Post by stellabagpuss on Aug 28, 2022 8:33:15 GMT
Well after hanging around hear on TAS for some time, I'd thought I should start a blog. If you enjoy spelling misakes, and bad grammar, then I'm your man 
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.Like most of the members, I been into Hi-Fi for about 40 years, and could probably write a Life's Journal from the first HI-FI mag I purchased when I was 11 years old, but couldn't we all...! Also would anyone be that interested?
So I thought I would keep things current, in regards to current Rabbit Holes, that may or may not be find interesting.
My current RH (Rabbit Hole) is improving my PC set up, that's been refined slowly over the years,and thanks to other forum members, been slowly improving. These days, it's seems that using a Streamer over a PC is a universal thought, but I have always struggled with Steamers of the past, don't get me wrong, when running, they sound excellent. However I like to replay my files direct from a Hard Drive, I always found streaming via another PC or NAS, good, but not as good as direct Hard Drive via USB.
My experience that if you try to attach a 8TB to a streamer, the software running on the streamer,or even the hardware itself it has a heart attack, slow track searches, lags from playing one file to the next, shutdowns buggy, I should point out I am open to changing my mind, but these are from my experences with a Allo USBridge and a ZEN Stream.
I started with PC based replay back around 2015ish, at the time, I had a pretty good setup, Meridian CD500 MK2 Transport, Trichord Clock 4, NCS....yes very much into CD's. At this time, things where starting to get interesting,and I still remember purchasing a used Musical Fidelity USB to SPDIF convertor, pluging in my son laptop, and replaying a Glenn Hughes track.....my jaw dropped, the improvment was so vast to my ears, I went straight over to PC replay.
How many times have you heard the phrase PC's are noisy ? Just Google it... And what your find the term noisy has many meanings related to it, loud fans, GPU fans I could go on, it's no wonder the the phrase "PC are noisys" have entered audiophiles mind.
Now, I believe, that a streamer is actually a PC, but with attention paid to reducing noise RF/EMI with a good clock for measure and a low noise linear PSU. I am of course not proclaiming a PC vs Streamer battle, just relaying my thoughts....and we have to go back a few years.
My 1st PC DAC was a John Kenny's Cinuas DAC, and while I was happy at the time, I kept reading about Foobar2000 sounding better Jriver, this sounding better than that etc, it was like a disease, I was running Windows 7 OS back in these day, and to my shock, Foobar2000 did sound better than Jriver MC21. I lived with this, started getting into JCAT Femto card powering them on a good psu., and slowly things improved soundwise.
Time moved on , Jriver was now MC26 and now on Windows 8 OS, it was during this period I had a terrible time, I had invested in John Kennys ISO DAC, that spent more time away being repaired, and personally as nice as I found John Kenny, the times where changing, and very fast indeed. So I followed the crowd, turned the PC off and gave a Allo USBridge a go, and yes...it sounded great, but eventually it stop working.
These where dark days for HI-Fi passion, thankfully I still had a PC, I purchased a HUSH PC rehoused the Motherboard, so it's fanless, purchased a HDPlex psu,which to my surprise,not being a Linear made a difference, and a Project DAC. That was when I started to expriment a bit, and noticed something interesting.
I have always run a headless set up, for improving the sound quality and reducing process of Windows, I run Fidlelizer and Prosso Lasso. When Windows 10 came around, I reinvested back into Jriver MC27, everything just seemed to improved soundwise since Windows 7 & 8, and Jriver had caught up, Foobar2000 no longer sounded better, so happy days.
Yes indeed, the times where changing, enter the Chineese DAC's, you plug them in ,they work and sound great, at a budget price, the begining of the end for Homebrew DAC's like John Kenny. I guess I am saying the gap between streamers and PC have narrowed due to a few factors, software has improved on the PC, and so has the Hardware,the differences are not so vast,provided you put the work in.
Okay, so fast forward to now, firstly I am very happy with my setup, but I believe I can push things further, on the PC side.
I currently run a i7 8700 CPU, that has a TDP of 65watts (i7 are normally 95watts) After a few messags back and forward, with Tony of Coherent, one of his suggestions what to get a CPU with lower wattage draw, and I am awaiting a delivery of a ASROCK J3030B motherboard, it's fanless, has a PCie port for my Matrix Audio Element H USB card, and a TDP of 6watts! This is now steamer terrority, so I thought I will use my blog to give you some progress.
I also plan the DIY sheild the powercables inside the PC case.....Will it make a difference, I believe it will.
While I was on Holiday, I was looking into all things PC, sheilding and then I stumbled on bespoke SATA 3 cable, £800 from JCAT.....OMG crazy terrority, there are pages and pages etc, but by chance, I had read a off the cuff coment that a gent had purchased this SATA 3 cable, and heard a noticeable improvement
I was really interested, as I could firstly obtain one for £7.95p delivered,and the interesting part, it's has a Metallic cable layer for EMI guard.
Anyway the cable landed on Tuesday, I just simply swapped it out. Rebooted the PC, and Wow.... a truley jaw dropping moment, what is this voodoo, sparkle to the high frequencies, improved lower bass, and noticably more dynamic on slams.better air.....Yes, it was a bit of a shock. Of course it shouldn't surprise me, but just goes to show you the importance of sheilding.
So that's it for now, I will try and post some photo's, as my rebuld starts.
And a question, would copper pipe sheild just as will as a braiden hose ? Provided it's insulated after ?
Damien
