Meet "Alita, Battle Angel", my Akasa-cased NUC music server

What with the development and release of high-end audio music servers (not referring to streamers or network bridges here, but the actual computer system that serves up music files) e.g. Taiko Extreme, Pink Faun, and Grimm, etc.,
I just purchased an Intel NUC i7 in an Akasa case with Roon ROCK installed from a local seller in Palo Alto for only $350.

I've dubbed the Akasa NUC "Alita, Battle Angel"

This thread will start with a series of posts describing the set-up and with photos depicting the implementation so that it's easy to follow along.

Here are the specs:
NUC7i7DNB
Ballistix 16Gb RAM
NVMe M.2 256GB Sabrent
Akasa Plato X8 fanless case - dead quiet and does not get hot.
Has Roon ROCK OS installed.

It's in a fanless Akasa case which is dead quiet and keeps the computer cool.


The purpose of this project was to compare my current 2012 Mac Mini-based Roon Core, which my hypothesis was would be "noisier" as it's powered by a SMPS, has an internal fan, and quite bit of unnecessary "overhead" of componentry and functionality. Eventually, I'll likely be powering the Akasa NUC with a quiet linear power supply, but right now, just powering it with a laptop-style 19V/3.6A SMPS.

Some pics of the set-up in the "remote server room", which is a spare bedroom, well away from the main audio rack. The purpose of placing the music server remotely was so it would be on a different set of AC mains, and all the grunge, noise, and crap afrom the Pace Router and the "computing devices" power supplies, etc. would not be on the same AC mains or in the vicinity of the main amplification equipment.


Top view showing EtherREGEN (under doorstop) at left rear, along with the AfterDark Master Clock and power supply, the Pace router at right and Alita in front.

Everything powered by a Shunyata Gemini power distributor & Venom V14 NR PCs with Alpha and Venom ground cables going from EtherREGEN, Alita (via one of it's USB ports), and the Pace Router to Gemini's Altaira GP-NR subsystem, which makes everything really quiet.

Front view of Alita, Battle Angel servin' up tunes.

Output from the Akasa NUC is via LC/LC optical fibre from EtherREGEN's SFP cage in the remote server room to my Lumin P1's SFP cage in the main audio rack in the listening room. You can see the yellow Corning fiber exiting EtherREGEN from this top-view photo. An external USB drive, middle lower right side of Alita holds the content for the Roon Core. The two components to the right of EtherREGEN at the back are the AfterDark Queen Master Clock and it's LPS. Adding the AfterDark clock to EtherREGEN also provides a BIG jump in audio quality. The top of the Pace Router can be seen at lower right.


The Lumin P1 functions as the streamer, DAC, and preamplifier, and is connected by a single pair of Venom-X ICs to the Constellation integrated amp. Because the P1 uses the amazing LEEDH digital volume control methodology developed in Switzerland, I set the Constellation's volume to Unity Gain, and it simply functions as a power amplifier in this application and I use LEEDH from the P1 to set specific final output volume. LEEDH* is very sophisticated and completely lossless.


After just plugging it in and sitting down for a first iisten, I was fairly blown away. It sounds....REALLY GOOD. Whoa. Honestly, I was not expecting it to be this much better than my previous Mac Mini Roon Core.

I'll post additional info and impressions as a couple replies to this first post so that this specific post doesn't go on too long.

*–LEEDH reference white paper: https://www.processing-leedh.com/copie-de-presentation

 

All the music server components: Alita, EtherREGEN and it's AfterDark Master Clock and LPS, and the AT&T Pace router are all powered with a Shunyata Research Gemini combination power distributor and Altaira-based ground-plane noise reduction hub. Gemini also provides -24dB of noise reduction for the AC-mains powered devices.

Alpha and Venom ground cables from EtheREGEN, Alita and the Pace router connect to the brass ground terminals along the bottom. The ground cable for EtherREGEN connects to a chassis ground knob on ER's front panel, and I'm using a USB-A "tail" to connect to an unused USB port on Alita, and RJ45 tail to connect to an unused RJ45 jack on the Pace Router. Also the two zones of AC receptacles, Zone 1 (Nos. 1 and 2) and Zone 2 (Nos. 3 and 4) are fully isolated from each other. So, I have Alita and EtherREGEN on Zone 1, and the dirty Pace router's AC cable on Zone 2.


