SOtM Audiophile computer
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- čas přidán 10. 06. 2024
- I love the SOtM products for their sound and price/performance but when they introduced an audiophile PC mother board and accessory boards, I wasn’t interested in reviewing them for I’m no seasoned PC builder.
Contents of this video
00:00 - Intro
00:22 - Start of program
01:15 - Where to use
02:22 - What does it contain
04:45 - The outside
05:35 - The rear
07:22 - The inside
08:46 - In use
10:08 - How tested
11:26 - Sound quality
12:33 - The wrap
Manufacturer:
www.sotm-audio.com/
Equipment lent by:
www.sotm-audio.com/
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Q&A: Which device is better?: • Q&A: Which device is b... - Věda a technologie
That board is rather beautiful, I thank you Hans, I do tend to get excited about this topic in general, and built so many PCs I have challenges even upgrading my own, this was a treat to watch, thank you again.
My pleasure!
always a pleasure to watch your channel
Most appreciated
great to see you doing what you do so well @Hans !
Many thanks
Good to see you still doing great Hans.. Godspeed!
Thanks, you too!
Thanks Hans. Take care of yourself, we need your wisdom.
I'll use my wisdom to take care of myself (I have never felt better - apart from the throat)
Very good review again Hans. I was looking forward to this test as I had been very curious how the Sotm board would perform. I wonder how this is marketed for consumers (online store of Sotm does not seem to deliver this entire unit). Did you test this unit also without the Sotm external PSU (using the normal usb card output inside)?
I used the external psu all the time. It was wired up for this. Just mail SOtM for questions on availability
Thank you Hans for this review. I was looking forward to it and i think you have to test it with the SOtM master klok.
Did you watch the video?
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel uh… yes i did twice.
Hans, thank you very much for your detailed and interesting review (as always). can you please explain why so much care of the clock/jitter is needed when using USB asynchronous output?
many thanks
It actually is the phase noise and common mode noise that can cause jitter just before the d/a conversion that his the problem, not jitter as such on the USB bus itself.
Thanks a lot and hope you get better with your voice!!
Thank you!
Dear Hans: I've been following you for a long time and admire your passion and dedication. I too suffer from essential tremor so we have one more thing in common. I also commend you on your wonderful recovery in this area.
I have to ask though: I see this hobby more as a pursuit for audible improvements than one for theoretical quantum perfection. As an example. I admire your honesty when you say that you can't hear the computer's (very quiet - low rev.) fan. So how does this tie up with letting the unit run for hours so that the crystals attain a certain temperature? Could you hear cold crystals?
I know that a lot of this hobby consists in eliminating possible variables, which sometimes we may not anticipate. But the whole audibility of break-in, as a concept, just takes me a bit farther than I'm willing to go. Do you need that special Ethernet cable between your SoTm snh10g network switch and the computer? Could you hear the packages through a normal cat 6 cable? I don't know.
Your channel is a wonderful source of information about the internal workings of all these wonderful devices. But honestly, sometimes I feel some of the surrounding Zen difficult to palate.
Thank you for all your work and dedication. I consider you a friend, at this point and just because I do, I felt I had to say this. Be well.
Gabe.
Clock crystals become more stable when they reach a stable working temperature. Until then they produce a less stable clock frequency and thus cause phase noise. That, further in the chain will cause jitter and - as I have explained several times - jitter causes distortion. I made a series of videos on audio hygiene that explain a number of these phenomena. You won't hear a difference on a € 1,000 stereo and you will definitely hear a difference on my € 60.000 stereo. In between hit depends how well the stereo setup is chosen and installed and on how critical the owner is.
Thank you, again, Hans - very informative!!! I noted your comment on Qobuz not playing nice with Roon lately. That has been my experience too; after several years of great service my (particularly 192/24) Qobuz hi res music is interrupting, stuttering or just skipping. Is this what you are experiencing? I have been in touch with Roon techs for several months and they have "tried" to help, but (in the end) I realized they were just giving me a run around that even someone like me (not a hardware or software wiz) realized their help was a BS. Do you have any idea what may be going on?
