The best without doubts, the DC3. I will offer you a bottle of french champagne if you are disappointed by it.
Take Your wordā¦ and i can imagine a real expencive champagne
Of course, but the Sean Jacobs ps are considered among the best, from users, be it here or elsewhere.
I tried cheap ones , like the Israeli one and the Uptone lps ( around 350 euros) and found a little upgrade on my ex Unitserve or Etheregen.
The Prat even suffered a little bit on the Etheregen with the Lps from Uptone, vs the already good stock SMPS.
I tried many: the two above, the Uptone JS2, the Farad 3 lps, Hdplex 300, top MCRU. The best were the most expensive, the JS2 and top MCRU.
Generally you pay more, you have more.
Canāt disagree. I would not invest in Etheregen and DC3 lps if having for example an Atom . In my case, with an Nds/555 dr, a 2k switch/ ps was very worthwhile. Not sure that going for a second 555 dr would give more uplift than going from Netgear switch to Etheregen/ lps for me.
Ideally you would know what problem you are trying to fix or improvement you are trying to make before adding more equipment. I too have made generic changes to my system and only stumbled upon one major improvement when replacing a highly suspect cheapo USB cable that came with a really good DAC with a quality audio USB cable for about $200. Having made one leap forward I then spent thousands on linear power supply for my NUC, high end connector cables and power cords - I canāt say they made any difference at all. Most of this stuff is just snake oil. I wish there was a more objective test comparing test tones that would first demonstrate some repeatable change, then move on to a subjective listing test using your ears. We would all save a lot of time and money.
Not sure your response was towards me. When you say that adding costly linear ps didnāt changed nothing, itās not my experience.
When I had the Unitserve ( used as a Nas), I replaced the stock SMPS with a high quality linear ps, the Uptone JS1. It was a clear and very nice upgrade in sound from the first seconds : soundstage opened, sound became more textured and natural, more analog like.
Often the complete chain needs to be in consideration. I think a NUCās USB output was a limiting factor when I first used one for audio. I noticed an improvement when I added a USB regenarator to it, but it still could not match my bigger servers based on i9-10900 & i9-13900 CPUs in ATX motherboards in scale and detail.
However this configuration of the same NUC (USB Aā>B) places it in the same league as the other two SQ wise! This when used for simply serving/playing files without heavy DSP/upsampling.
A. NUC7i7NHE1 (fanless in AKASA Plato X7D case, 16GB RAM, Intel Optane 800P NVMe SSD)
B. Uptone Audio IsoRegen (powered with DIY based on the MPAudio HPULN 7.5V/3Aā>Alexey (ldovr) LT3045 6V/1A regulator).
The usual disclaimer appies- YMMV.
PS- In that configuration the NUC appears more transparent. When changing its PS it is easier to hear the differences.
Indeed Gary, I did have the MC01 system as a fibre bridge which I used with the Cisco 2960. I now use the Sonore opticalModule and Uptone LPS 1.2 PSU with a Cisco Merkaki GS110 having retired the 2960. This sits in my home office, with the Sonore connected to the system in the lounge via ~25m of Cat5e cable.
I still have the PhoenixNET in the rack as the final switch before the KDSM connected by a length of bog standard Farnell Cat6a cable. No shielded cables are used here which can introduce inadvertent ground paths. The PhoenixNET has a decent mains earthed PSU which is connected to the house mains where the rest of the network kit elsewhere in the house is connected to. The dedicated mains supply just powers streamer and amp.
When I moved from the NDX2 to the KDSM, I did re-evaluate the network setup, as the KDSM can support an optical Ethernet connection, but still preferred my copper / fibre setup with the PhoenixNET.
Due to a very busy work schedule and everything sounding so good, Iāve not re-evaluated the fibre straight to the KDSM via the Sonore opticalModule.
Something to look at in the autumnā¦
Can you just use the Cisco 2960 to feed the optical ethernet directly into the dsm/3?
btw, since you own a dsm/3, what do you think roon vs. linn kazoo/app? I always find that roon sounds a bit harsh, brittle and diluted (for want of a better word), even in lossless mode, comparing to using the linn app for Qobuz strreaming. Something undocumented about Roon that changes the sound?
Indeed it does and when I did first get the KDSM/3 I did initially try it with the ADOT and the Cisco 2960.
Iāve not tried it with the Sonore optical module or the Cisco GS110 (which replaced my 2960) but will give it a go sometime. Fibre does sound ādifferentā to the copper connection and depending on system configuration and musical preferences I can see why some would prefer it.
I must admit, Iāve not really done much comparison between Qobuz native tracks on the Linn and via Roon but Roon doesnāt sound āharsh, brittle and dilutedā to me. I find it a brilliant way of accessing my stored and streamed music (both for the main system and to other devices in the house) so luckily there is no noticeable SQ degradation (for me).
By listening to Roon only, I wonāt notice anything, it just sounds great, by saying Roon sounds āharsh, brittle and dilutedā is just a relative term. When I tried to compare the same track multiple times with the Linn App/Kazoo, then I noticed the differences in performance, even my wife confirmed it, even she did not know which stream we were listening or comparing to , and she got it spot on every time.
Yes, Sean Jacobs is a superb power supply designer and manufacturer.
Did you send them back?
Interesting. Your profile doesnāt show your system setup but I take it you also have a KDSM/3. Have you tried the fibre option ?
My profile is outdated, I should have updated it.
Yes, I did try optical ethernet as well, actually Iāve gone a full circle of all network switches (mainly for curiosity), from the Cisco WS-C2960G-8TC-L (with copper and optical) to ER to EE, and then settle on the simple GS108Tv3 (since Iāve found it the most musical).
Youāll be buying a KƤlla next and streaming from Spotify (via the recommended iDevice model) next
Good to try these things and find what setup works best for you. Iām tempted to try Optical again as this would be a nice simple solution, but the end result just didnāt satisfy.
Iāve not heard of the KƤlla and probably do not want to at this time, partly because I am not totally convinced by the design principle behind it.
Yeah I know what you mean. The Linn is end game for me as a source so that ship has sailed.
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