Nadac?

[Blizzard]

We did our honeymoon at the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino ten years ago. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth. I wish we could have stayed longer.

Yes wonderful place as well. Right down the road!

 

[andrew_stenhouse]

Gosh - that is gorgeous. Very like NZ, where I am originally from.

Thanks for letting me know about this spot. Many years ago, when I was a young'un, I spent a few weeks skiing at Whistler. In amongst that I visited Vancouver and had a look about the area. I loved it. And really liked the people. Very like Nzers and Australians (well sort of - Aussies are a bred apart from most). I'd love to get back, and to Seattle, which is another area that looks lovely.

@Michael - great spot to pick for a honeymoon. About as far from Dallas as you can get eh.

Well, I'm done with work for the year - my wife and I have a couple weeks off together, which I am really looking forward to. Sydney empties out over Christmas and is actually a very nice city to be in. No one is around, there isn't any traffic, and you have the beaches (almost) to yourself. Its lovely. We rarely go away preferring to travel (usually to NZ) in our autumn and then to somewhere warm eg Fiji in late July/August for a week or so. Dunno about you guys, but 3-4 hours in a plane is abut my lot these days. The airport experience is so horrid, that we usually prefer to stay around where we are, taking long weekends up to the Blue Mountains down the South Coast.

Off to an annual Christmas party today at friends who we have know for almost 25 years now. They just bought themselves a new home, so its a house warming thingi as well. They have a new all black kitten MInka. Should be fun. Not a cloud in the sky and 77 F at the moment, water temp is about 70 F. Might have a dip. First one of the swimming season. Late for me - I usually try and get wet by middle November. Pneumonia put pay to that this year. Going to hit 95 F today and 102 F tomorrow. Good time to see the new Star Wars movie.

As with Northstar, I wish everyone a very happy holidays, or perhaps more traditionally a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 

[dallasjustice]

@Blizzard,

Thanks for sharing your family photos. It brings back great memories for me.

I really enjoyed kayaking in the inlets. The seals loved to play cat-and-mouse games with us strange humans. They would pop their little heads out of the water at unexpected times in close proximity to the kayak and then disappear.

BC is my favorite place in North America. Canadians are the nicest people (to folks from the USA), I've met, except when they are at a hockey game. Sadly I've only been there twice. We need to book another flight to YVR soon.

 

[Blizzard]

Yes it's one of the magical places on this planet that's for sure. Merry Xmas to all as well!

 

[NorthStar]

Beautiful shots Mike (exotic settings), thx for sharing.

Another magical place; the Queen Charlotte islands. ...And many inlets along the West Coast, of the Mainland.

* Kayak rhymes with Nadak. ;-) ...It's perfect to mix audio with music and ocean waves and the natural beauty of Vancouver Island and the entire West Coast of British Columbia. The Pacific Ocean is a nice one, a nice ocean.

D'un océan à l'autre. - Devise du Canada

 

[wisnon]

Sure thing - Technical Details

Motherboard Gigabyte H170N-Wifi mini-ITX : http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5552#ov
Processor Intel® 6th Generation Core™ or Pentium™ processor
Memory 2x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
Graphics Integrated Intel® High Definition graphics (4k)
1x DVI-D Output max resolution 1920x1200@60Hz
2x HDMI Output 4096x2160@24Hz / 2560x1600@60Hz
Support for up to 3 displays at the same time
Audio Integrated Realtek High Definition Audio
2/4/5.1/7.1 channel surround sound
1x Optical S/PDIF Out + 5x audio jacks
Realtek ALC1150 codec
Networking 2x Intel Gigabit LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
1x WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac adapter
Support for 11ac wireless standard and up to 867 Mbps data rate
Bluetooth 4.0, 3.0+HS, 2.1+EDR
USB 2 2x internal
USB 3/2 4x via rear panel + 2x via chassis side (left/right)
USB Type C 1 x USB Type-C™ port on the back panel, with USB 3.0 support
SATA 6x SATA 6 Gb/s
M.2 1x M.2 via motherboard
SATA Express 2x SATA Express
Expansion 1x PCIe 16x Slot (x16)

Yes, Zeroflex 240 powers the lot - its rated to 240w and I doubt even going full tilt I'd use more than 150 w.

The case I'm using comes with a heat pipe system that ports to the case - which is one giant heatsink.