I don't know what is causing the problem but let's assume it's not Roon's fault (Tidal works fine), Roon can hardly blame Qobuz as long as they try to solve the problem. They need a working relation with Qobuz to get things done. Again, I don't know if that is the case...
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Thank you, again, Hans. What bothers me is their (Roon) techs trying to convince me that the problem is in my home network (though EVERYTHING else works perfectly - even Qobuz streams perfectly fine at all resolutions directly to my Node, and I have perfectly stable 1Gig connection and everything worked great until a few months back...). Moreover, all of their "solutions have been tested and repeated twice and they keep insisting to do all of it yet again... It is VERY frustrating. Thank you, again, for confirming that this IS a problem between Roon and Qobuz.
Thanks for struggling on for us Hans. It's, easy to hear how rough your voice is.
No worries
Hi Hans, happy holidays and great review, thank you. Did you compare this unit vs Roon Nucleus+ ? If yes, how was the results ?
These are completely different. The Nucleus+ is just an Intel NUC with passive cooling while the SOtM is a computer that is very highly specialized in playback audio. So If you want to connect a DAC directly to the computer, choose the SOtM, if you use a separate Roon endpoint, you can choose the Nucleus..
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Thanks a lot
Nice review Hans. Do you have chance to try euphony software ?
Thanks
I limited myself to a small number of software players to keep things workable for me. I mainly review hardware.
Thanks Hans. May I kindly ask one more question pls?
I have a streamer dac and it is connected to internet via cat8 cable. In this case, what is the most important thing on server? I mean, do dedicated servers like innuos, antipodes or sotm products like you reviewed can increase the sq over NUC or Mac mini running roon etc ?
Hi Hans, thanks for the video. Is a battery power microsoft surface or equivalent tablet quieter than a PC?
No. The electronics that drives the screen is very noisy.
Thank you for the informative reiew. I could not catch your saying at 12:15 in the video, "at least equal good sounding as ????? I owned previously" Please kindly name the product that you mentioned here.
You can switch on subtitles
Thank You
You're welcome
Thank you
My pleasure
Hi Hans. I would like to rephrase my previous question - is this system sound better than a “quiet” windows 10 server connected by network to Sms200Ultra with SCLK-OCX10? Both devices are connected to same audiophile switch SNH-10G This is my current setup. I use Roon.
I couldn’t compare them of course but my guess is that it will offer the same quality.
Hi Hans. Is this system better sounded than a regular QUiet PC connected by network to SMS200?
Absolutely.
It looks like the SOTM seperates but available in a PCI-E card format so that they can be used directly with the PC/library. This could work out better than buying the seperates as my Ultra Neo can only upscale to 768k with HQ player. Whereas, if used with the PC and seperates, could go to the full 1.5mhz that my DAC can take.
I wonder what 1.5 MHz will bring you. But I also love the all on one solution. No cables, simpler operation and so on.
Question Hans is it possible that you do a review & Test Video about SPL Voltair technology? I hope
you becoming these for Testing by the Company; the SPL Director Preamp DAC with the M1000 Amp or those Mono Amp’s pair S800 or S1200. How that Sounds and is it hear able those plus by dynamic dB Range and how good are the components build in ? Are they compatible to much higher priced HiFi Hardware ? Are the Rotel Michi versus SPL Components by the same eyes height with different going on for rising up the Sounding for Customers with smaller money pockets comparing to McIntosh , Accuphase ,... High End Buyers with huge money pockets but with nearly similar results or not even close to those?
Many Thanks to you for that Time and Work into Videos for us public , Greetings from Germany to you
I focus on Digital front-ends, amps and speakers I leave to others. Doing about 50 video's a year, I can't do everything so I focus on front-ends (digital players and DAC's)
Do I really need these special cards for DACs with asynchronous and unison USB DACs?
No, you could live happily without. But if you really appreciate very high sound quality from a computer, this comes very close.
It's worth getting that motherboard and jcat usb xe card?
I have no experience with the cat board so I can't say.
Always sound and interesting reviews Hans! In isolation this might look like a good idea. IMHO get a better silent running laptop and put your money elsewhere in the audio chain. This sotm device, like other sotm devices is shit expensive and gain in audio quality is questionable and minuscule at best. Ive built alot of PC´s and they are bound to be a cesspool of noise anyway. If I should get a PC to play audio, I would rather look at some pro audio solution like RME internal cards, they can easily be synced to WC, bitperfect would be no problem, and you could shave alot of dollar from the bill.
