Well, my initial findings are that the music server and player feeding the microRendu still affect the SQ. My hopes that PC tweaking would be a thing of the past have been well and truly dashed.

Mani.

Hi Peter,

This looks so interesting. Like many people here, I'm sure, I'd love to be able to simply go ahead and order a new Mach II without any worries. But having already invested heavily in my current audio PC, the decision to drop Euros 2k+ for a new one is difficult for me. I would do it though if there was a guarantee of better sound.

Are you happy to offer a trial period so that people could evaluate the Mach II in their own systems, with a restocking fee (plus two-way shipping costs) if they wished to return it?

Mani
(Greetings for Melbourne BTW.)

Hey Peter, everyone knows how difficult it is to communicate between different languages. Just to let you know, your use of the phrase *** will most likely offend quite a few people. It's always difficult finding the best expression...

But I agree, it's so easy to identify the 'lush' voice of a 'person of colour'... compared to the thin anaemic voices from you 'whities' 

Mani.

Wow... I tried to understand your post Peter, but there are simply too many PEs via power cables/blocks, isolated/non-isolated grounds via interconnects, and isolated/non-isolated grounds via USB for my little brain to cope with 

But getting this all sorted is way more important than the vast majority of people would ever be able to accept, let alone understand.

Mani.

This was one of my biggest issues with the Schiit Yggy, e.g. it made a grand piano sound like an upright.

Mani.

I don't have a clue what you're talking about. But not the first time 

I have nothing against using a PC for music. What I have a strong aversion to not knowing what the hell is going on - why the sound changes with a tiny tweak here and there. So, should we continue in this vain? And one answer is definitely, why not? Yes, it really is incredible how you keep making continual leaps in improvements. And you must know I'm one of your biggest fans in this respect. But maybe I'm alone here when I say I'm getting kind of tired of continual PC tweaking. I just want to listen to music...

Mani.

I first tried to load RAM-OS on my office audio PC well over 2 months ago, but I ran into a problem with what I thought was a RAM memory issue. So I've been using the RAM-OS disk, but with the Win10 running from the HDD for over 2 months. Yesterday, I managed to get the OS loaded into RAM for the first time (and remove HDD) and the sound changed so dramatically, I thought I'd share.

I've currently got a pair of old speakers in here (Impulse H2) that can sound overly bright, sharp and generally too forward (in the mid-range especially). But I quite like their tone - it's really nice. With the OS running from HDD, the sound was actually very good, but a bit fatiguing after a while. And I longed for more bass*. But with the RAM-OS, this has totally changed. Everything that was grating about the sound has gone. What's left is just a beautifully smooth, and yet massively detailed, sound. There is no hint of 'digital' anywhere. And the balance is just about right now.

I really am shocked at the improvement the RAM-OS disk has brought in this system. Until now, I have never sat and really listened to my office system - it's purely for background music as I work. But yesterday evening I listened in here for hours.

Anyone who uses XX but has not taken the plunge with the RAM-OS disk should really reconsider - you simply have no idea how good your system really is!

Mani.

*After Prince's death, I watched his CNN interview from 1999 and I totally loved one thing he said. Larry King asked him how important the bass is to the music. Prince's reply? "It's B.A.S.E. and not B.A.S.S. - that's a fish." Classic.

As you know, I've been using a Teradak for coming onto a year now. I can't remember if it made a big difference in SQ because it was a long time ago, and also there were so many other changes to the system at the same time. I think it did. But right now, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Why? Well...


I can think of 2 ways:

1) Use an Intona to galvanically isolate the audio PC from the DAC. Run the audio PC from a different circuit to the DAC. Then don't worry about the PC's PSU - just use a good SMPS.

2) Give up on using an audio PC altogether. Use something like the new Sonore MicroRendu. I've just ordered one... but will need to use it with a Linux-compatible DAC for now 

Happy to have my ideas shot down.

Mani.

Couldn't wait until weekend...

Put graphics card in and... everything works perfectly!!!

 

Mani.

(I wonder what will happen if I pull it out?)

Under North Bridge config I can assign the primary graphics adapter as onboard or PCIe, and I can allocate the amount of 'share memory', currently 32MB. But I can't disable the onboard GPU.

I can try a PCIe graphics card at some point... sometime over the weekend now.

Mani.

With 3x 4GB modules I'm getting exactly the same error with exactly the same values shown on the screen...

Mani.

One thing I will try is just 3x 4GB modules...

So that's exactly the same as your old PC... but it works?

Peter???

Mani.

My new 4x 4GB memory sticks just arrived. I installed them in my office audio PC and just as before got only 15.7GB showing in ControlPanel/System. Of course, I got the same "... cannot fit into memory..." error message when trying to load W10 into RAM.

Going into mobo's bios, I found a 'shared memory' option for the built-in GPU. This was set by default to 256MB. I reduced this to the lowest option, 32MB. ControlPanel/System then showed the full 16GB of RAM available and I was elated. But then...

The OS still wouldn't load into RAM and I got exactly the same screen as before (Joachim's first post).

Not sure what's going on, but it's definitely not the memory modules. I suspect it's the mobo still hogging just a little memory (because of the built-in GPU?).

Peter, is there any way of easily lowering the RAM size required for the RAM-OS by only 32MB or so? I really hope there is because otherwise that was 150 Euros down the drain... and more importantly, no RAM-OS in my office 

Let me know...

Mani.

Thanks Peter. I just assumed there would be Tidal login somewhere close to the XX activation area. Anyway all sorted now.

Mani.