Thanks Fred,

The thing is that PCs and Operating Systems never have been developed with our requirements in mind, actually how to do such a thing is kind of proprietary knowledge of the Peter's of this world.

If you take all the variables into account and deviate from the "proven recipe" the outcome is pretty unpredictable. It was an interesting learning journey to get it working to satisfaction, but also a frustrating one. Consciously or unconsciously changing one variable can push the SQ over edge and you're back at square one. Fortunately we still have the music to get back to our senses!

regards, Coen   

In retrospect, the failure may very well have to do with the HDPlex units. After the incident the atx unit dit not fire up and I had to reset it by disconnecting it from the psu. Then I discovered that the disks were defunct.
I haven't been paying attention to heat lately since it ran cool before the previous failure. At least that was my assumption. Especially the lpsu ran quite hot in normal operation. I also forgot about the influence of xx settings on the powerconsumption. I've been messing around with those.

If this is all related, the HDPlex lpsu would match well with a simple laptop, but nothing more.

Regards, Coen

Hi All,

Tanks for the warm support!
I feel I need to push the reset button to gain a fresh perspective on this issue. CD and Vinyl it will be for now (because there is nothing else).

Many things have been consuming my time lately and hampering and disobedient PCs were something that did not add to it well to it, they do require a lot of time and persistence to fix.

Peter you're probably right about the 1a thing in my system. No isolation trick ever worked out after that, neither did any of the related softweaks an OSsses. The route I've been following ended yesterday; it has been a struggle. I'll pm you for the "fresh ears" proposal!

regards, Coen

It finally happened: the PC supply somehow ruined the renewed OS drive and at the same time my Music drive. These drives must be considered deceased and as such the NOS1a useless.
And I mean really useless since the NOS MAC driver also does not work anymore (since el Capitain) and there is no other PC to take over.

This is the fourth disk incident of different computer devices in the last year. One NAS and two PCs.
I have to say I've increasingly lost my appetite for computers and Computer Audio specifically in the same era. What a drag to format, install, configure, activate, etc each time something goes astray. Forget one parameter and you'll be punished with bad sound and why-the-h311-wont-it-sound-good-headaches. Only one configuration seems to work here and arriving at that point takes time and again weeks of dedication. On top of that came the disappointing tweak adventures like the Intona that did not deliver the goods (or any good for that matter). It has become too time consuming and unsatisfying. I have been trying to tame this pc since its creation in 2012. Without success obviously.

Now I'm back to my old friends. Both my 20 year old CD player and 50 year old turntable never ever stopped fulfilling their duties one day. Only a few tweaks and a little care are needed to keep them running. Only a couple of CDs have become unplayable due to degradation in the course of almost three decades, vinyl seems to last forever when treated properly. Fortunately I did not discard of this hardware nor software and am still able to play and enjoy music. Actually they have been playing for over 70% of the time lately.

I'm not sure what I will do next. I'm really tired of tweaking 100's of parameters to perfection again and I also feel reluctant to start pouring 1000s of euros into vastly inferior and consequently obsolete-as-you-buy-it technology. Otoh is is a waste to not tap into the potential of the DAC that is or at least should be capable of audio quality far beyond the other sources. But will I be willing to pay the price?: Like a preconfigured PC is only half a solution since the music is expected to be on another PC with full exposure to all the PC and Windows cr*p that have put me off in the first place.

I've no problems with cleaning a disk or taking a CD out of its cover. Their sound is not the best but acceptable. I don't care for the -expensive- streaming propositions with their limited and to me unappealing catalogs. Maybe I'm not the guy for computer audio after all.

regards, Coen

Hi Peter,

Great tweak! I wondered how it's powered. By the incoming USB wire?

Regards, Coen

Hey Peter,

What's the score after five days? Still enjoying?

Cheers, Coen

Hi Anthony,

You worry me a little. I wonderd what you are going to use these regulators for, they are all 1-1.5Ampere max. Everything except the processor? The motherboard can draw some power on the 3,3V for peripherals and mind you that 1,5 A is only 5Watt. For harddisks and PCI usb cards the regulators you mentioned will be ok. Be shure to add sufficient heatsinking even when cascading.

I would use beefier LDO regulators or bootstrapped ones for the motherboard and processor (100w = 8Amps @12V). At these amperes you should have considerable heatsinking even with LDO.

My i5 PC consumes over a 100W on boot. When playing music the LPSU heatsinks get really hot in summer and it supplies less that 70Watt from the powerstrip (for 50 Watts that the pc uses). That heat comes from the 20Watt difference in input and output.

Regards, Coen

I just ran into this little machine:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/metrum2/1.html

No filtering inside, supports up to 384kHz with USB. Price in tthe order of 1k euro/dollar.

This is the kind of DAC that will suit the virtues of XXHighEnd well.

Regards, Coen

THE ifi has an USB3 interface receptor plug. Don't know if it really supports usb3, since this is irrelevant for the data transfer. since USB is backwards compatible it'll work with any USB cable.

Regards, Coen

Right you are Peter, I also paradigm shifted along with the developments from SPDIF in the time of the CD player to a Firewire 'high res' DAC and to an USB one in the PC era. God knows what's next (Ethernet?).
Also even tapped the I2S from the source when it was en vogue in the diy world (90s). That idea seems to be echoed again in a recent commercial implementation (Pink Faun) or was the first non-USB NOS like that?

