 After describing the equipment I used for my three reference setups, I got to be marked that just mentioning the equipment was not easily understood. So this time schematic representations of how all equipment is connected. Let me start with some disclaimers. First the equipment is chosen and set up to make my work as easy as possible. If that wasn't the case I probably would have bought a system like the Active Grim Speakers with their MU1 player. But how do you judge a quality DAC if your playback system also does the digital to analog conversion? By choosing for separate components, things get slightly more complex to set up and to operate. On the other hand upgrading is easier since parts can be added like the syntax power supply for the MiTech DAC or replaced like the Uralic Aries G2 that took over from the SOtM SMS-200 Ultra Neo. Second, since changing the setup is so easy they will get upgraded from time to time. The description in this video describes the March 2020 situation. Updates will be made to the list of equipment I publish on dhbproject.com. Let me start with a network. On the third floor we find a Zizzle GS1910 HP switch to which the Intel NUC 7i7 BNH is connected. It runs Roon Rock on a M.2 SSD and has the music stored on a 10 TB Western Digital Drive in a USB3 housing. Also connected the Synology DS1819 plus NAS with DX517 extender offering 70 TB of storage and caches on two 500 GB SSDs. As said, it mainly functions as backup for my videos but is also used for testing audio servers if I think speed is important. On the other side of the spectrum I used two sub 100 euro single drive NASs, the Synology DS120Js since that is more realistic for domestic use. As you have seen I rather connect a USB drive to the Roon Rock server and since it is shared as a volume on the network it can also be used for systems like Sonos or Bluesound. The advantage of using a simple NAS is that it consumes less power than a computer and can do all kinds of other things, like backup and make files available to for instance your smartphone on the road. Enough about that. Two of the three reference sets are located at the third floor and from the central switch there is an Ethernet connection to the AcuFox AcuSwitch SE placed near the two setups. Why the AcuSwitch? Well, it is of the same quality as the SOtM SNH10G switch but has no SFP port for glass fiber. I wanted to use glass fiber between the third floor and the ground floor so the SOtM was placed downstairs and since I already had the AcuSwitch I placed it upstairs. It does give some audible improvement on setup 2 but close to nothing in setup 1. Time to have a look at the ground floor. As said, I used glass fiber between the central switch on the third floor and the switch on the ground floor. That used to be the SOtM switch but was recently replaced by the even better Uptone Audio Ether regen that also has an SFP port. By the way, to use glass fiber with these switches you need special modules, the so called Small Form Factor Plugable Transceivers, indeed abbreviated to SFP. I used Finisher Transceivers simply because they were recommended by my supplier. The SFP is on the dirty side of the Ether regen as is the connection to the cable modem that provides internet to the network. As we have seen the AcuSwitch SE provides the cleaned up network connection to both setup 2 and setup 3. In setup 3 the amplification is done by the NAD C316BEE. The speakers are the modern short Avant 902s that can be assisted by the REL T5 subwoofer. The LOUS bridge mounted to the Sparky Smallboard computer normally runs as Roon Endpoint but can easily be used with other software if needed. The AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt DAC does a digital through analog conversion. A nice touch is that the Dragonfly can also render MQA when the decoding is done by the player software. Especially in this price range this can make the difference. Alternatively I can use the Audiophonics RASP DAC LTE iSaber ES9038Q2M streamer that is Raspberry Pi based and thus high assembling rates. Both are powered by the Audiophonic LPSU power supply. Here the amplification is taken care of by the Marantz KI Pearl Lite that drives the Acoustic Energy Radiance 1 loudspeakers. They are supported by the REL T5 subwoofer and both are connected to the loudspeaker terminals of the Marantz. Three digital sources are used in setup 2. The Bluesound Note 2i, the Auralic Aries Mini and a combination of the LOUS bridge signature and the Cort Mojo powered by the SBooster BOTW PMP ECO. All three normally function as Roon Endpoint although the Bluesound and Auralic are used with their own system if for instance I want to listen to web sources that are not supported by Roon. The US bridge signature can easily be converted to being its own streamer by inserting a microSD card with other software. I use Volumeo alternatively. Access to the network in setup 1 is through the ether region that on the dirty side is connected to the cable modem over a network cable and to the central switch on the third floor over glass fiber. On the clean side of the ether region there is only one network feed at 100 Mbps. But let's first introduce the Audio Note Zorro SE that had many upgrades over the years. It drives the efficient AudioPhysics Corpios. From there on a number of variants are possible. The most basic being the MiTech Brooklyn Bridge DAC as Roon Endpoint connected with a network cable to the ether region switch. One step up is using the superb syntax power supply to power the MiTech instead of the built-in switch mode power supply. The syntax is powerful enough to also power the ether region switch. A further improvement is to insert the SOTM SMS200 Ultra Neo in between the ether region and the MiTech, using it as a network bridge. Now the MiTech's own built-in network bridge is no longer used so it is in fact used as a normal MiTech Brooklyn DAC+. The connection between the ether region and the SOTM is a network cable and between the SOTM and the MiTech a USB cable. The SOTM is powered by an SBooster BOTW PMP Eco MK2. The ultimate configuration replaces the SOTM by the Aurelic Aries G2 streamer. It can be used as a streamer that plays music from a share or from the internal 2.5 inch drive. I use the shared volume on the internal NUC when using it with Aurelic's Lightning DS app. But often I just use it as Roon Endpoint. Still further improvements are available. When I add the mini-DSB SHD Studio Dirac processor, room acoustic problems are corrected and to get the deepest of deep bass I add the REL Britannica B2 subwoofer that, like its smaller brother at the third floor, is connected to the loudspeaker terminals of the Audio Note amp. This is a setup I normally use for recreational listening. Every day I start with reading questions and remarks you sent me. Please only use the comment space below the videos in YouTube for your questions. It is impossible to give personal buying advice or solve your problems. I just don't have the time. Although I read almost all reactions you sent me, I only respond to those on YouTube. If I can respond at all. Questions like products comparisons, which one is better, Brand X Model Y or Brand K Model L are impossible to answer as I have explained many times. But questions that might be relevant to more than just a few persons, I do answer. Sometimes directly below the question and sometimes by producing a video with the answer, like this video. I have a zero tolerance policy for people that are rude, impolite, react without having watched the video and those that want to tell me that what I hear is impossible because bits are bits. Especially when they haven't even bothered to check my experiences. Luckily these form only a small portion of the questions and are removed by the moderator. But if you have questions or remarks outside these categories, please do post it. It's great information for me when thinking about new subjects for videos. It often helps to look at somewhat complex matters from more than one side. That was the motivation for making this video this way. In reaction to your reactions by the way. The complexity at the same time is diversatility although I understand it can be hard to imagine what setup variant leads to what sound quality. I am therefore introducing a more detailed classification. In all three setups the amp, speakers and sub remain as a constant. In setup 1 the DAC also remains the same. But the other source components vary and all have their own letter. So for setup 3 it looks like this. Setup 2 has three variants. While setup 1 has four variants. I expect I will not always use these subclasses, for judging sound quality also has to do with sound character. Let's try this for some time and see if it is workable. Please let me know when things are not clear. But also realize that it is not a matter of better or worse. As I have explained with the Bluesound Note 2i vs the Auralic Aries Mini. And that brings us to the end of this video. There will be a new video as always at Friday at 5 p.m. Central European Time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and is trustworthy. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.