Making baby steps into Hi-fi
- Thread starter hydra
- Start date
To update, I finalized the install inside the PC this sunday.
I fitted the internal 250w DC-ATX converter into part of the opening that removing the previous SMPS had opened up. I decided that it was pretty enough for the time being, without having to wait to fabricate a proper face plate and all. With the way things are now, I doubt if I'll get down to finalizing the install if I waited to get it closed up in a pretty way
I also resolved the earlier issue with keeping the SSD and the HDD in the cabinet. The supplied cables let me do this with a minor rearrangement of the drives in the internal drive bay. The bay lets me install an SSD and 3.5" HDD in an inverted double-decker style, and this way I managed to get two SATA power connectors to fit. Now I can keep the SSD (OS and software) and the 3.5" HDD (data storage) inside the PC itself.
I had to leave the CDROM drive unconnected (not enough cable), but that is not a big deal. I don't rip music on this machine, and the CDROM Drive rarely gets used at all. I can always get an external slim CD/DVD Drive to load any CDs/DVDs for installing software or for anything else.
The 250w DC-ATX converter came with 2 sets of internal cables for most connections -- one set being real short (for the really small cabinets), and one set being just long enough (for the bigger cabinets). That was convenient. I used the longer ones, and they were just long enough for my install. I have the short ones stored away for when I upgrade (if I upgrade) to a slimmer/smaller cabinet with different hardware.
Removing the SMPS (and my old Asus Xonar STX card) from the cabinet has also made it much for airy and less crowded. The better airflow inside is a big side benefit.
Sidvee and Nikhil, I'll send the pics your way in a day. They aren't pretty, but they will show the internals well enough. Integrating the DC-ATX converter into a PC that doesn't have an internal DC converter is easy enough.
As I mentioned earlier, the HDPlex Linear PSU and the companion 250w DC-ATX converter are an excellent upgrade for any Music PC, and in my system, they've made the kind of improvement that changing a major HiFi component does. I've not been able to stop listening to music at all! All my music sounds much, much better than before.
The thing is, everything about the way my system plays back music has improved: Every single thing. Four things that particularly stood out to me about the improvement are:
1) A substantially enhanced sense of being in the same space the music is playing in. There's an (extremely) eerily pleasurable feeling, especially in live recordings, of being right there. This sense of atmosphere is eerie enough to have the hairs behind my neck stand up from time to time when I listen to some jazz numbers. The spatial cues that are coming out now with the music have never been felt before.
2) There's bass, and lots of it. Not only is there a lot more of the really low bass that is more felt than heard, the control and speed of the bass notes is very much like I'd heard from a prototype Rethm hybrid amp (with a 6922 valve preamp section and a solid state class A power section) that I'd used for a short while in my system before. The one thing I'd missed from that amp was the ease at which basslines were delivered and the speed and control that amp had over bass notes and transients. I don't need to miss that any more.
3) Micro details are far more pronounced than before. I actually do hear the cliched "details I've never before heard in the system". The depth of the blackness/silence of the background from which music comes from is far more than before, and I think the improvement in micro details comes from that.
4) This is an odd thing to add here, but to me, the dynamic range of the system seems to have been improved: The silences/troughs seem more silent and the loud peaks/crests seem louder. I found myself making sharp intakes of breath many times as the music worked up to a crescendo in some instrumental jazz numbers and in some western classical pieces. This is music I'm familiar with, and music that has had this effect on me the first few times I've listened to it. Now, while listening to these pieces, I know the peaks are coming, but still, when the peaks hit, they take my breath away. Imagine the exhilarating feeling of watching a wave coming, seeing it swell, and then catching it just as it breaks! That's how I feel.
I'd highly recommend getting a Linear PSU to anybody who's using a PC for a transport (and who's sorted out the big components of their system pretty well enough). The bang-for-the-buck quotient of a Linear PSU upgrade in an already well set-up system, IMHO, is very very high.
