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Antoine's system
Quote:I've ordered some parts to make a new DC cable (and some extra for any future "projects"), nothing really fancy. With the SR7 I received one high current cable (and three lower current ones) but I'd like to keep using that on the SMS-200 (lower resistance) so I'm going to make a new one for the music server. The SR7 has 4 pole XLR connectors and these plugs accept wire gauges up to AWG16.

2m Jantzen Silver teflon cable mono 16 Awg black
2m Jantzen Silver teflon cable mono 16 Awg red
2m Jantzen 6N copper Solid core 2*1.0 mm² (AWG17) speaker cable
2 x Neutrik NC4MXX BAG XLR plug 4p male (silver plated pins like in the plugs Hynes also supplies)
1 x Oyaide DC-2.5G (5.5x2.5mm DC plug)

Where did you buy from?

I have bought some cables and connectors from French company called Audiophonics they have, Neutrik, Oyaide, Jantzen and many more no idea if the prices are ok but they deliver fast.

http://www.audiophonics.fr/en/recherche?...ry=jantzen
Speakers:TAD CE-1. Amplifier: TAD M2500mk2. Digital: TAD DA1000-TX, Innuos Statement Next-gen, Innuos PhoenixNET.

Miscellaneous: Qobuz Studio, Ansuz Mainz 8 D2, Ansuz Darkz DTC, Tubulus Argentus ethernet cable, Tubulus Concentus USB cable, Tubulus Argentus V2 XLR cable, Tubulus Argentus V3 + V3 bass, iFi Nova powercables. 

Second system
Qobuz Studio -> Devialet Silver Phantom, Devialet Tree









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I know Audiophonics, they're like a candy store for tinkering audiophiles! Smile But they're French and Devialet is French so I boycot them! No of course not, just kidding! Wink I think their prices in general are very OK but not always, depends a bit on the article category. Shipping costs are of course higher than buying from local shops.

Initially I thought I'd buy 100% silver hookup wire from Neotech which is also sold at Audiophonics (Neotech has solid copper hookup wire as well) but in the end I didn't go ahead with that because of the high costs and uncertainty of how much I needed at that time. Perhaps I'll revisit that subject later now I know the exact lengths I need. For now I went for low cost Jantzen silver plated copper wire as I wrote. Did not use the Jantzen 1.0mm2 cable yet (as a DC power cable), I may never.

I bought the Jantzen cables from a local Dutch shop (Rumoh), the two Neutriks are from Bax Music and the Oyaide plug is from EBay (Spain, but free shipping).

What did you get?
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
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(18-Mar-2017, 12:10)Antoine Wrote: But they're French and Devialet is French so I boycot them! No of course not, just kidding! Wink 

You're hilarious Antoine!  Smile

Great thread by the way. It's great to have this kind of content on this forum, our very own computer audiophile corner if you will! I know a great many appreciate it too.

Guillaume
Industry disclosure: UK distributor for Shunyata Research

220 PRO, totaldac d1 server with additional external power supply, totaldac d1-seven, Echole PSU for Totaldac, Wilson Audio Sasha 2, Shunyata Research cables, Shunyata Hydra Alpha A10 + DPC-6 v3, Various Entreq ground boxes and cables, Entreq Athena level 3 rack, 2 X SOtM sNH-10G with sCLK-EX + 10MHz Master Clock input + sPS-500 PSU, i5 sonicTransporter w/ 1TB SSD

UK
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Thank you for your kind words Guillaume! Smile

I do occasionally receive PM's thanking me for sharing but really, no one has to thank me. This topic is as much about sharing as it is for myself for logging the things I do/plan to. It's fun or useful for me to read back occasionally.
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
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(18-Mar-2017, 12:10)Antoine Wrote: I know Audiophonics, they're like a candy store for tinkering audiophiles! Smile But they're French and Devialet is French so I boycot them! No of course not, just kidding! Wink I think their prices in general are very OK but not always, depends a bit on the article category. Shipping costs are of course higher than buying from local shops.

Initially I thought I'd buy 100% silver hookup wire from Neotech which is also sold at Audiophonics (Neotech has solid copper hookup wire as well) but in the end I didn't go ahead with that because of the high costs and uncertainty of how much I needed at that time. Perhaps I'll revisit that subject later now I know the exact lengths I need. For now I went for low cost Jantzen silver plated copper wire as I wrote. Did not use the Jantzen 1.0mm2 cable yet (as a DC power cable), I may never.

I bought the Jantzen cables from a local Dutch shop (Rumoh), the two Neutriks are from Bax Music and the Oyaide plug is from EBay (Spain, but free shipping).

What did you get?

I have bought Shucko and IEC connectors, cables for DIY powercords and stuff to make cables.

They have many fun things Smile
Speakers:TAD CE-1. Amplifier: TAD M2500mk2. Digital: TAD DA1000-TX, Innuos Statement Next-gen, Innuos PhoenixNET.