As for USB2 vs USB3, the data rates are well within spec yet there seems to be a preference for USB3 on the PC side. I've to catch up here since I don't know if it will matter on the Dac side. I would not consider this to be very important on the basis of reason alone.

regards, Coen 

Nope, looks like a fine plan. There a a lot of usb dacs in any price segment, so you'll have to do some homework on the internet. The positive side of this is the fierce competition leading to better base quality for the dollar all the time.

I'd advice to look for a high as possible samplerate capability, like 384khz or more. Personally i do not value the DSD capability since it adds little if anything to sq and its catalog is allways also available in normal format (pcm), but it may be a nice to have feature.

The other thing is the pc. Some xx settings resulting in good sound can be really tough on the processor. Even my 4core machine is not really up to the task of delivering the bits on time consistently. Today you can make it really complicated with pc setup but if you renew make shure to step into the i7 range for the audio pc.

Regards, Coen

Ok!

the rme fireface itself looks like a nice but littlebit outdated device to function as a quality two channel audio dac itself but you are not using it that way. Apparently the rme 'soundcard' as you call it has an good working spdif output interface for your quality dac. I see nothing fundamentally wrong with this setup, yet moderner solutions are available. I don't think a 'better' soundcard will improve on this merely because it is "better'. The attention given to the spdif output is usually not clear.

There are these specialized usb to spdif converter devices that can do the spdif trick of the rme in a smaller package and have been developed with audiophiles in mind. As a matter of fact the ifi idsd nano has a specialised spdif output and you can connect your external dac to it. No clue though if this kind of connection enhances your sound, it might or might not.

I may sound like an ifi commercial by now but have no ties whatsoever. I just think its design, engineering and sound are great,especially for the price.

Like i said your DACs spdif interface has its limitations wrt the possibilities of software based optimisation in Xxhe. You need both the higher sampling rates and increased bit numbers and linearity to fully benefit from it (and preferably no in dac sampling like on delta sigma style dacs). So if you really want to move forward this is something to consider.


Regards, Coen

P.s. Obviously you do not need any 'soundcard' when using the usb to spdif device. Just plug it in one of the free usb ports on the pc (and then experiment which port sounds best ).

P.s.2 does your Dell on board soundcard have a SPDIF output? Not all of them do. Maybe it will be worth trying since it is closer to the pc's hardware and xx is likely to have more impact, on the negative side noise on the spdif line is bound to be higher but not neccecarly so.

Eh?

Usb is not a signal, it is a cable system to transfer data on a short distance and a simple way to connect devices to your pc. Only the initiated know the electrical and pc stuff that makes this possible. All pcs have usb ports, the digital music signal is transferred via the usb system to the Dac which also has an Usb port. There are different flavours of usb operation, i guess all modern DAC use the same mode today, anyway all will work. Several years ago people called these dacs 'Usb dacs'.

Regards, Coen

P.s. A sound card is a big DAC albeit not/never Non Over Sampling, whats your point really?

I think we say the same.
Bit linearity is enhanced by paralleling (or Dynamic Element Matching if you want to keep the current small) from 11 to 15-16 bits, but even perfectly linear you still have to deal with the gross distortions that NOS 1x (16/44.1k in) implies.

By NOS, both Peter and I mean that the DAC does not filter digitally but the PC does that for you. Now you can apply a filter to the bare music data that sounds and measures well and feed it to the DAC WITHOUT additional in-DAC processing.
Please note that the bitrate to the DAC needs to be high to overcome the distortions and that's the job of the digital filter. As a bonus extra signal bits can be calculated (ie 24 bits) to mimic the signal closer.

So: signal processing in the PC and the DAC adding NOTHING to it at a HIGH BITRATE (i.e. 192KHz or higher). Iow preferably you need a very bit-linear NOS DAC that works on these high frequencies. Unfortunately these do not exist with an old fashioned SPDIF interface (nor do the sources) and you need USB or something else. Note that the IFI doc works up to 384kHz (not completely NOS) and the NOS1a up to 768KHz.

nuf said,
regards, Coen

I played for some time with the cheapest philips CD player of early 90s which I bought for 5 euro at the second hand store. This one had the TDA1543 and I managed t lift some processor pins to disable the digital filter and put it in NOS (1x) mode.

Though it was NOT the last word in resolution the CD player was a lot of fun to listen to and had great tone. Actually it was generally accepted that the TDA1543 has a maximum of 12 bits resolution which is more than enough for todays over compressed pop albums, but not for high end listening and certainly not enough for through-dac-digital volume control.

I was surprised to learn that the Doede Douma Dac (DDD dac) is still alive and kicking today. Here resolution is enhanced by averaging many (multiples of eight) TDA1543 dacs. In a classic setup with analog volume control and tubed amplifiers this DAC probably sounds very nice since real 16 bits of resolution will surpass the capabilities of the other components and its remaining distortion is likely pleasant to the ear. Please note that the tube is needed to conceal or ameliorate the rough distortions that NOS (1X OS) exhibits.

Yet technology moved on in 20+ years and really I think there is no comparison with my IFI nano iDSD, which can sound like a true high resolution DAC and is super versatile and super cheap. It supports all current formats without external conversion like you would have to do with a 16/44.1k NOS DAC. It really is able to let you familiarize with the potential of PC/computer based audio.

Of course there are similar offerings as the nano iDSD to consider and as a starter in this field I think this amount of money will be well spend to jump on the learning curve and decide later if this suffices or that you wish for something else.

regards, Coen