[ra990]

Do I understand correctly you have two different power banks? Or is having one good enough?

Yes, I have two batteries. They each have one DC 12v output.

 

[538110]

It brings a tear to my eye to see some practical pragmatic thought processes in using battery and optical solutions.

What doesn't make sense to me is ferrites and RFI sheets, etc. Those are such an inexact science. Your likely to do more harm than good.

Easily makes sense to go with a 100% 0-RFI battery/optical solution. Congratulations on leveling up.

This is just a small example of what can go wrong with ferrites. I'm sure you can find more negative examples. Just never made sense to me.

 

[538110]

Reminder also that it should be safe to use DC 13.2V. It's a DC range for Chord products, not necessarily fixed @12v.

I'm a CIEM-only/Hugo2 user, so I usually don't do desktop. Because of COVID, I'm building of a Desktop Music Streamer.

The backbone of my Music Streamer project is batteries. I need it to power a NUC or Intel motherboard (APacer RAM for SQ) as I'm running a low latency build with AudioLinux.


The two far right blue terminals are for 13.2V which can easily power a TT2 and/or mScaler. I'm using it to power a PC, but don't see why it can't power a TT2 or mScaler. The middle two blue terminals (3.3V) are for my clock and FPGA reclocker buffer (doesn't touch the Chord DAC, only gives it a clean jitter-free source that 100% buffers in RAM before sending it onto the Chord DAC). I plan to eventually use State of the Art clocks or military-use clocks (missile guidance systems) as it gives me accurate imaging along with other goodies such a wider and deeper soundstage, increased vocal and instrument timbre, air, etc. which I never experienced with the Hugo2 until now. Just using standard Hi-Fi clocks for now.






These batteries are not your normal battery-pack batteries. Normal battery packs are low performing and contain regulators. They are slow and not optimised for audio. These are high-performing, low latency and low impedance with no passive feedback. There is also an option to add Super Capacitors which lowers the impedence even more than the already super low impedence. Great for mScaler, but not needed for TT2. It's pure unadulterated battery-power. No regulators except of course for 5V which I don't plan on using. General theme is low impedence and low latency throughout the whole build.

It's the same battery technology used to power buses, Teslas and electric vehicles (It's powerful and robust):



The battery supply needs mains (DC 2.5mm laptop charger will do) to charge and operate, but when you turn it on it disconnects and isolates from mains and all the rails are completely battery-isolated. When you turn off the battery supply, the mains gets re-connected and charges the batteries. It has overcharging and discharging protection.

It's also scalable as you can turn the 2 13.2V rails into 1 13.2V rail to double the time. You can also stack and bridge multiple power supplies as needed to double that time.

I'll get back in the summer when my computer parts start arriving and add in the Super Capacitors. Good luck on your builds.

 

[Vyyy]

Nice. I would be interested in Power bank which has 2x 12V for both HMS/TT2. Anyone has such? Recomendations? Thank you.

 

[538110]

I'll check back on weekend. I don't log on much here. Sleepy time.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

I opted against getting the BatPower ProE 2 because I read that it gets very hot (as in, too hot to hold). There were even a few reports of the cable melting, possible fire hazard issues.

Do all batteries run very hot when powering the M Scaler?

 

[ZappaMan]

Nice. I would be interested in Power bank which has 2x 12V for both HMS/TT2. Anyone has such? Recomendations? Thank you.

Apparently you do not want the two devices to share 1 common battery as the mscaler will be emiting a lot of Rf which will travel mechanically to the tt2.

 

[aut0maticdan]

No, I stopped using Roon in my main system because of degraded sound quality. I now only use it in the kitchen where it’s interface wins out and the sound quality is not so much of an issue. (There is no point in me not using it somewhere because I got the lifetime sub a few years ago).

I was speaking in the context of Chord streamers like poly and 2go. They get universal praise for audio quality but very divided critiques on software and user experience. It seems, though, that Roon users are universally happy with the user experience of Chord streamers (because it is Roon). I’m taking some liberties here, of course.

I have a poly coming this week and will be doing without Roon or Audirvana, so will be in the weeds with mpd controllers.

