Lampizator Big 7 has landed

Steve said:
The latest SOtM USB seems to be the norm. HDFlex Linear PSU also is ready to juice it externally.
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I sold my SOtM card and got the Jcat USB card. IMO it is much better.

Ted Brady (Ted B), reviewer from Computer Audiophile came to the same conclusions.

I have recenty tried the Jacat SATA. This is the very first SATA cable I have tried. I was VERY sceptical. I have only tried it because another Jcat product, that shouldn't make any difference - Jcat battery PSU for the SSD - turned out to be a revelation in my system.

The effect of the Jcat SATA cable was nowhere near as dramatic, but it did bring a slight improvement, so I bough one.

IMO the Jcat USB card and Jcat battery PSU for the SSD are a must in any serious server build. SATA cable is only a nice to have option.
 
Adam....Jcat Ok. I'll bookmark it for future consideration. I've barely powered the SOtM let alone listened to it yet.
 
I still have one SOtM USB PCIe card for sale, complete with the excellent Ultra Low Noise Teddy Pardo 9V/2A PSU, if anyone is seriously considering one ... but I recommend everyone to get the Jact USB card instead.
 
The JCat battery supply is made by Bakoon, it is their BPS-02 supply, we have them here, very nicely made units as is all of Bakoon's equipment .
Keith.
 
Yes, you can specify whichever type of cable you require, we rrecently supplied two units with the /Sata connectors.
Keith
 
Bakoon charge more for their OEM. So that's a no brainer unless someone can show me a better deal.
 
wisnon said:
As for the USB in a quality CAPs build, people are using Paul Pang USB boards and claim excellent performance. The Regen device for $175 from uptone Audion will be available early April and promises to lift the USB performance another notch too.
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In my case I use the Bel Canto REFLink which is a asynchronous media converter. I'm converting from USB to ST Optical glass fiber. This media converter provides Galvanic isolation, unit is self powered and does not use the USB power. It also reclocks the signal via the Ultra Low Noise Femtosecond Master Clocks. Once the signal reaches the DAC it is reclocked again via Femtosecond Master Clocks. Doing this makes the USB specialty cards like "SOtM USB PCIe, Jact USB cards" obsolete.
 
Elberoth said:
I believe they are the same, if not upsampled.

DoP is limited to DSD 128 though - which may be a factor for some.
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Thank you Adam, I understand. I guess the next question would be how much of an improvement in overall sq do you discern by up-samping from 128 to 256? Also do you for see DoP moving to 256 in the future? (I know Daniel Weiss is working on a 256 up-sampling capability in Saracon; I presume that will be DoP.)
 
I didn't even have the time to listen to my new Big 7 yet, not to mention try the new DSD256 capability or do any comparos.

To me, the biggest limitation of the Aurender platform is the fact Aurender cannot upsample PCM to DSD.
 
FlexibleAudio said:
Thank you Adam, I understand. I guess the next question would be how much of an improvement in overall sq do you discern by up-samping from 128 to 256? Also do you for see DoP moving to 256 in the future? (I know Daniel Weiss is working on a 256 up-sampling capability in Saracon; I presume that will be DoP.)
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Likely it will be ASIO not DoP for the Weiss.
Also, the prime use will not be to upsample from DSD128 to 256, as that will likely be marginal. The key is RBCD upsample to highest rate DSD possible...that is where the 256 capability comes into play, assuming that going up to 256 vs 128 from RBCD makes enough difference to justify the 256 feature?
 
Audioseduction said:
In my case I use the Bel Canto REFLink which is a asynchronous media converter. I'm converting from USB to ST Optical glass fiber. This media converter provides Galvanic isolation, unit is self powered and does not use the USB power. It also reclocks the signal via the Ultra Low Noise Femtosecond Master Clocks. Once the signal reaches the DAC it is reclocked again via Femtosecond Master Clocks. Doing this makes the USB specialty cards like "SOtM USB PCIe, Jact USB cards" obsolete.
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Weiss make a really cool 'glass ' cable, it can take AES signals convert them to optical ( glass cable) and if you wish back to AES, it is a good way to eradicate any electrical connection between equipment.
Keith.
 
Elberoth said:
I didn't even have the time to listen to my new Big 7 yet, not to mention try the new DSD256 capability or do any comparos.

To me, the biggest limitation of the Aurender platform is the fact Aurender cannot upsample PCM to DSD.
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I was considering doing all my RB conversion offline to limit the cpu activity during playback. (Tb's of SSD storage are getting so cheap.)


wisnon said:
Likely it will be ASIO not DoP for the Weiss.
Also, the prime use will not be to upsample from DSD128 to 256, as that will likely be marginal. The key is RBCD upsample to highest rate DSD possible...that is where the 256 capability comes into play, assuming that going up to 256 vs 128 from RBCD makes enough difference to justify the 256 feature?
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Yes, I get that. I am not talking about converting DSD 128 to 256; sorry if I was not clear. If I convert RB off-line to 128 or 256, I was wondering if the difference between 128 and 256 would be discernible.

