charliewphelps@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
I haven’t checked the board in a long time and just found this thread. I’ve been working on renderers for a while and I’ll pass along what I’ve found for what it is worth.
Started out with a CAPS server v. 2. Was OK but not great for what it was designed for but worked great as a renderer in a DLNA system with minimserver and BubbleUp. Got better with a LPS. So the original had a SOtM USB card output. I attached a LPS to the card and to the Atom MB and Bingo – instant improvement. I ran linux on it (Debian) using MPD and UPMPDCLI. This is important because Roon makes a bridge for linux which runs just fine on the Atom board. Wouldn’t use it for the server part as it just doesn’t have enough computing power but as a Roon endpoint it is super. I have one of these lying around for comparison if anyone wants to try it out.
Next step up was the JCAT USB card. Obviously better than the SOtM but I had problems with interactions with it and my 1.5 meter KingRex cable. Took me a while to figure out that the cable was the problem. Then I added the JCAT ethernet card. Woah!!! made a big difference. I tried several ethernet cards – they were all better than the on board ethernet but the JCAT was obviously the best at the time. As I told Jim the easiest place to hear it was with applause. With the lesser cards or MB ethernet you just heard an amorphous blob. As the cards get better you hear more and more individuals in the blob. Strangely enough the second (now third) best card was only $35. You pay a lot for minor improvements.
At this point, searching for JCAT cards I found Matt at Fully Silent PCs. He has a good working relationship with Marcin at JCAT and sold me a “superserver” computer with Xenon processor, error checking memory and a Supermicro MB that Marcin recommended. I couldn’t help myself, what can I say? Big improvement. At this point was using the JCAT Femto USB and ethernet cards. Settled in and was happy except for the interaction with my cable. That led to my search for a better USB cable which I can document if anybody in interested. Short answer is that a 1 meter length of KingRex worked great and I was happy until……………….
Surfing the internet one evening after having one to many IPA’s I saw that JCAT had come out with the XE version of their cards. So far I’d only gotten great results from JCAT so I took a deep breath and ordered them. A moment of insanity that has really paid off. I haven’t had such an amazing improvement in my system since I got my current speakers 15 or so years ago. I just sat there amazed that cards would make more difference than a DAC. I’ve been trying out some world class DACs since Covid has me sitting at home and the difference from DAC to DAC was nothing like the difference these new cards made.
So, for anybody that’s interested I’m going to have renderers set up with the SOtM card, the JCAT femto cards, and the XE cards so that people can have a listen if they are interested in what difference cards make once we can get together again. It has been an amazing journey. By the way, USB cables make more of a difference than DACs as well
Charlie
Few weeks ago, I purchased a dual mono ESS-9038 DAC from DIYINHK with the idea of modifying it to my liking. My earlier experience with AKM-4493 Dual Mono DAC was very positive.
This DAC came with only 3.5mm headphone jack and it was USB powered. While I was waiting to receive 3.5mm to RCA converter, I was curious how it sounded. Connected it to my APLinux Music server with SoTM tx-USBexp USB card with dedicated LPS. So, the DAC is receiving clean power and clean signal. I was using Etimotic ER4XR in-ear ear buds.
The DAC does not have any "preamp" stage. DAC has digital volume control which I did not mess with. DAC's output was directly connected to the LPF stage.
Listening to this DAC was a revelation. The music piped into my ears was so much lively, its not even close. The volume was little high and the 9038 Chips are thin sounding (compared to AKM), but the presentation was something I wish to hear without the earphones. I suspected the signal attenuation in the preamp is killing the liveliness of the music. I think the liveliness can be attributed to the micro-dynamics and higher order harmonics which the attenuators kill.
Doing research on the web confirmed my suspicion about the attenuators in the signal path. Bruce Rozenblitz of Transendent Sound and Paul McGowan of PS Audio agree with attenuators are not good.
Unfortunately this little DAC has died and it is on its way back to Hong Kong.
Building the TS Slider preamp which has variable gain which lets you minimize the signal attenuation of completely eliminate it. so the signal attenuation can be minimized or even completely eliminated.