Miscellaneous: Qobuz Studio, Ansuz Mainz 8 D2, Ansuz Darkz DTC, Tubulus Argentus ethernet cable, Tubulus Concentus USB cable, Tubulus Argentus V2 XLR cable, Tubulus Argentus V3 + V3 bass, iFi Nova powercables. 

Second system
Qobuz Studio -> Devialet Silver Phantom, Devialet Tree









Reply
(18-Mar-2017, 12:10)Antoine Wrote: I know Audiophonics, they're like a candy store for tinkering audiophiles! Smile But they're French and Devialet is French so I boycot them! No of course not, just kidding! Wink I think their prices in general are very OK but not always, depends a bit on the article category. Shipping costs are of course higher than buying from local shops.

Initially I thought I'd buy 100% silver hookup wire from Neotech which is also sold at Audiophonics (Neotech has solid copper hookup wire as well) but in the end I didn't go ahead with that because of the high costs and uncertainty of how much I needed at that time. Perhaps I'll revisit that subject later now I know the exact lengths I need. For now I went for low cost Jantzen silver plated copper wire as I wrote. Did not use the Jantzen 1.0mm2 cable yet (as a DC power cable), I may never.

I bought the Jantzen cables from a local Dutch shop (Rumoh), the two Neutriks are from Bax Music and the Oyaide plug is from EBay (Spain, but free shipping).

What did you get?

There was an interesting thread in the uptone lps-1 section on CA where uptone basically said (paraphrasing) "in DC terms it's all about gauge so they use copper ones - custom made in china -, and fancy silver wire doesn't really make any difference - but go ahead and have exotic cables if you think it does".

I was never sure whether it was worth investing in silver wire from the SR3 (I did but I've got nothing to compare it to). I would have thought silver connectors would be better than anything else though, just for better contact?

Looking forward to hearing how the lps-1 sounds to you. I was on the verge of buying one to compare, but if AIR keeps working for me I think I'll get off the merry-go-round and go back to the one box system it was all about in the first place Rolleyes

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

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The cable that comes with the LPS-1, I think it is an coaxial design is the same size 1,3mm2 as Jantzen is that Antoine uses.

"A 70cm, 16awg, DC cable with 5.5mm x 2.1mm plugs at both ends (correct for a REGEN, MicroRendu, and many other popular devices that use that size)."

Sonore sells a Cardas made twisted pair 2x15AWG DC cable for the microRendu and LPS-1 that is 1,65mm2

http://www.sonore.us/DC4.html

AWG to mm2 converter.

http://24volt.eu/awg_mm.php
Speakers:TAD CE-1. Amplifier: TAD M2500mk2. Digital: TAD DA1000-TX, Innuos Statement Next-gen, Innuos PhoenixNET.

Miscellaneous: Qobuz Studio, Ansuz Mainz 8 D2, Ansuz Darkz DTC, Tubulus Argentus ethernet cable, Tubulus Concentus USB cable, Tubulus Argentus V2 XLR cable, Tubulus Argentus V3 + V3 bass, iFi Nova powercables. 

Second system
Qobuz Studio -> Devialet Silver Phantom, Devialet Tree









Reply
(18-Mar-2017, 19:56)Hifi_swlon Wrote:
(18-Mar-2017, 12:10)Antoine Wrote: I know Audiophonics, they're like a candy store for tinkering audiophiles! Smile But they're French and Devialet is French so I boycot them! No of course not, just kidding! Wink I think their prices in general are very OK but not always, depends a bit on the article category. Shipping costs are of course higher than buying from local shops.

Initially I thought I'd buy 100% silver hookup wire from Neotech which is also sold at Audiophonics (Neotech has solid copper hookup wire as well) but in the end I didn't go ahead with that because of the high costs and uncertainty of how much I needed at that time. Perhaps I'll revisit that subject later now I know the exact lengths I need. For now I went for low cost Jantzen silver plated copper wire as I wrote. Did not use the Jantzen 1.0mm2 cable yet (as a DC power cable), I may never.

I bought the Jantzen cables from a local Dutch shop (Rumoh), the two Neutriks are from Bax Music and the Oyaide plug is from EBay (Spain, but free shipping).

What did you get?

There was an interesting thread in the uptone lps-1 section on CA where uptone basically said (paraphrasing) "in DC terms it's all about gauge so they use copper ones - custom made in china -, and fancy silver wire doesn't really make any difference - but go ahead and have exotic cables if you think it does".

I was never sure whether it was worth investing in silver wire from the SR3 (I did but I've got nothing to compare it to). I would have thought silver connectors would be better than anything else though, just for better contact?

