Streamer to kill the big boys for under $250
- Thread starter Blizzard
- Start date
Thanks. The way this is being used, extra power is a detriment. All it does is adds to the noise footprint. Very little cpu power is required. This unit was chosen for build/sound quality, and price.
But great find! That looks like a nice little unit as well for the price. Would be cool to compare both for sound. I wonder if as many things can be disabled in the BIOS?
Wow sure some cool stuff coming out.
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It looks like the power draw is less than the Atom, 4W vs 5W, and the N3000 stays at 1 GHz unless more CPU power is required, in which case it can increase clock speed up to 2 Ghz, so if the unit is not taxed it could draw significantly less power vs the Atom.
Yes I see that. I might order one. It also has an M-PCIe and M-SATA slot. So M-PCIe SSD can be used. But until I can confirm for sound, I can't recommend. Running this same OS on 6 computers now, the NUC 3815 sounds the best. So you never know without trying. It requires 3 amp 12v input as well. So less flexibility for LPS users than the 12-24 of the NUC 3815. My NUC even runs smooth on a 12v 1a LPS. Doesn't even warm the LPS voltage reg much. But I still recommend using an LPS with minimum of 25w. This way the LPS is just idling.
Maybe the Asrock is more flexible with power input as well, but just not advertised as so. I'll look into it more. Would be nice to find a datasheet on the board.
The NUC board was intended for industrial applications, not just consumer. So has a bunch of flexible I/O including Molex connection as alternative for power. That's what I'm using.
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I like being able to see information like this for the streamer I go with. What this tells us is, the NUC 3815 SBC is rated to run around the clock in ambient air temps of 55C (131F) (such as hot digital signage in hot climate) for 68690 hours. Or 7.84 years. What's the rating on the Auralic Aries, Exasound PP or Aurenders?
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Okay guys. On our new revised image, we will include AirPlay. So in order to use AirPlay, just make sure Roon/HQplayer is off, and AirPlay will take over. You can beam any audio from your apple devices direct to your DAC wirelessly with this feature. I think between the 2 features, this should satisfy pretty much everyone's needs.
Checks all the boxes for me
1: Best sound possible. Check
2: Most convenience possible. Check
3: Ease of use. Check
4. Long term reliability. Check
5. 3 year warranty on all parts. Check
6: Price under $250. Check
Checks all the boxes for me
1: Best sound possible. Check
2: Most convenience possible. Check
3: Ease of use. Check
4. Long term reliability. Check
5. 3 year warranty on all parts. Check
6: Price under $250. Check
With the adding of Airplay and wireless feature to NAA, will this compromise the sound of HQplayer/Roon ?
Not at all. Only 1 or the other will be functioning at the same time. There won't be any wireless enabled in the streamer. Absolutely no additional bus systems or hardware enabled on the device to make it work. It will still be physically connected via Ethernet. The audio data from the Airplay, get's routed through the router, then goes to the streamer. Once it get's to the streamer, it enters a FIFO buffer with the RAM, and sends the airplay data direct from RAM to the DAC's USB input.
To me it makes no sense at all to have a noisy wifi card enabled in a streamer, when you can physically connect the streamer to a router.
If you want to go 1 step further, use fibre optic isolation.
I'm going to work on a fibre optic isolation system that can be built for cheap and used with this device. I will post a detailed tutorial on it later on.
Many people on CA are claiming great results by simply using 2 of these unit's. 1 on the router, and 1 on the streamer. Nothing to it, just plug in, and they work. You will need a pair of SFP transceivers, and the fibre cable as well though. $131.91 for a complete system using these units from amazon.
