Gary’s stupid good music *server*

[Tom B.]

Being too impatient to wait for the DAC to arrive, it dawned on me that the new server would happily stream 44.1kHz files through the MTECH HiFace straight into the SPDIF input of my Krell KPS25s preamp. The only coaxial cable available for this initial test was short at 3 feet, which is why the server is behind the preamp rack in the photo. After configuring FOOBARs output for the WASAPI/MTECH driver, we were off and running. First listening impressions were very good; comparing playback of ripped disc to same disc playing in Krell transport had the Krell with a slight edge in the bass department. Also of interest was the need to apply a bit more gain (preamp volume) with the server as the source. Midrange was excellent with the server. Soundstage and channel separation both excellent.
It's probably worth noting that having 200+ of my favorite CD's just a click away makes the listening session quite interesting.

Tom

 

[mep]

Tom-I don't think you have come close to getting to the bottom of this server yet. Wait till you hear it with a hi-rez DAC playing back hi-rez files.

 

[Tom B.]

My DAC is supposed to arrive tomorrow, a Benchmark DAC1, which will do 192kHz on its SPDIF input. The M2TECH bridge might however be the ultimate limiting factor in hi-rez output quality....some people love it and others not so much. It was cheap and fits the immediate need...in fact with the whole project so far cost less than any other single component I've ever purchased

I'm still on the hunt for the Mytek USB DSD-DAC, which will probably be the first upgrade....when available.

Tom

 

[mep]

I have ordered the Mytek Stereo 192 DAC and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

 

[FrantzM]

My DAC is supposed to arrive tomorrow, a Benchmark DAC1, which will do 192kHz on its SPDIF input. The M2TECH bridge might however be the ultimate limiting factor in hi-rez output quality....some people love it and others not so much. It was cheap and fits the immediate need...in fact with the whole project so far cost less than any other single component I've ever purchased

I'm still on the hunt for the Mytek USB DSD-DAC, which will probably be the first upgrade....when available.

Tom

Tom
Owner of a Benchmark here. Love it, love also the M2Tech Young ... One thing though. Unless they have changed their topology, the Benchmark DAC-1 upsamples everything to 110 Khz a rather odd scheme but it does work. Anything above 110 kHz , 192 KHz in this case would be downsampled if they accept it at all. I haven't tried that but have gotten good results with 24/96 .. I seem to prefer the M2tech Young in head to head comparison .. Differences are minute but definite IMHO.
And indeed you're correct.. it is difficult to get much better results for so little money .. Gary, Thanks Again!!!

 

[Tom B.]

Kernel or WASAPI?

Perhaps Gary can chime in on this one: While researching USB DACs/bridges, many of the devices offer drivers for both WASAPI and Kernel streaming, with Kernel streaming getting more attention. In the scope of this project, does Kernel offer any benefit (if possible) over WASAPI?

Tom

 

[Steve Williams]

As an aside and way OT, Tom I notice you have a Krell Kps25s. I owned it as well as it's successor the Kps25sc (with CAST cables). Probably the best piece of equipment that I sold and regretted. Not only is it a wonderful piece of equipment but a beautiful remote and eye candy to behold

 

[garylkoh]

ASIO is the most direct way of communicating with the DAC and if your DAC comes with a custom version, use this. With the latest music server running Windows 7, the second best is WASAPI. Kernel streaming is good if you are using WinXP (the older server). Do not run ASIO4ALL on Windows 7.

 

[garylkoh]

Tom, I also noticed your picture above. Paradoxically, with the HiFace, I found that a longer digital cable worked best. I have a 4m SonicWave cheapie that was the best S/PDIF cable between the HiFace and a Benchmark DAC1. I tried it also as the HiFace with several other DACs and the long SonicWave and also with it between and ADC and a Firewire interface, and it seemed to sound better than the all more expensive cables I had on hand (and a shorter SonicWave). In the scale of cables audiophile, it's cheap too!

 

[Tom B.]

