endeavour than I thought it'd be. But it's all done now and I can control XX via an iPad in my listening room. Cool...

... but I won't continue using it.

You see, like many others of you, I'm now getting better sound than I've ever had before. It's just beautiful. But unfortunately the BT connection just kills it. The effect on my system is almost like disengaging Phase Alignment... really.

I'm pretty certain it is because another USB port is necessarily being used. I can replicate the effect that the BT dongle has on the sound by simply enabling one of the many (all, apart from the one used by the NOS1 on the USB3.0 PCIe card) disabled USB ports.

I'm pretty gutted but SQ comes before anything. So I'm going to reinstall the monitor and keyboard in the listening room. Not a big deal - I already have a long-enough DVI cable and will just need to buy a couple of PS/2 extenders (I hope they exist!). Meanwhile, it's a quick dash down into the basement whenever I need to access XX. But quite honestly, it sounds so bloody good that I'm tending to just sit through the whole of whichever album is playing.

Sorry Peter, I know you put a lot of work into getting the BT PAN to work properly. And maybe it's just my machine that's particulary sensitive to extra USB devices. But it's not for me.

Mani.

Peter, this is with the intermediate PC, not the iPad. I'm talking about my office system (still haven't try remote connection on Le Monster) where the intermediate PC is my work PC - a fairly fast machine (the one I'm typing on right now).

As to be expected, everything is a little bit slower than when I have a keyboard/monitor connected directly to the Audio-PC, but nothing too drastic. It's only double-clicking in the Playlist Area that I'm having trouble with. At the moment I'm having to drag albums across from the Library Area to the Playlist Area because right now double-clicking is working just like single-clicking. I've tried double-clicking quickly and slowly to no avail. Of course, if I connect the keyboard/monitor directly, everything works OK.

Mani.

Hi Paul, yeah I'm using short USB extenders on both PCs, with the USB dongles stuck to the top of the PCs with 'blu-tack'. This just allows you to get a more direct connection easily.

But I'd love to be able to increase their speed. The response on the connecting PC isn't quite as good as I'm used to - just a slight delay in response which makes double-clicking a problem for me.

Any ideas anyone?

Mani.

Here's what I get...

Mani.

PS. But note that this is for the BT-PC not the Audio-PC (the latter is not connected to a LAN and it's too much hassle to transfer a screenshot).

I've installed the PocketCloud app (free) on the iPad and the 'PocketCloud Windows Companion' on the BT-PC.

You have to have a gmail account to set up an automatic connection. It took me 3 minutes to get a gmail account. You then input your gmail account name and details into both the PocketCloud app on the iPad and the PocketCloud companion app on the BT-PC.

On the iPad, the BT-PC shows automatically. And everything seems to work fine. I can control XX (Minimized OS) from the iPad!!!

I'm currently testing all this using my work PC (as the BT-PC) and the Audio-PC/NOS1 in my office - this is a temporary setup because in my office I can control the Audio-PC directly from my work PC and don't need the iPad. I'll test the reliability of the PocketCloud connection properly once I've got everything working permanently with Le Monster (as the Audio-PC) and an Atom machine as the BT-PC.

But for now, PocketCloud seems to work OK.

Mani.

I'm starting this thread because I want to share my experiences setting up a remote desktop connection between my iPad and the intermediate PC (let's call this the BT-PC) which is itself connected to and controlling the Audio-PC via a bluetooth RDC.

I haven't even started, so this will be more of a blog than anything else.

The first issue is which remote desktop application to use on the iPad. I'll do a bit of research first, but any ideas most welcome.

Mani.

ALL SOLVED!

If you have problems establishing an RDC connection when the AudioPC is in 'Minimize OS' mode, then you need to connect using the AudioPC's IP address. To find this:

- make sure bluetooth PAN has been established (see tutorial)
- run the command line (cmd) in AudioPC
- type 'ipconfig'

This will give you the IP address of the bluetooth connection. In the connecting PC (laptop, or whatever else you're using), use this address in the RDC window, and NOT the one Peter states in the tutorial OR the name of the AudioPC (this will work, but not if LAN services are off). I attached a screen shot of mine, but of course your IP address is likely to be different.

HTH.

Mani.

I've managed to get everything working in Minimize OS mode!

BUT...

... it only works if I have 'Keep LAN services' ON. This is not an ideal situation - even though I have unplugged the LAN cable from the AudioPC I would prefer it if I could switch 'Keep LAN services' off.

Any thoughts?

Mani.

Hi Paul, no I've been doing that and have been getting a BT connection no problem. Thanks for the reminder anyway.

Mani.

Paul, sorry I can't help you with your BT range issue, but you may just be able to help me with my issue. Have you got RDC working when the AudioPC in 'Minimize OS' mode? If so, did you have to do anything special?

Cheers, Mani.