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Well I happened to receive the Optimo earlier than expected, and the curiosity got the best of me so I installed it anyway. Right of the bat, bass seemed a bit tighter/tad deeper and separation seemed slightly better. Overall I'd say it's better but no significant upgrade to the sound.

Thanks! Due to Customs delay, my Optimo should arrive middle of next week, so I will leave the computer on 24/7 with YouTube on loop (to push traffic through Ethernet). By the time I have the Optimo, the card should have sufficient hours on it. By the way, my one is Ethernet card, but I suppose the break-in concept should be the same?

Hi, I have JCAT Net Card XE installed on my system almost a week now. The card has around 60-70 hours on it. Here is my setup: Source Roon Nucleus One with SotM LPSU (fully upgraded model with silver wiring and stuff). Roon send raw/unmodified data to a HQ Player rendering PC with i9 12900KF + RTX3080 and I installed a JCAT Net Card XE on this machine currently with power from my PC’s PSU via Molex on the back of JCAT card. PC has normal 850 Watt Thermalright modular PSU. Holo Red, acting as an NAA. Holo May KTE connecting with Holo Red via USB. Ethernet switch is Melco S10 with another SotM LPSU (fully upgraded model with silver wiring and stuff). All AC/ethernet cables are of good quality. Previously, with the Ethernet form my Mobo and I didn’t truly have any complaint on SQ. However, I ordered the JCAT hoping to see improvements. After a week of evaluation, my finding was that… with the Ethernet output from JCAT card, music surely sounded more refined… separation was better and I could hear fine details better. HOWEVER, I find that music lacked dynamic and punch. I felt that dynamic range seemed to have reduced comparing with using my MOBO’s Ethernet. How could this be possible? Does the card need more “beak-in”, or would upgrading the PSU (feeding the JCAT card) give me better result? I have Optimo Nano in the mail and should receive it later this week, but I highly doubt this will improve my situation. Any idea of what could have caused this? I mean it wasn’t really a “downgrade” as I could hear some improvements, but I seem to lose something in the process. Thanks!

I have a question. What DSD filter gives the most energy? I find that DSD is too soft/polite, whist PCM is a bit too bright / 2 dimensional. I think if I can just find a right combination to give a tad more energy, DSD should be perfect. Here is my current settings. Dac is MAY KTE Thanks!

Thanks @Miska. By the way, I rechecked and found that I can now play DSD256 source into DSD 48k x 512 with DAC Correction (I triple checked that it is ON) with these filters. The GPU was fully loaded but it can play without any pause. This is great as, before this version, I wasn't able to play anything beyond DSD128. Also with this version the lag before the tracks start seems to also reduce! Just wanna say Thanks for your great work!

To answer to my own question, I'm at my computer and tried the new version and it seemed to have fixed the peaking problem with DAC Correction. Tracks with stutter (due to peak) seemed to play normally now. @Miska Is there any downside for this fix? I mean, why [whatever parameter that caused this] was this included in the first place? Would removing this cause any sonic degradation? But thanks for the fix anyway! This seemed to work great now.

Have version 5.7.4 fixed DSD playback issue (i.e., peaking issue with DAC Correction)?

I will update to the group if I can find a good 2nd hard GPU of that model. Now I tried splitting the load between CPU/GPU in whichever ways possible (including following your suggestion), but so far no avail... but this is not unexpected given how intensive DSD to DSD is. Thanks. I will try again. I tried IOS HQP client, but profiling didn't seem to work like how I expected, but I'm sure it's me know knowing how to properly set it up. Will research more on this and give it a try.

I wish I could do that i.e., Enabling DC "WITH" Direct DSD mode... but so far, based on Miska, DC and Direct DSD couldn't work together. I tried that and the result is stuttering output (not due to lack of processing but due to option/function mismatch). As now I can do DSD 128 source into DSD 512 with DC, at the current stage, the most convenient way is to "brute force" DSD256 source with DAC Correction. If switching RTX3080/3080Ti to RTX 4080 or 4090 can do it, I'm willing to do. I don't care much about DSD512 source as I only bought a few albums in that format.

Hi, Thanks for your input, but I just wanna confirm, this is including DSD256 source and up (i.e., DSD 256 source into DSD 512 with Dac Correction)? FYI, WITHOUT DAC correction, I could do DSD 512 source into DSD 512. I tried every possible adjustments and simply couldn't achieve smooth playback to the point that I gave up. The reason I want this setting to work (i.e., doing source DSD 256 into DSD 512 with DC, is that, I bought many DSD 256 files from Native DSD, and whenever I wanna play these tracks, I have to change my HQP settings manually to disable DC, and this is a bit inconvenient. It'd be great if we can have some profile, in which when HQP detects that I try to play from DSD 256 and up source, it automatically disables DC for me, and for all other sources below DSD 256, DC automatically kicks in. @Miska Is this kind of function possible?

Yes everything is running as optimized as possible. Also turned on Asus Optimized Profile and make sure GPU running at PCIe 4x16.

Thank you sir! Was at -3 and now -4... all seems fine now.

I looked at the HQP Control App while playing back DSD128 source and saw the red L:3. Tried searching but couldnt find whether this indicates any sub-optimal setting. Sorry if this is a silly question but please advise. Thanks!

@pis99 I checked my bios but unfortunately, with Asus Prime B760, no AVX2 adjustments are allowed (I can only put in in "Auto/Disabled/Enabled", which I did put on Enabled). I checked manual and websites, and it was confirmed this option isn't available on Asua B chipset. @Luca72c DAC correction is indeed very heavy. My machine can also do DSD512 source > DSD512 with heavy filters with it off, but as soon as it's on, DSD128 source is the highest I could do. My cooler is Noctua D15S, as I don't wanna worry about AIO problem. Other components should be fine (I guess). Memory is DDR 5 @6000Mhz / files are stored on fast 4TB SSD / network is gigabit with strong enough Router to manage data and all wired ethernet. @bogi In any case DSD128 > DSD512 seems to be its limit. Swapped the 3080 with 3080Ti I have in other machine but still couldn't do higher than DSD128. @Miska Currently, with those filters selection + DAC Correction (I did not enable any other DSP features both on Roon and HQP), my system seems to be able to cope fine everything to DSD512, except DSD256 and higher source. However, If I turned off DAC Correction, my system seemed to be able to handle DSD512 > DSD512 conversion. As I have only a few albums that are in DSD512, I don't care much about this source. I care more on DSD256 > DSD512 as I purchased a lot of albums in DSD256. @cpcat That's OK. Thanks for your input mate!

Thanks... I tried all possible settings and it seems only way to be able to output in DSD @512x48 for my PC is to offload everything to GPU, and my poor RTX3080 was choke on blood doing this (DSD128 > DSD512 with Dac Correction). Don't know why but it seems my CPU is too sh*tty to handle this load. I deliberately opted for 12900KF as opposed to 14900K due to the 13rd-14th gen infamous stability problem (you all should already know). But how bad the 12900KF performs with HQPlayer making me want to throw this sh*tty CPU out the window. FYI, CPU score from my CPU's benchmark seemed normal though, and I'm so... so far from thermal throttle. I might just get the Titan V out of frustration...