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In Reply to: RE: Mercman's Playback Designs review posted by Audio Bling on June 17, 2016 at 20:37:59
I thought it was a good review (bar your points) in that he has had the courage to admit that his formulae of speed, power, hardware add ons, and multiple 'optimising' software has been surpassed by a simple NUC setup with limited RAM and fanless cooling, using OS slimming techniques.
What I had added was that the Playback Designs approach for the server doesn't need to cost $65000 for a diy job.
I would like to add that, by doing it oneself, one starts to learn about which aspects of an OS affect sound quality most. I would also add that AV software and the Firewall should be uninstalled/defeated and that the PC should not be web connected for pretty picture downloads.
Follow Ups:
Thanks Fred. My computer was an unmodified Windows 10 Pro running JRiver Media.
I will be evaluating Audiophile Optimizer soon on this computer. Also, the extra horsepower and RAM becomes valuable if running Roon with the HQPlayer upsampling to DSD256.
Sigh, when you have more than 4TB of music. You're truly a music lover.
What you are listening to seems to me to be the point of being in this hobby in the first place.
I hope to run HQPlayer soon to augment my Roon setup. Like yours, I sure am glad that my system has the flexibility and resources to do it.
I'm guessing that some here may be confusing a $10,000 Laptop PC to the fact that the PC is plugged into and sitting on $10,000 worth of audiophile accessories(as was the 'appliance' you were comparing it to during the rewiew).
From where I sit, that's still an ASUS Laptop running Windows 10 and JRiver. It certainly SHOULD sound better than a $6500 streamer, especially as both seem to have been plugged into and sitting on the same $10,000 worth of audiophile accessories as your comparison of the two would indicate.
Even a $10,000 USB cable (is there such a thing?) would not change the above if you used the same cable with both systems.
I do think it important to continue to compare these new 'appliances' to box-stock computer systems like your ASUS, or to each other, as otherwise comparisons become meaningless to those majority of readers who stream from whatever computer is available.
Have you had a chance to get your hands on a uRendu? As that 'appliance' does not cost $6500, it might be an interesting comparison with your laptop and/or a stock SBT?
By the way, according to Brian Zolner of Bricansi, the above system is streaming from a stock laptop (RMAF 2015) sitting on isolation footers but powered by a specially made PS which is not in the picture.
Very good sounding room, by the way.
Sigh, when you have more than 4TB of music. You can't listen to them all.
What you are listening to seems to me to be the sound of software and hardware.
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