[OCC7N]

The JCAT USB XE is another level with the JCAT USB ENHANCER. This is not a gimmick. It brings some musicality/emotion to the songs.

What the advantage is it makes an easier USB cable pairing. Without it I need a specific level of cable. To my ears the Enhancer and a decent USB cable sounds better than an expensive USB cable(1000$), I have for testing right now.

It takes the music with the technicalities to a musical side like Pink Faun.

 

[OCC7N]

For those of you who makes music but also game as much as you listen to music. This has not only the best driver/latency of all the HiFi dacs I have tried. It does outperform them all in price.

This interface + JCAT USB XE + JCAT USB ENHANCER......WOW!

https://solidstatelogic.com/products/ssl-12

For the music producer
For the gamer
For the HiFI listener, it has actually a pretty powerful headamp.

----

I do use it on an more expensive headamp. But I can not get over the price vs what it brings. It literally beat another deltasigma dac for 5-6x the price on the same headamp.

 

[leeperry]

Hey Lee, do you plan on getting the new jcat master clock? I want to get an XE at some point, but I don't think there's any way I can swing a $1200 clock on top of that.

I guess once you've heard it there's no going back. OTOH no way to A/B it and once properly amped my HE6SEV2 never fails to deliver, I'd rather spend that money on HEKSE tbh, anyway I'm comparing all my audiophool items today and so far OPTIMO 3 DUO makes all my other LPS sound mushy & veiled haha.

For the giggles I'll now try this card I snatched a while ago: https://www.aliexpress.com/i/1005005769349777.html

 

[OCC7N]

I guess once you've heard it there's no going back. OTOH no way to A/B it and once properly amped my HE6SEV2 never fails to deliver, I'd rather spend that money on HEKSE tbh, anyway I'm comparing all my audiophool items today and so far OPTIMO 3 DUO makes all my other LPS sounds mushy & veiled haha.

For the giggles I'll now try this card I snatched a while ago: https://www.aliexpress.com/i/1005005769349777.html

That card is waste of money on computers with good ATX/PSU

 

[leeperry]

been running this one for a long while, ripple is low enough and PSU fan never spins: https://pcper.com/2016/12/evga-supernova-550w-g3-power-supply-review/4/

I prefer to run OPTIMO DUO 3 for audio gear than pay too much for ATX PSU as ATX specs are pathetic and I like to keep audio PSU outside the computer case and unshared.

 

[OCC7N]

been running this one for a long while, ripple is low enough and PSU fan never spins: https://pcper.com/2016/12/evga-supernova-550w-g3-power-supply-review/4/

I prefer to run OPTIMO DUO 3 for audio gear than pay too much for ATX PSU.

Does not matter what you use for external.

Good PSU will improve.

My earlier RM750 sounded like crap with XE on ext PSU. After listening to the new…

Upgraded to Corsair AX1600i. RM and external psu went for sale. It beats both. However Optimo 3 Duo is very good. Internal ATX did improve on my system.

Transients beats ripple. If I had to choose

 

[leeperry]

Audiophool train never stops as you know, might as well roll mobo clock for OCXO: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/23883-paul-pang-audio-motherboard-clock-upgrade-discussion/
Next stop will be a dedicated line off your electric counter made of OCC specifically for audio gear, it literally never ends

 

[leeperry]

That card is waste of money on computers with good ATX/PSU

Totally, been A/B'ing it a bunch of times, does no good to my Superflower OEM PSU, it's a not a bunch of caps on a daughter board that will improve on top engineering to begin w/ as I suspected

 

[kingoftown1]

That card is waste of money on computers with good ATX/PSU

With $2k+ Nenon v3 unregulated lps + hdplex 800w, jcat USB xe, etc....that elfidelity card still made improvements in my system. I tried taking it out, but had to put it back in.

If/when I upgrade the hdplex 800w to the Taiko dc/atx, I'll try removing the elfidelity card again.

 

[OCC7N]

With $2k+ Nenon v3 unregulated lps + hdplex 800w, jcat USB xe, etc....that elfidelity card still made improvements in my system. I tried taking it out, but had to put it back in.

If/when I upgrade the hdplex 800w to the Taiko dc/atx, I'll try removing the elfidelity card again.

Might be bad transient repsonse from the powersupply. With propper transients it did not survive in my system

Elfidelity is low-fi and helps entry-level powersupplies from my findings.

 

[kingoftown1]

Agree to disagree on that one. The dynamics & transient response of this 2 channel system w/ purpose-built computer still spooks me sometimes. But hey, individual systems, ears, preferences, etc

 

[OCC7N]

Agree to disagree on that one. The dynamics & transient response of this 2 channel system w/ purpose-built computer still spooks me sometimes. But hey, individual systems, ears, preferences, etc

I can actually borrow the 800W plex dc/atx, never made the effort because I found improvements in storage solution made more impact and is more interesting right now. However I will borrow it from my friend some day.

What voltage is your ULPS?

 

[kingoftown1]

My ULPS runs at around 37v loaded. Your mention of GaN-based ATX supplies has interested me over the last year or so. I'd like to try one someday in my head-fi setup. The Taiko DC/ATX is also GaN-based & interests me, even though I have no complaints about the 800w. Saligny is also making a really nice GaN-based rectifier which could slot into a ULPS build. Someday I'll get around to trying at least one of the three...

Storage was also an interesting one for me. I ended up preferring externally (Plixir) powered Samsung PM893 drives (enterprise grade SSD) instead of NVME or consumer-grade SSDs. At one point Antipodes recommended that drive type specifically; not sure if that's still the case. On the flip side, most systems sound better with SATA disabled in BIOS. Using an m.2 > SATA adapter gave me the best of both worlds for in my specific build. I'm sure there are better options, albeit at a cost.

 

[OCC7N]

My ULPS runs at around 37v loaded. Your mention of GaN-based ATX supplies has interested me over the last year or so. I'd like to try one someday in my head-fi setup. The Taiko DC/ATX is also GaN-based & interests me, even though I have no complaints about the 800w. Saligny is also making a really nice GaN-based rectifier which could slot into a ULPS build. Someday I'll get around to trying at least one of the three...

I have involved myself into a project I can not get out of. Fibre channel storage based and split psu for motherboard and GPU.

For the RTX4070 200W GPU I bought
https://hdplex.com/hdplex-500w-gan-aio-atx-power-supply.html

Right now I have amazing improvement going from SMB/NFS based NAS to the ISCSI based NAS. However I am gonna go one step further because of the interest of "encapsulation" regarding audio quality. Fibre channel should have slight more performance. My only problem is finding the switch.

 

[leeperry]

With $2k+ Nenon v3 unregulated lps + hdplex 800w, jcat USB xe, etc....that elfidelity card still made improvements in my system. I tried taking it out, but had to put it back in.

If/when I upgrade the hdplex 800w to the Taiko dc/atx, I'll try removing the elfidelity card again.

Kills transparency on my rig, turns OPTIMO DUO 3 into ifi iPower, abort the mission lol