SOtM SMS-200

[Antoine]

Two reviews of the SMS-200 were released past week:

http://www.audiostream.com/content/sotm-...wer-supply
https://audiobacon.net/2017/03/23/sotm-s...2s-review/

[f1eng]

Hifi_swlon is correct, feeding the LPS-1 with an LPSU will not make any difference to sound quality.  However, I do not think MCRU are confused at all, there have been plenty of folk on Computer Audiophile expressing a desire to feed the LPS-1 with a LPSU, MCRU sell LPSU's, the design is done, just advertise that the model with the correct power and voltage that is suitable for the LPS-1, and watch a few sales come in.  Of course there is the issue of eliminating 'wall warts' and SMPS power supplies, but to be honest, my house is stuffed full of wall warts, and last time I checked my 1000 Pro had two high powered SMPSU's lurking inside, I think you can worry about this stuff too much!  And in terms of 'gunge being fed into the mains', I can turn the Dev's up to +10dB, with wall warts everywhere, and hear nothing but total and utter silence.  (until I accidently hit 'play')

I actually made exactly this point about noise on the mains on another forum and actually stated that I could turn mine up to +30 dB and hear silence. Apparently the nasty insidious mains born noise doesn't actually appear until you play some music.... quite how it knows to start then I am unsure, possibly quantum entanglement or something simple like that


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yes the noise magically leaps in only when listening to music.
The analogue output of a DAC supplied zeros by a micro-rendu is very close to being the same as if supplied straight from the computer (ie the MR adds a negligible bit of noise as one may expect) in the only scientific evaluation I have seen, so the reduction in noise causing the SQ gain must only exist in the presence of music. Or be a placebo effect or somesuch.

[Hifi_swlon]

Two reviews of the SMS-200 were released past week:

http://www.audiostream.com/content/sotm-...wer-supply
https://audiobacon.net/2017/03/23/sotm-s...2s-review/

Thanks for the reviews.

This bit surprised me

Does the Quality of the Ethernet Cable to the sMS-200 Matter?

Truly reaffirms my thoughts on the PS Audio LANRover but short answer is HELL YEAH. If you’re running a standard CAT6/7 cable from Monoprice or Amazon, get yourself a high quality ethernet cable today. Chances are that harshness you’re hearing is from that stupid cable. Streaming music is a whole new ballgame and your ethernet cable could be your largest barrier to high fidelity. I would even go as far to say even more so than your amp or other interconnects costing many times more. Its affect on sound quality for a networked streamer cannot be understated.

Personally, I would just go straight for a SOtM dCBL-CAT7. You’ll continually reap musical enjoyment as your system evolves and unlike most components, probably doesn’t have to be replaced often. It’s pricey but after hearing it, my wallet just magically left my jean pocket and appeared in front of me with a golden aura and sparkles all around it. I’m not an impulsive buyer by any means. I’m just floored by the performance of this cable and I find it a worthwhile investment. If anything, I wish I had invested in a cable like this earlier as I’m disgusted by how much fidelity I was losing all these years.

I just still can't come to terms with expensive Ethernet cables bearing in mind it's packet data that's buffered. I get that noise may enter the system, so active filtering could be beneficial (no idea if it's true or not and no way to test) but I'm confused about the difference between a compliant cable that runs the worlds internet, and an exotic (filterless) audio one. What's the supposed benefit? My whole house is cat5e so if I were to buy one it would only be used as the final patch - what benefit could that have? I suppose we're entering mains cable debate, but at least that's analogue signal if you like and is directly entering the appliance, whereas Ethernet is ultimately buffered digitally in memory, at that point what arrived is irrelevant.

[Antoine]

Like our good old F1 engineer said, it's all magic, placebo or somesuch without any scientific basis. I think he forgot to mention that reviewers only write for money and all people writing positive experiences on different forums are nothing but shills working for snakeoil manufacturers trying to influence the gullible audiophools to make them draw their wallets.

Anyway, there's little more to understand or come to terms with than that. It's very simple, like digital really is too: with AIR we already have the best digital can offer. No need to look any further. Everyone knows all digital equipment sounds the same unless it's broken or designed poorly and since DAC analog output measurements and Dunn J-Tests most often show little or no difference they clearly prove this.

[Hifi_swlon]

Like our good old F1 engineer said, it's all magic, placebo or somesuch without any scientific basis. I think he forgot to mention that reviewers only write for money and all people writing positive experiences on different forums are nothing but shills working for snakeoil manufacturers trying to influence the gullible audiophools to make them draw their wallets.

Anyway, there's little more to understand or come to terms with than that. It's very simple, like digital really is too: with AIR we already have the best digital can offer. No need to look any further. Everyone knows all digital equipment sounds the same unless it's broken or designed poorly and since DAC analog output measurements and Dunn J-Tests most often show little or no difference they clearly prove this.

It might have sounded slightly tongue in cheek, but I'm genuinely interested. As you know I'm a sceptic who still experiments to try and see for myself, but ethernet I find the hardest to fathom. The bits aren't coming in a stream as such and might not even be sequential packets. We know there aren't errors as they're chucked out.

I kind of like SOTM as a brand (not sure why, just when I read about them they seem to have a passion for pushing audio, and images of their electronics internals look really neat and somethings just 'visually right' about them. That may of course mean nothing, but...). They sell an active LAN isolator, and also a cable with an active filter box attached. They claim using one of three different cable types, you can tune the sound output of your system from 'bright', to 'normal', to 'smooth'. Assuming it's not made up, I just don't see how this can be. Packet data doesn't have any sense of bass or treble while being transmitted, it needs to be buffered and decoded first. So how can a cable change the tonal balance?

So it's electrical noise along the lines and into the DAC somehow, whatever passes through the inbuilt isolation. I'm following so far. Seems believable. But where does it go to affect the sound?

