[Whitigir]

I Would like to share my experiences with many people here. I can see that many people are deep into buying DAC, Amplifiers, headphones, cables, and forget about the most important device in the chain. The source, or the transportations. Yet, there are all kind of devices and different ways that you can do to play music from. However, please do hear me out. Digital music isn’t just about 1-0. It needs to be precisely processed, timed, under the utmost stability and sustainability.


If your computer has noisy switching supply, the instability of the system can negatively affect the sound performances. The low sustainability also negatively impacting the performances. Therefore, people asked me, what is so important about the High-end transport ? I answered, the PSU (Power Supply). It depends on the designs and implementations of the power supply and the price varies according to such factor. However, a LPS (Linear Power Supply) is often needed to improve and provide stability and sustainability power for the transport.

Noises from computers come from 2 factors.
1/The power consumed and the power generated, regulated by the motherboard and supportive components, which emits EMI, and the like.
2/ the Plugged in Fans that draw currents and voltage away at varies speed which leaves the micro instability back into the motherboard regulations. The physical noises of these fans

This means that we need Passive cooling just like any other high end equipments. If needed, you are recommended to have an independent Fan which is plugged into an independent power supply that has nothing to do with your main power outlet!

While Computer had been known well enough to be able to execute many complicated tasks, even including critical measurements and analyzing. Most of critical computers always have engineers in house or find uniquely produced LPS for it purposes, Consumer grade computers had always been Dead On Stuck at Switching PS offers. Yet, this had been limiting our ability to build a good dedicated computer for Music, where every little micro seconds count. Where as Gaming are preprocessing, and loaded, the only time it matter is the network connections, and graphic performances aside, you would find many FPS (First person Shooter) players are so dedicated to their Ethernet connections. But they aren’t as crazy as us, Audiophile, where every micro seconds count! This means We absolutely need a high quality and high performances LPS !

Up until now, the dream of putting a sophisticated LPS, and Fanless Cooling solutions were not possible. But finally, this day and age has arrived, and I have made the best PC Streaming that I had been able to make. There are more than a couple manufacturers that does very good Fanless Chassis. Thanks to those quiet gamer enthusiasts. They demand midnight gaming at absolute silent, and Fanless is less dust to deal with!

HDPlex is one of them


Streacom is another


And then LPS. There are many different companies and products now, but only a couples that has powerful specs at lower noises. They also come with ATX headers and cables ready for plugs and plays

HDPlex 400W LPS (recommended, ship and services are right in the US) made with audio quality components


Teradak 380W


Yes, as a rule of thumb, building a PC with 35-40% headroom in power is always needed. For high peaks, for sustainability , for upgradability ? But my main concern is stability and sustainability. Therefore, powerful LPS are recommended.

Now, about that USB ports on your Motherboard. Yes, they can be noisy, but with good motherboards that has very high quality components on the Voltage regulations designs, the noises are minimal. One of those I would recommend would be Asus and or MSI. Nevertheless, I have not been dedicated enough to find out what other brands could offers, and this is where the thread is created. For people to build, discuss, about dedicated PC Audio quality!

Still, we do want an individual Card (PCI-E) that has dedicated clocks, regulator, and processor. There are 2 that I found which comes to mind when I build my Pc

Pinkfaun USB or I2S. It has OCXO options, your choices of interfaces



PaulPang. He builds all kind of different Computer products with upgraded clocks and even DAC, or completed PC system! If you are not building your own, may as well going this route with Paul! Recommended
http://ppaproduct.blogspot.com/

Then, there comes the RAM, ofcourse you do what you are told by the manual, tinker with it the way you usually do.

Storage ? SATA or NVME ? There are still debates between the 2 types. However, absolutely discard of your HDD, the sloppy speed, the spinning and the power drawing...ugly as sin.

SATA and NVME both has excellent sound performances, and in my experiences with it. I prefer NVME, a more accurate, and vastly superior in soundstage presentations. However, SATA still has great musicality and affordability. Neither are bad. I also opt for NVME with heatsink for Space and Speed!

