Trying to Summarize my Equipment and Setup before Asking Lots of Questions

Hi, folks. Hope you are staying safe. I’m going to hopefully be posting some questions about tinkering with my setup in the coming days/weeks and thought it a good idea to first start summarizing my current equipment and connections. I’ve spent some time outlining it in my “About Me” profile, and repaste that work in process below.

It’s still coming along and I’ve gone a bit nuts with lots of detail–both to help myself and to communicate here. Anyone feel like reading it, and letting me know if it generally is clear?

I’m going to be asking about optimizing the signal path and integration with other zones, including how to overcome the stuttering/failures I find when working with Hi-Res multichannel files. I’ll probably set up a support ticket also at that time.

But, I won’t have the time to properly do Q&A and testing at the moment, so thought I’d use this evening just to start getting the system written out. Thanks so much for anyone with time to give me feedback on how to make below clearer.

  1. QNAP NAS (TS-x53B) w/10TB IronWolf Pro 3.5" Sata 6GB/s 7200RPM 256MB Cache Drives
  2. CAT6 (3 feet)
  3. TP Link Gigabit Switch (TL-SG108PE)
  4. CAT6 (3 feet)
  5. Desktop Computer running Roon Core & JRiver Media Center (Dell Optiplex 990, Intel Core i5-2400 Quad Core @ 3.1GHz, 16G DDR3 Memory, 256GB EAGET S606 SS Drive (NTFS) +80GB 7200RPM, Windows 10 Pro (64-bit))
    5a) [Internal DisplayPort]
    5b) NVIDIA GeForce 210 PCIe 2.0 Display Adapter w/HDMI Out (1GB 64bit DDR3
    5c) USB 2.0 Port
  6. From Desktop Computer to DACs
    6a) [Multichannel: DisplayPort to HDMI Cable]
    6b) Multichannel: HDMI 2.0 Cable (25 feet - BlueRigger)
    6c) Stereo: USB 2.0 Extension Cable/Repeater (15 feet (36’?)- TrendNet (480Mbps)) ==> USB 2.0 Cable (6 feet - AmazonBasics)
  7. DACs (Bryston Pre/Pro & Ayre Codex)
    7a or 7b) Multichannel: Bryston SP3 Surround Processor / Preamp (HDMI in)
    7c) Stereo: Ayre Codex, including volume control1 (USB 2.0 in)
  8. “Bridging”
    8a & 8b) Multichannel: Balanced Cables from Bryston L/R to Ayre Twenty PreAmp (__ feet - AudioQuest Mackenzie)
    8c) Stereo: Balanced Cables from Ayre Codex L/R to Ayre Twenty PreAmp (__ feet - AudioQuest Red River)
    Sonos (Stereo): Ethernet to Sonos Connect and Optical Cable from Sonos Connect to Ayre Codex (or from Sonos Connect to Bryston and then to Ayre Codex)
  9. Ayre Twenty PreAmp
    9a or 9b) Multichannel: Set to SSP PP Bypass
    9c) Stereo: Volume Control2
  10. From Pre/Pros to Amps
    10a or 10b) Multichannel: Balanced Cables (3x) from Bryston Center & Both Surrounds (___ feet - AudioQuest ____ )
    10c) Stereo: Balanced Cables (2x) from Ayre Twenty Preamp to Ayre Twenty Amp#1 (___ feet - AudioQuest ___)
  11. Integrated Amplifiers (3 Amps x 2ch/each)
    11a or 11b) Multichannel: Ayre Twenty Amp#1 (Front L/R) & Ayre Twenty Amp#2 (Center, w/2nd channel unused) & Ayre Evolution Amp#3 (Both Surrounds)
    11c) Stereo: Ayre Twenty Amp#1 (Front L/R)
  12. Speaker Cable w/Spade Connectors (AudioQuest)
    12 Front L) ___ feet (Stereo & Multichannel)
    12 Front R) ___ feet (Stereo & Multichannel)
    12 Front Center) ___ feet (Multichannel only)
    12 Surround L) ___ feet (Multichannel only)
    12 Surround R) ___ feet (Multichannel only)
  13. Vandersteen Quatro Wood Speakers (5x)

Other: MS Surface Book, MS Surface Pro, JRiver “Id” NUC, Work laptop, Oppo Players, QSC TouchMix-16, Bose PA (L1 Mod II Syst w/B2 Sub & T1), Various Receivers and Sonos devices throughout the house.

Thanks, everyone.

Eric

On a quick read the length of these cables (both) but especially perhaps the USB. I would seriously consider using a roon endpoint like Ropieee on Raspberry Pi4 in a FLIRC.TV case and locate things at your DACs. If you need HDMI connection then maybe a NUC running ROCK as an endpoint is a better option. Worst case if you need windows drivers for the DAC then a small miniPC just running RoonBridge

do yourself a drawing even if on paper whether all the connections etc and take a pic of it…just so you have a physical image of what’s is what and how its all connected too. I can’t really visualise your setup interconnection from you text without doing my own drawings of it and that’s above my pay grade :wink:

1 Like

Thanks, Wizard! Your reply will hopefully nudge me to next steps. Indeed, a visual diagram is called for. I actually did some playing around with Visio awhile back and it looked great. I’ll try and produce something close to a complete diagram. And will check out the other leads you gave me. Thanks again, and stay safe.

Eric