Also, won't the clock (if not the usb interface) in the Aurendar 100N be superior to caps?
 
Audioseduction said:
Thats very interesting Keith. Sounds like a very good solution to the noise polution.
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Depends, according to what i gather from Alex/Barrows/Swenson the reconversion process could be noisey and reintroduce fresh noise after killing the old noise with the glass. It apparently all comes down to the PHY and the power distribution network, etc of the conversion stage.
 
FlexibleAudio said:
I was considering doing all my RB conversion offline to limit the cpu activity during playback. (Tb's of SSD storage are getting so cheap.)


Yes, I get that. I am not talking about converting DSD 128 to 256; sorry if I was not clear. If I convert RB off-line to 128 or 256, I was wondering if the difference between 128 and 256 would be discernible.

Also, won't the clock (if not the usb interface) in the Aurendar 100N be superior to caps?
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Paul....

a typical stereo DSD256 album will weigh more than 8Gbs...a single album! You dont want to be storing all that now do you?

The CAPS mobo are carefully selected for timing. Phil is an IT guy who spent 25 years thinking bits are bits and that it made no difference. He spent many years developing AO and come to realize that with music playback TIMING is a Key if not THE Key and the mobos selected with the correct chips are the top range ones, not for the power of the specs but for the extremely fine tolerances and precision which make for more precise timing of operation. He also thinks the lowest amount of RAM the better, so he would NOT go for more than 4gb even for DSD 256 upsampling.

As for clocks, I cant say for sure, but I do know that even with clocks, many designers tell me that Femo and atomic are marketing terms.

You want low phase noise clocks that are not necessarily the most accurate over a time period, but the most consistent and regular...better to be consistently slightly wrong than inconsistent but dead on accurate over a long period of time (plus/minus compesations).

This is a layman explanation, but its the sense of what i have been told be the techie guys.
 
wisnon said:
Paul....

a typical stereo DSD256 album will weigh more than 8Gbs...a single album. You dont want to be storaing all that now do you?

The CAPS mobo are carefully selected for timing. Phil is an IT guy who spent 25 years thinking bits are bits and that it made no difference. He spent many years developing AO and come to realize that with music playback TIMING is a Key if not THE Key and the mobos selected with the correct chips are the top range ones, not for the power of the specs but for the extremely fine tolerances and precision which make for more precise timing of operation. He also thinks the lowest amount of RAM the better, so he would NOT go for more than 4gb even for DSD 256 upsampling.

As for clocks, I cant say for sure, but I do know that even with clocks, many designers tell me that Femo and atomic are marketing terms.

You want low phase noise clocks that are not necessarily the most accurate over a time period, but the most consistent and regular...better to be consistently slightly wrong than inconsistent but dead on accurate over a long period of time (plus/minus compesations).

This is a layman explanation, but its the sense of what i have been told be the techie guys.
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Thanks again for the good information. Regarding your comments:

I guess I may be crazy but why not store DSD 256 on external hard drives? An 8tb sells for about $1000 it will hold 1000 CD's. Once converted to DSD256 off line you could use the minimalist Aurendar 100n to do exactly what you are saying in the rest of your statement: 1) run with the lowest possible RAM and 2) maintain the lowest possible activity in the cpu.

Finally, I question (although can't prove yet) whether the clocks, isolation, USB interface in the Aurender may be better than the stuff in the caps market. Something makes them sound so good. The main deterrent of the Aurender stuff for DSD has been price and that it can't up-sample on the fly with HQP so a traditional windows box was required. The answer to that dilemma would be using Saracon to upsample everything and stream 256 dsf from nad to the 100n. This connected to a DSD only GG (no switch, no extra caps etc.) might be the cats meow.
 
If that is the case then the Sonore Sig Rendu running via i2S would be conceptually better.

Lukasz could develop such an inteface if he had a demo unit. You bypass USB issues and block ethernet crud with a proper Ethernet to i2s conversion. Check the SSR thread for techie details. SSR costs $3K and is pretty minimalistic. I suspect better internal components than Aurender too.
 
wisnon said:
If that is the case then the Sonore Sig Rendu running via i2S would be conceptually better.

Lukasz could develop such an inteface if he had a demo unit. You bypass USB issues and block ethernet crud with a proper Ethernet to i2s conversion. Check the SSR thread for techie details. SSR costs $3K and is pretty minimalistic. I suspect better internal components than Aurender too.
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Yes, I have read about the SSR and its interface with the PS Audio DS. MSB loves its i2S also. The plot thickens.:D
 
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