 

[mammal]

that Roon users are universally happy with the user experience of Chord streamers (because it is Roon). I’m taking some liberties here, of course.

I wanted to like 2Go sooo much, since I have owned a lot of other Chord gear and loved it. Unfortunately, as I have described here, I had issues making 2Go work on my network. Best way forward is to simply arrange a loaner/demo unit and see for yourself, unless your shop supports 15/30 day return policy of course (not common where I live).

 

[Ratephi]

Apparently you do not want the two devices to share 1 common battery as the mscaler will be emiting a lot of Rf which will travel mechanically to the tt2.

Based on my understanding you are absolutely right.

A configuration I am currently using with very solid results on one of my setups, is the following:
- MacMini M1 acts as a streamer
- USB cable connects the MacMini into the M-Scaler
- OPTO-DX is connecting the M-Scaler to the TT2 (DAC-mode)
- TT2 connects to the amplifier (Riviera) via RCA cables

I'm currently feeding the transmitter unit as well as the M-Scaler from a Farad3 LPS via a Y-cable (this is possible since both M-Scaler and the OPTO-DX work at 15v). The receiver side of the OPTO-DX and the TT2 are powered by a 50000 mah battery which guarantees 10/12 hours of uninterrupted operation.

I'm essentially using the optical connection of the OPTO-DX to break the chain and prevent RFI to travel from the MacMini/M-Scaler, to the DAC (the TT2). To my ears, what I get out of this is an exceptionally good result which does not require the purchase of expensive BNC cables and, based on my experience, produces better results.

As a next step I want to try and battery-power also the M-Scaler (and potentially the MacMini) and see whether that adds anything positive (not sure what to expect but would not be surprised if this doesn't produce any audible effect - considering that the optical link that I have between the MacMini/M-Scaler and the TT2 should already prevent RFI noise from reaching the DAC).

Anybody else using OPTO-DX in similar configurations?

 

[GreenBow]

It depends very much on your system and the source. Power amps can be sensitive to different sources, from the RF put out onto the mains; and of course the DAC is not 100% tolerant of noise from the source. I have had sources where USB was identical to optical (my old MSI lap-top which had an optical output for example). But recently my son built up a desktop PC for me using 11 TB of SSD (8 TB for my music, is on a portable caddy so I can use it on my travels), 64GB RAM, and an AMD 4.7GHz Ryzen 7 5800X. It has a huge Be quiet chassis, 800W PSU and an MSI motherboard - which has optical out. The system now runs my lab, so lots of peripherals are attached. A few weeks ago I thought I would try the optical out - a quick polish of the plastic fibre meant that 192kHz works - but I was surprised how much better optical sounded against USB, in this instance. Instrument separation and focus, and depth were all better on optical.

So for sure USB can be identical to optical, but with nosier sources, optical will win out.

Am going to experiment with this. I only have a budget £5 optical cable but it works to 192KHz.

I did some quick A-B with optical vs USB months ago, in which I did not notice any difference. However I use a Jitterbug to clean the USB power rails. I thought with Jitterbug and TT2 USB input filtering, I would be OK.

Honestly though if there is a difference between optical and USB for me, it must be minimal. ... You got me worried though, because I use a PC with a 750W PSU. Am worried now about noise. It's a quality one though. By the way, that much power is for gaming. My peak load is about 480W from the PSU, with a fairly powerful graphics card.

Have switched to optical for a while now thanks to your post. I don't know, maybe I need a quality optical cable to be able to hear difference from USB. (However I would say try the Jitterbug with USB, along with your USB filtering. I run a basic cable from PC to a Jitterbug, then a 15cm cable from Jitterbug to TT2.)

For reference, a regular PC needs about 400W maximum. A 5800X PC system, would only draw around 200W under full load. (This generation of Ryzen are incredibly power efficient. The 5800X is a bona fide beauty.) Then it's best to set PSU to double that, because PSUs are most efficient at half load. Add on lots of SSD, 64GB RAM, and lots of peripherals, and it might draw 250W from the PSU. Am not being nosey or condescending though, and your lab might be PC thirsty.

 

[mammal]

Anybody else using OPTO-DX in similar configurations?

