Sound Quality of Boot Drives - Impact of Quality of Power supply to SQ.

40 minutes ago, kelvinwsy said:

The best SQ in Top to Lowest is:

1. Samsung 860 Evo 250gb

Kelvinwsy 

This is also what I am using in my Desktop PC.

In my case I am using the internal SMPS +12V supply regulated down to +5V using an LM317T voltage regulator ,then a John Linsley Hood PSU add-on  which has <4uV noise and a simulated capacitance of 2FARAD to feed it ultra low noise +5V and improve isolation between the SSDs and other components.

The main advantage of this is that I am using the 0 volts (earth )reference from the PC itself.

I am powering both my OS SSD and Music SSD by this method from  a dual version of this regulator mounted internally to the bottom of the case.

 I would recommend that you also do as one and a half (Gary) and myself have done in this thread as it resulted in further obvious SQ gains, with a marked improvement in channel separation and considerably less distortion.

 It won't cost much to do either.😉

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/60381-hdd-to-case-bonding-uptick-in-sq/?tab=comments#comment-1084599

Alex

Oh I am 😵 totally up to date on this Earthing thing. Went poking around with my Multimeter and star earthed the PC case, PCIE brackets, AIO casing, PSU casing to my 
SSD's - And I have one additional secret weapon,

Here we go, the Power conditioner that has "claimed 150mv residual DC supression capacity 

Here is the link - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000094663118.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5ea166eatYMuQY&algo_pvid=4eda4b04-8093-4b43-bb50-6d693724b09c&algo_expid=4eda4b04-8093-4b43-bb50-6d693724b09c-1&btsid=0bb0623c16034427186241179e349f&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

It is quite effective and I bring the earth connection back to the wall plug earth. 

Really impressive blackness and reduction of noise, On some tracks I can follow the beat of the castanets.... Backing vocals, Skin noise of the drums being hit --- ust 20 dollars of 18ga silver coated copper wire and 10ga copper main earth link wire.

All my LPSU's are now on this including the DAC,

The other on the same 20Amp dedicated circuit are the 2 ATX PSU's - One for the PC the other for all the fans and peripherals I have taken off the MB to power separately. I just did hooked up my 2 spare Acoustic Revive RTP-2 Ultimate. They color the some of analogue gear iike Preamp/AMPS and T/T

I put my ATX PSU connected to the mains through 2 units of Acoustic Revive RTP-2 ultra? - the RTP is 1000USD, Ha! the ATX is 100USD. And then a EMI/RFI filter then the wall socket. What a difference!!!  The isolation of the Switching ATX PSU's is now so much improved. 

I have my 2 monoblock 30Watt HP amps on a 30amp circuit through a Shunyata Hydra 4 - oldie but still goodie, These drives my Abyss Phi /CC 

Happy Listening to all

THe 

The isolation of 

9 hours ago, kelvinwsy said:

1. Powering the SSD MUST be done on as high quality a PSU as possible. I went from ATX to external 5v chinese LPSU to the Light Harmonic LPSU. The real jump is when I used 5v LT3045 LPSUs.

With the external LPSU +5V powering the OS SSD, did you also try  connecting  the 0 volts (earth ) of this supply to chassis where it entered the PC ?

 Even when using an internal +12V to +5V regulator then the JLH section ,  I noted a further improvement by connecting the 0 volts incoming , to chassis right at the input terminals to the voltage regulator of the PCB in the photo.

 Unless your LT4045s have an additional much larger value NON Low ESR electrolytic capacitor in parallel at it's output, you will have a much lower output Z at >100kHz resulting in increased HF detail, but more than likely more HF detailed (artificial) than it should be, with a very wide soundstage. but with perhaps  a loss of some low end natural warmth. 

 Note also that the manufacturers of the LT3045 make no claims in their Data sheets as to their suitability for HiFi Audio.

They are more designed for use as ultra low noise power for instrumentation. (Yes, I do use a LT3045 for the +3.3V supply for the input I.C. (DIR9001) in my DIY DAC, but it's input is via a +5V JLH PSU add-on as well)

A PSU should have as low and flat an output impedance from almost DC to 1MHZ.

Alex C will tell you that too.😉

Most LT3045 PSU implementations do not, they have a lower output Z at 100kHz and higher, but it helps if you have a large value filter capacitor right at their input like when used after a bridge rectifier. 

OK what size of capacitors and parallel across the input terminals. What about the output terminals.

Note that my LT3045 PSU's are configured for Hifi and comes with capacitors and lithium hydride batteries for 1 unit, battery /super capacitor unit for the 2nd and a 3rd is transformer/mains powered 12v 3xLT3045 units.

Yes the same observations I have to your comments. Enhanced sparkingly highs, thumping deep resonant bass, slightly reduced midrange richness. But the thickness in the midrange is now cleared up. The SQ achieved with latest round of tweaks really suits my taste. And the sound stage goes extreme left, right and Depth goes to the BACK of the sound stage.

The SQ impact has been further enhanced with a PC fan pcb I found on aliexpress which only takes the 2 poles of the 4 pin fan connector ie PWM and RPM signals from the Motherboard connectors. But NO 12V and Grd. THis is then generated by the fan pcb which takes either molex 4 pin or SATA external power. One special channel of the 10 channels gives full speed and pwm mode control over the connector fans.

I have taken All my Fans, AIO Cooler Radiator fans off the MB power and changed all onto the external power through this PC Fan pcb thingey!

