Streamer to kill the big boys for under $250

[Blizzard]

Hi Guys,

Okay we finally have this new image with airplay working smooth. I've been listening to Tidal airplayed from my Iphone all morning without a glitch! And the sound is the best I've heard yet out of Tidal. Must be the FIFO buffering. Better sound than Roon Tidal from my MAC Mini. The only thing that will beat this is when Roon can pass the Tidal through the HQplayer engine. To switch from HQplayer NAA to Tidal, just close HQplayer, and vice versa. That's all there is to it. Click the airplay icon on iphone, ipad, or mac computer to send audio. I'm going to call it "Superstream", so just select "Superstream" in airplay.

There's just a couple minor changes I need to make. I'm just waiting for Piero to get home. I will have the upload ready by tonight. The download is 5.6gb, and I'm hosting on a real fast server. It took me 12 mins to download during a test. I'll also be making a new thread with detailed setup procedure

 

[Folsom]

My system is going to be more on the lines of a Devialet. Complete integrated system minus speaker cables and speakers. Ravenna interface, chipless DSD DAC, 100% discrete class A gain stages, and Hypex Ncore power. I'm waiting on 3rd parties atm. Might be Feb, Mar before I have it completely finished.

Sounds like a cheap version of something I've been thinking about.

If you're having trouble with getting audio circuits working PM me.

 

[Blizzard]

Sounds like a cheap version of something I've been thinking about.

If you're having trouble with getting audio circuits working PM me.

Cheap version? I would like to hear about what you're thinking about The audio circuits are working superb!

 

[Blizzard]

The image is uploading to server as we speak. I was listening to AirPlay all day long. Not a single dropout streaming Tidal from my iPhone. I couldn't be happier. Download size is 5.6gb, and goes fast on the high speed server. I have it in a Zip folder, just need to extract, and burn to any 16gb stick via Rufus. I reduced the extracted size to 14.3gb, so it will fit on any 16gb stick no matter if it's undersized vs the rated capacity.

I will start on the Superstream setup thread in the morning. I'll also be trying out my new optical isolation toys that arrived today

 

[Geardaddy]

Keep up the good work.....I am looking forward to the Roon/HQ player hybrid. Thanks for that tip off....

 

[Blizzard]

Keep up the good work.....I am looking forward to the Roon/HQ player hybrid. Thanks for that tip off....

Thanks! Yes many are including me. It will be the most exciting news in audio. Especially for those with DSD compatible DAC's

 

[Blizzard]

Hi Guys,

I made a new thread with detailed setup procedures. I'm calling the unit "Superstream"

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?19287-Superstream-setup-guide

 

[Blizzard]

Full blown TP-link based optical isolation setup. I'm using the NUC 3815 SBC out of the case. The Blue Ethernet cable goes to the Router. Plug in power supplies to both FMC's and that's all there is to it.



I'm impressed with the build quality of the TP-link MC220L's. Very solid units. Gold plated connectors on the SFP transceiver sockets as well. Nice clean board layout. I can imagine much lower noise footprint than a full blown server PC.



Very solid SFP transceivers as well:




I'll report on the most important thing "the sound" later on.

 

[Blizzard]

Hi Guys,

So I've been listening to the optical setup all afternoon/evening. I first listened with the cheap wallwart SMPS connected to the streamer side FMC. I must say I wasn't blown away. I was feeling guilty for recommending this system for others. It was super clear, but there was a slight edge, and naturalness was lost.

But then I decided to try my 5v supply from DIYINHK:

http://www.diyinhk.com/shop/audio-k...dac-power-supply-regulator-33v-50v-800ma.html

And Talema toroidal transformer:

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=1295-1073-ND

The FMC can accept both 5 and 9 volt DC, and only consumes a max of 3.95w. So this supply being 5v-800mA is good for 4w. So no problem here.

Right off the bat I was blown away. The difference was profound. By far the best sound I've heard from this unit. I also went back to the cheap wallwart SMPS that the NUC comes with, instead of the LPS I have been using for a few months. I didn't realize how much better it was making the sound as well. It's funny how it's much easier to notice how much better something is once you take it away.

Anyways I only recommend the optical setup if you power the streamer side FMC with clean power. I also highly recommend a good clean supply for the streamer as well.

I'm thinking about making an ultra low noise dual output 15 and 5v combo supply to power both the streamer, and streamer side FMC. I'd seriously put this up against any streamer out there now at any cost with these upgrades!