Thanks, Gary, for the info on the streaming modes. I asked around but was getting mixed information from my techie-friends.

So far the little laptop has been fun to tinker with. Wish my DAC were here....

Tom

 

[Tom B.]

As an aside and way OT, Tom I notice you have a Krell Kps25s. I owned it as well as it's successor the Kps25sc (with CAST cables). Probably the best piece of equipment that I sold and regretted. Not only is it a wonderful piece of equipment but a beautiful remote and eye candy to behold

Good eye, Steve. The KPS25s is a great unit and is the one piece of gear that's earned a permanent spot in my audio room. I use it mainly as a preamp as the CD transport occasionally comes up with read errors, but at some point it will have to go in for service. Up to that point the CD performance was stellar. Oddly enough, my unit has the CAST connectors on the rear.

Much as gone on at Krell recently and I hope their service department is still marching on as they were in the past.

Crappy photo, I'll have to take better pictures of the room. What we were doing was streaming from the laptop into the SPDIF input on the Krell, while comparing the rip to the same CD in the Krell's transport. At one point, we even had a tape of the same spooled up on the Studer A80 in the background, and were changing inputs from CD->>SPDIF->>B1 (balanced analog) to see which sounded best.

Tape still wins

Tom

 

[supra]

I just did a brand new Toshiba C665 following Garys instructions, although I didnt go for the SSD option. Blown away by the sound, I just didn't expect to get such a significant improvement over a "standard" general purpose laptop. Amazed that new laptops are so throttled back. I'm using JRiver with the Jremote app on my iPad for remote control, so I need to communicate with the laptop , but the wireless feature is turned off with the music server mods, so I'm using an Ethernet cable to my wireless router to talk to the iPad. But I don't want to be connected to the Internet, can anyone tell me which Services I have to enable to have a wireless link?
Thanks for the excellent advice on converting to a fantastic music server, if anyone is wondering whether to do this, I can say it is very worthwhile, I love the "purity" and the much improved transparency .

 

[garylkoh]

Supra - good job! Glad that you got an improvement over your general purpose laptop.

On this build, I did not disable services for wireless because the last part of it enables an internal wireless link (Setting up for Remote Control) to allow Foobar to talk to a remote app on the iPad. You could try that to see if it will work for JRiver. Please report back as I have not tried it with Jremote. If the wireless device is off, turn it back on with Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections. Right click on the wireless adapter and select Enable.

Finally, even if you did not go with the SSD option, disable hibernation and disable system restore to give you much more hdd space for your music.

 

[Tom B.]

Added the Benchmark DAC1 to the system tonight and I am now floored by the quality of the playback from the little server. The HiFace alone didn't quite get the job done; it left the music a bit flat on the bottom end and was missing 'something'... whatever it was is now fixed with the addition of the DAC and I am hearing more into the music than before. Ray Brown's walking bass line in 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon' (Best of Diana Krall) has each note full and rich, just hovering in the middle of the soundstage. There's more than enough sonic detail to hear the attack on the bass string, the overtones and gentle decay; if you've ever sat close to a talented bass player these will stand out and leave an impression. That feeling is tough to recreate with the original CD playing in my Krell KPS but the laptop server gets the job done! Amazing...and this is just 44.1 kHz CD FLAC files. Can't wait to transfer over the hi-rez material.

Thanks to Gary for great instructions and all of the support. Bravo!

Tom

 

[supra]

Supra - good job! Glad that you got an improvement over your general purpose laptop.

On this build, I did not disable services for wireless because the last part of it enables an internal wireless link (Setting up for Remote Control) to allow Foobar to talk to a remote app on the iPad. You could try that to see if it will work for JRiver. Please report back as I have not tried it with Jremote. If the wireless device is off, turn it back on with Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections. Right click on the wireless adapter and select Enable.

Finally, even if you did not go with the SSD option, disable hibernation and disable system restore to give you much more hdd space for your music.

