Snakeoil Salesman 2 channel setup

[agent_kith]

POE splitters are here. And Ihave replaced most SMPS with these POE splitters. Great option with this is my POE switch can be controlled by my home automation stuffs. Meaning I can turn things on/off depending on the conditions I set.

Also, got an electrician to re-wire my switch board. I have a total of 9 circuits, but with only 4 circuit breakers. So what I did is put each circuit on it's on circuit breaker (with RCD), and also added a surge arrestor. Also upgraded some of the link cables in the panel with thicker guage cables.

Trying to identify which circuit goes where turns out to be more difficult than expected. Bad thing is my server is running on 16 A circuit, in bedrooms and the fridge.

Good thing is my music room is on it's own dedicated circuit, so is the microwave :/... Havn't had a time to listen to it yet so not too sure if it's an upgrade or now. But this post is to re-iterate the same old story. Every cable from sub-station all the way into your house, and into your ceiling, down to your GPO are of thicker gauge cables. Your weakest link is actually the patch cable you connect your equipment to. They are 0.75mm to 1mm cross sectional.. Which is far thinner than your in wall cables. I blogged about this before here.

Do give power cables a try and see how it goes... Even with this, there is a always going to be a weakest link (e.g. the GPO outlet, you as the listener, etc)... So as usual, YMMV.

[agent_kith]

Also, got an electrician to re-wire my switch board. I have a total of 9 circuits, but with only 4 circuit breakers. So what I did is put each circuit on it's on circuit breaker (with RCD), and also added a surge arrestor. Also upgraded some of the link cables in the panel with thicker guage cables.

Highly recommend folks to give this a go. If anything just to have things checked out and make sure everything is up to code. Turns out mine wasn't (Shock/horror). The original wiring also piggy backed two cables from mains into my home. As mentioned above sparkie replaced that with a single (and thicker) gauge cable. I suspect this is the biggest reason why the sound is better. Either thicker gauges, or the 20 year HPM circuit breakers are not as good as my current Clipsal ones with RCD protection. My SACD player sounds amazing now. It's not a cheap job though and I was kind of worried my music will be made worse (as I have a worry the surge protector may kill the dynamics). Well, maybe the dynamics are compromised, I wouldn't know, as this SACD I played a couple days ago is still pretty darn dynamic if you ask me... Hopefully I can RIP the tracks out and play it out on the Accuphase.

Also, after multiple failed attempts, have finally got the FC network card to work! This is the mini PCI-e version with breakout. So I have gotten rid of my old mini PCI-e riser (This thing buzzes with a high frequency and that always bothered me in the past), and it's a more direct connection.

           

I guess I can "tweak" the setup by using a different SATA cable and see how that goes. With this change there is now only a single ground connection from PC back to the playback system (Previously there is a weak ground on the wired Ethernet side).

Overall, I do think the network swap has improved clarity. Probably due to the Intel network chip instead of the crappy Realteak R8169 Tulip.

Other things to do in the future (perhaps):

1. Isolate the USB and thus break any common ground between the PC.
   
2. With the mini PCI-e riser gone, I'm now hearing something else buzzing in the PC. This appears to be mains related (Can't really tell if the sound is on the SOtM PCI USB card or the motherboard itself). I wonder if those RF/EMI sheets can absorb this audible noise. Some dampening might well mute it...
   

Still on Ubuntu 16.04.02, but running Snakeoil Alpha 3..