[Jake2]

Why not just solder a lead from the shield to the ground pin of the IEC?

Yes that's one option to earth/ground the shield. I was initially planning to be lazy and just use copious quantities of copper tape with conductive adhesive to the aluminium chassis incl the power supply section divider board as the means of grounding the shield. But agree a lead to the IEC earthing point on the chassis is desirable. I think the shorting risk we were contemplating though was more if two conductive points on say the edge of a circuit board made contact with the bare edge of a copper shield... it wouldn't be great, chassis / IEC AC grounding point or not.

This is some of the copper sheet I'd ordered... well, thought I'd ordered.. it's still in my cart dammit.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003966949048.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003201762844.html

Normal copper foil tape is around 0.05mm thickness IIRC, which is very thin, fragile and will drape/droop if adhesion fails. So I was thinking something of getting some copper sheet about four to ten times the thickness for greater rigidity, less flex but still the ability to fairly easily cut and precisely form it to fit a confined space with tight tolerances (especially the gap between the R2R ladder and analogue boards/sections which is v tight) i.e. 0.2mm- 0.8mm thickness. Had intended to order a range of thicknesses and dimensions as below to see what worked best. Need to pull the trigger.

 

[Jake2]

It also depends on the OS of the streamer.
For instance, when used with Red OS, the Red is hot like a tube amp!
The heat is the result of heavy CPU load, which also provokes electrical noise.
With Gentoo/Diretta, the Red is just warm, its interior temperature is 40° C. The R26 is warmer when I touch it.

That is really interesting. How does GP/Diretta compare to HQP NAA?

You've reminded me - I need to buy that USB stick so I (we) can finally get Diretta/ GP on the AfterDark Diretta Rosanna up and running.

 

[welldonehd]

@Dandoudou as you know I'm in no way sceptical of the fact that upstream network changes can have very audible effects, goodness I've experienced enough of em.

I've previously heard the upstream jitter point you made also made by a number of credible sources - incl John Swenson in his EtherRegen white paper and Hans Beekhuyzen on his switches jitter vid.

However I've yet to hear a satisfactory - to me - fully articulated explanation of how upstream 'jitter' arising from the processing of various upstream devices can be transmitted to (or manifest at) the endpoint, provided the integrity of the packets - with the amplitude and timing data contained therein - remains intact. It may well be a limitation of my comprehension of what can be a technical topic.

I asked the question of Hans in the YT comments but got no response. Can you explain this to me. Genuine question as I'm still trying to build a sufficiently detailed mental model of an ethernet chain that properly explains what I hear.

A hot off the press example of a non-subtle switch related audio change I'd love to be able to explain by a clear mental model: I've been experimenting with a bunch of A5 sheets of fo.Q vibration damping material. Very effective on the chassis of my power and pre amps, the R26 and my OCK-2, oh and on top of my speakers. Seriously impressive increases in focus, refinement and dynamics.. everything tightens up, whilst in the case of the digital components, everything becomes more palpable. Those fo.Q guys know their shizzle.

So believe it or not, untill 5 mins ago I'd never gotten around to trying a sheet on my SW-8 switch. Damn. Jana Horn's vocals on On the Window in the Dream became that much sweeter, more full bodied and palpable, the music had a more effortless flow whilst the soundstage is more expansive. Bass lines are more weighty too. My power amp is not getting it's second fo.Q sheet back, it's that effective on the SW-8 switch, I'm actually gobsmacked.

To clarify I'm talking about the effect of vibration damping a switch that is directly connected to my R26. Not subtle at all.

Can you let me know where the best position is to use FOQ with OCK2 and R26? I did try some positions, but it failed actually. Thank you.

 

[Jake2]

Can you let me know where the best position is to use FOQ with OCK2 and R26? I did try some positions, but it failed actually. Thank you.

Depends on the fo.Q product. I'm no expert, but what has produced positive results so far with those two is:

• R26 - TA-102 (1mm thick) - very limited and judicious use so far of just some small pieces <4mm per side on the caps in the digital section (advice from experts on the AliX thread is less is more with this stuff but some don't like it); SH-21K (2mm thick) - A5 sheet just sitting on the top chassis & two pieces of roughly 20mm x 20mm stacked on top of the K2 clock synthesiser.
• OCK-2 - just an SH-21K A5 sheet just sitting on the top chassis, which in the case of the OCK-2 (and SW-8) is the surface on which the upside down mounted circuit-board sits.

All brought positive changes, but the SH-21K changes were more pronounced. I also used an A5 sheet on my LHY switch - the effect is remarkable as I posted. Crazy that - even very potent - vibration damping of an ethernet device could have any audible effect, let alone a strong one. The SH-21K (2 x A4 sheets, same material as SH-22K which is 2 x A5 sheets) stuff is incredible. Like fairy dust on every component I've used it on incl on my speakers. Yes I'm being colourful and no doubt exaggerating a little, but check out @DecentLevi 's posts in the AliX cables thread. If you can find it, buy it before it's gone is my advice.

 

[BShaw]

Yes that's one option to earth/ground the shield. I was initially planning to be lazy and just use copious quantities of copper tape with conductive adhesive to the aluminium chassis incl the power supply section divider board as the means of grounding the shield. But agree a lead to the IEC earthing point on the chassis is desirable. I think the shorting risk we were contemplating though was more if two conductive points on say the edge of a circuit board made contact with the bare edge of a copper shield... it wouldn't be great, chassis / IEC AC grounding point or not.

