My new CAPS V2+ build; best digital I've heard

jtwrace · « **Reply #60 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 01:20 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 21 Oct 2012, 01:15 pm

Jason,
Thanks for the pics. You can remove that fan too.

Done. I've installed JRiver MC18. I can't get over how quick this machine is for a Windows machine.

HAL · « **Reply #61 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 01:26 pm »

Hey, Windows is pretty good these days.

I think you are going to like it!

PeteG · « **Reply #62 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 01:46 pm »

Jason,
What are you using to power the CAPS?

jtwrace · « **Reply #63 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 01:50 pm »

Quote from: PeteG on 21 Oct 2012, 01:46 pm

Jason,
What are you using to power the CAPS?

For all the setup stuff I'm just using an old switcher. I have a LPSU that I built though that I currently use on my Mac Mini that I'll use.

ted_b · « **Reply #64 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 02:06 pm »

So here is a quick rough "get you started" J River MC18 screen grab compilation. All this work is done via Tools->options
(These screen grabs came from my desktop MC18, not CAPS so I am using ASIO on desktop, WASAPI-EVENT Style on CAPS.)

Red setup is Audio.
There are sub menus for the two radio buttons under output. Setup includes DSD bitstreaming (if applicable). If doing up or down converting then go to DSP output and formats screen. it's pretty intuitive. NOTE: DSD downconverting requires you to pick the category "over 192k" and then you pick your sample rate you want DSD down converted to.

Green setup shows where to select Media Center on startup. This is for jremote users; this way the GUI screen doesn't come up (but is available if needed)

Blue setup is where you click and it gives you a random unique access key. This key will be asked for in jremote's initial setup (similar to when you ask Apple remote to synch to iTunes the first time).

Orange setup is the place where, later, for advanced users, you take your customized views and add them to jremote (nice feature, easier than it looks). I have a small tutorial earlier in this thread, or here:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/j-river-tips-and-techniques-user-experiences-repository-13684/

ted_b · « **Reply #65 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 02:28 pm »

Finally, now that JRMC18 is set up, it's time to add music.

Brown setup is to allow MC18 to see and constantly monitor (auto-import) your music files. You can point to internal drives, local external drives, or NAS (mine). So my process is to rip or download new music on my desktop machine, clean up, add to my NAS (which is available to my home network) and have MC18 monitor it. It usually takes about a minute or two for newly added music to show up in my MC18's. Then I'll clean the tags if needed.

ted_b · « **Reply #66 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 08:03 pm »

I have updated the initial post to remind folks that:
1) you need to have a keyboard, monitor and mouse for the intial install
2) in order to use a remote like jremote the CAPS needs to be connected to the home network (ethernet cable).

jtwrace · « **Reply #67 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 08:10 pm »

Thanks Ted!

My CAPS V2+ is playing as I type this. I must say that I really like MC18. Very well done.

Might go ahead and sell my CAPS though and stick with my Mini for what I want to do.

ted_b · « **Reply #68 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 08:16 pm »

Quote from: jtwrace on 21 Oct 2012, 08:10 pm

Thanks Ted!

My CAPS V2+ is playing as I type this. I must say that I really like MC18. Very well done.

Might go ahead and sell my CAPS though and stick with my Mini for what I want to do.

I understand (reformat external drives since you were using OSX extended, etc). Your CAPS is a nice one, since it has both the larger 120GB mSATA SSD and uses the full (unsupported but obviously works) 8GB of memory. Nice!! That's a CAPS I'd buy in a NY minute if I didn't have mine.

jtwrace · « **Reply #69 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 08:24 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 21 Oct 2012, 08:16 pm

I understand (reformat external drives since you were using OSX extended, etc). Your CAPS is a nice one, since it has both the larger 120GB mSATA SSD and uses the full (unsupported but obviously works) 8GB of memory. Nice!! That's a CAPS I'd buy in a NY minute if I didn't have mine.

Yeah, but it sounds really good.

highfilter · « **Reply #70 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 08:36 pm »

Anyone know much about the difference between the SOtM tX-USBexp and the SOtM tX-USB card? Which version have you been using in the CAPS V2+?

Looks like the USBexp is USB 3.0, has more filters (?), mentions better clock performance, external power input, but may not work with some older DACs?

Any thoughts on using this card instead of the SOtM tX-USB card?

Just came across this model so just wondering if anyone knows much about it.

ted_b · « **Reply #71 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 08:55 pm »

Quote from: highfilter on 21 Oct 2012, 08:36 pm

Anyone know much about the difference between the SOtM tX-USBexp and the SOtM tX-USB card? Which version have you been using in the CAPS V2+?

Looks like the USBexp is USB 3.0, has more filters (?), mentions better clock performance, external power input, but may not work with some older DACs?

Any thoughts on using this card instead of the SOtM tX-USB card?

Just came across this model so just wondering if anyone knows much about it.

