So Anthony,

How about an isolated PPA card? Maybe that would reveal the effects of the USB card isolation.

With a few clips I reconnected the isolated Silverstone card to the computer chassis again. This makes quite a noticeable difference. There is more focus and stability to the sound, but it looses naturalness of the instruments and voices (ie sounding more artificial).
Its almost like the sound is literally grounded.

regards, Coen

Now I think of it, maybe the card's isolation was the final nail in the win8 coffin for me (see a couple of posts back). That is that in my system it does not work out for the better with win8. The sound was very intense with a lack of tone colour (like a "black sound") and kind of strangely spacious. Didn't like the highs at all, no definition and very sharp. Also the narrowing and skewing to the right of the soundstage didn't help.

All can be partly because of the siverstone card and maybe the effect of unsynced usb reference clocks.

In my win7 setup card-isolation seems like a definive improvement, though time has to tell. Anyway it sounds rich and natural and very free from the loudspeakers. I heard a number of strings being played on vollenweiders harp that i never noticed before. Unfortunately a bit lacking on the musical side compared to my reference.

No sugarcubes though.

Regards, Coen

Respect!

regards, Coen

Eric,

Enjoy the music!

Imho no need to hurry with a switch to Win8. I'm slowly admitting to myself (again) that win8 (still) stinks on my system no matter with what it charmes me at first. But that conclusion is for another thread another time  .

regards, Coen

Hi Anthony,

Thanks, I dug no further.

When I lost the card by unplugging the molex, I rebooted with the 5V lab supply connected (and 'on'), result: no card present. Next reboot with the PC PSU molex the USB3 card was detected again. Maybe my 5V or GND made a poor connection. I will try again.

The 5V is shurely necessary for something. Maybe for both the bus and the 1.05V...

regards, Coen

Today I tried to get the siverstone running on (only) 5V lab supply. No card present in the OS.

Actually when I unplug the molex when the card is operating, it stops altogether, contrary to the PPA studio base card, that keeps on running with a slightly different sound.
This must mean that the molex is more than a firm 5V supply for the USB3 bus. The 12V is used or necessary too.

regards, Coen

The other connector is for an external USB connector like the ones in your PC's casing. It has the same pinning as the 'PC case' USB connectors on your motherboard.

regards, Coen

Gerard,

I ordered mine with Alternate (www.alternate.nl). Superfast delivery. I had it the next day in the mail.

Regards, Coen

I'd say: no problems. Looks like a good reg to me. 3A is over spec even if you consider attatching usb powered devices to the card.

Regards, Coen

The Ppa card's bracket is connected to psu (and thus signal) ground. Seems good engeneering practice. I bet the silverstone's bracket is connected too.

Regards,Coen

Good work Anthony,

I'll return to the ppa card after the silberstone has settled and look what we can do further. I did not even try a separate supply for the clockboard yet.

Regards,  Coen

I've got no conclusive thoughts other that this card seems to react more inline with Peter's ' recommended' settings. So different settings (OSses?) apply. Also I did not mod it in any way and connected the PC psu to the molex.

Well, I have the impression I hear much more fine detail yet a similar presentation of voices (loose from background and instruments). At this stage the PPA has more naturalness about it, but I'm just starting with this card.

regards, Coen

Here you are at the bottom of this post.

The ..75 picture shows that the x-former connection at the clock board is unaltered. The thick red en black wire come from the molex to sata adapter (the molex part has been ripped open to harvest the red +5v and black GND wire). The original PPA white/red power wires have been disconnected and are currently fed from the linear supply.

In the other picture ..76 you can see how I connected the x-former to the capacitor (horizontal on the aluminum block under the clock board with golden wires) and to the ground connected (outer) leg of C16.
It requires removal of the black synthetic and the x-former leg at the 330 (ohm resistor) position.

You can see that I am no craftsman and I warn you that it is tricky stuff to get the x-former connected to C16.

good luck!

regards, Coen

[I put in the smaller versions of the pictures as well because it could be more clear - Peter]

Hi,

To make my setup a little more in line with the forum, I ordered a the above mentioned Silverstone USB3 card. Today I received it.

This card is a firm departure from the sound of the modded PPA studio card I had in it. At first it didn't sound right, but applying the advocated settings I can actually reproduce (to a certain extend) the SQ effects Peter cs are describing. Now all your posts make more sense!

Anyway I heard the win 8 narrowing of the soundstage at first, but not the channel skewing anymore. With slightly different settings to sound opened up.

I'll give it some break in and experimenting before joining this discussion again.

regards, Coen

My experience with the ramdisk is that no matter what you've formatted it to, xx will reformat the playbackdrive to exfat.

The strange thing is that I could hear differences between different "original" diskformats.

Regards, Coen