If anyone want's to build this supply, they have a new better one out now. Also good for 1.5A. I'd go for it instead.

http://www.diyinhk.com/shop/audio-k...e-dac-power-supply-regulator-3357v-15ax2.html

 

[Blizzard]

Update!!

So I've tried 5 different computers as servers for HQplayer tonight. When connected direct to DAC, these servers all sound quite a bit different. I used HQplayer resampling to DSD 128 for the testing as they can all handle it no problem. I've tried my Broadwell I3 NUC, HP desktop with I7 4790, I7 macbook pro running both OSX and windows on bootcamp, I5 macbook air, and I5 mac mini with both OSX and Windows on bootcamp. I can't tell them apart! I can say with confidence this streamer/optical isolation combo renders all servers sounding identical regardless of OS. Just make sure it has enough power to resample to the highest rate you will use with HQplayer, and that's all that matters!

Forget the server audiophile upgrades.

PS: I think the Airplay playback took the biggest leap up with the optical isolation with low noise power supply upgrade. Absolutely no comparison to Tidal playing in Roon from my Mac Mini direct to DAC. So much better. And it's streaming from my phone!

 

[Blizzard]

Here's an answer to lateboomer's question he posted on another thread:

"What do you think about upgrading the clock in the streamer instead of at the music server? I read in CA forum some guys are going that path, but don't hear any listening impression yet."


It's a possibility to upgrade the NUC 3815 clock, but I'm not sure if it would make a difference as the DAC USB interface clock is the master with Linux ALSA. The computer is the slave. Besides the Async of the USB interface re-clocks it afterwards anyways. Clock # 2 on the USB interface is the one that really matters for jitter. However powering the USB chip on the board with clean power probably has the potential to make a difference. But I think this is being achieved when we power the SBC with clean power itself. This is not a huge noisy desktop motherboard, and we are disabling the SATA bus as well as other things that cause noise on the computer. Also the DAC has it's own dedicated USB bus. So I'm not sure how dirty the USB power is anyways when we use a low noise supply to power the unit. Most good DAC's don't power the USB interface with the USB power, however if the USB chip is powered by dirty power some might creep into the DAC. Amir may have a different opinion on this.

I can look into supplying a direct clean power feed to the USB chip. Then it will be kinda like the REGEN powered by clean power, only built into the streamer.

 

[lateboomer]

Thank you for the sharing. It is appreciated. One simple question, does usb data carry any clock info? If it doesn't then on theory it could be as good as Ravenna tech which also doesn't carry clock info, but later the whole data can be re-clocked again in FPGA?

 

[Blizzard]

Thank you for the sharing. It is appreciated. One simple question, does usb data carry any clock info? If it doesn't then on theory it could be as good as Ravenna tech which also doesn't carry clock info, but later the whole data can be re-clocked again in FPGA?

No problem


Yes it does carry a clocked signal, but it's reclocked in the DAC USB interface. There's also extra layers of processing in the USB chip in the streamer/computer, as well as the DAC's USB interface that Ravenna doesn't have to process. You will never get as good of performance with USB as Ravenna. But if you only have a USB DAC, a streamer like this running the NAA Daemon is about as good as you'll get. Ravenna is very close to how the NAA Daemon works. Only it's running on a CPU/FPGA inside the DAC that can spit out pure I2S/DSD direct to the DAC chip over a few inches of PCB traces. the virtual soundcard that you must install on a Ravenna server, is similar to how HQplayer communicates to the NAA, only it allows the Ravenna to populate as a sound device on the server just like a USB DAC is connected directly. You're not stuck with HQplayer to take advantage of the system. All audio from any source can be sent to it. However, this is only part of what HQplayer does. The modulators, and upsampling algorithms is the best part. It turns your server into a dedicated upsampling engine. some companies charge $20000+ for stand alone upsampler boxes, to achieve results not even as good.

 

[Blizzard]

I just listened to a whole 24/192 PCM album airplayed without a single dropout from my macbook. And it only has a Wireless N card.

 

[Blizzard]

I found the USB controller chip this board uses:

http://minipcsale.ru/images/Minix-Neo-X8-h/GL852G.pdf

It also uses a 12Mhz clock, for clocking it. I removed it from a spare board I had laying around. If someone could find an NDK NZ2520SD in 12Mhz:

http://www.ndk.com/en/products/search/clock/1188128_1433.html

it would be a drop in super low jitter replacement. Although I'm not sure if the jitter of this clock matters. Some like Paul Pang seem to think so though. As well as streamer manufacturers boasting about low jitter clocks. Although in most cases (like the Aurender's) those clocks aren't for the USB, they are for the SPDIF and AES/EBU outputs.