I echo what Blizzard said: I am sure there is no necessity to spend the money I did. I am sure, with optical isolation, there will be absolutely no difference in performance between computers. I just put this together as I wanted it to be used for a number of different potential purposes - firewire, usb and ethernet and perhaps as a media server as well. I wanted fast performance and a dead silent server/player as mine lives in the listening room. I am sure a $500 jobbie would be fine provided you have fiber to the dac. Unless the part count somehow affects the SQ from eg Roon - and that is a place I am not going

I am NOT so sure. Based on people I trust, they have already done all the HQP to NAA optimization a year ago and even did a demo at Munich in May. From what I hear, the bespoke Sound Galleries Server beats this approach, but granted for a LOT more money.The SG guys are supposedly a notch ahead, as I have been given blow by blow progress updates on ALL their discoveries from the time of HQP/dual PCs with FMC isolation (all with quality LPSUs in the chain), thru Bughead Emperor, back to single server with bespoke PSU and clocks using Jussi's HQP convolution engine.

The SG LPSU are purpose designed to exactly match their operating parameters and that apparently makes a difference.

 

[Blizzard]

I am NOT so sure. Based on people I trust, they have already done all the HQP to NAA optimization a year ago and even did a demo at Munich in May. From what I hear, the bespoke Sound Galleries Server beats this approach, but granted for a LOT more money.The SG guys are supposedly a notch ahead, as I have been given blow by blow progress updates on ALL their discoveries from the time of HQP/dual PCs with FMC isolation (all with quality LPSUs in the chain), thru Bughead Emperor, back to single server with bespoke PSU and clocks using Jussi's HQP convolution engine.

The SG LPSU are purpose designed to exactly match their operating parameters and that apparently makes a difference.

Please share the links to where people have compared these 2 configurations with both Ravenna, and the NUC 3815 as NAA. If you don't have this information, what your claiming is null and void for this application. I've been following the blow by blow reports as well. I haven't seen any configurations using either Ravenna or the NUC 3815. They were using mostly crappy little Cubox's, or raspberry pi's etc as NAA's. Either that or they were using Mac mini's or other noisy computers running Windows or OSX as the NAA's.


Besides you don't use NAA with Ravenna. So wrong thread for this discussion.

 

[Blizzard]

Beautiful shots Mike (exotic settings), thx for sharing.

Another magical place; the Queen Charlotte islands. ...And many inlets along the West Coast, of the Mainland.

* Kayak rhymes with Nadak. ;-) ...It's perfect to mix audio with music and ocean waves and the natural beauty of Vancouver Island and the entire West Coast of British Columbia. The Pacific Ocean is a nice one, a nice ocean.

D'un océan à l'autre. - Devise du Canada

Thanks Bob! Yes beauty everywhere around B.C!!

 

[wisnon]

Please share the links to where people have compared these 2 configurations with both Ravenna, and the NUC 3815 as NAA. If you don't have this information, what your claiming is null and void for this application. I've been following the blow by blow reports as well. I haven't seen any configurations using either Ravenna or the NUC 3815. They were using mostly crappy little Cubox's, or raspberry pi's etc as NAA's. Either that or they were using Mac mini's or other noisy computers running Windows or OSX as the NAA's.


Besides you don't use NAA with Ravenna. So wrong thread for this discussion.

Ravenna? I was talking about dual pc setup. Nothing to do with a Nadac nor Ravenna. There is no link to share, just emails, telephone calls and face to face chats for hours at the AV show in Poland where I met some interesting people. Iam not compellling anyone to believe anything. People are free to think what they want...just consider that there may be other views out there from people who have maxxed out this approach before. They have seen it, done it and bought the tee shirt.

As a value play, Supersteam is hard to compete with, but as an absolutist approach...I just dont think so. This in no way invalidates your bang for buck message... which I already told you seems very commendable to me.

Naa were on surface pros and tons of other nuc like things with super quality LPSUs. I doubt audiolinux was used though, and a tweaked version may indeed be a legit advancement in this setup. Keep an open mind though, based on the feedback the SG Server is getting from my contacts.

 

[Blizzard]

Ravenna? I was talking about dual pc setup. Nothing to do with a Nadac nor Ravenna. There is no link to share, just emails, telephone calls and face to face chats for hours at the AV show in Poland where I met some interesting people. Iam not compellling anyone to believe anything. People are free to think what they want...just consider that there may be other views out there from people who have maxxed out this approach before. They have seen it, done it and bought the tee shirt.

As a value play, Supersteam is hard to compete with, but as an absolutist approach...I just dont think so. This in no way invalidates your bang for buck message... which I already told you seems very commendable to me.

Naa were on surface pros and tons of other nuc like things with super quality LPSUs. I doubt audiolinux was used though, and a tweaked version may indeed be a legit advancement in this setup. Keep an open mind though, based on the feedback the SG Server is getting from my contacts.