 

[Whitigir]

The Pc I build has 2 pieces. HDPlex LPS and FC9-ALpha. Heavily recommended 2 pieces for heat dissipation and ease of transporting/moving. I also love the appealing

HDPlex offers absolute silent, and excellent form factor. Great heat dissipation and many independent outputs with provided cables. Ofcourse it sounds Wonderful. The Onboard USB on the PC is good enough that my 004 LKS could keep lock into the tighest PLL without losing, and the observable improvements of soundstage presentations/layering.

My main champion for this build is Pinkfaun I2S Bridge with Upgraded OCXO. My idea is following after Pinkfaun. Every DAC uses I2S interface within it chassis. Why go through all the digital to digital conversion to turn it to i2s in the end ?

I also can save up for Pinkfaun USB card, but that will be a little while

 

[Thenewguy007]

Still, we do want an individual Card (PCI-E) that has dedicated clocks, regulator, and processor. There are 2 that I found which comes to mind when I build my Pc

Pinkfaun USB or I2S. It has OCXO options, your choices of interfaces

The sound cards also need a dedicated power line for them, preferable able to accept AES connections.
Focusrite, RMI, Lynx & JCat are ones to look for

 

[Whitigir]

The sound cards also need a dedicated power line for them, preferable able to accept AES connections.
Focusrite, RMI, Lynx & JCat are ones to look for

Yes, the HDPlex has that output into i2s bridge

 

[audioengr]

The main motivation to make the computer something special has to do with the interface you are using.

If you are using USB from the computer, then all of these things are critically important. If you are using Ethernet/WIFI, they are not important. Any computer will do.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

 

[Whitigir]

I am using Jriver now for the best result and just found out that with my build, I can totally opt for the minimal hardware size buffer speed for the lowest latency. Also turning off Dithering in advanced setting also improve the sound performances.

Also, the less processing or conversions is the better. It happens all around us, even from mechanical designs, or a story/message that was meant to be spreading around. So, I would leave these pictures here. The newest technology in PC world now is faster processing, and less conversions

 

[audioengr]

I have been optimizing USB and Ethernet for 15 years.

There are a lot of hoops you can jump through to get USB to sound decent, including:
1) minimizing background tasks
2) improved LPS for the computer
3) changing playback software - I find Amarra to be best for USB
4) optimizing the USB output port on the computer
5) using a really good quality USB cable
6) using SSD for the OS on the computer
7) increasing DRAM on the computer
8 get a USB interface that has galvanic isolation or get a switch with isolation built-in

Of the other hand, here is what you need to make Ethernet renderer/interface sound even better:

1) optimize playback software on ANY computer - I like Linn Kinsky and Minimserver (all free)
2) use high quality Ethernet cables
3) mod your Router or switch
4) use an inexpensive Ethernet isolator like the EMO EN-70e
5) power the router or switch from a fast LPS with earth-grounded DC common

You only need to optimize the router/switch and cabling, not the computer with Ethernet.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

 

[Whitigir]

I have been optimizing USB and Ethernet for 15 years.

There are a lot of hoops you can jump through to get USB to sound decent, including:
1) minimizing background tasks
2) improved LPS for the computer
3) changing playback software - I find Amarra to be best for USB
4) optimizing the USB output port on the computer
5) using a really good quality USB cable
6) using SSD for the OS on the computer
7) increasing DRAM on the computer
8 get a USB interface that has galvanic isolation or get a switch with isolation built-in

Of the other hand, here is what you need to make Ethernet renderer/interface sound even better:

1) optimize playback software on ANY computer - I like Linn Kinsky and Minimserver (all free)
2) use high quality Ethernet cables
3) mod your Router or switch
4) use an inexpensive Ethernet isolator like the EMO EN-70e
5) power the router or switch from a fast LPS with earth-grounded DC common

You only need to optimize the router/switch and cabling, not the computer with Ethernet.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I was thinking about increasing 16Gb ram into 32Gb, do you think it will improve further ? I am sticking to Digital interfaces instead of Ethernet