Music Server Gapless Playback, Shielding & LPSU

Continuing A Dedicated Music Server Journey (Part 6)

My next items to address with the server are getting around to shielding the internal cables, and preparing for adding in a linear power supply to replace the existing one. However first, following on from my previous post, Vortexbox have now upgraded the install package to include an option to auto-install Squeezeplay (and disable Vortexplayer) via Yum – which is fantastic. Vortexplayer is reportedly gapless now also, however I believe that is determined more by the hardware implementation of the DAC manufacturer, and so may not be truly gapless 100% of the time. Regarding Vortexplayer being gapless, in the case of the Bel Canto series devices for example, they are very forgiving and have a longish delay when the signal drops before they react and need to relock the sample rate, etc.

The Focal SM9 Joy Continues...

Focal SM9

A few days on (see my previous post) and well I was continuing to be amazed by these Studio monitors and am being drawn even more to the music – at the time they were nearing the upper end of the 20 hours initial running in period at medium to higher volumes that is recommended to get them loosened up – and while I have not perceived any major shift in the sound ‘quality’ the music (as opposed to the ‘system’) they just seemed to get more compelling the more I listened!

Listening to The Eagles, “Hotel California”, in 24bit/192kHz resolution I’ve never heard the drums sound like they did on the title track – you can feel the tautness of the drumhead, feels like the drum kit is right beside you in the sense of the ‘realness’ and texture of the sound…

The Joys Of Discovering Focal SM9s

Several people who know me thought I might have lost my mind, had a psychosis, or been otherwise mentally impaired! I appeared to be mindlessly selling off all my audiophile & HT gear for no good reason, and being known for careful consideration and cautious analysis of any new purchase this was a radical departure from prior behaviour! But no, it was not all a fit of madness, it’s something far far better, and possibly a piece of Audio Nirvana – for a while at least?! In fact I had to find something pretty special to move me from my Charios… but I found it – well they rather kinda fell into my lap I guess, with a little help from a friend – and that's Focal SM9s!

A Dedicated Music Server Journey (Part 1)

About 18 Months ago I switched from CD's/SACD's/DVD-A's to FLAC for my music format. The Musical Fidelity A3.2 & NAD C521BEE CD Players, and Plinius 9200 Integrated Amplifier went and were replaced with a Bel Canto DAC 2.5 connected to a Logitech Squeezebox Touch via SPDIF (Co-Ax), and a Perreaux 350P Power Amp. The music collection was all ripped to FLAC and placed onto my i7 Windows 7 PC, which was running Logitech Media Server, and would stream the media to the SqBx Touch via wireless.

The improvement was immediate, and very tangible, moving off optical media onto 'static' (i.e. HDD) digital storage. This was further enhanced with Nordost (Heimdall) Balanced Interconnect between the BC DAC & 350P PA, and replacing the Slinkylinks speaker cables to my Chario Pegasi with something else. However over time this still wasn't enough - the PC acting as a server and streaming data via wireless were 2 not so ideal solutions, the former being the biggest issue for several reasons; and the SqBx Touch not handling 192k sampling well the other (i.e. only via USB)... Consequently in recent months I had begun thinking about possible solutions, including directly attaching storage to the Touch, using ethernet over power to remove the wireless link, or stepping up to a dedicated music server that could fit in my main Hi-Fi rack - the latter incidentally being the only likely solution to the 192k issue...