Here's a photo of the ground cable with the RJ45 tail "snapped on". This cable is connected to an unused RJ45 jack on the Pace router, which is really f**kin' dirty when it comes to ground-plane noise. Adding this ground cable to Gemin's grround-plane noise reduction hub really reduces that noise considerably. Same applies for the USB port on Alita.


The "tails" system that Shunyata develooped is really great because all you have to do is by a "base cable" that comes with banana plugs, and then snap on the appropriate tail for your application. There's a variey of tails available, including USB-A and USB-B, S/PDIF, BNC, XLR, RCA, etc. Here's the Alpha ground cable with the USB-A tail snapped on that plugs into an unused USB port on Alita.


Here's a photo showing the components power cords and their respective ground-plane noise reduction cables. connected to Gemini. Connecting these devices to Gemini's power distribution and ground-plane noise reduction system REALLY provides significant reduction in grit, grunge, grain, and other nasty noise components from the music server system components.


This photo shows a close-up of the Corning single-mode LC/LC optical fiber running out of the SFP cage of EtherREGEN on A-side. I'm currently using Planet Tech MGB-TL40 single-mode 1310nM optical transceivers as I've found these sound the best. A Shunyata Sigma Ethernet cable that connects Alita to the network via EtherREGEN is shown at right. I found that running the Ethernet cable from the really dirty Pace router into ER's B-side provies the best sound quality because B-side is isolated from A-side by John Swenson's proprietary "moat" design that prevents nasty leakage current from passing between A-side and B-side.

 

Here's a shot of the inside of Alita. You can see it's much simpler than a Mac Mini or standard Intel NUC. And simple is good because simple is QUIET.


I'm going to be doing some mods here, too. Mostly likely the first thing willl be to replace the existing RAM modules with Apacer DDR4 2666 ECC Unbuffered DIMM Memory Modules because from what I've read, this really provides audible improvements, as well.

As Alita has settled and come into her own, so to speak, over the last couple weeks, I've been VERY impressed with the overall improvement in audio qualitiy. Everything, I mean, EVERYTHING, every audio attribute that audiophiles care about is...BETTER. I honestly did not expect there would the magnitude of improvement there has been, but now that I've experienced it first-hand, I can see why Emile has been doing all the R&D he has been doing at Taiko, and the other companies, e.g. Pink Faun, JCAT, and Grimm, etc., have had the impact in this market they have had.

 

Given that Alita is presently powered with a laptop-type SMPS, until I determine what linear power supply I want to use for it, I ordered up a couple of the iFi DCPurifier2's. The DC Purifier2 is an audiophile-grade "DC noise filter" that reduces noise from 312X to 100,000X, according to iFi. It uses Active Noise-Cancelling tech based on the Thales Spectra military radar defence technology used in jet fighters.

Best thing is, it was only 129 bucks.


So, they arrived today, and l plugged one in between the SMPS for Alita, as shown.


Okayyy...that was NOT subtle. Alita now sounds notably better: significantly quieter, more body to instruments and vocals, and "weight" to the presentation, and...it's actually louder than before I installed it. Bass has more power and definition, as well. Decay and the "space" the performance and recording was made in is "deeper" and more spacious-sounding. And, it's just gotten better and better as it settles from just having come off the logistics truck today. And, interestingly, it's actually louder in playback than before I installed it. More mpressions to follow as it settles in, but I am already quite impressed with the improvement it provides. But so far, the DC iPurifier2 has completely exceeded my expectations. When I get the new AC wall-wart I need for the Pace Router tomorrow, I'll install the other DC Purifier2 on that SMPS, as well, and see what improvement can be had with the Pace router's power supply. Stay tuned, but so far, things are notably improving day-by-day.