Sorry for the really long post
I fitted the internal 250w DC-ATX converter into part of the opening that removing the previous SMPS had opened up. I decided that it was pretty enough for the time being, without having to wait to fabricate a proper face plate and all. With the way things are now, I doubt if I'll get down to finalizing the install if I waited to get it closed up in a pretty way
I also resolved the earlier issue with keeping the SSD and the HDD in the cabinet. The supplied cables let me do this with a minor rearrangement of the drives in the internal drive bay. The bay lets me install an SSD and 3.5" HDD in an inverted double-decker style, and this way I managed to get two SATA power connectors to fit. Now I can keep the SSD (OS and software) and the 3.5" HDD (data storage) inside the PC itself.
I had to leave the CDROM drive unconnected (not enough cable), but that is not a big deal. I don't rip music on this machine, and the CDROM Drive rarely gets used at all. I can always get an external slim CD/DVD Drive to load any CDs/DVDs for installing software or for anything else.
The 250w DC-ATX converter came with 2 sets of internal cables for most connections -- one set being real short (for the really small cabinets), and one set being just long enough (for the bigger cabinets). That was convenient. I used the longer ones, and they were just long enough for my install. I have the short ones stored away for when I upgrade (if I upgrade) to a slimmer/smaller cabinet with different hardware.
Removing the SMPS (and my old Asus Xonar STX card) from the cabinet has also made it much for airy and less crowded. The better airflow inside is a big side benefit.
Sidvee and Nikhil, I'll send the pics your way in a day. They aren't pretty, but they will show the internals well enough. Integrating the DC-ATX converter into a PC that doesn't have an internal DC converter is easy enough.
As I mentioned earlier, the HDPlex Linear PSU and the companion 250w DC-ATX converter are an excellent upgrade for any Music PC, and in my system, they've made the kind of improvement that changing a major HiFi component does. I've not been able to stop listening to music at all! All my music sounds much, much better than before.
The thing is, everything about the way my system plays back music has improved: Every single thing. Four things that particularly stood out to me about the improvement are:
1) A substantially enhanced sense of being in the same space the music is playing in. There's an (extremely) eerily pleasurable feeling, especially in live recordings, of being right there. This sense of atmosphere is eerie enough to have the hairs behind my neck stand up from time to time when I listen to some jazz numbers. The spatial cues that are coming out now with the music have never been felt before.
2) There's bass, and lots of it. Not only is there a lot more of the really low bass that is more felt than heard, the control and speed of the bass notes is very much like I'd heard from a prototype Rethm hybrid amp (with a 6922 valve preamp section and a solid state class A power section) that I'd used for a short while in my system before. The one thing I'd missed from that amp was the ease at which basslines were delivered and the speed and control that amp had over bass notes and transients. I don't need to miss that any more.
3) Micro details are far more pronounced than before. I actually do hear the cliched "details I've never before heard in the system". The depth of the blackness/silence of the background from which music comes from is far more than before, and I think the improvement in micro details comes from that.
4) This is an odd thing to add here, but to me, the dynamic range of the system seems to have been improved: The silences/troughs seem more silent and the loud peaks/crests seem louder. I found myself making sharp intakes of breath many times as the music worked up to a crescendo in some instrumental jazz numbers and in some western classical pieces. This is music I'm familiar with, and music that has had this effect on me the first few times I've listened to it. Now, while listening to these pieces, I know the peaks are coming, but still, when the peaks hit, they take my breath away. Imagine the exhilarating feeling of watching a wave coming, seeing it swell, and then catching it just as it breaks! That's how I feel.
I'd highly recommend getting a Linear PSU to anybody who's using a PC for a transport (and who's sorted out the big components of their system pretty well enough). The bang-for-the-buck quotient of a Linear PSU upgrade in an already well set-up system, IMHO, is very very high.
Sorry for the really long post
Thanks for the post Hydra, waiting for pics. I have more or less decided on getting the psu for my second pc setup which has an antec cab. I want to test it out on this system, and provided the improvements are clearly audible to me, then I will go all out and get the hdplex chassis as well and migrate it to my main system. I am waiting to finalize on the mother board (fm rud3dawg is helping me out)- I want to use a 19v direct connection to avoid the converter, so that limits my choices a bit.
Cheers,
Sid
Cheers,
Sid
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I think most of the thin-itx boards will take 19v DC input. Availability is spotty here in India, unfortunately. There's a list of boards here. If you plan for a HDplex chassis, all these boards will fit.
