My XXHighEnd PC is connected to the internet.
I do not have any concerns, why should I if I only go to sites I know are virus free? No mail program installed.

For protection so to say is that I have a virus free image of the whole system for the unlikely case I need the restore everything.
So basically a complete backup of everything.
Installing a virus software is not a good solution because these programs install services running in the background doing funny things.

Tidal and other services currently sound not good without Peters Software so I do not use them although I would love to.
So the only solution I see is if Peter programmed some kind of sound driver proxy directly feeding into XXHighEnd. There is other similiar software out there exactly doing that.

Regards, Michael

I found a bug in XXHighEnd.

If a filename has certain funny special characters, XXHighEnd brings a "Out of Memory" Error and does not play the file.
Renaming the file corrects the problem.
This is very irritating, because the error message is totally unrelated to the underlying problem which is that XXHighEnd cannot deal with certain characters in the file name.

Something to put on the todo list for a next release.

Regards, Michael

Hi

Same findings as Coen.

This driver is not working at all.

44.1k playing too fast, and after a couple of seconds heavy dropouts.

48k playing with right speed but also after a couple of seconds, sound becomes totally distorted, dropouts etc.

Unfortunatly, I do not have the former driver version (2.7.0) anymore so for the moment I cannot play at all.

Regards, Michael

Looking forward to get the cable to test.

Sent Stan my contact data.

Regards, Michael

Hi Peter

That would be for sure helpful.

In the meantime, I will hookup the USB-Driver to the XXHighend PC.

Regards, Michael

Hello Peter

Thanks for your answer.
I am really afraid that this is now a Samba problem and that probably nothing can be done unless XXHighend would transmit the file as a whole in burst mode.
Your assumption that I use a RAMdisk is right. However the slow portion is really the time it takes until the file is fully transfers.
Samba seems quite decent with big files in burst transfer but as soon as small files are transferred, it drastically starts to slow down.
I also compiled Samba3 and replaced Apples implementation of Samba to see if that was the problem.
The situation did not really change, still super slow.
So I would assume the Linus File servers will probably show the same slowdown and the problem is Samba related.

I think there will be no solution to this unless XXHighend would offer an option to do some kind of burst transfer of the file.

Regards, Michael

Hi

I encountered a really weird thing.
I set up my MAC (with OS X 10.10) to be my Audio-Server.
Attached to the MAC are USB3 disks.

When playing from the XXHighend PC (Win8), network performance is extremly slow.
Transfer speeds when playing flac files from the Audio-Server within XXHighend are about 1-2 Mb/s. So to load a track takes about 10 secs or even more.
The really strange thing is that this slowdown only happens within XXHighend. When I transfer a file from the Audio-Server to the XXHighend PC, I get transfer speeds of 50-60MB/s.
The only reason I could see that happening is the way XXHighend requests data from the server.

When using a Audio-Server with Win8 installed, network speeds are good and fast (about 30 MB/s).

Does anybody use a MAC for Audio-Server as well?
If yes, do you know what I am talking about / is there a solution?

Regards, Michael

Hello Coen

Thanks for the very well written report.
When reading it yesterday, I actually got curious and unpacked Peter's stock cable and attached it to the PC-NOS1a.

I was quite surprised. Peters stock cable is more detailed in the highs and also the sound stage seems more coherent that the more expensive other cable I am currently using.
About low end defenition I am not sure yet, have to do more listening.

It seems that Peter really picked a great stock cable here.

- Michael

Hello Peter

Thanks for pointing that out.
This is also the reason I chose the Bluetooth plug solution.
Can be always removed during playback.
I would never choose a Mainboard with onboard bluetooth.
The advantage with Bluetooth is that one plug can handle both KB and mouse.

Something else I was wondering though.
Having WIFI in the same room, wouldn't that have a similar effect?
I understand that remote controlling the PC e.g. with an IPAD needs WIFI.
Or is that not considered a problem?

Regards Michael

I think at the moment the Streacom cases are the best suited products for silent Audio PCs.

I agree that they look also good in a Audio Rig

I would propose to add:

- Microsoft WEDGE MOBILE KEYBOARD
- Microsoft SCULPT COMFORT MOUSE
- Belkin F8T016ng Mini Bluetooth Adapter USB 2

As you can see all is Bluetooth here.
Note:
This specific Belkin Bluetooth Adapter is one of the few ones that allows you to use a Bluetooth KB at startup as well. So you will be able to use your Bluetooth KB to do Bios adjustments if needed.
If you do not need the KB / Mouse, just unplug the Bluetooth adapter

Hope that helps.

Michael

Hi Mani

This actually started as a build for my son.
I tried to collect all useful info here and built on the information in the forum. Let's see how it sounds

If I am lucky I will have all components very soon to start.

I will for sure take pictures and report back.

BTW..... the OS will be Windows 8.

Regards, Michael

For the time being, I will use the following external 12V PSU:

http://www.amazon.de/dp/B006Z9TQE6/ref=pe_386171_51767411_TE_M3T1_dp_1


Later on, I might upgrade to something like this (just swap):

http://www.hd-plex.com/HDPLEX-Fanless-Linear-Power-Supply-for-PC-Audio-and-CE-device.html

Of course, a battery would probably also work

Regards, Michael

Hi

This is the current build I am working on:

Board:Asrock X99M Extreme4, mATX, LGA2011-v3 Intel X99
CPU: Intel XEON E5-2620V3 2.40GHZ (Hexacore, no onboard GFX)
RAM :Crucial 16GB KIT DDR4 2133 MT/s 8GBx2 RDIMM 288pin x4 ECC, 1.2V
GFX: Asus GF EN210 SILENT/DI/1GD3/V2 low power
USB: SilverStone EC04-P
SSD: Samsung Evo 840
PSU:    PicoPSU-150-XT 150W 12V DC-DC ATX
CASE: Streacom ST-FC9B HTPC Fanless Case

This rig will be built with the assumption of that these components are all super energy efficient, so hopefully very little internal (electrical) noise.
You will probably see that this is based on the very new X99 Chipset which is suppost more energy efficient than previos generations.


With the PicoPSU-150-XT, upgrading to a fully linear PSU is always possible should I decided to do so.
The RAM (DDR4) is running with just 1.2V maybe will be able to even tweak down some more.

This built will be completed over the next weeks.

Regards, Michael

I just signed up to TIDAL yesterday.
Very cool service.
Playing the songs even in lossless works quite good so far. No dropouts.

Signing up is possilbe if you use a VPN service.
Once signed up with VPN, it is not needed anymore (Tidal does not check where you are from anymore once you have signed up.)

Regards, Michael

Hello Peter

Thanks for the link. This topic was not on my radar so far.

Will read some more into it because most of it I do not really understand.

One feedback I can give about the Supra USB cable:
I do not like it. Will not use it further.

I have another USB cable I prefer.

I will see how they compare on the NOS1a.

Regards, Michael