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Really don't know. May be it's caused by the Audyn bipol elco caps for speaker crossovers. I have no clue.

Hi Theo,

I made a lot of changes too my setup and gear before I noticed I could go that low.
Here’s a report on what I changed over some period of time before I discovered it.
Too make a long story (below) short, I think it is because the Audyn caps (bipolar elko glatt) I put on the 3.3 and 5 volt headers of the ESI Juli@ digital part.
But hereafter a complete report on things that I all changed before I noticed I could go this low.

* caps on Juli@ digital part
I had nothing else lying around when I wanted too try some caps on these power pins. The only thing I had lying around than was:
- 1 polymer cap (the red one) 1uF
- 1 Oscon 47 uF
- 1 bipolar Audyn cap 47 uF (intended for use in speaker crossovers)
- 1 bipolar Audyn cap 100 uF (intended for use in speaker crossovers)

I bundled the 1 uF + 47 uF Oscon + 47 uF Audyn and put that on the 3.3 V
And the 100 uF Audyn on 5 Volt. See picture.
Van on filtering, demping, ect


Looks very messy because I taped the sides of the Audyn caps and the Audyn connection wires, as I was afraid for a short circuit somehow when dropping them in place. I noticed I nice little pop in sound quality. And that’s it and just left the caps there.

* new HTPC casing
Only a few months ago I switched over from the Zahlman case too a SilverStone SST-ML03B case. Launched in feb 2011. Perfect timing from Silverstone as we where about too switch over too an new AV cabinet. This new AV cabinet would no longer rest on the floor, but would be hanging from the walls. That new AV cabinet is mounted against the wall just beneath the flat screen TV, which is also mounted against the wall.
However these free hanging AV cabinets are not so spacious and also much less deep than the an AV cabinet that rests on the floor. So I had to look for a much less bulky HTPC case. I found the SilverStone SST-ML03B too be ideal for this. It has enough space inside and also in exactly all the right places where you need that space. It has standard audio gear size. And best of all it only 69,- euro !! It’s a steel. Don’t know why it took the PC casing industry so long to come up with this format.

This time I not only put bituminous felt pads on the outside bottom and inside lit of the HTPC case. But I also but a slap of bituminous felt pad inside the casing underneath the mobo. So this case is, also like I had the Zahlman case, heavily dampened with bituminous felt pads.


* shielding all 230 AC cables (complete re-wiring)
I also think it has nothing too do with a complete re-wiring of all (!) 230 AC wiring. When I moved all gear into this new wall mounted AV cabinet, all wires involved where very close to each other. It was a messy, bulky spaghetti of wires running criss cross everywhere inside and on the back of the cabinet.
Nice cable dressing was particularly very hard too achieve in the small 20 mm space between the back of the cabinet and the wall. All wires strictly have too reside in the narrow space behind the cabinet and the wall, because it is a really ugly and messy sight too see them hanging down the wall from behind the AV cabinet. So because of the limited possibilities for good cable dressing, I decided too make a bold move and too replace all regular 230 wires with shielded 230 AC cable for every apparatus that is in need of 230 AC.
(Flat screen TV, HD TV decoder, linear PSU’s, Klein & Hummel, Lavry DAC s, ATX PSU, ect)
It took al lot time too finish this operation. Luckily al most all components had such ‘strain relief through puts’ (see picture).
Van on filtering, demping, ect


So is was not all too difficult too remove the regular 230 AC wires from the inside, and too re-use the ‘strain relief through put connector’. As the shielded 230 AC cables has a bigger diameter, the shield has too end here at the outside of the casing. However the wires inside the shielded cable can pass trough, which allow for the original ‘strain relief through put’ too be re-used.

* strict separation of dirty and clean real earths
All shields on the new 230 AC shielded cables are grounded at the plug-side too a real earth. Also this shielding is strictly divided in two groups of apparatus: a ‘dirty real earth’ for dirty components and a ‘clean real earth’.

The whole operation took almost a month before I had complete finished the transition too this new wall mounted AV cabinet (process time off course was much shorter).

I also looked at the LAN connections of the cMP setup and the powering of the 3COM switch I use. In this article ‘The trouble with wallwarts’ http://www.elmac.co.uk/pdfs/Trouble_with_wallwarts.pdf , I red that even this can be important. So the wallwart (in the meter board down the hall) also got an extra ferrite on the DC output too the 3COM switch. However I didn’t notice a sound quality change.


It’s only after all these changes that I noticed that I could go so low all of a sudden. My guess is, that it’s the caps on the juli@.

However in short time I expect too know. With the ferrites for flat ribbon cables, I also ordered some new oscon caps. Next week (or so) I want to remove the Audyn speaker crossover caps and put these oscon caps on the Juli@ digital part. Then I will know if these Audyn speaker crossover caps caused it.

I don’t think my under volting settings will matter much. I pay no special attention too it.
I have the CPU undervolted at 1 volt V core. Just preventing the CPU too get hot. Sometimes I run it at 0,95 V. But this makes little difference in power consumption (current) or produced heat. I don’t hear any SQ differences.
All DC power from both linears too both pico’s is at 12 volt DC. Same for 12 V DC from Antec ATX.

Mark


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