Motherboard Shoot Out

[FairPlayMotty]

I previously posted this set of clips in the Playground but it ran into difficulties with refreshing.

These clips have the Hakai, two other motherboards plus a wildcard.

The relative costs of the motherboards is dramatically different. It's been a while since I looked at the cost of a Streacom case plus power supply. The cheapest option here can be up and running for £47 plus SSD for the OS (I usually pay £10 or so for an Intel 320) and DAC.

Clip A is a lower volume than the others. There's little I can do about it. My usual room listening volume with a Linn Preamp plus two LK140s bi amped is 50-55. For clip recording I have the volume set at 60. The volume of souce A was a little lower according to the sound meter decibel app and my ears at 81. At 82 it was a little louder according to the app. I can't set it to 81.5. Some motherboards output at different levels, I can't control that but made as much compensation as I could.

All boards used the same preamp input, the same Supra cable and the same ESI Gigaport HD+ DAC and used Linn silver interconnects.

Please comment before you know the identity of the sources. As close to a secret ballot as possible :)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LK27m ... KeM5uureFY
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LQ33X ... XFdrUR3Peb
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LUCvm ... mQgiZ_4de8
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LUsTq ... yVf1jbQsQE


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LXjQW ... -TLzoTKjgP
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LZZWD ... 0awVLR9zHg
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LdNxO ... xTPf3BmrJZ
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Lm_xY ... yJKlSmL2Xo

Opinions welcomed as always.

[matthias]

Sorry, impossible to open the files.

Matt

[FairPlayMotty]

Sorry, impossible to open the files.

Matt

Matt,

Thanks for the heads up.

For some reason the link addresses changed slightly in Gdrive.

They should work now.

[FairPlayMotty]

OK, Clip B set. Source A was one notch quieter on my computer than the rest (whereas on Clip A, Source D was one step quieter). On this I would rank them from better to worse Source D, Source C, Source B, and Source A. Again I rather disliked Source A and it wasn't until I got to Source C that I was able to enjoy things enough to listen farther into the song than about 30 seconds. So Source D was again the best.

Quote by ThomasOK

[FairPlayMotty]

Source D; Clip A, for me, more emotions or peace (I can feel it) in her voice ...

Quote by V.A.MKD

[FairPlayMotty]

So, you're looking at the Hakai, Intel DN2800MT, Asus Tinker Board S plus the wildcard.

[matthias]

So, you're looking at the Hakai, Intel DN2800MT, Asus Tinker Board S plus the wildcard.

Am I right that every motherboard has a different power supply?
Thanks

Matt

[FairPlayMotty]

So, you're looking at the Hakai, Intel DN2800MT, Asus Tinker Board S plus the wildcard.

Am I right that every motherboard has a different power supply?
Thanks

Matt

Yes.

[Tendaberry]

So, then it's not a motherboard shoot-out, but a motherboard + fitting power supply shoot-out.
Still interesting though.

[FairPlayMotty]

So, then it's not a motherboard shoot-out, but a motherboard + fitting power supply shoot-out.
Still interesting though.

It's kind of hard to run the motherboards without a PSU :) But I guess the most sophisticated PSU is in the Hakai. The Asus Tinker Board S is powered by a micro USB connector of standard quality. The Intel is powered by the power supply that came in the case the board comes in second hand.

The distros differ only because the Asus Tinker Board S needs Volumio. The rest are running the same version of SnakeOil OS with the same tweaks.

[FairPlayMotty]

Just for completeness, I can say that the Hakai was running with two strips of 1R RAM (just by luck) and the Intel DN2800MT with one strip of 1R RAM.

I'll post clips of the Hakai with one strip of 1R RAM vs two strips at a later date. And with the USB Isolation card vs a standard USB 2.0 port.

[FairPlayMotty]

Thanks to those who commented on the clips!

The sources were as follows:

Source A: Asus Tinker Board S
Source B: Hakai using two strips of 4GB 1R RAM
Source C: Intel DN2800MT using one strip of 2GB 1R RAM
Source D: Intel DN2800MT using one strip of 2GB 1R RAM, Elfidelity isolation card, Elfidelity USB isolation card in a Jonsbo C2 case - this was the wildcard.

I recently tried to run the Hakai with one strip of 1R RAM. However, the output volume dropped by around twenty points on a Linn system. This seems to be a motherboard design anomaly - the Intel boards have a consistent output volume whether one or two strips of RAM are used.

[OscarH]

I recently tried to run the Hakai with one strip of 1R RAM. However, the output volume dropped by around twenty points on a Linn system. This seems to be a motherboard design anomaly

Has this been consistent across your various Hakai experiments or is it this particular motherboard?

20 points is a fair bit and I don't recall reading of others experiencing particularly low output levels from the Hakai.

[FairPlayMotty]

Only with this trial. The volume differential seems to be with one strip of RAM - the volume is fine with two strips.

[lejonklou]

I strongly suspect some other factor influencing the volume.

It doesn't make any sense that the choice of RAM would have an impact on the volume level. If it does, it implies the motherboard is malfunctioning.