Is the argument that noise does something - let's say makes the sound bright, so different levels of filtration make the sound go from bright to smooth - maybe smooth is zero noise. But why would you di that with a cable and not the active box of electronics? Why not have a rotating knob with bright one end and smooth the other?

Compared to some exotic cables they're not ludicrous, but it's still a few hundred quid for an isolation chip and few other components in a box, and a metre of Ethernet cable about the same money. So it's more expensive than any other cable I've bought, and expensive enough to not be sure about trying it, otherwise I'd get one in. AIR sounds great to me, but there's always a quest for a bit extra.

Maybe the new streamerboard will have all this filtration built into the input?

[Antoine]

I really think we should ask f1eng if he could spare the time and would be willing to shed some extra light on these matters and his views. He told us many times he worked as an engineer in F1 and while I don't know if he was an electrical, mechanical, telecommunications, digital systems engineer (or had some other specialism) we all know that in F1 they only hire the best of the best.

Also I know engineers usually have open minds, are curious as to how things work/could be improved so they experiment quite a bit. He must have plenty of hands on experience since he's been quite active in this hobby for a long time.

[Rama]

I am using the SOTM SMS-200 with its original 9v power supply, but I have ordered a iFi 9v power supply. Dont know how much difference it would make. But I eventually hope to buy the SOTM battery after reading the reviews. I find the unit satisfactory with its original 9V power supply but have ordered the iFi purely out of curiosity. I am however using a AudioQuest diamond ethernet cable from my Melco. I have tried lesser quality ethernet cables and have found a significant drop in sound quality. Dont care much about measurements and bit are bits lectures..I trust my ears. When I plugged the diamond cable in my system I did not need any convincing the change was so apparent.

[Antoine]

@Rama, I'm with you (even own the same Diamond you mention).

My previous two responses to f1eng were 100% sarcastic. No disrespect meant to HiFi_swlon. And while I do have some facts and theories as why these things matter I unfortunately don't have the time to write lengthy posts explaining them especially since these usually bring up new questions.

[f1eng]

I really think we should ask f1eng if he could spare the time and would be willing to shed some extra light on these matters and his views. He told us many times he worked as an engineer in F1 and while I don't know if he was an electrical, mechanical, telecommunications, digital systems engineer (or had some other specialism) we all know that in F1 they only hire the best of the best.

Also I know engineers usually have open minds, are curious as to how things work/could be improved so they experiment quite a bit. He must have plenty of hands on experience since he's been quite active in this hobby for a long time.

Ooh very snide!
I was too busy most of the time, and had plenty of money so ended up buying cables recommended by dealers or which had been reviewed well. 
There is no mechanism by which I could see a properly engineered cable could differ from another, except the connection so when I was on a period of gardening leave I decided to do a test myself. My daughter did the changes (she is a scientist and musician who thinks hifi is daft) and I listened. We tried speaker cables and interconnects, I had loads by then from giveaways to expensive stuff.
All the cables sounded the same except those with filters built in (MIT and Goldmund) all non filtered cables were the same regardless of price.
I told another hifi enthusiast I know of my experience and he had a similar story, involving a relative who was doing a University project. He was absolutely convinced he could tell the difference (unlike me who was not expecting to) and was totally amazed that he actually couldn't in controlled conditions.
My extensive test was in 1997 and nothing new has been invented since so I am completely comfortable that all differences heard between all non-eccentric or filtered cables is due to the placebo effect.

I have not experimented with these "blind" so called grounding boxes (which are not grounded), but, as an engineer who worked on record players before going into Formula 1 full time, and have been making amateur sound recordings since I was 11, was always intrigued why LPs sound so nice despite the whole technology being quite weak, from recording, through cutting and then replaying them. There are frequency response, noise and distortion shortcomings at every stage.
Here we tried adding noise to the output of a CD player to make it as noisy as an LP and this gave a clear impression of a wider and deeper sound stage. A friend of mine did a more complex test which involved the noise related to the music being played (don't ask details, I don't know how) with a similar result. My, possibly wrong, deduction from this is that the effect of something like Entec boxes with lengths of wire inside and cables with bits of wire  added which are connected at one end, pick up noise from the electrical environment around them, mainly from speaker cables which is both music related and added to the output have a similar effect, ie they add noise which gives a pleasant effect rather than remove it.

I have been making sound and data recordings for decades (I was the first engineer to use a digital data recorder on a F1 car) so am aware what is accurate and what is not from (a great deal of) first hand personal experience.

FWIW I came into F1 at a time when one had to do everything but my experience there was things like being the first to use computing for motor racing, being the first to use extensive data recording (back then I had to design and make lots of the transducers and signal conditioning electronics) I was the first to use CAD and CAE in F1.

I have been a hifi enthusiast for over 45 years now and been recording music for longer but my opinion is just that, though maybe based on more engineering knowledge than most hifi fans, so take it or leave it - I just put it in as a bit of a counter to what I see as the loony fringe of the hobby - somebody has to

I do not dispute that some people hear differences in things but I became fairly sure that for some things it is a placebo effect, which is no less real to them for that, and nothing I have learned over the last 20 years has done anything but confirm it.

[Rama]

Just got the iFi iPower 9V for the SOTM-SMS200. For just $49 it has made a remarkable sonic change. Complex classical tracks have more definition (instruments have more air around them), its no longer just a blob of sound, better dynamics, and finally vocals are much clearer. I would agree with there marketing when they say this thing lowers the noise floor. I will now have to save up for the SOTM battery pack. But for now I am very happy with the iFi and it really is a must replacement for the original wall wart. Final upgrade to the setup will be a Audioquest diamond USB cable, currently using just the carbon.