Any Sotm 200 users in Delhi

Wharfedale EVO 4.4 Floorstanding Speakers
sidvee said:
Well the tx-usbhub costs approx $350 to the $450 for the sms200, so maybe the clock in that is better, hence their recommendation. Also they have their tx-usb ultra which at $900 is highly regarded and perhaps will sound better than the tx-usbhub (I have been told by a friend who uses this as part of music pc, that the sound is very analog like).
Cheers,
Sid
Click to expand...
I tried it without the hub. I definitely prefer the hub. I guess the sms200 with the tx-ushub would have performance approaching the ultra which is supposed to have a better clock. I am looking into getting the tx-USbultra. Regardless of my experience with the sms200 I have had great results from the sotm usb hubs and the usb cards, both my computers use either the tx-usb hub or the internal tx-usbexp.
Cheers,
Sid
 
sidvee said:
I tried it without the hub. I definitely prefer the hub. I guess the sms200 with the tx-ushub would have performance approaching the ultra which is supposed to have a better clock. I am looking into getting the tx-USbultra. Regardless of my experience with the sms200 I have had great results from the sotm usb hubs and the usb cards, both my computers use either the tx-usb hub or the internal tx-usbexp.
Cheers,
Sid
Click to expand...

Hi Sid
The usb hub you are referring to , is it a DDC converter which converts usb to AES or coaxial digital ?
 
sidvee said:
No Rikhav it is like a usb conditioner/regenerator, with reclocking. Output is USB.
Cheers,
Sid
Click to expand...

Ok got it
So basically SOTM's take on uptone regen or w4s recovery
Add ifi imicro usb to the list as well :)
There are some more whose names I can't recollect

But it's better to stick obe company I feel

@panditji
Coming to the topic for whhch this thread was created for
I will ask JK of absolute sound Surat if he has any dealer in Delhi
If he has one then he can surely arrange something by which you can have a home demo of SOTM

Absolute sound is the india dealer for SOTM
 
I did a bit more research. Maybe I am stepping into a proverbial puddle of s*!t or maybe not - like I said in some earlier posts -I am an entire novice in Networking for audio. Anyways there are many posts in other forums stating that the router is a major weak point in an audio based network. Well in my case it appears logically insignificant as I use the router mainly to control the sms200, the audio file storage is connected directly to the sotm by usb. However is there any benefit to 1) Buying a router optimized for audio (if such a beast exists, other than my generic tplink router) 2) Connecting a linear power supply to router rather than the supplied wall wart (a lot of posts about this being useful) 3) Getting a sotm - isocat6 device that is suppose to eliminate noise?
I don't even want to get into higher end cat 6 cables. (When I first got into computer audio I posted on this forum 4-5 years ago, asking about usb cables in the $150 range and was soundly abused by many users as if I was retarded - now however nobody thinks twice about a $100 or even $300 usb cable - indeed how things change when usage matures and something that is ridiculed becomes accepted norm!).
Cheers,
Sid
 
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I keep hearing this "linear power supply" mentioned multiple times here across posts. A "linear power supply" is a generic term. What exactly are we referring to here? Am just very curious to know. Anyone?
 
sidvee said:
2) Connecting a linear power supply to router rather than the supplied wall wart (a lot of posts about this being useful) 3) Getting a sotm - isocat6 device that is suppose to eliminate noise?
Sid
Click to expand...
Linear power supply to router is useful only when You are using NAS or in other words , music is flowing through router. In your case hard disk is attached to SOTM . May be you should try one of the player given by SOTM, Like squeexbox, play it through mobile or PC. If you have doubts setting it up, PM me your call details, I am not in India right now, so will call you.
 
Only 2 issues a router can cause are 1. Packet Drop 2. Packet delay. In a home network these two are very unlikely especially when used for controlling the endpoint. Even if it is used for transferring music file while playback it should not cause any issues.

As far as I am concerned Streamer / Music PC used with local content performs only decoding of the file and just need to transfer to the DAC for playback. As long as the player has good enough CPU / Memory and gets adequate time to decode the files should be sufficient for music playback.
 
Apologies to Panditji to hijack his thread, but I guess since we are discussing optimizing the sotm 200 maybe these posts are useful. If not I will start a different thread (Mods. please advice). Ok playing the devils advocate here (not really necessary because I am novice anyways so don't know enough of this to be an advocate of anything :D), is it likely that any spurious electrical based noise can travel along the cat6 to the sotm 200 due to use of a wall wart at the router and if so will it adversely effect the performance of the sotm 200? Not sure what type of signals other than data travel along cat6 cables. Note this was a similar discussion to usb cables early on, and since then we have seen many remedies to this i.e; detaching the power part of usb cable, 2 headed usb cables etc.
Cheers,
Sid
 
Here is a link for a reasonable priced router for audio application. The TP link Tl-SG105 is only Rs. 2K on amazon. Can I use this with the sotm? I will use my Hdplex LPSU to power it. Please note I am not worried about the Rs. 2k, but rather if I can just drop it in place of my other TP link router the TL-WR841N wireless router without having to mess with ip address fixing etc. I just got my system stable with J-river etc. after messing with it for 3 days so don't want to screw it up if I don't have to.
http://www.klinktbeter.be/index.php/specials/highend-switch
Cheers,
Sid
 
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If the model you are referring here is TP Link TL-SG105, it is just a GigE switch not even a router. Only function that is relevant to Audio/Video is as mentioned in their website "802.1p and DSCP QoS enable smooth latency-sensitive traffic such as voice and video, and IGMP Snooping optimizes the Multicast data stream". A well made switch typically works at line rate (A Gigabit switch should work without any hiccup for Ggabit per second traffic). Traffic prioritization is useful only when the amount of data flowing through the switch is significantly higher. Also I don't believe there is any benefit with a better power supply like LPSU to power a router the least.

In my opinion all you need is a reliable router or switch (With GigE ports if you use for DSD files). Typically switch capacity (Speed) is mentioned as Bits per seconds while the file size is in bytes. So a GigE switch will work at 1GigE/8 bytes per second speed. If you want to transfer more data than that they you would need a special switch like 10G etc. But I doubt for normal audio if we ever need anything more than 100Mbps speed.
 
I also use something similar - a D-Link network switch. The switch is located on my audio rack and handles network management from my Control PC to my Audio PC mainly (also an AppleTV). I have to say that using a switch tremendously improved the latency of my network especially when playing high rate PCM and DSD.

I also have an HDPlex LPS which powers a USB Regen. I have never got round to power the network switch with the LPS until thanks to this thread, I finally pulled out the rack and added the cable to the spare 5V power rail at the back of the HDPlex. Given what a pain it is to switch power supplies, I have not done a back and forth comparison between using the LPS and the default wall wort D-Link SMPS that comes with the switch. Listening has been with the LPS supplying power to the switch.

Here are my observations with all the usual disclaimers (my system etc) ...

It seems to me the leading edge of transients/notes have more clarity and delicacy.
The bass seems to have gained a touch more "energy" or bloom (not sure if I like this)

Tablas and guitar strings are clear and delicate.
Brush work in jazz is clearer and has more definition.

These are changes in nuance that are subtle and need to be confirmed with some further listening.

As always ... your mileage may vary.

Regards.


.
 
Dheeraj bhai
This is indeed a very good music server

The cd drive I think can only rip audio CDs to its internal drive
 
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Purchase the Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier at a special offer price.

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