Stonemanty

Yes, it's a bit daunting to have so many parameters to change - and each individual one having incremental impact! I have Focal Diablo Utopia speakers which are very revealing - many say far too bright - and I found the SOtM suggested settings less forward and bright sounding to my ears

Initial sounds good, but on my system, my ears and a few swaps back and forth, I’ll stick with SOTM config but I much appreciate your testing and getting me to try; there are clear differences that will be more or less beneficial depending on the system regards Andy

Yes, just tried your settings, Philippe, (also with Roon feed) - sounds good - but then I didn’t tune into the previous settings, so no comparison claims 😀 I’ll give it a couple hours of listening and flick back to IPV6 On, 1000 and No Tune for comparison later…

OMG! just looking at Euphony Ive got a pair of audio PCs gathering dust from old JPlay/AO/Fidelizer rig - 7x LPS between them not sure I have enough hair left to resurrect them 😀

Very cool indeed! You’re a serious tweaker/modder - I read your system notes 😎👍 I bought my first SOtM in 2019, and quickly slid down the adding stuff slope 😀 I’ve also got their network switch with its own SPS-500 underneath those shown above I recently tried the fibre link from an adapter (which was previously used just as a 1m fibre loop for galvanic isolation. Upstream from that is a Paul Pang modded switch to my ISP hub and Roon Nucleus - all that, and separately the main rig, all have dedicated mains right back to the electricity meter (fully screened of course 🤓) I’ve found the fibre to be slightly more focussed for the centre image (vs Cat7) but I need to go some more comparative listening all good fun

I couldn’t find one in GB, maybe it’s a US only branding?

That’s interesting, I have the USB and the external clock - the USB doesn’t affect the working of the ‘200

One of the OPs on this topic has already given a comparison of their cards - specifically, speed doesn’t seem to be the main driver I don’t think anyone knows what/why or if there’s any correlation. In fact there’s fully understandable scepticism about this, since some say the card doesn’t do anything once the 200 has booted in short, who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️ I bought my SP card (which has better soundstage (MSMEMM) than my similarly spec’d Kingston) for £7/€8/$10 delivered I enjoyed the tweaking experimentation and for that money, to get any positive result at all is an astonishing bargain 😀

Credit to you guys who discovered this (frankly, rather weird 😀) phenomenon

Confirmed! The SP card has a better, more open soundstage than the Kingston card Amazing!

Oh, I've got Roon which is doing upsampling, Tidal Hi Res and local SSD in Nucleus. I have fibre into the SOtM switch, the SMS200 UN goes into the SOtM USB, all three timed by the external SOtM clock, all four with separate SPS 500s They feed into Lyngdorf 3400/2200 active system with the Focals and some Lyngdorf W210 bass speakers and custom 4x10 (so 6x 10" drivers per channel) Sounds good, very revealing 😀

Hi Gerardo, I have no idea! 😄 I tried a few SD cards before - nothing. But I thought I should get a cheap (I wasn't prepared to more than a few quid on this) but equivalent card to hear if there was 'any' difference (MSMEMM my system, my ears, my music etc etc) Then I made sure everything was 'equal' between the two same spec cards i.e. same firmware (5.51), Kernel (xx.212), CPU speed (144), IPV6 Off etc etc (BTW that is how I got the 144 option in Settings) Listened to one, the other etc. etc. I have the external clock, so getting the card back is a PITA as the clock's BNC connector is right above the slot, but, despite this - and me thinking 'Hmmm, not entirely sure I'm hearing anything here...' I swapped them several times, 4 for each over almost two hours I have confirmation bias. So I know that I have to repeat experiments several times to get past that effect. But there it was; the SP card has a better soundstage 😮 I have no idea why - but that's what I hear I have some Focal Diablo Utopia speakers that are scalpel-like on detail, 1mm of movement on their stands affects the soundstage - I heard a different soundstage I'm going to give it another good listen now - if it's still there - Great! I'll be buying the Delkin card, if it isn't, I will reply and confess I was swept up by the hysteria! 😁 Regards Andy

I made sure my two cards, (both 32gb V30 one SP the other Kingston) were on v5.51 xx.212 and set to 144mhz (they weren’t matched previously) I swapped them back and forth several times (what a faff 🙄) each getting 5 listens to the same reference tracks the SP card was slightly better! 😮 The difference is soundstage; it’s more constrained with the Kingston and it opens up with the SP - it’s not night and day, but definitely preferable with the SP I’ll double check later, but if the findings remain the same I’ll be happy to try the more expensive Delkin card

I think I have one or two things to change to get the cards to equal status - I think the kernel has ticked up to 212 and I need to get them all on 144mhz if there’s still no obvious change (+ve or -ve), I’m reluctant to go for the Delkin cards as they’re expensive here (The SP Game cards shown above are not available in GB) Still, the firmware/kernel upgrade has been worthwhile and it’s been an interesting experiment 🤓👍

My starting card was a Kingston 32 extreme Pro (or similar) no SQ change vs two other cards I’m afraid