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RE: Big SSD? Or, small SSD with: 1. LAN enabled? 2. external SSD/HDD?

Hi Theo,

Here’s some info on my current setup.

* computer parts.
Mobo: Gigabyty G41M-ES2L

Processor: intel core 2duo E7300
Runs on: 1 volt. (so not lowest possible)

SSD: Kingstone 8Gb

Ram: 1Gb Kingstone HyperX
CAS Latency Time: 3
Command Rate(CMD): 1
Rest of timings: auto
Runs on: 2 volts (so: + .2 volt)


* DC Power supply.
According too Cics idea, I divided the power supply into a ‘dirty’ section and a ‘clean’ section.
But I DON’T do that by using two standard Antex Earthwatts ATX. I do this through using 2 linear driven pico’s.
- ‘Dirty’ pico
Velleman linear PSU : > P4 + pico PW-200-M > USB bracket + SSD (+ dvd only when needed)
smoothing caps are on linear 12V lines too pico and P4.
smoothing caps are on the 5v lines coming from the pico.
- ‘Clean’ pico
EA linear PS 12V/5A: > pico 160-xt > P24 (I think the 160-xt sounds better than the 150-xt)
- smoothing caps.
smoothing caps on there 12V lines too the pico.

* Sound Card.
- ESI juli@ digital part only.
Smooting/cleaning caps placed on 3,3V and 5 volt connections pins too (not used) analog part
- optical out used with quality toslink cable: van den Hul Optocoupler MkII
Cics is oh so right: optical out can sound very, very good!
But only when a high quality toslink cable is used (I first refused too pay 20 times more than for an average plastic one, but the difference is beyond compare)

* AC supply 230 volts.
- The linear PSU’s to the computer are on a separate 230 spur.
The Linear PSU’s are behind an Epcos mains filter too prevent them spoiling the mains or vice versa.
- The Lavry has an switcher inside.
So the Lavry is also behind an Epcos mains filter.
- The active Klein & Hummel speakers are also behind two Epcos mains filters.
For them I use 16 amp Epcos mains filter.
Because each O300 has three dedicated power amps inside which consume a hefty total of 435 watt per speaker.

* Grounding.
Al cases (linear PSU’s and computer case) are star-grounded to a real earth connection.

* Use of LAN.
Use of 1 Gb LAN connection for accessing files on a NAS, doesn’t degrade sound quality in my setup.

* under clocking.
For some reasons this setup can run on the lowest possible bus speed of 100 mHz.
I never could go any lover than 135 mHz.
But this setup runs on 100 mHz bus speed !

* No upsampling or decoding used.
- I don’t use any up-sampling.
Neither real-time nor off-line.
I don’t hear any real quality improvement.
I also don’t understand why and how real-time computer up-sampling from 44.1 to 96 and than feeding this (real-time) up-sampled material to my Lavry DAC, will make it sound any better.
It still stay’s the same recording.
- I don’t use FLAC
I decode FLAC off-line back to WAV and than store the wav-files.
HDD space is very, very cheap these days.
I see no reason anymore too use compressed formats.
Up-sampling or decoding FLAC’s will take processor capacity.
I rather use this capacity to drive my LAN connection.

* USB EMU 0404
I never loved my EMU 0404 very much.
It didn’t sound very good 2 years ago in a non cMP optimized PC using a RCA coax connection. So almost 2 years ago I lent it too a friend of mine.
1 week ago, I got I back.
When using the EMU 0404 now as digital interface only and using the optical out with van den Hull Opto coupler and the 04040 is connected too the separately powered USB bracket, this time the EMU USB 0404 also sounds really perfect (!) through AES pro optical in my setup.
But now it sounds as good as the Juli@. Although the EMU uses 20 % (!!) of the CPU resources, while ESI Juli@ is only using 2% max.

* XP tuning
I do all XP tuning as per cics recommendations.
Even though I have no CDROM connected (only temporarily when needed), I still do this one extra, as RME recommends it on their website:
Disable CDROM Autoplay
Hkey_local_machine> system>currentcontrolset>services>cdrom. Set autorun to 0.

If you have any question, do ask.

Mark


Edits: 02/17/11
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