A Confused streaming system - Mutec / SOtM Ultra

[Axel]

@Confused
I’ve been reading this thread from the start and have found your posts very illuminating. At present, I have no way of feeding my Roon output through my Mutec and have decided to try the SoTM setup. The main reason I’d go for the SoTM over the uRendu is the ability to use an external clock.
A couple of questions: do you have the power switch on the USB link between the SoTM hub and the Mutec on or off? When ordering, do you have to specify 12V input, or is this user adjustable? What made you go for the Mutec REF 10 instead of the SoTM clock? Thank you for taking the time to do all the testing for us and posting such detailed results. :0)

BTW. Just a thought.  I read on the SoTM site that there are silver and copper versions of the  cables to supply power from the sPS-500 to the player and hub. To quote directly from the site:

“You can choose the cables among the standard type cable or Y type cable, copper or silver wires, and the length, the lenght choice could be made among 30cm, 50cm and 100cm.

Normally the copper wire sounds relatively calm and neat, and the silver wire is relatively open and more delicate.

Standard Copper cable : it brings a clean sound with musical nuance without having any distortion.
Stranded 7N UPOCC silver cable :Compared with copper wires, it brings more detailed and dynamic scenes, and brings the distinctive bright and precise sound propensity of silver wires.
Stranded 7N UPOCC Copper cable :Compared with the standard copper wire and silver wire, the sound character is middle of their propensities, it bring very detailed musical nuance.
Depending on which dc cable is used, it effects sound in your system hugely, so select the proper dc cable for your system according to your sound taste.”

Might this have a bearing on your glassy top end?

Yes, you need to have power switch on for the feed to the Mutec MC3+USB, the Mutec needs this.

You can specify the voltage you prefer when ordering.  You can adjust the voltage yourself, but I understand SOtM do not encourage this and it may affect warranty.  The voltage is dealer adjustable though.  Curiously, May from SOtM advised me that the 12v units can be run on 9v.  When I get some time I will try this myself and see if it makes any difference.

The Mutec and SOtM clocks have very similar specification in terms of jitter / phase noise etc.  The main difference is the Mutec is square wave and the SOtM is sine wave.  Both companies claim there way is best, but on balance the square wave option looks best for performance, you just need to be more careful with the cable spec.  The REF10 is also cheaper when you consider that it has a built in high quality LPSU.  Also, the Mutec has more clock connections, both 50 ohm and 75 ohm, and these are easy to turn on or off at the touch of a button. I do not think anyone has yet tried the Mutec and SOtM clocks to back, so it remains to be seen if one emerges as king, personally I doubt there will be much in it.  The main reason I went for the Mutec is because it's primary function is to clock the MC3+USB, and the REF10 is specifically designed for this.  One other thing, the REF10 is a bit utilitarian but it does feel heavy and well built, I like it.  The SOtM kit is a bit cheap and cheerful in comparison, the case looks cheap, the LED lights look flimsy, the little stuck on feet fall off, this kind of thing.  The Mutec REF10 looks like it will last forever.

I have the standard copper Y cable.

That’s great. Thanks for the info.
Edit: I’ve just pulled the trigger on the SoTM bundle, with 50 Ohm inputs and 12V power. Sod the expense! :0)