I'm going to test a few of them for performance so I can recommend the best one. This also allows up to 10km of cable between the server and streamer without loss. Great for those with big houses
. Actually would be awesome for those who want to use one of these streamers in their backyard for an outdoor system. Or at the cabin. Imagine anyone can just airplay from their phones to the system around the campfire. Or run Roon on the iPad around the fire and listen to everything up sampled to DSD 256 by Hqplayer, connected to a small DAC with an IFI, while the server in the home office does all the processing and file storage. Might take an extreme audiophile for this. I actually brought $15000 worth of audio gear with me last time I went camping. Ran it all off a pure sine inverter connected to my X5 battery. Set the speakers up on stumps on each side of the fire pit. Acoustics were superb with the thick forest behind them.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=11E15MSKKQSX0PVF1ZCF
http://www.amazon.com/TL-SM311LS-Si...,+MiniGBIC,+LC+interface,+Up+to+10km+distance
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005X...mode+cable&dpPl=1&dpID=41FKmIC6XpL&ref=plSrch
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Wow, that is super cool and what a relief to know there is no wireless enabled at streamer side. The aim here is to built a super duper sounding streamer, and god forbid maybe a giant killer and I appreciate that. It also tells you how poor my computing knowledge is.
It also tells you how poor my computing knowledge is. 
Check out the HQplayer, NAA, and fibre isolation threads on CA. Many guys on there claiming a big difference. And the hardware I posted the links to are what most are using.
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f...reaming/optical-network-configurations-24641/
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f...d-audio-and-streaming/network-isolation-4265/
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f...eaming/hqplayers-network-audio-adapter-13892/
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/hq-player-20293/
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Yes ground isolation, up to 10km (6.21 mile) cables runs from server/router to streamer without loss etc.
You don't have to use fiber for ground isolation... and that's not what I mean. It's RFI that regular cables attract, even for the ones that might have a shield (it means less RFI, not gone RFI).
Besides I think they're balanced, so there is no ground unless there is a shield, and it would only make ground noise if it's inappropriately connected to something other than chassis.
Besides I think they're balanced, so there is no ground unless there is a shield, and it would only make ground noise if it's inappropriately connected to something other than chassis.
Yes it should reduce RFI/noise compared to copper all the way to the router. What will need to be determined is if the copper to fibre boxes themselves add their own noise. Lot's of the guys on CA are using LPS's to power the DAC end fibre to copper boxes as well. Not sure if this is overkill or not. More testing is required.
Something like this Teddy Pardo LPS has dual outputs, and could power both streamer and copper to fibre box:
http://www.teddypardo.com/powersupplies/dual12-75.html
Most of his single supplies would work to power the streamer as well:
http://www.teddypardo.com/powersupplies.html
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Blizzard,
Like your energy and enthusiam on the streamer subject which I share. However (here's the but), opto/photo-couplers/diodes have drawbacks which needs to be addressed, aging to name one of many ... aso. There's a reason why few use them in audio, Aqua Acoustic being an exception. Light by itself is no cure ...
Like your energy and enthusiam on the streamer subject which I share. However (here's the but), opto/photo-couplers/diodes have drawbacks which needs to be addressed, aging to name one of many ... aso. There's a reason why few use them in audio, Aqua Acoustic being an exception. Light by itself is no cure ...
When it comes to Ethernet, the drawbacks of sending the audio via optical cable becomes a non issue. This is because the data isn't clocked. You can't introduce jitter until the data is clocked. That doesn't happen until the data reaches the USB controller in the streamer, downstream from the Ethernet. Then the Async in the DAC's USB interface reclock's again to reduce the jitter from the streamers clock, and what's introduced in the USB cable.
When a clocked optical signal carrying the I2S is sent via optical (such as toslink), this is when the issues you mention become a problem. The transceivers end up adding jitter, and more is lost than gained in the end.
In the case of high end ST fibre like EMM labs, Bel Canto, and Playback designs uses, the clock is often sent on a different connection. Or the master in the DAC, slaves the transport.
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I have one Sotm-Usb card from my CAPS 2.0 Server component parts, which can be powered by good LPS. Should I utilize it with this streamer for usb output to get better isolation?