I believe @Slim1970 is

 

[Rob Watts]

Am going to experiment with this. I only have a budget £5 optical cable but it works to 192KHz.

I did some quick A-B with optical vs USB months ago, in which I did not notice any difference. However I use a Jitterbug to clean the USB power rails. I thought with Jitterbug and TT2 USB input filtering, I would be OK.

Honestly though if there is a difference between optical and USB for me, it must be minimal. ... You got me worried though, because I use a PC with a 750W PSU. Am worried now about noise. It's a quality one though. By the way, that much power is for gaming. My peak load is about 480W from the PSU, with a fairly powerful graphics card.

Have switched to optical for a while now thanks to your post. I don't know, maybe I need a quality optical bable to be able to hear difference from USB. (However I would say try the Jitterbug with USB, along with your USB filtering. I run a basic cable from PC to a Jitterbug, then a 15cm cable from Jitterbug to TT2.)

For reference, a regular PC needs about 400W maximum. A 5800X PC system, would only draw around 200W under full load. (This generation of Ryzen are incredibly power efficient. The 5800X is a bona fide beauty.) Then it's best to set PSU to double that, because PSUs are most efficient at half load. Add on lots of SSD, 64GB RAM, and lots of peripherals, and it might draw 250W from the PSU. Am not being nosey or condescending though, and your lab might be PC thirsty.

All the lap-tops I had before sounded the same with optical or USB, so do not worry if you hear no difference with optical. I needed a large PSU as I intend to upgrade in the future; I was gonna get the thread ripper CPU, but my current software is dominated by single core performance, so went for the best single core speed. But this may change in the future - particularly if Xilinx gets multithread support on its simulation tools. The Xilinx place and route only uses 4 CPU cores. The graphics card (Nvidia RTX2060) needs a lot of power too - min 500W PSU is recommended.

 

[GreenBow]

All the lap-tops I had before sounded the same with optical or USB, so do not worry if you hear no difference with optical. I needed a large PSU as I intend to upgrade in the future; I was gonna get the thread ripper CPU, but my current software is dominated by single core performance, so went for the best single core speed. But this may change in the future - particularly if Xilinx gets multithread support on its simulation tools. The Xilinx place and route only uses 4 CPU cores. The graphics card (Nvidia RTX2060) needs a lot of power too - min 500W PSU is recommended.

I just thought of something else today relating to testing optical vs USB. When listening to optical that I probably need to disconnect the USB input cable. Otherwise the DAC may still be getting the USB power rail noise, that it would running USB source. Not sure if you disconnected the USB power rails input in the TT2, when another input is selected.

Maybe I need to re-assess USB vs optical then. Haha.

 

[ra990]

Am going to experiment with this. I only have a budget £5 optical cable but it works to 192KHz.

I did some quick A-B with optical vs USB months ago, in which I did not notice any difference. However I use a Jitterbug to clean the USB power rails. I thought with Jitterbug and TT2 USB input filtering, I would be OK.

Honestly though if there is a difference between optical and USB for me, it must be minimal. ... You got me worried though, because I use a PC with a 750W PSU. Am worried now about noise. It's a quality one though. By the way, that much power is for gaming. My peak load is about 480W from the PSU, with a fairly powerful graphics card.

Have switched to optical for a while now thanks to your post. I don't know, maybe I need a quality optical cable to be able to hear difference from USB. (However I would say try the Jitterbug with USB, along with your USB filtering. I run a basic cable from PC to a Jitterbug, then a 15cm cable from Jitterbug to TT2.)

For reference, a regular PC needs about 400W maximum. A 5800X PC system, would only draw around 200W under full load. (This generation of Ryzen are incredibly power efficient. The 5800X is a bona fide beauty.) Then it's best to set PSU to double that, because PSUs are most efficient at half load. Add on lots of SSD, 64GB RAM, and lots of peripherals, and it might draw 250W from the PSU. Am not being nosey or condescending though, and your lab might be PC thirsty.

Yes, please get a decent glass optical cable, it really does make a difference in the case of optical. QED Reference is highly recommended around here but there are even cheaper options that are still glass. Just stay away from Audioquest toslink cables.

And yes, disconnect usb if using optical!