 

[MadFloyd]

Blizzard,

I have some questions if you don't mind answering them.

I understand the concept of having one server PC do all the heavy lifting and a separate small PC (e.g. the NUC you mention) to connect to the DAC.

I already have a CAPS v3 PC that is my server AND is connected to my DAC and am attracted to getting better SQ by buying the NUC and Linux OS.


Question 1
What I don't understand is how I can get the output of whatever music software I run on the server to 'see' the NUC and the DAC attached to it. What current software will do this? I currently use Roon, would that work?

Question 2
My DAC automatically scales all input to DSD 128. I am interested in using Roon + HQPlayer (when the combo works) but my DAC doesn't accept Native DSD but rather DoP. Is there still a benefit to upscaling via HQPlayer or should one really have a native DSD DAC?

Thanks!

 

[Blizzard]

Blizzard,

I have some questions if you don't mind answering them.

I understand the concept of having one server PC do all the heavy lifting and a separate small PC (e.g. the NUC you mention) to connect to the DAC.

I already have a CAPS v3 PC that is my server AND is connected to my DAC and am attracted to getting better SQ by buying the NUC and Linux OS.


Question 1
What I don't understand is how I can get the output of whatever music software I run on the server to 'see' the NUC and the DAC attached to it. What current software will do this? I currently use Roon, would that work?

Question 2
My DAC automatically scales all input to DSD 128. I am interested in using Roon + HQPlayer (when the combo works) but my DAC doesn't accept Native DSD but rather DoP. Is there still a benefit to upscaling via HQPlayer or should one really have a native DSD DAC?

Thanks!

Hi Madfloyd,

This system is designed to work with HQplayer. HQplayer has a special protocol called the Network Audio Adapter. How it works is you install a lightweight software on the streamer computer that buffers an incoming audio stream into the RAM, and sends it straight to the USB controller, then out to the DAC, in the most efficient way possible. No matter what file resolution or format is processed by it, (PCM 16/44 to DSD 1028) it uses very little CPU load as all of the heavy lifting is done on the server. This system does an extremely effective job of isolating the noise and artifacts of using a powerful server directly connected to the DAC. And when used in conjunction with the optical isolation setup I've been talking about, it's second to none. Now on the server end, as long as the streamer (NUC) is powered on and connected to the same network as the server, it will populate as a sound device in the settings menu of HQplayer. When the Roon integration is ready, it will do the same thing. It's no different than selecting a DAC that's connected direct via USB to the server.

DoP is perfectly fine. With HQplayer you can choose native or DoP. The only problem with DoP is it's limited to DSD 128. But you still get awesome results resampling all PCM to DSD 128. Even DSD 64 sounds better than non-resampled PCM. And it doesn't do it by adding "fairy dust" filtering. It actually converts to a format that allows bypassing inferior filtering inside of DAC chips, for an even purer sound. It doesn't matter which DAC you have because the upsampling/resampling is just one of the benefit's of this setup. Even when no upsampling/resampling is preformed, it still sounds much better than connecting direct to a server computer. Plus you get the awesome airplay.

I'm trying to find very good clean power supply options for both the streamer and the optical transceiver (FMC) that connects to the streamer. I'm using DIY unit's, but not everyone is up for building their own supplies from scratch. But wow the difference is substantial.

 

[MadFloyd]

Thank you SO much for your quick and detailed response.

I'm going to order the hardware; I'm sold and enthusiastic!

 

[Blizzard]

Thank you SO much for your quick and detailed response.

I'm going to order the hardware; I'm sold and enthusiastic!

No problem. Let me know if you want the OS/software

 

[Blizzard]

Hi Guys,

I'm thinking the best option for turnkey power supply upgrade for the streamer is probably the Teddy Pardo 12/2,15/2,or 18/2. I haven't tried them personally, but they have a good reputation from everyone who has. Great price as well for what you get.



http://www.teddypardo.com/powersupplies.html


And for the streamer side FMC, if you decide to go with the optical setup, the IFI Ipower 9V might be the best choice for the price



http://www.musicdirect.com/p-322395-ifi-ipower-outboard-supply.aspx