which dsp?

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Hi,

I'm searching for a digital crossover and I'm considering a MiniDSP 2x4 HD. But I've tried a computer based DSP (Equalizer APO on Windows) and recently I've looked into brutefir for Linux.

I'm still not sure what to choose: the MiniDSP has a small form factor compared to my pc, but I'm not sure if it will add any functionality compared to the pc solution? And how about sound quality of the MiniDSP HD (DA converter), how would that compare to an average onboard pc soundcard?

Regards
 
Last edited:
Hey.
What is the rest of your audio chain?

MiniDSP has this advantage that it runs on stereo input, and doesn´t need PC to do its function. That is very usable for oustide work if you don´t use PC for what you play.
Once you don´t need that, or always have your PC with you as an audio source, then MiniDSP will be redundant for you.

Average onboard PC soundcard has very broad range of what it can be. It can be very respectable piece of HW, good enaugh for you, and it can be trash. It greatly depends. There is quite easy way to find out. Either RMAA or Arta will measure that for you. RMAA is user friendly.
 
Hey.
What is the rest of your audio chain?

MiniDSP has this advantage that it runs on stereo input, and doesn´t need PC to do its function. That is very usable for oustide work if you don´t use PC for what you play.
Once you don´t need that, or always have your PC with you as an audio source, then MiniDSP will be redundant for you.

Average onboard PC soundcard has very broad range of what it can be. It can be very respectable piece of HW, good enaugh for you, and it can be trash. It greatly depends. There is quite easy way to find out. Either RMAA or Arta will measure that for you. RMAA is user friendly.

Hi Crashpc,

thanks for your reply. I would like to stream the audio to the DSP. That way it feels redundant to use the MiniDSP, like you wrote.

My preferred setup is using a raspberry pc that runs Spotify for streaming music. I have a set of DIY electrostatic loudspeakers with two woofers. (2-way setup).

I tried my Windows 10 pc with DSP software and that worked very well. But this system is rahter big (dimensions). And I prefer to play music from a Linux machine rather than a Windows machine.

So I have serveral options, but I find it hard to choose. At the moment I prefer the MiniDSP 2x4HD option, the only possible future drawback is the limited amount of outputs (4): if I want to build a 3 or 4 way loudspeaker system in future, a pc with appriopiate soundcard would be better...
 
Last edited:
Hello,

so here a solution. It is with LINUX but not so complicate with scripts - it is with a GUI.

X-over realized by Laptop, Open Source and 7.1 AV Receiver over Display Port / HDMI

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AnKX4vLSHn4Nh5ty6YD-Ge9iJbJ8qA

It is working with HDMI and/or 7.1 (5.1) sound card.

DSP is done by the PC (Linux).

And with HDMI and AVR you use the (i hope) high Quality DAC of the AVR.

regards
Guenter

Hi, thanks for your suggestion, I will have a look into your docuement :)
 
ive had two minidsp 2x4 hds and now I use a pc based solution that was about the same cost (maybe a little more for the pc solution and brutefir)

but please realize that the hd only has 2042 taps per chanel at 96khz, equivalent to 1021 taps at 48khz. this is not really enough to do linear crossovers, especially at the lower end of the frequency scale.

the other thing I prefer about pc based is that you don't have to be physically connected to the unit to program it. you can program it and make changes via wifi.
 
ive had two minidsp 2x4 hds and now I use a pc based solution that was about the same cost (maybe a little more for the pc solution and brutefir)

but please realize that the hd only has 2042 taps per chanel at 96khz, equivalent to 1021 taps at 48khz. this is not really enough to do linear crossovers, especially at the lower end of the frequency scale.

the other thing I prefer about pc based is that you don't have to be physically connected to the unit to program it. you can program it and make changes via wifi.

Hi thanks for your message, it seems that apart from ease of use and the nice small form factor there are not really any big advantages for the MiniDSP 2x4HD compared to the (diy) pc solution.

To be honest, it doesn't help that the MiniDSP team is not planning to support Linux. It's interface is flash based and personally I don't really like that as I'm not sure if this is still supported after lets say 5 years. (although maybe I have a completely different setup at that time).

Right now I'm testing with an old pc of mine that is running Windows Vista + Equalizer APO + Peace Equalizer. I'm trying to get some old soundcards running. I will update my progress in this topic. :)
 
Hi thanks for your message, it seems that apart from ease of use and the nice small form factor there are not really any big advantages for the MiniDSP 2x4HD compared to the (diy) pc solution.

To be honest, it doesn't help that the MiniDSP team is not planning to support Linux. It's interface is flash based and personally I don't really like that as I'm not sure if this is still supported after lets say 5 years. (although maybe I have a completely different setup at that time).

Right now I'm testing with an old pc of mine that is running Windows Vista + Equalizer APO + Peace Equalizer. I'm trying to get some old soundcards running. I will update my progress in this topic. :)

If you take an old PC you can try also the live DVD of KXStudio without installing it.

Regards
Guenter
 
Hi,

after many hours of playing with 1 onboard Realtek and 2 antique pci soundcards I finally managed to get a functioning software equalizer in Windows 7. (APO + Peace equalizer) I had to enable upmix left/right stereo to 7.1 in both the equalizer software and windows sound card settings. After that the line-in can be used as a 2 channel ouput.

I also tried ecasound on Linux:

Digital Crossover/EQ with Open-Source Software: HOWTO | Richard's Stuff

This was working as well. Maybe in future I will try to convert my Raspberry pi to an active software filter, if it has enough processing power for this task.

Another new question: I would like to do an in-room measurement using REW software of my full-range system. REW sends the output signal to the soundcard. Is it possible to send this frequency sweep from REW to the software equalizer instead so I can test the whole system (both electrostatic loudspeakres and woofers, equalized)?

Regards, J.
 
Last edited:
Hi, it has been a while since my last post in this topic, but after over one year of using the pc filter solution I want to buy a dedicated filter device like a Minidsp as they are more compact and more energy save. I also prefer my CD player as a medium. I'm aware of it's FIR filter limitations but I like the affordable priced 2x4 HD Minidsp.

The only question I have is about volume control: it has a IR remote control. I would like to connect my CD player digitally to the dsp device as I want to play CD's. That means I can't use the volume control of my integrated amplifier, it has a "separate pre / power amp switch" and the volume control is part of the pre amp. So I suppose the output of the dsp device is connected to the power amp and I solely rely on the volume control of the dsp. Would this be an issue? For instance, does the Minidsp device store the master volume after it is turned off? Is there any risk of playing at maximum sound level after turning on the amplifier and dsp device?
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.