Advice sought please

peter the butcher

Peter The Butcher
Wammer
Aug 19, 2020
229
156
63
Sleaford
AKA
Peter Allison
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I have a reasonable system now, the only thing that MAYBE letting the side down is my PC. I have an Intel i5 NUC (4 yrs old) and a new 2TB SSD, where i store all 700 of my Flac music files played back via Audirvana 3.5. What would I look to upgrade to? New NUC, Powering chord/system? I use a new https://www.artisansilvercables.com/usb between the PC and PS Dac/Pre
 

tuga

. . .
Wammer
Aug 17, 2007
14,341
7,001
173
Oxen's ford, UK
AKA
Ricardo
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I have a reasonable system now, the only thing that MAYBE letting the side down is my PC. I have an Intel i5 NUC (4 yrs old) and a new 2TB SSD, where i store all 700 of my Flac music files played back via Audirvana 3.5. What would I look to upgrade to? New NUC, Powering chord/system? I use a new https://www.artisansilvercables.com/usb between the PC and PS Dac/Pre

If you've not installed the Bridge II Network Card, then that might be a good option.
 

chris

Wammer
Wammer
Jul 29, 2005
167
43
43
leics, ,
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
If you are happy with the UI and speed of the Nuc you could add a Sonore Optical Rendu which would provide galvanic isolation between the Nuc and dac and act as a network streamer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tuga

tuga

. . .
Wammer
Aug 17, 2007
14,341
7,001
173
Oxen's ford, UK
AKA
Ricardo
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
If you are happy with the UI and speed of the Nuc you could add a Sonore Optical Rendu which would provide galvanic isolation between the Nuc and dac and act as a network streamer.
I was going to suggest a network bridge but then I realised that PS Audio makes an add-on network card for @peter the butcher 's DAC.
 

peter the butcher

Peter The Butcher
Wammer
Aug 19, 2020
229
156
63
Sleaford
AKA
Peter Allison
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I have now decided to keep my intel NUC as is, and just add extra RAM, and will find what the powering is (I think its 19v) and will look into doing something power wise, prob a Linear power supply
 

Cable Monkey

Moderator
Staff member
May 16, 2006
9,069
2,089
158
Birmingham, UK
AKA
Henry
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Hi, my first instinct when I read your OP was that a NUC that age was absolutely fine. Unless you have issues with usability, memory won’t improve playback performance. It is always nice to have but if memory is an issue it will be very evident!
I am not familiar with the latest tranche of hardware out of PS Audio, I have a couple of older pieces and the key to their performance is the i2S via HDMI input they pioneered. What you need is a DDC. USB in, various output formats supported. Companies like Singxer and Matrix Audio make them and the profile of PS Audio means their particular means of i2S over HDMI is well supported. The darling of the PS Audio community is the Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2. It won’t break the bank but it will clean up the USB and convert it to a format that will maximise your Gain Cells performance. If you want to explore power options do it with this rather than the NUC. The MA should cost no more than £400 with the included switched mode PSU. They are being advertised for less on a couple of sites. On a slightly cheaper note, Holo Audio make their in line USB conditioner and that might improve your situation for around £100. That will be an import job though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: peter the butcher

tuga

. . .
Wammer
Aug 17, 2007
14,341
7,001
173
Oxen's ford, UK
AKA
Ricardo
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I have a couple of older pieces and the key to their performance is the i2S via HDMI input they pioneered.
All literature I have read and bench tests I have seen show that i2S via HDMI (or any oter box-to-box interface) is a bad idea. To the best of my knowledge i2s links should be as short as possible (<20mm between boards?).
 

Cable Monkey

Moderator
Staff member
May 16, 2006
9,069
2,089
158
Birmingham, UK
AKA
Henry
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
All literature I have read and bench tests I have seen show that i2S via HDMI (or any oter box-to-box interface) is a bad idea. To the best of my knowledge i2s links should be as short as possible (<20mm between boards?).
The PS Audio is i2S over LVDS. In essence converting to a differential (balanced) signal for launch over the cable. This should give you about a metre of cable to play with before any issues begin to kick in. I use a flat cable by a company called Apollo AV. It is 50cm long and was ‘better’ than a shorter cable of traditional construction. It was also a lot cheaper than boutique cables. Coupled with this is the fact that USB interfaces permit noise unless specifically engineered to avoid the problem. The HDMI interface has no such issues. But it is not smart like USB.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tuga

Lawrence001

Mega Wammer
Wammer
Jul 21, 2015
5,953
3,535
168
London
AKA
Lawrence
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I have a reasonable system now, the only thing that MAYBE letting the side down is my PC. I have an Intel i5 NUC (4 yrs old) and a new 2TB SSD, where i store all 700 of my Flac music files played back via Audirvana 3.5. What would I look to upgrade to? New NUC, Powering chord/system? I use a new https://www.artisansilvercables.com/usb between the PC and PS Dac/Pre
If you've only got 700 flac files on a 2TB SSD I'd spend the money on some more music.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
113,444
Messages
2,451,263
Members
70,783
Latest member
reg66

Latest Articles