This is some of the copper sheet I'd ordered... well, thought I'd ordered.. it's still in my cart dammit.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003966949048.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003201762844.html

Normal copper foil tape is around 0.05mm thickness IIRC, which is very thin, fragile and will drape/droop if adhesion fails. So I was thinking something of getting some copper sheet about four to ten times the thickness for greater rigidity, less flex but still the ability to fairly easily cut and precisely form it to fit a confined space with tight tolerances (especially the gap between the R2R ladder and analogue boards/sections which is v tight) i.e. 0.2mm- 0.8mm thickness. Had intended to order a range of thicknesses and dimensions as below to see what worked best. Need to pull the trigger.

Head to your local lumber supply/home supply, they will usually sell copper flashing and it's quite robust, I've got a coil of it in the back of my van for use on a job actually! The stuff I buy around here is approx. .5mm, maybe more, it takes some effort to bend. They also usually sell step flashing, 130-140mm squares. I understand what you're saying now about the shorts Jake, I was planning to wrap the edges with electrical tape to avoid accidental contact, but another option is those slide on plastic binder clips from the stationary store. Personally I don't want to use the chassis in any way, just go straight to ground and dump it into the electrical system just like I do every other shield. In your case you also have the option to connect that shield lead to one of your ground boxes I guess, which might be pretty cool.

 

[Jake2]

Head to your local lumber supply/home supply, they will usually sell copper flashing and it's quite robust, I've got a coil of it in the back of my van for use on a job actually! The stuff I buy around here is approx. .5mm, maybe more, it takes some effort to bend. They also usually sell step flashing, 130-140mm squares. I understand what you're saying now about the shorts Jake, I was planning to wrap the edges with electrical tape to avoid accidental contact, but another option is those slide on plastic binder clips from the stationary store. Personally I don't want to use the chassis in any way, just go straight to ground and dump it into the electrical system just like I do every other shield. In your case you also have the option to connect that shield lead to one of your ground boxes I guess, which might be pretty cool.

Good tip thanks, will see if they have copper flashing - some stuff is less available in our much smaller local market of ~5m. Great minds re electrical tape, I’ve since bought some, didn’t have any when I did that mock-up. I work in a much less practical space (fin services) so not much call for such supplies on my jobs whilst my skills aren’t particularly transferable to DIY electrical stuff which is well outside my comfort zone… All good fun.

 

[gammi]

FYI for the shield people, there's a special tape called Kapton that's made specifically for insulating electrical circuits and is more temperature resistant than typical black vinyl electrical tape.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

3M Tapecase copper foil adhesive tape (comes in different sizes)

 

[Dandoudou]

Good tip thanks, will see if they have copper flashing - some stuff is less available in our much smaller local market of ~5m. Great minds re electrical tape, I’ve since bought some, didn’t have any when I did that mock-up. I work in a much less practical space (fin services) so not much call for such supplies on my jobs whilst my skills aren’t particularly transferable to DIY electrical stuff which is well outside my comfort zone… All good fun.

Don't forget to bury your BL clock inside the R26, before sealing the copper sarcophagus.

 

[Zaurux]

That is really interesting. How does GP/Diretta compare to HQP NAA?

You've reminded me - I need to buy that USB stick so I (we) can finally get Diretta/ GP on the AfterDark Diretta Rosanna up and running.

The temperature differences are not linked to the Diretta/NAA difference but to the Gentoo settings... as indicated above, you just need to change CPU frequencies and the number of processes to get back to less energy-consuming operation.
I also did this with my ZStream/NAA, which was running on a 7.5v power supply.

 

[Dandoudou]

The temperature differences are not linked to the Diretta/NAA difference but to the Gentoo settings... as indicated above, you just need to change CPU frequencies and the number of processes to get back to less energy-consuming operation.
I also did this with my ZStream/NAA, which was running on a 7.5v power supply.

They are related to both.
Gentoo is set of course to run the Rpi4 on minimum power consumption with minimum CPU cores, and all the unnecessary features of the hardware are disabled.
But with the same settings and without Diretta, the Rpi4 will consume more energy, because it will have to render the sound like any other streamer.
With Diretta, the sound is rendered by the Host. The Target only unpacks the Ethernet packets, and clocks the sound.
For this reason, the power consumption is not only low. It is completely regular and steady without any burst.

 

[Jake2]

Don't forget to bury your BL clock inside the R26, before sealing the copper sarcophagus.

Lol. Wish me luck... A bit rough but I've used lots of electrical tape (white) all along the vertical sides by the circuit boards. The top edge being bare doesn't matter re making contact with the lid as it's part of the chassis which is grounded to AC earth already. I couldn't wait any longer...

 

[Dandoudou]

Lol. Wish me luck... A bit rough but I've used lots of electrical tape (white) all along the vertical sides by the circuit boards. The top edge being bare doesn't matter re making contact with the lid as it's part of the chassis which is grounded to AC earth already. I couldn't wait any longer...

Nice work.

 

[Olaff]

Lol. Wish me luck... A bit rough but I've used lots of electrical tape (white) all along the vertical sides by the circuit boards. The top edge being bare doesn't matter re making contact with the lid as it's part of the chassis which is grounded to AC earth already. I couldn't wait any longer...

It would be interesting to hear impressions about the sound after the upgrade)

 

[Stellabagpuss]

Looking forward to your views Jake