[ted_b]

I will soon build something like this, but I'd like to get a leg up now and start ripping discs and eventually LPs onto external hard drives, which I'll do a little at a time on existing computer.

 Any recs as to hard drive brand, size and external enclosures to get me started? I've never owned one and I see fans and fanless on enclosures, but fans have got to be noisy, right? They will eventually live on rack with other gear, probably not accessed remotely.

Thanks, Peter

Peter,
If the drive is local (i.e on your rack or even in your room) stay away from fans.  The next thing to look for in external enclosures is capacity.  Roughly what size do you see your library getting to in, say 6 months.  Format (compressed lossless vs uncompressed) is a factor in that, of course.  I'd say places like Oyen digital is a good place to start.  They have silent 2.5" smaller form factor external hdds and offer a myriad of interfaces.  If you are truly building my example, then either USB 2.0 or ethernet NAS are your options.  But other mobos offer things like eSATA, so having an external drive that has both USB 2.0 and eSATA would be nice for flexibility.

[jtwrace]

Ted

I wonder if it pays to install a FW card (per Chris' BOM) for HD use if one is going to use a USB Dac.  This way one doesn't tax the USB ports.  I know on a Mac this is how it's done.

Thoughts?

[ted_b]

My feeling is that the USb ports are separated from the dedicated PCIe USB SOtM card, so i don't think they trip on each other, but I could be wrong.  I'm not sure where you'd install it.  Chris used it as INSTEAD of SOtM USB, not in conjunction (and his CAPS V2 was a jetway mobo too).

[ted_b]

So, as I stated in an edited response on page one, the CAPS v2+ is a small lower powered minimalist machine that did not perform well in J River's benchmark tests.   However, it handled a 7 minute 300 MB DSD file (converted on the fly to 24/176 by J River) without a hiccup or mid-song buffer;  yet I'd  recommend a different approach to DSD-PCM.

After looking at the results I have come to some initial conclusions:
*  I believe one of the reasons this CAPS server sounds so good is its minimalist design, it's low power, and it's robust USB rf filtering and overall noise filtration (mainly coming from the highly engineered SOtM USB card). 
*  I find Fidelizer and/or significant Windows 8 services optimizations (i.e disabling a majority of Windows services) to have a significant effect on sonics, likely due, again, to keeping the small footprint dedicated to audio only.
*  I recommend that any DSD-to-PCM conversion be done offline due to the heavy cpu requirements of such on-the-fly conversion.  Although the CAPS passed the first DSD-to-PCM test, I am not convinced it did so without tremendous effort. This offline recommendation requires addtl storage, however.

Net/net, this will not be my multichannel server.  It's too underpowered.  But keep it in its wheelhouse and you get the best digital I've heard, whether a 300MB DSD file or a 400 MB 24/192 track.

[TJHUB]

My feeling is that the USb ports are separated from the dedicated PCIe USB SOtM card, so i don't think they trip on each other, but I could be wrong.  I'm not sure where you'd install it.  Chris used it as INSTEAD of SOtM USB, not in conjunction (and his CAPS V2 was a jetway mobo too).

The SOtM card's USB ports have direct processor access bypassing the normal shared USB ports on the main board. 

Apparently FW doesn't suffer from the same issues as USB, so a FW card in place of the SOtM USB is supposedly very good. 

[jtwrace]

Net/net, this will not be my multichannel server.  It's too underpowered.  But keep it in its wheelhouse and you get the best digital I've heard, whether a 300MB DSD file or a 400 MB 24/192 track.

So what will you use then?

[jtwrace]

The SOtM card's USB ports have direct processor access bypassing the normal shared USB ports on the main board. 

Apparently FW doesn't suffer from the same issues as USB, so a FW card in place of the SOtM USB is supposedly very good.

OK. What about my concern of using two USB devices though?  Rather then one USB and one FW?

[ted_b]

So what will you use then?

Dunno yet

[jtwrace]

Dunno yet

So you will use it for 2 ch audio only though or not?

[ted_b]

Oh yes!  It is the best; it has made my system the best, most musical yet detailed system I've ever heard.  It is a complete success IMHO.

[Russtafarian]

Thanks for checking Ted.  I get what you're saying.  The purpose of CAPS V2+ is to play back native files as well as possible, not transcode DSD to PCM on the fly.  This is good to know.  It helps to adjust expectations as to what it can and can't do.