More than an improvement over my older laptop- it was a huge leap!
I made sure the wireless adapter was enabled, but still cant connect to wireless. If I trouble shoot I get a message saying "windows wireless service (WLAN Autoconfig) is not running.
The adapter is definitely turned on, but no connection.
It worked when i did recovery back up, so I must have disabled it somehow.
BTW when you advise to Turn Windows Features on or off you say to uncheck a list from Games through to XPS viewer, does that mean all other features on list should be turned on?

 

[garylkoh]

It worked when i did recovery back up, so I must have disabled it somehow.
BTW when you advise to Turn Windows Features on or off you say to uncheck a list from Games through to XPS viewer, does that mean all other features on list should be turned on?

No. Some of the features are off to start.

WLAN config is not in the Windows Features, but in the Services. Go to services.msc scroll all the way down to WLAN Autoconfig and make sure that it is set to Automatic. You might have accidentally turned it off or one of its dependencies. To find the list of dependencies, right-click it, a new window will pop up, and you can select the tab [Dependencies].

 

[Ki Choi]

No. Some of the features are off to start.

WLAN config is not in the Windows Features, but in the Services. Go to services.msc scroll all the way down to WLAN Autoconfig and make sure that it is set to Automatic. You might have accidentally turned it off or one of its dependencies. To find the list of dependencies, right-click it, a new window will pop up, and you can select the tab [Dependencies].

Yes, it is the "Extensible Authentication Protocol" service that's keeping your wireless LAN from working due to WLAN Autoconfig being stopped (even if you have it set at Automatic).
You would need to follow Gary's services.msc instruction and set the "Extensible Authentication Protocol" to Automatic , hit Apply -> Ok
Then you need to return to WLAN Autoconfig and click on START button to get your wireless LAN to work again.

Ki

 

[supra]

Yes, it is the "Extensible Authentication Protocol" service that's keeping your wireless LAN from working due to WLAN Autoconfig being stopped (even if you have it set at Automatic).
You would need to follow Gary's services.msc instruction and set the "Extensible Authentication Protocol" to Automatic , hit Apply -> Ok
Then you need to return to WLAN Autoconfig and click on START button to get your wireless LAN to work again
Ki

Thanks to both replies, that got it working. One last question, does the wireless process use much more computing process than straight Ethernet cable, it's no problem to use Ethernet . I'm probably imaging it, but maybe it sounds better with wireless disconnected?

 

[garylkoh]

Thanks to both replies, that got it working. One last question, does the wireless process use much more computing process than straight Ethernet cable, it's no problem to use Ethernet . I'm probably imaging it, but maybe it sounds better with wireless disconnected?

Since there are those who will tell us that we are imagining things or that it's expectation bias...... I've often thought that I've imagined (expected) that all the servers I've built including this one sound better with wireless disabled. We had a couple of blind tests with some members of the Pacific Northwest Audio Society, and we all have imagined that it sounds better with wireless disabled.

So, since I imagine that it sounds better with the wireless disabled, I generally run it with a wireless router connected to the laptop in order to make use of the iPad remote control. The wireless router also allows me to hook up a large 4TB NAS for music storage. The wireless router is run stand-alone without connection to the Internet - so that all the security features can be left off.

 

[supra]

Since there are those who will tell us that we are imagining things or that it's expectation bias...... I've often thought that I've imagined (expected) that all the servers I've built including this one sound better with wireless disabled. We had a couple of blind tests with some members of the Pacific Northwest Audio Society, and we all have imagined that it sounds better with wireless disabled.

So, since I imagine that it sounds better with the wireless disabled, I generally run it with a wireless router connected to the laptop in order to make use of the iPad remote control. The wireless router also allows me to hook up a large 4TB NAS for music storage. The wireless router is run stand-alone without connection to the Internet - so that all the security features can be left off.

I was doing similiar- ethernet cable to wireless router which talked to iPad for Jremote control. I "think" it sounded better that way than now with wireless turned on, so i'll go back to that for peace of mind. BTW do you think it is worthwhile to connect to internet now and again to get Windows Updates (with security turned on of course)
Thanks again for advice and this great toy.