 

It does! It works from 5V to 24V/3.5A, 84 Watts. The input DC barrel and output are 2.1/5.5m, and it also comes with three DC barrel "adapters": 2.1/5.5mm, 2.5/5.5mm and 3.5/1.35mm. It also has some adapters for DC barrel plugs that have reverse polarity. You can also buy a set of DC barrel plugs for a very large range of DC jack/plugs on Amazon for $15 here: https://shorturl.at/rDKR4
It uses very high-quality parts and materials, as shown in this graphic from iFi. It also uses new Panasonic SP-Cap Polymer Aluminum capacitors with ultra-low ESR and excellent noise rejection.



As it continued to settle over the course of last evening, the improvement in audio quality and the presentation from Alita just got better and better and better, to the point where around 1 AM I was occasionally shaking my head in disbelief. It has completely exceeded my expectations, and for only 129 bucks is a screamin' bargain.

If the 36 W AC adapter I've ordered to use for the 2nd DCPurifier2 for use with the AT&T Pace router ever gets here (the one delivered from Amazon yesterday had the DC adapter plugs in the box. but NO actual adpater. WTF?) from Amazon, I'll put the second on the Pace router. I'm hoping to get some additional improvements from that as the Pace router is really dirty. Here it is with the 3.1/6.3mm adapter plug from the set above from Amazon that will go onto the DC barrel jack on the Pace Router.


So, more to come once. I get the SMPS I'll use with the Pace Router and can install this second one. Stay tuned. Cheers!

 

This is really cool, thanks for sharing your journey so far with this fanless NUC. I've gone a similar route but use mostly off the shelf hardware probably aimed for gaming pcs. I have a hdplex fanless case with an itx motherboard, amd 5700g, 16 gb ram, and a fanless psu but I forget the model. I also have some of those hdplex power supplies the 250w gan ones that can be chained together, but the case doesn't have the best mounting support for two of them so I've opted for the fanless atx power supply for now.

I have an m.2 drive on the motherboard for the OS, ubuntu server, and a 4tb sata ssd for music storage. I just plug it into the wall but have considered some better power supply options from jcat or hdplex. The NUC approach is nice since you basically just have one power connector for the whole thing instead of having 24 pin and 8 pin connectors. The OS runs roon server and I mounted the 4tb ssd for local file storage. The initial idea for this computer was to have a fanless linux computer capable of running games, which might explain some of the hardware choices, but it turned out to just be a headless linux server.

Might try some of the tweaks you went with or just switch over to a NUC platform too. I'll definitely be following this thread and seeing what else you try.

 

Thanks, Christof, for your comments. I've been reading some of the content at CA on DIY music servers with some interest, and some folks have followed a path somewhat similar to yours. I've been reading an in-depth one by Nenon that is quiite sophisticated and I'd like to try my hand at building one of those at some point. What's become clear is that some of these guys are using independent power "rails" (either from multi-rail LPS or multiple single-rail LPS) to power various functions, e.g. one for the ATX (?) connectors that power the main motherboard/CPU, and then dedicated power supplies for interfaces e.g. USB or Ethernet connections, etc. I think that's what you're referring to in your comment about the 24 pin (e.g. ATX-?) and 8-pin connectors - ? Correct me if I'm wrong...

Doing that never occurred to me prior, but reflecting on the rationale for that, it makes sense. .

 

Yes that's what I was referring to. Here's a linear power supply that HDPlex sells that has outputs for each of these power connectors on a motherboard:
https://hdplex.com/hdplex-fanless-500w-atx-linear-power-supply-with-modular-atx-output.html

 

Ah, yes, I see that HDPlex has specific ports for making ATX and EPS connections, etc. I've read that folks think very highly of HDPlex's power supplies for these applications, as well.

What 4TB SSD did you go with for storage? I've been considering installing one in Alita; there are four holes on the bottom panel that could be used for this. I could place it under the bus and USB cables that run from from the main board to the interface board on the front panel (oriented as the "back panel" in this photo).


Very helpful info and context. thank you!

Cheers,
Stephen aka PC.