Music in the Round #79 Contact Info

Sidebar 2: Contact Info

SOtM, 202 (Ssangyong-Dong), 84-9, Wolbong 4-ro, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, 31171 Korea. Tel: (82) 41-576-7663. Fax: (82) 41-576-7664. Web: www.sotm-audio.com. US distributor: Simple Design LLC (Sonore). Web: www.sotm.sonore.us.

Highend-AudioPC, Switzerland. Web: www.highend-audiopc.com

COMMENTS
mtymous1's picture

Connaker wrote about the software side (Windows Server Essentials 2012 R2 and Audiophile Optimizer) in this article last year:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/652-audiophile-optimizer-raises-bar/

The step-by-step is available here:
http://www.highend-audiopc.com/

ksalno's picture

Kal,
I bought one of these with the power supply and upgraded USB card last year. It works as advertised and as you described. It sounds pretty good, although I have a CAPS server running a similar configuration of software that sounds just as good and cost half as much. However, you are right to point out that the hardware is woefully under-sized for such an expensive box. As long as all you want to do is run Roon Server under AO optimized Win 12 Server it works. If you start trying to add things like Room Correction, UpSampling, or other optimizers - it runs out of gas very quickly. HQPlayer - forget about it! Same for Dirac or Acourate Convolver. It just doesn't have the HP to do any sort of complex processing. It is probably best suited to the be the AudioPC in a dual PC setup using JPlayer and something with a lot more power to do all the heavy lifting prior to sending the audio stream to the SoTM for streaming to the DAC. I never tried it in this config because for me, it's too expensive to use that way. Other manufactuers have put out much cheaper devices for doing this type of light weight streaming.

jumbleknot's picture

Kal,
I found this article very interesting. I have two questions around the use of the tX-USBexp:

1. The exaSound e28 advertises “Time–smearing jitter, that killer of realistic temporal reproduction, has been pushed down to miraculously low levels via the ZeroJitter™ asynchronous USB interface.” Since you are using a DAC with an asynchronous USB interface, I am unclear as to the primary benefit of the tX-USBexp. Is the “ultra-low jitter clock” in the tX-USBexp even meaningful when hooked up to a DAC via asynchronous USB? Is the primary benefit the “special filter circuits” and “Ultra low-noise Voltage regulator” that the tX-USBexp also advertises?

2. In November 2015 you wrote an article on the UpTone Audio USB Regen. I know you weren’t able to test this with your exaSound e28, but I am wondering how the UpTone compares with the tX-USBexp. It sounds like they are performing similar functions, but the UpTone can be easily added to an existing server at roughly one third the price (roughly one tenth the price if you consider the sPS-1000 power supply as part of the equation).

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Kal Rubinson's picture

It is not clear to me that either of these devices has a substantial effect when using the e28. In the case of the tX-USBexp, however, I do know that it gets the USB output separate (directly from the motherboard) from other USB devices which I might use simultaneously and, thereby, avoids interaction with them. Whether the independent power supply is a further help is not clear but the Regen made no substantial change.

jumbleknot's picture

Kal,
Where/how do you get your multichannel FLAC files and other digital multichannel files? I really enjoy multichannel music, but my only real source is via SACD and Blu-Ray (the former I am not aware of how to rip to my computer, and the latter is almost entirely video concerts that I rip to MKV files). I have a large library of 2 channel FLAC files ripped from CD or downloaded from HDTracks and PonoMusic. I would really like to be able to have a digital multichannel music library that is similar to my 2 channel digital music library.
Thanks for the help!

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