Building the ideal(ish) Music Server

[Ozcall 1,266]

Isn't Shunt limited by its current demand? What have you been using it for, Gordon? Can this Shunt keeps up consistently at 2A current?

Hi Chanh , current use is to power a mini-dsp 2x4 board ,so no great current demand. I have used it in other projects with higher current requirement without any problems.

[Ozcall 1,266]

Thanks for the heads up Gordon. It looks like the unit will fit into  an appropriate case as well which will tidy things up. Possibly need 2 if also supplying power direct to a USB card.  Do you have any transformer in mind? I would  tend to go for extra capacity so 100-120 VA?

Hi Tasso , something like this: http://www.tortech.com.au/toroidal-transformers/toroidal-transformer/toroidal-transformer-120va-240v/2*12v-5.0amp Edited May 21, 2015 by Ozcall

[statman 667]

All good Mick! Great reading that we are all open minded and provide each point of view on same subject matter. Can I encourage you try powering a audioPC from it? If it works, I will get a couple for my upcoming projects!

Look forward reading your findings!

I'm not competent enough with computers to do that (yet), but tell me what voltage you will use and I'll tell you what current it will supply.

The beauty of shunt regs is that they sink or release just the right amount of current to keep the voltage and current of the powered device exactly as it should be. But for some ears, shunt regs are "too good" ,  probably because they are so fast.

[Chanh 1,159]

True competent shunt regulator(s) do what you specified as above. If you look closely at my DIY DDDAC, there are 47 TentLab Shunts, individually doing its duty. At 50mA designated, they outputting close to 70*C.

The issue with Shunt on high current demand is it runs extremely hot for inadequate heatsink. Shunt must always actively ready for any surge in current. Therefore, when the current demand is low, those energy must be dissipating as heat. For a high current demand at 12 to 19VDC (typical a PC voltage/power requirements) a shunt is still feasible but costly unless we've mistaken it from a Super-Regulator design? Also note, shunt is only as good with low impedance network, e.g as closest as possible. It will be much less optimal or perhaps deceive the purpose when place it a distance away from where it's powering. No matter how fast a shunt is, if it must travel a distance to where it needs be...!?!

Anyway, this is how I understood it and I could be wrong. Feel free to correct me here if my understanding is imprecise?!

[statman 667]

True competent shunt regulator(s) do what you specified as above. If you look closely at my DIY DDDAC, there are 47 TentLab Shunts, individually doing its duty. At 50mA designated, they outputting close to 70*C.

The issue with Shunt on high current demand is it runs extremely hot for inadequate heatsink. Shunt must always actively ready for any surge in current. Therefore, when the current demand is low, those energy must be dissipating as heat. For a high current demand at 12 to 19VDC (typical a PC voltage/power requirements) a shunt is still feasible but costly unless we've mistaken it from a Super-Regulator design? Also note, shunt is only as good with low impedance network, e.g as closest as possible. It will be much less optimal or perhaps deceive the purpose when place it a distance away from where it's powering. No matter how fast a shunt is, if it must travel a distance to where it needs be...!?!

Anyway, this is how I understood it and I could be wrong. Feel free to correct me here if my understanding is imprecise?!

 

At 12-20V 2A will be an idle for this reg, it will get warm, but not too hot. As I said it has good heatsinking. I'll connect up a 3A load on the weekend ad let you know how it goes. Whats max continuous current you need? 

[Tasso 1,828]

 Whats max continuous current you need? 

 

 

Good question, time to take some measurements.

[statman 667]

After testing for high current ability and noise levels I wouldn't recommend this shunt reg for computer use.

[Chanh 1,159]

After testing for high current ability and noise levels I wouldn't recommend this shunt reg for computer use.

Thanks for the infor Mick. Great reading a practical experiment was conducted. I often found myself engage into an argument unintentionally when people just speculate with mindset "I know it all" without a practical experience(s) on a subject matter rather relying on non-scholar texts published on the net.

Anyway, I hope to catchup with you soon!

Edited May 24, 2015 by Chanh

[zydeco 91]

I have been experimenting with more components:

Single sided memory - this also outperforms the regular memory in my setup(s). These sticks are 4GB each

A different power supply - this one by PPA studios

And a USB Pcie card from Paul Pang of PPA. Paul makes a big deal about using an TXCO clock to re-clock the signal to the DAC.

I have to say that the PPA usb card is pretty special. In my setup it outperformed the SOTM card through revealing more detail and imaging. Not night and day differences however

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Tasso - What are your thoughts on the HD-Plex vs PPA PSU for the music server? 

[Ozcall 1,266]

After testing for high current ability and noise levels I wouldn't recommend this shunt reg for computer use.

Hi Mick , was there a problem with both current delivery and noise levels or just current delivery?

[statman 667]

Both , and 2.7mV of noise, ok for some applications, but not for what these guys want to use it for.

[Tasso 1,828]

Tasso - What are your thoughts on the HD-Plex vs PPA PSU for the music server?

In terms of SQ, they are remarkably similar in actual fact.. I would base any purchasing choice on power requirements , not any SQ difference between these 2. The PPA with a single 12V output and 120W on tap could be useful for a seriously power hungry application and the HD-plex has great flexibility with 19v, 12v, 9v, and 5v and a number of different adapters for different applications

Sound quality wise, these really deliver.

[Sir Rab of Everest 509]

Hey @@Ancientflatulence, sounds like the HDplex might drive our 2009 Mac minis (subject to checking current suitability).

[Tasso 1,828]

I thought I read somewhere that 2009 Macmini could use up to110 watts of power - that's too high for the HDPlex

[Guest myrantz]

I thought I read somewhere that 2009 Macmini could use up to110 watts of power - that's too high for the HDPlex

TeraDac apparently can do higher power setups - they have various models... My current PC idles at 60W, and depending on load (say DSD->PCM) it can consume about 100W... And @100W that is actually more than all my SS stereo equipment combined.. ...

IIRC when booting up (POST), it will suck a lot of juice too... But at >100W, because of efficiency reasons, for me really linear regulated makes less sense (cents) compared to SMPS (> 80% efficiency typically).. 100W sounds like a bad number, but comparing to the prescott days that's just a trickle! rofl!

 

Ideally, a ideal CA machine will draw no more than 50W at full load (and much less for streaming)... 

 

Armed with this new theory, that's what my next CA build will try to do... e.g.

1/ CPU will no longer run at performance, it will be either clocked down, or for flexibility reasons, via cpufreq.

2/ Machine will be totally fanless (fans, like HDD draw a fair amount of juice too).

3/ No add on graphics card, just use the one on CPU.

4/ No > SVGA graphics (or 3D graphics), just normal text (so either safe mode windows, or Linux console) or VGA mode.

5/ and so on...

 

Following the footsteps of Tasso & Conch Blowa,  I'm going green..... :ph34r:.. Going passive I am going to miss all the bling fancy active CPU coolers (and the ritual of fitting all the bits and bobs to clamp 1kg worth of heat sink material onto the motherboard)...

[Steve M 1,546]

Great write-up Tasso and thanks for sharing.

 

Looking forward to hearing your server at my place, in my most optimal system and at leisure. Its the best way to gauge these things, I find ...

 

Cheers,

 

 

Steve.