The laptop is about the worst audio source you can get. It has very noisy display drivers and all is packed very close together, not taking in account requirements for audio.
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Well. I get bit-perfect playback. Sound from my laptop via ADI-2 pro isnt bad either. I have the deepest respect for your opinion, but how much does it take to say a product is totally superfluous and money better spent elsewhere? Thats kinda the vibe I get from this audio pc! Im not saying its bad(probably isnt) just not needed to the extent that you spew money on it.
Hans, Thank you for the video. This looks to be a very good pc solution, be that quite expensive - at least for my 10K system (all inclusive). I would very much appreciate - although I understand this is not match - to know how far lacking is a headless mac mini with the uptone audio power and fan linear controller, linear power supply and a good ethernet and usb isolator (eg intona). Such a combo can be had for as little as EURO 1400 including eg. Keces P8 powder supply with dual output which can also feed the DAC. Furthermore this whole system can also include the SOtM s-200 ultra neo before the DAC and still be at around Euro 2600. With a mac mini in this setup, headless, i5 processor/16GB Ram/SSD one can use Audirvana and convert/upsample to DSD256 (and I would only consider this setup if one is interested in DSD upsampling). How much more (%) music performance can the SilverStone SOtM give? Any thoughts would be well appreciated.
Is it worth swapping the mac mini+network bridge+isolators for this SOtM pc? THANK YOU
If you use the SOtM sMS-200 Ultra Neo you can use any computer, Mac mini, Intel NUC or just any PC with i3 or better processor. Don't spend money on an audio grade PSU then but buy the SOtM sPS-500 to power the sMS-200 Ultra Neo. Do try upsampling but if you don't hear a clear difference (that depends on your DAC) don't go for the highest numbers.
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Thank you for all the information and wishing a speedy recovery.
For those who own a Project Pre Box RS2 Digital DAC, since it has not been reviewed in the channel, I suggest trying PCM to DSD conversion. At least in my system it was a 'night and day" experience versus PCM decoding.
I use Qobuz in Roon and it works fine for me.
Thanks for sharing
Well done video as always. Except, you compared the PC to a few other (very expensive) dedicated audio devices and declared it a good value. Did you compare it to a conventional quiet PC?
I can see MAYBE the USB card making a difference. But going into a whole "audiophile" motherboard? My snake oil senses are tingling. For this much money you can get a much more powerful computer and/or add a graphics card for gaming. Or if this is all you need for music, spend a lot less and put the difference somewhere else, like the DAC.
Because the 'quiet' PC's I have heard don't cut it in the audio department - at least not at the level of this PC - or were equally high or higher priced.
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel If you've used nornal PCs and really feel that this one is a better source, than I'll take your word for it. This wasn't really clear in the video. And it does seem pretty expensive for a PC with moderate specs and no GPU. So, it does need to sound really good :)
New toys .. new toys ..yippee
🤣
Lost a little bit of weight and got a tan. Hans, you're lookin good!
Thanks for the compliment. I lost 13 kg so far..
Good for you Hans!! Congratulations!
Nice audiophile cooler! And I like that you use own ears for TEST instead of oscilloscope. Oscilloscopes are overrated. And that $2500 seem like real bargain!
It's $ 2500 for the SOtM bundle only.
OMG it’s so expensive
No, it’s not. It’s a lot of money..
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel A fine point of detail I feel
What a great time to be an audiophile, digital is getting closer to analog by the day and at an increasingly cheaper price. Sometimes capitalism works in one's favor.
@@moshet842 the quality of digital playback is inching closer to analog quality.
Hahahaha
Spot on. Those that mock you clearly do so for the sake of it. They clearly haven't listened to a DAC 20 years ago versus the latest equipment. They wouldn't pass a vinyl vs digital test on my system.
@@PDCRed I asked a friend to test me on my own system, digital vs vinyl. I didn't pass the test. Now without vinyl, upgrade budget is for fewer components, bringing a higher level of sound quality within reach