Your Antec cabinet might have an internal DC converter already: I'm guessing it takes power from a laptop brick? if it does, you're in business. You won't need a DC-ATX converter. The HDplex LPSU comes with a cable that can plug right into most such input jacks. They mention that it is the same size connector as the ones that come with Dell laptop bricks.
Teradak is also coming out with smaller Linear PSU (= smaller than their current offering), with (direct) separate cabling for the 19v, 12v, 5v and 3.3v rails. That way, no DC-ATX converter is required. It will also have 200w or 250w output it seems. There's a group-buy going on at computeraudiophile.com. I don't think the first units have been delivered. Teradak doesn't have CE certification, though. Neither do the Keces Linear PSUs. While that will likely be ok, it will be nice to have a unit with CE certification, for extra piece of mind.
Do try out the LPSU. I'm sure you won't be disappointed!
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The new C.A.P.S. v4 "Pipeline" specs were published today at Computeraudiophile.com, and they're now using the HDPlex Linear PSU and HDPlex internal DC-ATX converter to power the server and the SOtM USB card. The previous servers used to use a Red Wine Audio PSU.
It is interesting to note that the Pipeline uses a Streacom FC10 chassis (more pricey, esp. when we add the bigger heat pipes), and not a HDPlex Chassis.
The rest of the specs (motherboard and processor) seem rather excessive to me.
It is interesting to note that the Pipeline uses a Streacom FC10 chassis (more pricey, esp. when we add the bigger heat pipes), and not a HDPlex Chassis.
The rest of the specs (motherboard and processor) seem rather excessive to me.
I had a good friend stay over with me the last weekend. Soulmate (the Blues band) were playing in my city on sunday, and we're both big fans. He's also quite friendly with the band itself, so I was able to meet them too! We had a great time at the concert.
We also had some fun photographing my setup. (I had fun watching him doing his thing, actually). I've never really had any good photos taken of my setup before, so I thought I'll share them here!
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We also had some fun photographing my setup. (I had fun watching him doing his thing, actually). I've never really had any good photos taken of my setup before, so I thought I'll share them here!
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Amazing, absolutely[emoji122]
Soundstage
Active Member
Wonderful setup!
Enjoy!!
Enjoy!!
soulforged
Well-Known Member
super cool setup hydra! :clapping::clapping::clapping:
I think the pics just missed the carpet between the speakers and the listening position. It is there in the earlier pics
Thank you, everyone!
Prem, as Naturelover said, there is a (medium thick 4' x 7' natural cotton) carpet/rug between the speakers and the listening position. It is somewhat visible in the first picture, but could be easily missed because it's all dark in there, heh heh.
Prem, as Naturelover said, there is a (medium thick 4' x 7' natural cotton) carpet/rug between the speakers and the listening position. It is somewhat visible in the first picture, but could be easily missed because it's all dark in there, heh heh.
Oh yes, that's the carpet, and I thought that was some blemish in the picture[emoji16]. Should have known better[emoji4]
After a long time away from tinkering, I've made a sideways upgrade/some progress: http://www.hifivision.com/home-thea...aspberry-pi-2-media-player-77.html#post712166
I switched transports from my MusicPC to a Raspberry Pi 3B & HifiBerry Digi+ combo with MoOde OS on the Pi. A review and details are in the above thread/post.
The Pi & Hifiberry Digi+ are powered by the HDPlex Linear PSU. Music comes in via wired ethernet into the Pi (from a Hard Drive hooked up to a Router). And the RPi/Digi+ streams data to the Rega DAC via Digital Coaxial output. The Pi/Digi+ is controlled via mPad on an iPad.
I switched transports from my MusicPC to a Raspberry Pi 3B & HifiBerry Digi+ combo with MoOde OS on the Pi. A review and details are in the above thread/post.
The Pi & Hifiberry Digi+ are powered by the HDPlex Linear PSU. Music comes in via wired ethernet into the Pi (from a Hard Drive hooked up to a Router). And the RPi/Digi+ streams data to the Rega DAC via Digital Coaxial output. The Pi/Digi+ is controlled via mPad on an iPad.
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