Wisnon,

This is the NADAC thread. The NADAC uses Ravenna only. No dual PC setups being discussed on this thread. You are on the wrong thread.

 

[wisnon]

Wisnon,

This is the NADAC thread. The NADAC uses Ravenna only. No dual PC setups being discussed on this thread. You are on the wrong thread.

I know, I was replying to Andrew...."
I echo what Blizzard said: I am sure there is no necessity to spend the money I did. I am sure, with optical isolation, there will be absolutely no difference in performance between computers. I just put this together as I wanted it to be used for a number of different potential purposes - firewire, usb and ethernet and perhaps as a media server as well. I wanted fast performance and a dead silent server/player as mine lives in the listening room. I am sure a $500 jobbie would be fine provided you have fiber to the dac. Unless the part count somehow affects the SQ from eg Roon - and that is a place I am not going ".

However, I take both your points that in a Ravenna setup...even the most tricked up server may NOT indeed make a difference compared to an isolated dual PC setup. I thus withdraw the remark for now...until more empirical data is received.

 

[andrew_stenhouse]

Oh gentleman - its still early days; no need to have any conflict about this. Theory and practice can be different. I suspect Blizzard is right but hey who knows. My server gets delivered tomorrow. Have my Mytek back in the system until then.

@ Wisnon thanks for posting - lovely to hear from you mate. I hadn't heard of the servers you mentioned so thanks for pointing them to me.

Gosh the flu has got me - achy and painy all over. Beastly hot here - 40 C, where we are. Inside with the AC ruining the environment. Fortunately it is going to rain tomorrow, and the temperatures will fall. Can't wait.

Have a pleasant evening/morning my friends.

 

[Blizzard]

Oh gentleman - its still early days; no need to have any conflict about this. Theory and practice can be different. I suspect Blizzard is right but hey who knows. My server gets delivered tomorrow. Have my Mytek back in the system until then.

@ Wisnon thanks for posting - lovely to hear from you mate. I hadn't heard of the servers you mentioned so thanks for pointing them to me.

Gosh the flu has got me - achy and painy all over. Beastly hot here - 40 C, where we are. Inside with the AC ruining the environment. Fortunately it is going to rain tomorrow, and the temperatures will fall. Can't wait.

Have a pleasant evening/morning my friends.

Can't wait to hear your impression of the complete setup. Did you order the Ifi Ipower for the DAC side FMC? I can confirm the one it comes with is no good for sound. Massive difference with a clean supply.

Must be nice to be in the heat! This is what I woke up to today

 

[wisnon]

Hi Andrew, no real conflict. I may occasonally disagree with Blizz, but he knows I have always liked him and we get on well. If we met in real life we would be real pals....just like you.

I hope you get well soon. No fun to be ill over the holidays.

 

[andrew_stenhouse]

Gosh Blizzard, that is snowy! At the moment I would take the snow. Last night the low was 30 C degrees (86 C degrees F) and a wet heat. Thank goodness for the AC.

Excellent post Wisnon - thank you - feeling better. Weak and sore but better. Glad you two can disagree but remain friends. Audiophiles! Complete nutters the lot of us ha ha.

 

[Blizzard]

Gosh Blizzard, that is snowy! At the moment I would take the snow. Last night the low was 30 C degrees (86 C degrees F) and a wet heat. Thank goodness for the AC.

Excellent post Wisnon - thank you - feeling better. Weak and sore but better. Glad you two can disagree but remain friends. Audiophiles! Complete nutters the lot of us ha ha.

Yes both extremes can be uncomfortable. It get's up to 40C here in the summer as well. You just need a pool to jump in

 

[Blizzard]

Good news Andrew. The Roon/Hqplayer integration is ready just in time for your new server!!


https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-1-1-build-88-is-live/5676

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/how-do-i-use-roon-and-hqplayer-together/5866

 

[andrew_stenhouse]

Wonderful news. Thanks so much for posting this Mike.

Hope it is in the server version as well.

 

[Blizzard]

Wonderful news. Thanks so much for posting this Mike.

Hope it is in the server version as well.

Yes that's what it's for. Run the whole setup headless from the iPad now! Simply configure, and good to go. Unplug the monitor, keyboard and mouse from the server now. It will just be like a really smart powerful NAS.

 

[andrew_stenhouse]

How wonderful. Can you point me in the direction of the windows server x 64 sw? I can only see the desktop on the download page - or am I missing something?

Bloody expensive NAS...

Cheers