Looking forward to hearing how the lps-1 sounds to you. I was on the verge of buying one to compare, but if AIR keeps working for me I think I'll get off the merry-go-round and go back to the one box system it was all about in the first place  Rolleyes

Just in theory I fully agree with Uptone there. Silver has a higher conductivity than copper (about 6%) which means that for DC it has lower resistance. Of course thicker, higher gauge wires also means lower resistance. 

The only reason I considered pure silver was because of people consistently reporting that Hynes's silver cables gave better results in SQ. I never tried silver myself in this application so don't know what differences to expect in practice.

Pure silver is too soft to make connectors of, same goes for pure copper so we often see copper alloys (tellurium copper being a low resistance/impedance one) or silver platings. I don't think the silver plating really helps much in a DC application except maybe for a lower contact resistance like you mentioned. For music or high frequency signals (e.g. digital) this could surely help too because of the skin effect. Then again I've surely heard differences in character between different metal platings of AC connectors so it may matter here with DC because of other (to me unknown reasons) too.

I chose the 16AWG gauge because it was (according to the Neutrik specs) the maximum size accepted in the XLR plugs. In any case this a perfectly safe thickness in my application. It's capable of conducting more than enough current before significantly heating up/showing too much of a voltage drop.

Like Octaviars said Uptone uses a equal gauge for the LPS-1 (indeed coaxial). For their JS-2 linear PSU they use 18AWG Belden 9418 star quad cabling and Oyaide DC plugs. By pairing the conductors of these cables they have an effective 14.7AWG. I just copied Paul Hynes's design: twisted (actually he braids his cables) and unshielded with silver plated XLR's. The Hynes DC7 annealed copper, silver plated lead I have is about the same thickness solid core cable as the the one I made extra myself. Mine is stranded, silver plated OFC copper so should have a slightly higher silver content.

Regarding the LPS-1 I bought, I know it's probably overkill but I'm going to use it to power the SSD and FMC. I may experiment with powering the Paul Pang switch with it too. But I'm afraid you may have thought I was going to use it to power the SMS-200 and compare it to the SR7. I haven't planned such a test but may do so at a later time, don't wait for it though! Wink

Another reason for buying the LPS-1 is that I may use it in the future to power a device like the ISO Regen, if I want one, or perhaps an ethernet isolation/reclocking device not yet released to the market but something at least Uptone is working on. Of course it could also be used for something entirely unknown to me at this moment.
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
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Hi Antoine,

I absolutely second the comments made by Guillaume above: this is a very instructive thread; thank you for your insights Wink

I am coming back with a few questions related to the configuration of your server:
  • as I do not already have any Ethernet card to recycle, do you have any thoughts about this motherboard: https://www.afuture.nl/product/5500623/g...az270nwifi (slightly more expensive but with 2 Ethernet connectors)
  • did you have to buy any kind of electric supply kit like this one https://www.afuture.nl/product/4203769/s...g-120-watt in order to connect the internal devices to your external power supply ?
  • you purchased your processor second hand on the web. Again any thoughts about this alternative choice, which only needs 35W ? Do you believe it is powerful enough for HQPlayer with 2 channels ?

Thanks in advance
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Hi Swissbear,

There's so incredible much choice in available motherboards. See this post http://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?t...0#pid58650 for more info why I chose the motherboard I chose. My previous build also had a more feature rich design like the one you linked to.

This time I wanted a minimalist type of board (thinking less stuff on it causes less noise, power usage etc. but of course the electrical design itself is very important too but this is almost impossible to check/evaluate) that directly accepted external 12V so I could power the system using my Hynes PSU. This limited my choices considerably to the thin ITX type of embedded/industrial motherboards. My motherboard has a direct 5.5x2.5mm DC input on the back and all power regulation is on board, so in my case no other stuff required.

I could of course also have chosen any other type of mainboard that has a standard 24 pin ATX power input and install a PicoPSU/Streacom type of DC-DC converter. (Also like in my previous build.) These are available in all type of voltage inputs/ranges. If you want to stick to the mini ITX format and depending on how you want to power the machine I'd have a look at HD-Plex, their 300W PicoPSU style DC-DC converter should be better.

See the other post I just linked to for the 35W CPU's I consider to be in the sweetspot at this moment. At 35W you won't be able to upsample to DSD512 using HQPlayer, not even with the i7 6700T/7700T. You'll need a more powerful i7 6700K/7700K for that. You should be fine though up to DSD256 with those. This wasn't part of my own requirements so I didn't look into it much.

Keep in mind that the onboard NIC's on your board are not supported in the Windows Server OS's. You'll have to 'hack' the driver for them to work. I had to do the same for my i211 on-board NIC. There's instructions on the Internet that show you how. My i210-T1 PCI-E card is supported as Intel has targeted that as an entry level server NIC. I also feel these discrete NIC's are of a higher quality BTW than anything on-board. Just last week I read someone has switched to discrete NIC's because of this reason and indeed confirmed it to sound better. (It's somewhere in Romaz's direct ethernet thread on CA).
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
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