Inexpensive but good sounding power supply (and hard drive) for PC audio?

One of my best friends has a PC front end that uses multiple LPS, isolation, OCXO USB output cards, battery supplies to run internal SATA drives e.t.c e.t.c

All these things improved the sound and I heard them being implemented step by step. But the biggest improvement, which moved the audio from sounding digital to a real life type naturalness, was the JPlay shutdown mode.

JPlay software for Windows has a special mode that turns off all motherboard functions (including video output and mouse/keyboard controls) in an attempt to minimize all the EMI/RFI created by a computer motherboard design. Essentially it buffers your chosen WAV files directly out of RAM to the output, powering down and minimizing everything else.

It sounds amazing - but the catch is once you set the chosen tracks to listen to (and that is a convoluted process in itself involving pasting exact file name into a text file) you lose all control of the PC. You cannot pause, stop, skip a track or do anything else until you reboot the PC. Its very very non user friendly and impractical.

He set this rig up 10 years ago following advice from the JPlay forums. I expected audiophile manufacturers to have followed this path with dedicated hardware but it was obviously very difficult and has taken longer than expected, with only now the latest streamers from Auralic, Aurender, Lumin e.t.c are using in-house custom CPU processing designs rather than the noisy, off the shelf designs best suited to the PC industry.

@agisthos Euphony OS for Windows eliminates any use of Windows as computer, all you get is BIOS screens and Euphony screen. With I9 processor using less than 3% on only two cores in server mode handing off to Sonore OpticalRendu for streamer. Euphony OS integrated with Stylus music player software for seamless user interface.

I too thought Windows machines would have entered plug n play market, Baetis is only company I'm aware of offering music streamer using Windows platform. Based on individuals I'm acquainted with over at Audiophilestyle forum it seems diy crowd  can build streamers that can beat all the plug n play streamers with exception of Taiko Extreme, perhaps Wadax. The builder of my custom streamer and subsequent owner both compared this build to some of the best plug n play, this preferred until comparison to Taiko Extreme, which both purchased. At time of their comparisons this build running HDPlex, I'm running with JCAT Optimo S ATX. Wonder how this would compare now?

I doubt profit margins using fully optimized Windows hardware and OS would be nearly as great as the Linux based. Comparing internal parts cost in my custom build vs what I see in most plug n play is no contest, mine far above. Add in $6k Optimo LPS and nice case needed for plug n play market, it would probably have retail cost of Taiko or Wadax, and still may not be as good considering all the proprietary technology in those two streamers.

"Euphony OS for Windows" does not actually run in Windows.  They just have a "Euphony Downloader for Windows" which can be used to download and written to a USB device as a "bootable device".

Euphony is Linux operating system that is similar in ways to "Audiophile Linux" or "Arch Linux".  My understanding is that Euphony has done a lot of the "common tuning" which creates a result that is great in most scenarios.  Hardcore Linux users can take ArchLinux and spend hours/days/months tuning the O/S configuration.  In the end, they may achieve better than Euphony (or worse depending).

@donquichotte

More expensive/higher standard power supplies just mean they are more efficient in terms of power consumption overall. They produce less heat, may last longer, and sometimes improve overall system performance (in the case that you a have a powerful gaming PC, I’ve built these and others etc. severs before...my day job is IT).

In terms of the PSU itself, I don’t think that will impact sound quality. Because it’s a computer, not an audio component.

All good DACs will pre-filter the USB input from any noise over USB, so that’s not a concern.

In regards to storage options for music, I would suggest a fast and reliable SATA III SSD of your choice (capacity) or a PCI-e /nVME solid-state drive. If the motherboard on your computer is not already compatible, you can buy a PCI-e card and add that functionality by using one PCI-e lane on the motherboard. Hard Drives are noisy! bad for music.

The quality of electricity (especially of AC) before it reaches an audio component or anywhere within that chain is important.

Check out my profile to see what I’m using. And feel free to send me a message.

* built servers before