18-Jan-2017, 15:08
@BB, great to see you have solved it! The issue may have been this promiscuous mode issue I detailed in my post before the previous. Not that it matters anymore, since it now works!
--
After several days of 'living with the changes' I am very much sure that my initial impressions are both right and real. I'm really amazed by it all and can't even think of the reasons and mechanisms at work (though I strongely suspect reduced jitter levels are the result) all I know is it sounds great, much more "stable and clean" and real. No downsides detected thus far, none! Live recordings too have way more realism making it even easier than before to become transported to the venue where these were played. Again those recordings many people may label as bad recordings have improved as well (surely even more in a relative psychoacoustic sense than those easy and clean more 'audiophile friendly' ones)
I could easily stop here and be -very- happy but of course there's more to do, isn't there always? Some people on CA have reported removing the FMC's from the chain improves things even more. So need to try that too, easy enough since my music server is a headless machine. Just a power cable and network cables need to be plugged in so I'll temporarily get the server from my office/study and put it in my living room near the system and use the AQ Diamond now connected to the SMS-200 and FMC, directly to the dedicated NIC on the server.
If this improves things indeed even more (hard to imagine each and every time) I will probably build a new small fanless machine (NUC style) based on a 'thin ITX' mainboard with a 12V DC input, Skylake CPU, dual onboard NIC's and power it using my Hynes SR7 PSU. Another option would be a ready build machine with 12V input or of course use my previous music server (which I still use for video streaming). This currently has a HDPlex ATX PSU that can't be powered with 12V though so I'd have to replace that with a PicoPSU style PSU that does support 12V input. To be honest I'm hoping though that things don't improve so I can leave it like it is now.
--
After several days of 'living with the changes' I am very much sure that my initial impressions are both right and real. I'm really amazed by it all and can't even think of the reasons and mechanisms at work (though I strongely suspect reduced jitter levels are the result) all I know is it sounds great, much more "stable and clean" and real. No downsides detected thus far, none! Live recordings too have way more realism making it even easier than before to become transported to the venue where these were played. Again those recordings many people may label as bad recordings have improved as well (surely even more in a relative psychoacoustic sense than those easy and clean more 'audiophile friendly' ones)
I could easily stop here and be -very- happy but of course there's more to do, isn't there always? Some people on CA have reported removing the FMC's from the chain improves things even more. So need to try that too, easy enough since my music server is a headless machine. Just a power cable and network cables need to be plugged in so I'll temporarily get the server from my office/study and put it in my living room near the system and use the AQ Diamond now connected to the SMS-200 and FMC, directly to the dedicated NIC on the server.
If this improves things indeed even more (hard to imagine each and every time) I will probably build a new small fanless machine (NUC style) based on a 'thin ITX' mainboard with a 12V DC input, Skylake CPU, dual onboard NIC's and power it using my Hynes SR7 PSU. Another option would be a ready build machine with 12V input or of course use my previous music server (which I still use for video streaming). This currently has a HDPlex ATX PSU that can't be powered with 12V though so I'd have to replace that with a PicoPSU style PSU that does support 12V input. To be honest I'm hoping though that things don't improve so I can leave it like it is now.
PS Audio P3, Shunyata ΞTRON Alpha Digital and HC/Furutech power cables, Paul Hynes SR7EHD-MR4, DIY Roon Server & Roon Endpoint running AudioLinux Headless, Phasure Lush^2 USB cable, Audioquest Diamond RJ/E ethernet, Uptone Audio etherREGEN, Mutec MC-3+ USB, Shunyata ΞTRON Anaconda Digital XLR AES/EBU, Devialet Expert 250 Pro CI, Nordost Tyr Reference LS cables, Von Schweikert VR-5 SE Anniversary Edition, Anti-Mode Dual Core 2.0, JL Audio Fathom F112. More detail here.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands