Streamer to kill the big boys for under $250

[Blizzard]

Do you also have something under $5000 that will kill anything on the market for under $50000?

Nothing turn key sitting here on my desk ATM. But wouldn't be difficult if you were okay with an open PCB sitting on your audio rack. Most of these guys put more money into the cases than what's inside. Either that or you're paying for the ip that went into them.

Handing the SDM/SRC on the computer end can chop about 50% of what you're paying for with one of those DAC's in that league.

 

[Blizzard]

Oh boy.. Aren't we spoiled for choice.

Best of all, dirt cheap, off the shelf readily available quality parts, that will still make better sound than the overpriced commercial units

 

[chopchopbin]

It works!!!

Initial impression: someone put a light in the back wall of my virtual soundstage and turned it on. wow! Bass is fuller.
Time for some serious listening and burn in.

HD-plex is coming soon.

Thank you Mike(Blizzard) for your knowledge, insight and assistance!

 

[Blizzard]

View attachment 24324

It works!!!

Initial impression: someone put a light in the back wall of my virtual soundstage and turned it on. wow! Bass is fuller.
Time for some serious listening and burn in.

HD-plex is coming soon.

Thank you Mike(Blizzard) for your knowledge, insight and assistance!

Excellent chop chop! you're welcome!

When you get a chance, let us know what you have for upgrades. I see you have the optical isolation.

Do you have the streamer side FMC powered by a good supply? (Critical)

How about the streamer itself?

Ethernet cable between the FMC and streamer should be as short as possible as well. See my last post. I found a 5 pack of nice 6" Cat 6 cables for only $12 on Amazon.

 

[lateboomer]

It works!!!

Sir, thank you, you have no idea how important your impression posting is, as I am impatiently waiting for my NUC on this week and optical isolation in Jan 2016. I am in the process of getting one i7 Lenovo desktop which I will convert it running Nofan fanless cooler. I am also getting one bare-bone dac capable of dsd256 as Blizzard suggested. Finger crossed.

Anyway, any of you have suggestion for LPS unit capable of running i7 4th Lenovo desktop pc?

 

[Blizzard]

Sir, thank you, you have no idea how important your impression posting is, as I am impatiently waiting for my NUC on this week and optical isolation in Jan 2016. I am in the process of getting one i7 Lenovo desktop which I will convert it running Nofan fanless cooler. I am also getting one bare-bone dac capable of dsd256 as Blizzard suggested. Finger crossed.

Anyway, any of you have suggestion for LPS unit capable of running i7 4th Lenovo desktop pc?

Excellent Lateboomer.

I'm not sure if you'll find any audible benefit upgrading the server power supply. As the noise will never make it past the optical isolation. But if it's just to take the fans out of the picture, I noticed HDplex has a bunch of nice fanless supplies.

http://www.hd-plex.com

 

[Blizzard]

The build quality of this unit is quite awesome considering the price. It may look like plastic from a distance, but it's not. The lid is, but the rest is made from aluminum with a very nice finish. Not an ugly piece of gear to be on the audio rack at all.

 

[Blizzard]

Big news guys! The Roon/ HQplayer integration has officially been released a few hours ago!! Now this system can finally be a part of the finest digital audio playback system ever developed!!! The finest GUI with the finest sound! And lets not forget resampling streamed Tidal to DSD 256! This is going to sound stunning!! Woo Whooo!!


https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-1-1-build-88-is-live/5676


Here's the setup page for Roon/Hqplayer:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/how-do-i-use-roon-and-hqplayer-together/5866

 

[MadFloyd]

Whoohoo!

