I recently built a music server based upon the cics Memory Player (cMP2). It has been both very rewarding and eye/ear opening to say the least.
In the past, I have tried using my daily office computer to stream uncompressed audio to my Playback Design MPS-5, but I always found the sound quality was boring and lifeless compared to discs played directly on the player. I quickly dismissed computer transports as a serious audiophile alternative, but a few months ago I came across a discussion on cMP2 and decided that I would see what all the fuss was about.
The philosophy behind cMP2 is to have a barebones computer configuration with an audio player whose goal is to maximize sound quality at the expense of convenience and features. It is not for everyone as it requires users to be a somewhat tech savvy and the user interface is a very basic and clunky compared to standard Win/Mac applications.
cMP2 consists of a recipe for putting together and tweaking the computer hardware and bios settings. It comprises two distinct applications: cMP and cPlay. cMP is meant to replace the standard Windows shell and cPlay is the audio player application. Both cMP and cPlay can run under Windows XP/Vista/7 without any of the recommended system optimizations; however, the sound quality will be no better than using something like Windows Media Player.
When I first loaded the OS and the cMP & cPlay applications onto my new computer, I played some audio tracks just to ensure that all the components were working and that I was getting some sound. The sound quality was the usual dull, murky, lifeless audio that I have always associated with computer based transports. So I started making changes to the bios to severely under-clock and under-volt the system. Also disabled all extraneous on-board peripherals that were not required for a music server (eg. power management, floppy, firewire, LAN, etc ...). Immediately, you could hear a big improvement in sound quality. The music came alive with greater detail and transparency ... but it was still a far way off from the sound I get from disc. Next procedure was the Windows optimization steps by disabling all windows services that are not required for our music server. Note that these steps will result in loss of regular windows functionality, but that is of little significance for our intended goals. Again, sound quality takes a significant leap forward and system latency starts to really improve without all the extraneous services running in the background (optimized system around 3-5 usec versus 70-100 usec on my daily computer).
The best way to run cMP is to have it configured as the replacement shell for XP/Vista/7. This avoids extra overhead and processes that are loaded with the standard Windows shell. I don't really see any advantage of using cMP if you do not use it in this manner. cPlay is an ASIO player that loads the song into memory before playback so that access to the disk I/O is not required during playback. It allows for up to 24/192 playback with either 145db/121db SNR or SoX upsampler. You can also configure cMP to use an alternative player to cPlay if you choose.
I was originally using digital coax to connect the music server to the MPS-5 and what a big mistake that was. Computer systems are inherently noisy and the coax connection was causing detrimental effects on the overall sound of my system. I never realized how bad it was until I turned off my music server and noticed how much better everything sounded. I have always refrained from using Toslink based on unfavourable comments by many people, but was I ever wrong with this assumption. The galvanic isolation of toslink resulted in superior performance as compared to a pricey Transparent Ref Digital coax in this particular instance. Proximity of the computer server to the audio gear is also very important as the CPU and nasty switching ATX power supply generate significant amounts of RFI.
I can happily say that my little experiment has been a great success. The SQ is getting very close to that of playing discs directly on the MPS-5. I am still slowly tweaking the bios settings as well as the windows configuration trying to remove the last bit of extraneous windows processes without causing the system to freeze. I also believe my next significant step will be the replacement of the switching power supply to a robust linear power supply that I am having Gilbert Yeung of Blue Circle design and build for me. I'm sure once that has been done, the sound quality will be the same if not better than playing discs on the MPS-5.
If you are an audiophile that loves to tweak, then you will really enjoy the self satisfaction of building one of these machines. If you do decide to assemble one of these servers, then I would recommend configuring your system for dual boot so that you can switch between a full service Windows OS and the heavily streamlined cMP2 OS that can do very little but play beautiful music.
System Specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
Gigabyte GA-EG45M-UD2H m-ATX motherboard
Kingston DDR-2 PC2-8500 2GB Single Channel
Antec 550W Earthwatts
WD 2TB Green 3.5" HD
RME HDSP 9623 Audio Card
Samsung 22x DVD
Themaltake ISGC-400 CPU cooler
Zalman HD160XT Plus HTPC
Windows XP
cics cMP & cPlay
