Here’s what I currently have:
My main computer built in 2012 w/ gigabyte Mobo and E3 xeon chip, 8 gig Ram and 2 HD’s (no ssd’s) Running windows 10 64 and Jriver 23. My DAC is a firewire fed from pcie card to a Mackie blackbird DA/AD interface which will stay part of this computer for REW measurements and recording…
My plan:
I told myself to buy a dac last and although I still don’t have a preamp I’m buying a new dac. Everything else is in place, speakers amps… It is now a revealing system. The dac I’m getting, (Gustard x26 pro) according to a reviewer, says it’s not that noticeable of an improvement when adding a preamp with this dac. Like better cables that will come down the road.
From what I read and watched about a server and an audio player combo is that it is the best way to get low noise / jitter and so on having the server do file management and the player doing only usb out playback. I don’t have a LAN switch. I was thinking of connecting the two pc’s directly with a LAN and have both pc’s running windows 10 and Jriver. I know Jriver can be set to play both roles. I decided to go with windows because I already have a Jriver windows license and I don’t want to learn a new OS right now. One less variable.
Here’s what I bought/on it’s way:
Jetway NF894G32 mini ITX with Celeron J3455 chip
Crucial 8 gig DDR3L 1866 ram
Intel 660p M.2 512G SSD
Case
Windows 10 64
Planning on buying:
Gustard X26 Pro
Matrix Element H USB Pcie card
Matrix usb cable
Small Green Computer 5v-12v 25 watt linear power supply with (2) outputs.
My questions:
The only thing I could find on the Jetway is that the processor is 10 watts. The USB card (> or = 1200 mA) will be powered by the external PSU so aside from the M.2 card and RAM nothing else will be plugged into it. I’m guessing that 25 watt will be enough but it’s only a guess. Anyone have any experience with these? Any other comments, tips or tricks would be appreciated.
My main computer built in 2012 w/ gigabyte Mobo and E3 xeon chip, 8 gig Ram and 2 HD’s (no ssd’s) Running windows 10 64 and Jriver 23. My DAC is a firewire fed from pcie card to a Mackie blackbird DA/AD interface which will stay part of this computer for REW measurements and recording…
My plan:
I told myself to buy a dac last and although I still don’t have a preamp I’m buying a new dac. Everything else is in place, speakers amps… It is now a revealing system. The dac I’m getting, (Gustard x26 pro) according to a reviewer, says it’s not that noticeable of an improvement when adding a preamp with this dac. Like better cables that will come down the road.
From what I read and watched about a server and an audio player combo is that it is the best way to get low noise / jitter and so on having the server do file management and the player doing only usb out playback. I don’t have a LAN switch. I was thinking of connecting the two pc’s directly with a LAN and have both pc’s running windows 10 and Jriver. I know Jriver can be set to play both roles. I decided to go with windows because I already have a Jriver windows license and I don’t want to learn a new OS right now. One less variable.
Here’s what I bought/on it’s way:
Jetway NF894G32 mini ITX with Celeron J3455 chip
Crucial 8 gig DDR3L 1866 ram
Intel 660p M.2 512G SSD
Case
Windows 10 64
Planning on buying:
Gustard X26 Pro
Matrix Element H USB Pcie card
Matrix usb cable
Small Green Computer 5v-12v 25 watt linear power supply with (2) outputs.
My questions:
The only thing I could find on the Jetway is that the processor is 10 watts. The USB card (> or = 1200 mA) will be powered by the external PSU so aside from the M.2 card and RAM nothing else will be plugged into it. I’m guessing that 25 watt will be enough but it’s only a guess. Anyone have any experience with these? Any other comments, tips or tricks would be appreciated.
25w might be a bit low. TDP rating is for pretty much no load these days. Here is a test using a similar setup - same CPU: Power Consumption and Thermal Performance - Intel NUC6CAYH (Arches Canyon) Apollo Lake UCFF PC Review
You don't want to starve these things, even if it's for small spikes in load.
You don't want to starve these things, even if it's for small spikes in load.
I bought the parts and I can’t get it to beep or get anything out of the hdmi port. I did jetways recommend bare bones test with nothing but ram and swapped the two ram sticks out trying one in each slot with same results. When all the ram is out it does beep continually. I contacted jetway 7 days ago with no reply. I also tried two power supplies. 80w and a 50w. The 80w has a range of voltage from 12-24 which is within range of the 12-36v that the mobo accepts. Voltage changes did not matter. The led next to the power button pins light up. Last ditch effort I touched the reset bios pins to see if that would do anything and same thing. I also took the battery out for a min. And the case power led stopped working but still nothing. The cpu heat sink does get warm after 5+ min. Anyone have any ideas other than return it if I don’t hear from them in 2 more business days.
Got ahold of Jetway finally. He said it’s the ram and that crucial tends to be sketchy with their motherboards. I went to a local pc shop swapped it out for crucial DDR3L 1600 (all they carry) and it works.
75% there now and so far there’s been big improvements. I have the two computers connected with LAN (not a crossover cable either) I don’t have the matrix element h usb card yet so It’s going out the jetway usb with a generic cable. I do have the Gustard x26 pro dac. Also, just cheep switching power supply on the jetway right now. After some time getting river MC 23 to actually work correctly as a server and player (I actually had to put a track on a usb stick and play it from the player pc to make it play the first song... strange, after that it worked). When trouble shooting the jriver 23 they say first thing make sure you have the latest version... I might get 28 later but I doubt that was the problem.
The big difference so far:
With nothing playin it’s at least 10 times quieter. Zero hiss out of the tweeter and just slight out of the midrange. I have a hybrid tube mid amp so it could be the tube but this setup is dead quiet.
The big difference so far:
With nothing playin it’s at least 10 times quieter. Zero hiss out of the tweeter and just slight out of the midrange. I have a hybrid tube mid amp so it could be the tube but this setup is dead quiet.
Update: I switched the matrix element usb card back to the main computer, so no jetway, and the soundstage an dynamics are better. Noise is still almost nothing so that must be the usb card/ Dac combo. I’m keeping it this way.