Caps 3.0

[mbovaird]

Has anyone compared a CAPS 3.0 (any build) running JRiver vs Mac Mini running Audirvana (or similar)?

We spend so much time testing and comparing DAC's, that we sometimes overlook how important the source for the DAC is.

[uwbadger]

Originally Posted by mbovaird

Has anyone compared a CAPS 3.0 (any build) running JRiver vs Mac Mini running Audirvana (or similar)?

We spend so much time testing and comparing DAC's, that we sometimes overlook how important the source for the DAC is.

Agree!

ayre dx-5, kxr, mxr, Vandersteen 5A, marantz 8801, Vandersteen vcc-5, Vandersteen vsm sig

[MyPal]

I am accumulating parts for such a project & landed a i7 3770T CPU today. Difficult to find this low wattage variant & will cost an extra pretty penny.

I'm either thinking of using a Gigabyte Sniper M3 motherboard or holding out to see what is coming mid year. For a Z77 board, the sniper is not power hungry, it's second bank of chokes are of no obstruction & it has the best onboard audio implementation I have seen for a Micro ATX board. That is appealing in itself even if only for the build quality of the board itself. The Taiwanese tend to put more care factor into the components they use than the Chinese.

G.Skill have got some new memory coming out for Z77.

The Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSD still looks king but I'd like to look at some cleaner, faster PCI/e solid state options....

Streacom FC5WS Evo fan-less 1RU aluminium case with IR is waiting to be filled & I have a stack of that expensive 1mm stick on EMI/RF shielding to go silly with. I went with the SOtM USB3 card. Also some SOtM SSD noise filters but have just noticed that these will only work on the SATA II 3GBs bus.....hmmmm.

I'm going to hook it up to a 12v fixed Linear PSU via the New Streacom NanoPSU 12v DC 150w interface.

Apart from building audiophile friendly, my aim is also to construct the fastest i7 GPU-less mother I can without any moving parts whatsoever. For the application, probably overkill but it can't hurt. Besides, the box will serve other media centric applications. To help cool the challenge, I do hope that premium high density polysynthetic silver thermal compound will do its job keeping the temperature down.

Suggestions from any die hard JRiver box builders would be welcome.

[Glisse]

Originally Posted by mbovaird

Has anyone compared a CAPS 3.0 (any build) running JRiver vs Mac Mini running Audirvana (or similar)?

We spend so much time testing and comparing DAC's, that we sometimes overlook how important the source for the DAC is.

This raises a good point.

It seems difficult to differentiate the software players from the hardware in this case, given they run on different platforms.

Because, I guess, of Apple's heritage in the industry music, there have been at least 3 good software players developed in Audirvana, Pure Music and Amarra (I know there are other decent ones available too). Yet before JRiver, it was a bit of a wasteland for the Windows platform.

From the hardware side, I am not too sure how much real difference there is. I absolutely understand the pleasure in building up an application specific PC, like the CAPS version. I enjoy building up PCs - I think it is the big boy version of playing with a Meccano set.

But when you look at these, and then look at a Mac Mini (and take it apart), it seems like building a square wheel when you can go and buy a round one at a better price

The advantage of CAPS is that you can use a power supply better suited to audio, ie less hash, etc. But if you are using a properly isolated, asynchronous interface, and you have some sort of AC filtering in your system, this might not provide any benefit?

Probably the only way to know is to load Windows onto a partition on a Mac Mini and compare JRiver to Audirvana Plus (Direct) as a software player test. Then compare JRiver on the Mac Mini to JRiver on a CAPs for a hardware test. But I'm not volunteering

[antipop]

As much as I'm willing to accept quite a lot of things in the audio world that can defy logic. I really can't understand why there would be any difference between two softwares or hardware as long as the basics are intact (bit perfect, asynchronous,...).

I believe the real deal is having a good DAC with a precise clock, an asynchronous input and a good PSU. In my dream system, the DAC would be way more expensive than the server

[kfr01]

Originally Posted by antipop

As much as I'm willing to accept quite a lot of things in the audio world that can defy logic. I really can't understand why there would be any difference between two softwares or hardware as long as the basics are intact (bit perfect, asynchronous,...).

I believe the real deal is having a good DAC with a precise clock, an asynchronous input and a good PSU. In my dream system, the DAC would be way more expensive than the server

I tend to agree!

[-E-]

Originally Posted by MyPal

I am accumulating parts for such a project & landed a i7 3770T CPU today. Difficult to find this low wattage variant & will cost an extra pretty penny.

I'm either thinking of using a Gigabyte Sniper M3 motherboard or holding out to see what is coming mid year. For a Z77 board, the sniper is not power hungry, it's second bank of chokes are of no obstruction & it has the best onboard audio implementation I have seen for a Micro ATX board. That is appealing in itself even if only for the build quality of the board itself. The Taiwanese tend to put more care factor into the components they use than the Chinese.

G.Skill have got some new memory coming out for Z77.

The Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSD still looks king but I'd like to look at some cleaner, faster PCI/e solid state options....

Streacom FC5WS Evo fan-less 1RU aluminium case with IR is waiting to be filled & I have a stack of that expensive 1mm stick on EMI/RF shielding to go silly with. I went with the SOtM USB3 card. Also some SOtM SSD noise filters but have just noticed that these will only work on the SATA II 3GBs bus.....hmmmm.

I'm going to hook it up to a 12v fixed KingRex II PSU via the New Streacom NanoPSU 12v DC 150w interface.

Apart from building audiophile friendly, my aim is also to construct the fastest i7 GPU-less mother I can without any moving parts whatsoever. For the application, probably overkill but it can't hurt. Besides, the box will serve other media centric applications. To help cool the challenge, I do hope that premium high density polysynthetic silver thermal compound will do its job keeping the temperature down.

Suggestions from any die hard JRiver box builders would be welcome.

You're on the right track.

[mbovaird]

I just ordered the CAPS 3.0 Carbon build with the Red Wine Power Supply. I will have to use the PS that comes with the CAPS for now as the Red Wine PS is 8 weeks behind on back order!

I could have built it myself (since I used to build PC's for a living) - but I'm too lazy. I ended up getting it from Small Green Computers.

[Rayooo]

My last two builds (J-River) were using Asus P8Z77-M. my favorite MB..at the moment, of course next week things could change.

[kfr01]

Originally Posted by mbovaird

I just ordered the CAPS 3.0 Carbon build with the Red Wine Power Supply. I will have to use the PS that comes with the CAPS for now as the Red Wine PS is 8 weeks behind on back order!

I could have built it myself (since I used to build PC's for a living) - but I'm too lazy. I ended up getting it from Small Green Computers.

Looking very forward to your impressions!