Russ

[04dgmsilv]

I'd like to thank Ted (and those who inspired him) for outlining this build.  I built this with the Mushkin mSATA SSD and a Firewire card (Vantec, VIA chipset), such a simple clean build.  My files are stored on a server and streamed to the PC then on to the Mytek via FW.  I still have to put together a linear power supply, and figure out my way around JRMC (plus optimizing Windows , but even now this is showing great potential.

Can't wait to delve in deeper into streaming DSD too, good stuff!

[ted_b]

Thanks 04dgmsilv.  Nice to see a firewire version.

Here is a nice primer on how to build great views in J River.  It is easier than it looks, cuz he steps you through granularly for the complete newbie.
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68960.0

To make this view available to JRemote, you'll want to simply customize the WebGizmo views (Tools > Options > Media Network > Advanced > Customize views for Gizmo & WebGizmo...).  You just add a new section under Audio, selecting this "Library Item from Standard View".

[TJHUB]

Thanks 04dgmsilv.  Nice to see a firewire version.

Here is a nice primer on how to build great views in J River.  It is easier than it looks, cuz he steps you through granularly for the complete newbie.
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68960.0

To make this view available to JRemote, you'll want to simply customize the WebGizmo views (Tools > Options > Media Network > Advanced > Customize views for Gizmo & WebGizmo...).  You just add a new section under Audio, selecting this "Library Item from Standard View".

Thanks for posting this. I've been meaning to ask you about how to do this since seeing you post about it on another forum.  I'll check it out tonight.

[ted_b]

Here is a small Ted primer    I've circled, in red, anything appropriate



First click on Audio tree, then go to view_>add view->add library view, and pick empty one
give it a name (mine is "24 bit hirez")
change "view as" to categories (so you can see album art)..it's a pull-down pick
add sorted fields.  the sort order is the view order (i.e mine shows artists, then you pick albums, then if albums are available in multiple sample rates, you pick them).  Experiment.
add any rules under "set rules for file display" (my only rule was bit depth.  My DSD view differs simply in that my only rule was "file type is DSF", and I had no sample rate field).
add "show alphabet" if you have large lists to browse
Done!

(Note:  sorry, not sure why my image is so small.  It isn't a small jpg at all.  So I chopped it down to the important area of the screen))

[PeteG]

To make this view available to JRemote, you'll want to simply customize the WebGizmo views (Tools > Options > Media Network > Advanced > Customize views for Gizmo & WebGizmo...).  You just add a new section under Audio, selecting this "Library Item from Standard View".

Yes, thank you for the tips. I'm using jriver now on my Mac (partition/win7) and I'm surprised how much more jriver has (also jremote).

[ted_b]

Other good things to know in J River, especially for advanced bulk tagging techniques:

* the expression language.  things like =fixcase([field-name]) will remove all caps that often come from DSD rips, etc.  So highlighting an album whose song names are all caps, and putting =fixcase([name]) in the tag area for name takes on the default capitalization rule (Capitalize first letter of important words).

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Media_Center_expression_language





* shortcuts for adding or appending to field names, like album names.  That way searches are so much easier, especailly if you have albums that are available in a variety of versions.

    =[Album] /(DSD/) puts (DSD) after the album name.  So, when I import several albums i simply highlight them all and put that command in the tag area for album.  As long as you start with the equals sign it will not over-write the album name.  If you mess up, just go up to edit and "undo".  The forward slashes escape using the parentheses (cuz parentheses, by themselves, are metacharacters and mean something in the expression language).  So this changes Sea Change to Sea Change (DSD), and allows me to see my Sea Change, Sea Change (24/88) and Sea Change (DSD).  It's great for huge bulk appends.

[jtwrace]

Do I need to use a wired USB keyboard to get this all going? 

[ted_b]

Jason,
Yes, and a display...at least to get bios updated, then Windows installed.  Once I got to that point I installed Spalshtop (VNC) and then put the headless server in its final rack position and did everything else via my desktop via Splashtop.  Then any small changes can be done via iPad, etc.  Most of my real work on it is via the desktop Splashtop though (real keyboard, real mouse, etc).  Or in place of Splashtop use remote desktop services.

[jtwrace]

OK.  Guess I got to go buy one.