I am intrigued. I am using a NUC computer which can hold 2 TBits of music. I control it with a nexus 10 using Roon. It is like a jukebox except to get all the metadata that also links musicians, producers etc to their other works. It's a lot easier than looking for a certain Cd out of thousands. Especially as you get old. And no CD cases all over the place.
I go from the NUC pc to a Silanna based USB isolator, thru a corning fiber optic USB cable, then to an interface containing an Amanero USB to i2s, and a Twisted Pear i2s to SPDIF and then to my Theta Gen VIII ser 3. I haven't A/B'b the difference between that and my Theta transport yet. But it sounds good to me so far.
I go from the NUC pc to a Silanna based USB isolator, thru a corning fiber optic USB cable, then to an interface containing an Amanero USB to i2s, and a Twisted Pear i2s to SPDIF and then to my Theta Gen VIII ser 3. I haven't A/B'b the difference between that and my Theta transport yet. But it sounds good to me so far.
Haha, has nothing to do with the technical side, more that Scott has a lot of records. 🙂
Your pipeline should work fine, seems like a lot of conversions, but as long as the data stays intact (and it should), not much to worry about!
Your pipeline should work fine, seems like a lot of conversions, but as long as the data stays intact (and it should), not much to worry about!
annoyingly the Corning fiber optic USB cable isn't galvanically isolated, they have 2 wires alongside the optical cable
I hope you mean TBytes!
If I know I want to listen to a specific piece then yes. But mostly I like staring at the shelves for inspiration and to remember what I have.
Roon intrigues me, it's just the spec of PC it needs that puts me off. My HP microserver does a great job of storing and serving music, films etc and acting as a general backup. One day will take the plunge and try it.
With the isolator box and the conversion box I can isolate the source supply on the cable. My nuc puts out is and HDMI but no spdif. The they does not take us inputs
I run my off arch linux minimal. But Roon now has a standalone OS based on linux that if very minimal. Helps decrease all the noise.
This guy does a lot of measurements: He has shown, in USB transfer, a hub works well:
Archimago's Musings: MEASUREMENTS: Corning USB 3 Optical Cable, Ground Loops, and Noise.
This guy does a lot of measurements: He has shown, in USB transfer, a hub works well:
Archimago's Musings: MEASUREMENTS: Corning USB 3 Optical Cable, Ground Loops, and Noise.
To correct the posting above: *My nuc puts out USB and HDMI but no spdif. The THETA does not take USB inputs* phone auto correct
it never ceases to amaze me the breadth of your musical knowledge, not many people even know of Uncle Bunt, let alone all the other directions you are conversant in.
Cheers
Alan
Cheers
Alan
Scott is always good for giving me new directions to go in.
Da Capo have a half price sale on at the moment Alle rode titler 50 % | Dacapo Records . There is a amazing span from madrigals to the unlistenable.
Da Capo have a half price sale on at the moment Alle rode titler 50 % | Dacapo Records . There is a amazing span from madrigals to the unlistenable.
I spent a lot of time on CA supporting both the Auraliti player and the general computer audio user. I stopped several years ago since it was forking into a real nonsense direction + a very basic direction. There were a dozen or so regular users who are still the busy part and a number of passers by. The time spent arguing over USB cables really put me off. The hot cables really don't even pass the basic USBIF spec. And the nonsense about different Ethernet cables was worse.
I don't understand why you need all that stuff to go from a PC to spdif? A good SPDIF interface will have a transformer isolation. More stuff (especially DIY) will have the potential for lots more EMI. The Corning USB link converts everything inside to a variation on USB3 and back. It still needs power at each end to work. I don't remember if it has wires as well but it might. I have 3 at home I'll check.
If you are focusing on redbook there are many USB to SPDIF converters that would have less monkey motion. Can you connect the I2S directly to the internals of your Theta?
I don't understand why you need all that stuff to go from a PC to spdif? A good SPDIF interface will have a transformer isolation. More stuff (especially DIY) will have the potential for lots more EMI. The Corning USB link converts everything inside to a variation on USB3 and back. It still needs power at each end to work. I don't remember if it has wires as well but it might. I have 3 at home I'll check.
If you are focusing on redbook there are many USB to SPDIF converters that would have less monkey motion. Can you connect the I2S directly to the internals of your Theta?
Yes the Corning cable has a pair or wires for Vcc and GND. But you cannot power anything with them and have to plug into a self powered hub or point. The Amanero handles all formats of digital including 192 and DSP. The The twisted pair has the Wollfson 8804. The theta has RCA, BNC, AES, Toslink and the single mode laser for inputs, all SPDIF. I initially I went with BNC. But I will change out the Theta with a 1 GHz single mode receiver and use it with a 1 GHz Single mode DFB laser transmitter.
Which brings up a point. It has been my experience that signal isolation has a bigger affect on transmission than bandwidth. I am not sure the corning has the bandwidth needed for 7 harmonics NRZ...Maybe they do. I will have to ask. BTW, I was involved with the Theta Single mode transmitter that was actually low bandwidth ( Greater then toslink though) Single Mode fiber couple LED. The DFB type lasers at the time were a couple grand and too pricey for even HiEnd . There was a big different the Single mode LED and the DFB laser as they demonstrated at one CES.
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I, too, have measured a lot of data in the presence of differing amounts of "isolation". I confirm that unsubstantiated claim is improved in the presence of unmeasured amounts of isolation. The hits just keep piling up don't they.
I few post back they were talking about the best way to wire you mains as to limit ground noise and loops, if you have all interconnects isolated, analog, digital, then that issue becomes moot. Fiber optic interconnects do that.
I'm missing something, we demonstrated multi-GHz with a 50 cent VCSEL (die form mass quantity) more than 10 years ago. Don't remember the length but it was ordinary Corning single mode fiber.
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