I have detailed the ingredients in this CAPS server, and mentioned more than once that the card used is the PCie version (SOtM USBexp). Why? Simple. Because the card is PCIe and the mobo is PCIe. The other older larger PCI card won't work, won't fit. The newer card is smaller, has only one USB port, but slightly better filtering. I can't imagine why a DAC would prefer one vs the other. You have detailed the remaining differences. I use the other SOtM-TX USB card is my Auralaiti PK90USB (soon for sale; I do not need 3 servers)

highfilter · « **Reply #72 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 08:57 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 21 Oct 2012, 08:55 pm

I have detailed the ingredients in this CAPS server, and mentioned more than once that the card used is the PCie version (SOtM USBexp). Why? Simple. Because the card is PCIe and the mobo is PCIe. The other older larger PCI card won't work, won't fit. The newer card is smaller, has only one USB port, but slightly better filtering. I can't imagine why a DAC would prefer one vs the other. You have detailed the remaining differences. I use the other SOtM-TX USB card is my Auralaiti PK90USB (soon for sale; I do not need 3 servers)

Doh, thanks Ted. Totally wasn't paying attention to PCI versus PCIe.

jtwrace · « **Reply #73 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 09:16 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 21 Oct 2012, 08:16 pm

uses the full (unsupported but obviously works) 8GB of memory. Nice!! That's a CAPS I'd buy in a NY minute if I didn't have mine.

Below is the screen shot showing the RAM. Yeah, if I was starting from scratch I think I'd go this route but between buying more drives and such I'm not so sure it would be wise.

It does sound good though.

ted_b · « **Reply #74 on:** 22 Oct 2012, 03:25 pm »

In this exciting (ok, read: sometimes confusing

) world of computer audio I have come to realize that it is better for Fidelizer to do its thing (takes about 30 seconds) BEFORE any player is loaded. Well, I want J river to load with Windows starup, and I want J river to load as Media Server (no GUI) so I was in a bit of a conundrum.

I solved my second issue first. I have changed the J River options to Windows Startup -> none. Then I found the wonderful Windows feature called Task Scheduler. I followed the wizard and created a simple task. Task scheduler is in Control Panel/Adminstrative Services/Task Scheduler. Create a basic task, tell it to start a program, choose “when my computer starts”, browse in System32 folder (Task sched's default folder, which is nice cuz that's where MC18.exe actually starts from anyway) for MC18 app and use the text " /MediaServer" as an addendum/argument (it's all wizard based). Then click on Show properties and hit finish. In the properties screen go to trigger tag and add a 2 minute delay (delay is programmable for any time period). Done.

Now that J River as Media Server autostarts with a delay of 2 minutes I can manually run Fidelizer then have J River start. My next little project is to either udnerstand what Fidelizer does to re-prioritze streams, etc or simply use Clickoff (Windows robot) to automate starting Fidelizer. Stay tuned.

ted_b · « **Reply #75 on:** 28 Oct 2012, 05:06 pm »

STOP THE PRESSES (temporarily)

I am putting this caveat on the post regarding Windows tweaks. Now that Windows 8 Pro ($40 upgrade, allows ISO and clean install, do NOT do anything but clean install) is out it seems that the disabling of services that Terry and I have documented might be hampering Windows Upgrade Assistant and subsequent download to progress properly. I undid everything (20 min process) and it proceeded fine; not sure what disabled service or turned-off-Windows-feature caused the problem.

One needs to do the downloading upgrade process on the host computer (i.e 64 bit CAPS) or another 64 bit computer in the house, or the download will be 32 bit.

ALSO, Fidelizer sounds basically just as good with a stock Windows setup as with a tweaked one (but without Fidelizer the tweaked one sounds better). Until we know why I'd hold off doing the Windows 8 tweaks. SORRY..I said proceed at your own risk.

For those of you fine with the Win 8 preview until late January, feel free to tweak. And Terry and I have discovered how to auto run with Fidelizer and J RIver, so I will post that later on.

Alexdad54 · « **Reply #76 on:** 30 Oct 2012, 11:22 pm »

I currently have an Alix-based MPD setup but this looks very interesting.
One newbie question which I can't seem to find an answer for; I can see the need for the SoTM SATA filter but if you're feeding USB out from the CAPS PC to a USB-SPDIF converter (I have an Art Legato) do you still need the SoTM card? Wouldn't the converter handle the USB-related issues before the signal gets to the DAC?

ted_b · « **Reply #77 on:** 31 Oct 2012, 01:12 am »

Quote from: Alexdad54 on 30 Oct 2012, 11:22 pm

I currently have an Alix-based MPD setup but this looks very interesting.
One newbie question which I can't seem to find an answer for; I can see the need for the SoTM SATA filter but if you're feeding USB out from the CAPS PC to a USB-SPDIF converter (I have an Art Legato) do you still need the SoTM card? Wouldn't the converter handle the USB-related issues before the signal gets to the DAC?

The latest build does NOT use a SotM SATA filter, it uses the mSATA SSD card which plugs directly into a mini PCie slot on the motherboard. And iff you are using a USB-to-SPIF converter then the SotM USB card does less of what you are spendng the extra $$ for, but it is still incredibly clean and quiet, much better than the mobo USB slots.

jtwrace · « **Reply #78 on:** 31 Oct 2012, 01:20 am »

Quote from: ted_b on 31 Oct 2012, 01:12 am

The latest build does NOT use a SotM SATA filter, it uses the mSATA SSD card which plugs directly into a mini PCie slot on the motherboard. And iff you are using a USB-to-SPIF converter then the SotM USB card does less of what you are spendng the extra $$ for, but it is still incredibly clean and quiet, much better than the mobo USB slots.

He can see pics here http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=110836.0

04dgmsilv · « **Reply #79 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 11:56 am »

I've been able to spend some more time with my version of the CAPS V2+ and combined with the mytek (via FW) is the best I have heard digital in my system. Right on par with my analog setup, very very happy.

A few pics of my build, I put the whole thing in the smallest wesnea case (I like that small form factor).