Limniscate
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2011
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I wonder how the new Bricasti M5 will sound compared to the new SotM gear and the ISO Regen. There are too many new devices!
The digital climate is changing rapidly and those who have taken their time to upgrade are looking wiser by the day.
I hope to answer as many of these questions for myself soon but then some new "monkey wrench" invariably gets thrown into the works that forces you to pause. A company is sending me a product that could be a game changer. I am not at liberty to talk about it at this time but if they are open to having me modify its clock and replacing its regulators with much better Hynes regulators, it's conceivable this product could outperform anything I have yet heard and for less money. My thinking, however, is that this solution will work best if you also build a server with no bad clocks in the path since I still don't believe a single good clock
Then there is the matter of SQ improvement with respect to value and absolute SQ improvement that comes at any cost For the money spent, the SQ improvements I am hearing with improving your clocks (or getting rid of bad clocks) has been tremendous. I can think of many things I have spent much more money on with far less return. Even with the inadequacies of the motherboards you can buy today, there are some decent options out there that combined with the right PSU and a well-implemented lightweight endpoint easily outperforms any commercial megabuck music server I have yet heard.
Regarding M-scaler + DAVE, if fidelity to the original recording is the greatest priority, I have not heard anything yet that comes close to bringing me there better than this combination but the price tag is indeed high. I do feel, however, that these improvements are mutually beneficial. Regardless of what has been believed in the past, DAVE is definitely not immune to upstream components and to improve your server will improve your return on DAVE and on M-scaler. It is my conviction that anyone with a good DAC will never fully know just how good their DAC is unless proper attention is paid to the server.
It really feels like the next 3 months will settle many questions for me regarding end-game server-based audio, where 3 threads will hopefully all come together. Decisions on any one of these threads could impact the importance of the other 2 threads:
1. Server End Points and USB conditioners: My choices are:
- Keep my mR/LPS-1 and add the SOtM TX Ultra with a supa power supply (probably PH SR7)
- Replace mR with SOtM SMS 200 Ultra with a supa power supply (probably PH SR7) - preferred option so far to minimize the number of little boxes
- Get both Tx and SMS Ultras
- Wait for Sonore to come out with their own mR Ultra equivalent
2. Server to replace my Windows laptop. Current top 3 contenders at increasing price points:
- Sonic Transporter; SOtM 1000 EU thingy (why do they make their product names so hard to remember) with super clock; Antipodes DX 2
- The first two could be powered by one of the rails of a PH SR7, which should give them a power supply advantage over the built-in Antipodes p/s
- The chosen Server MUST be able to run Roon in direct connection (no intervening router) to Roon Ready on the above server end point
- Either by Ethernet/Ethernet or Ethernet/WiFI bridge, or by a DHCP server app running in Server
3, Chord Blu 2
- Will the m-scaler in conjunction with DAVE be such an advance that it will conclusively blow all other DACs out the water? Including Doc's ODSX
- Does the SQ improvement of the m-scaler justify doubling the price of DAVE?
- Will the m-scaler completely change the importance/priority of threads 1 and 2?
- Should I wait (possibly a long time) for Chord to come out with a standalone m-scaler?
Hopefully romaz will be able to give his verdict on some of above before he disappears from all forum activity - soon apparently
The best sound that I have had in my system was when it was fed directly into the Dave by my Melco NAS via USB. I then adopted Roon for various reasons and the one and only downside is that, if I understand things correctly, the Roon core pulls the data from the Melco through the router into the PC and then replays it back through the router to my mRendu and on into the Dave. This is quite a long and unnecessary journey for the data by comparison to a USB cable from Melco to Dave .
You can use romaz's direct bridge method for Roon core to send direct to Roon Ready on the mR (described at length earlier in this thread and at CA, and may require quite a bit of faffing around). I don't know the Melco, but can't you run Roon core directly on that and forget about the PC?
Regarding SOtM super clocks, one new variant of my previously listed options is to take 2 spare clock outputs from a TX USB Ultra and connect them to a basic SMS-200 (non-Ultra). This means that both TX and SMS can fully benefit from super clocks but save on costs whereby only one of them has to be Ultra. I think in this situation the both units would need to be modified by SOtM to accept the two clock cables. This as far I understood from latest posts at CA. Getting quite complicated huh?
Apart from that, I've found a nearby UK dealer who will be able to home loan me these various SOtM products, so I'll be able to try some of these combinations (TX ultra/SMS Ultra/mR) out for myself - once the SMS 200 Ultra becomes available.
Even at $7,500- with Hynes Power Supplies it's STILL cheaper then my Antipodes DX or the Aurender N10 I'm borrowing, or the CAD CAT I'm seriously considering.I share the question about SMS-1000SQ. It's also great that it handles ROON. But $3500? NOT. Configuring it with Ultraclock, even without SSD's, is closer to 5k!
Romaz - I read this whole thread and don't think I have seen anything on the SMS-1000SQ.
Do you have any experience with it? In its "Ultra" form it appears to be a purpose built PC, internal hard drive, built in directly wired SMS-200ultra AND a TX-USBultra. For $3500- it sounds like it would kill almost everything at any price....
And would you consider the Windows or Linux version? I have seen over and over that the Windows OS seams to be the best sounding as an audiophile source.