 

[Rodney Gold]

Mqa also coming to Tidal and roon next year..
Fullly agree with Roon as a front end.. they just came out with support to my Squeezebox..
Amazing music interface... I took a lifetime subscription

 

[Blizzard]

Mqa also coming to Tidal and roon next year..
Fullly agree with Roon as a front end.. they just came out with support to my Squeezebox..
Amazing music interface... I took a lifetime subscription

Now you just need to get the HQplayer backend so you can have the sound and GUI

 

[Blizzard]

Hey Guys,


If going for the Roon/Hqplayer integration, you need HQplayer 3.12. Download here:

http://www.signalyst.com/beta-install.html

 

[Rodney Gold]

I briefly looked at HQ player..will revisit it

 

[Blizzard]

Christmas tunes have never sounded better!! Tidal in DSD 256 via Roon/HQplayer, direct to my chipless DSD DAC! Stunning!! It will be a merry Xmas this year! Thanks for the hard work Roon team, along with Jussi at Signalyst!!

 

[MadFloyd]

I now have Roon->HQPlayer->DSDx2->Playback Designs MPD-5.

I think the sound is better going through HQPlayer, but I'm not blown away. My DAC is currently hooked up to my CAPS v3 PC. Looking forward to getting the streamer up and running (parts will start to arrive tomorrow).

I'm sure the streamer will make a significant difference, but I suspect I still won't be content and will need a new DAC.

 

[Blizzard]

I now have Roon->HQPlayer->DSDx2->Playback Designs MPD-5.

I think the sound is better going through HQPlayer, but I'm not blown away. My DAC is currently hooked up to my CAPS v3 PC. Looking forward to getting the streamer up and running (parts will start to arrive tomorrow).

I'm sure the streamer will make a significant difference, but I suspect I still won't be content and will need a new DAC.

What settings are you using? This makes a huge impact. It must be setup right.

 

[MadFloyd]

What settings are you using? This makes a huge impact. It must be setup right.

I just did some research on the settings and now I'm using:
PCM->DSD
poly-sync-2s
DSD7
5644800 (128 dsd)

DSD Settings
poly-short-lin
IIR
standard (noise filter)

It sounds pretty darn good now. Played some solo violin and the differences weren't subtle. So I take back my earlier post.

That said, if you see some room for improvement in my settings, please advise!

 

[Blizzard]

I just did some research on the settings and now I'm using:
PCM->DSD
poly-sync-2s
DSD7
5644800 (128 dsd)

DSD Settings
poly-short-lin
IIR
standard (noise filter)

It sounds pretty darn good now. Played some solo violin and the differences weren't subtle. So I take back my earlier post.

That said, if you see some room for improvement in my settings, please advise!

Try Poly-sinc-short-mp and DSD5v2. The -2 settings are a compromise for if you don't have enough CPU power.

And make sure to check DirectSDM in DSDIFF/DFF settings. Sounds much better to my ears. Veil removed. And if your DAC can do native DSD, make sure to have none under SDMpack. And finally set output to -2db in settings under vol max.


It will only be better with streamer and optical. But don't do the optical without clean supply powering the streamer side FMC. Also this is a beta version just released last night of HQplayer. There's still wrinkles to iron out. CPU load is way too high compared with version 3.11.

 

[MadFloyd]

Try Poly-sinc-short-mp and DSD5v2. The -2 settings are a compromise for if you don't have enough CPU power.

And make sure to check DirectSDM in DSDIFF/DFF settings. Sounds much better to my ears. Veil removed. And if your DAC can do native DSD, make sure to have none under SDMpack. And finally set output to -2db in settings under vol max.


It will only be better with streamer and optical. But don't do the optical without clean supply powering the streamer side FMC. Also this is a beta version just released last night of HQplayer. There's still wrinkles to iron out. CPU load is way too high compared with version 3.11.

Thanks, Mike, I'll try those settings.

I did order the iFi power supply from Music Direct and won't bother with the optical until I receive it.

Are you having HQPlayer crap out every once in a while? I have to restart it on my server to get music playing again.

 

[Blizzard]

Thanks, Mike, I'll try those settings.

I did order the iFi power supply from Music Direct and won't bother with the optical until I receive it.

Are you having HQPlayer crap out every once in a while? I have to restart it on my server to get music playing again.

right on.

What processor does your server use? It will have less CPU load with DirectSDM checked. I've had a few freeze ups on track changes. It's still a beta version, a few wrinkles to sort out yet. Last version was smooth and glitch free.