Everything works, fan noise is lowered by reduced loading, and through the use of half speed resistors fitted in line.

1 last to transfer to external power will be the AIO pump which runs on 12v 3 wire connected to MB Pump power outlet. I dont think I will do this. Any power failure or setup problem will mean a CPU of melted silicon - Too risky.

I guess a silent case will be the next upgrade. However using HQPlayer 4.0 and turbo mode for the ASDM7EC /DSD256 calls for about 120 -135 watts TDP for the CPU. I dont think the HDplexes and Streamcons can handle this heat output. Even Turemetal can do this without elevated temperatures. In the tropics where I live, running the Air conditioning just to remove heat from a silent fanless PC is really not quite environmental responsible.

Happy Listening

On 10/23/2020 at 9:26 AM, kelvinwsy said:

The NVME was installed on a USB holder plugged into a USB slot on a PCIE 3.0 card with an external power supplied from a  12V DC LT3045 LPS  with 1.5A

NVMe drives usually require 3.3V to operate while 2.5" SATA SSDs need 5V respectively, just wondering if those switching regulators for 12V → 5V (SATA) or 12V → 5V → 3.3V (NVMe) were hindering the overall performance since they could have affected that quality 12V DC output of LT3045 LPS.

Other than these products from JCAT, did anyone find more affordable options that could accept 5V DC externally?

https://jcat.eu/product/usb-card-femto-audiophile-usb-audio-output/

https://jcat.eu/product/usb-card-xe/

FYI - 16GB Optane with Orico M2PJM-C3 enclosure (Realtek RTL9210B) was confirmed to be bootable via USB

https://www.lejonklou.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=902&start=25#p50532

https://pcper.com/2020/07/orico-usb-c-nvme-ssd-aluminum-enclosure-review/

https://www.facebook.com/ORICOOfficial/posts/thanks-to-the-realtek-rtl9210b-chipset-the-orico-m2pjm-c3-accepts-both-nvme-and-/2407340576227091

20 hours ago, kelvinwsy said:

OK what size of capacitors and parallel across the input terminals. What about the output terminals.

Note that my LT3045 PSU's are configured for Hifi and comes with capacitors and lithium hydride batteries for 1 unit, battery /super capacitor unit for the 2nd and a 3rd is transformer/mains powered 12v 3xLT3045 units.

Yes the same observations I have to your comments. Enhanced sparkingly highs, thumping deep resonant bass, slightly reduced midrange richness. But the thickness in the midrange is now cleared up. 

You could try something like 2,200uF to 4,700uF normal electrolytic capacitors of a higher voltage rating than the input voltage in parallel with the LT 3045 input to see if that improves tonal balance . Something like a non Low ESR 100uF in parallel at the output could be tried as well  if that doesn't do enough. 

Thx just ordered low ESR 2200uf 25v, 3300uf 16v and 100uf 25v 

Gonna have a lot of fun trying them out in parallel over the input and output of the LT3045 unit

The 3rd unit I am using with 3xLT3045 is transformed driven, but i will trace circuit and try to find the dc input to the 3 LT3045 - failing which I will do the output parallel loading using the 100uf

Thx again

Kelvin

13 minutes ago, kelvinwsy said:

Thx just ordered low ESR 2200uf 25v, 3300uf 16v and 100uf 25v 

Gonna have a lot of fun trying them out in parallel over the input and output of the LT3045 unit

The 3rd unit I am using with 3xLT3045 is transformed driven, but i will trace circuit and try to find the dc input to the 3 LT3045 - failing which I will do the output parallel loading using the 100uf

 

Thx again

Kelvin

OOPS!

I said normal 2,200uF to 4,700uF, not iow ESR types. 

 Fortunately, they are inexpensive, so you won't have lost much if they don't make enough difference.

Here are links to the 3 units I am using for the CA followers who find other bespoke LT3045 PSU's a bit too expensive for your budget.

1. LT 3045x 4 units - 2 amps - Lithium battery storage equipped - good for at least 3 hours session - Play while charging is OK too.

1. LT3045 x 4 units - I am using this to power the CLONES Audio SHAAR USB3.0 PCIE card I am using https://www.monoandstereo.com/2016/06/clones-audio-shaar-pcie-to-usb-new.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/0.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4d70IDWG&orderId=8118970935622784&productId=1005001292434729

2. Battery powered unit 5 v for powering my Samsung 860EVO OS SSD - better than any 5v battery or LPSU i am using. 

https://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/0.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4d70IDWG&orderId=8118970935622784&productId=1005001292434729

3. Transformer powered 3xLT3045 - 1.5amps - I use this to drive the Uptone Regen LPS 1.0 that go to the Isoregen. Way better than the ChiFi 12v LPSU i was using before.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10000413421028.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4d70IDWG

4. A new unit on shopping list after i decide 5v or 12 V output - 4 x LT3045 - 3 amp peak - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001288668538.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.14a33c00VYPhYe&mp=1

Happy Listening

No problem - putting in a new order for NON Low ESR 2200uf and 3300uf capacitors.

They are cheap anyway,

Order 16V 2200uf Normal Capacitors and 16V 4700uf types

Gonna have a lot of fun,

Thanks again Sandyk

I will report back to all interested

I Bought a intel X25-E (SLC), 64 gb for try in my boot system SSD. Today use a Samsung 840 PRO 240 gb. We'll see if I hear any difference.