DSD, I have already decided how to do it on the dam1021:
1) Decimate DSD/DoP, at whatever bitrate, down to 352 Khz, don't take much logic.
2) Do the 50/60/70 Khz lowpass filter in FIR2, or maybe a couple of IIR biquads.
Fit perfectly with IIR crossover filters and volume control.
Remember DSD is just another digital format, imho not even a good one.... (And this is not the place for further format discussion).
1) Decimate DSD/DoP, at whatever bitrate, down to 352 Khz, don't take much logic.
2) Do the 50/60/70 Khz lowpass filter in FIR2, or maybe a couple of IIR biquads.
Fit perfectly with IIR crossover filters and volume control.
Remember DSD is just another digital format, imho not even a good one.... (And this is not the place for further format discussion).
DAM1021 + Audrivana Plus = Brittle and Harsh
Trust me, I was surprised. I've been chasing a slight harshness, and had got to the point I was thinking it could only be cured with a different output stage.
I realise Audirvana Plus is the current OS X audiophile "crowd pleaser" and I've owned a license myself since 2.0 came out. Thus far all the filter development has been done using A+ but I strongly recommend to anyone using this software listen to the "contribution" that Audirvana makes to the overall sound.
I have spent some time today listening to:
Audirvana Plus 2.1.1
Pure Music 2.0.4 (I've owned a copy since v1.0.x)
Amarra 3.0.3 (which I ended up buying today)
iTunes 12.1.2
HQPlayer OSX
You only have to listen to iTunes "raw" to hear exactly what is going on. iTunes isn't too bad - it's a bit lacking in focus, and lacks the ambience recovery of better players. Compared to iTunes the "improvement" in detail that you get from Audirvana sounds more like a thinning down of the instruments, and slight overall brightening. It's especially obvious on strings, where there is a noticeable hardening and brittleness added by A+.
HQPlayer is a bit of a revelation, especially if you oversample with some of Jussi's filter algorithms, but even at 44.1 output (and using brewed filters) it doesn't add any brittleness or hardness to strings. There is a real sense of weight in the bottom end that A+ seems to miss.
The same thing applies to Pure Music and Amarra. The is a sense of greater spaciousness and detail but the essential character of the music is not altered from what you hear in iTunes. Pure Music is darker sounding than Amarra, but neither lapse into brittleness or harshness.
All I can conclude is that the much vaunted detail from A+ works well if you have a slightly soft or warm voiced DAC but it's pure poison with the DAM in my system.
I don't expect anyone to take my word for it, but I strongly recommend to anyone who is running A+ and finding the DAM a bit harsh sounding to try listening to iTunes (yeah I know, I know...), the demo of HQPlayer, and Amarra before deciding there is an issue with the DAM that you need to "fix".
I wish I'd realised this a couple of months ago...
Trust me, I was surprised. I've been chasing a slight harshness, and had got to the point I was thinking it could only be cured with a different output stage.
I realise Audirvana Plus is the current OS X audiophile "crowd pleaser" and I've owned a license myself since 2.0 came out. Thus far all the filter development has been done using A+ but I strongly recommend to anyone using this software listen to the "contribution" that Audirvana makes to the overall sound.
I have spent some time today listening to:
Audirvana Plus 2.1.1
Pure Music 2.0.4 (I've owned a copy since v1.0.x)
Amarra 3.0.3 (which I ended up buying today)
iTunes 12.1.2
HQPlayer OSX
You only have to listen to iTunes "raw" to hear exactly what is going on. iTunes isn't too bad - it's a bit lacking in focus, and lacks the ambience recovery of better players. Compared to iTunes the "improvement" in detail that you get from Audirvana sounds more like a thinning down of the instruments, and slight overall brightening. It's especially obvious on strings, where there is a noticeable hardening and brittleness added by A+.
HQPlayer is a bit of a revelation, especially if you oversample with some of Jussi's filter algorithms, but even at 44.1 output (and using brewed filters) it doesn't add any brittleness or hardness to strings. There is a real sense of weight in the bottom end that A+ seems to miss.
The same thing applies to Pure Music and Amarra. The is a sense of greater spaciousness and detail but the essential character of the music is not altered from what you hear in iTunes. Pure Music is darker sounding than Amarra, but neither lapse into brittleness or harshness.
All I can conclude is that the much vaunted detail from A+ works well if you have a slightly soft or warm voiced DAC but it's pure poison with the DAM in my system.
I don't expect anyone to take my word for it, but I strongly recommend to anyone who is running A+ and finding the DAM a bit harsh sounding to try listening to iTunes (yeah I know, I know...), the demo of HQPlayer, and Amarra before deciding there is an issue with the DAM that you need to "fix".
I wish I'd realised this a couple of months ago...
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Bitperfect has a decent reputation as well, and worked pretty well when I tried it out. It's basically a plugin audio engine for iTunes.
BitPerfect
I think Audirvana Plus is a nice app, and it's very usable, but in my system and paired with the DAM1021 it isn't the best combination. Obviously I've lived with it since January so it's not unspeakably awful. But there is definitely a harsh edge and brittleness that goes away when A+ is taken out of the playback chain.
Finally i was able to get the DAC up and running.
The source: Asus Xonar D2X card and powered with a very good Rcore transformer. sec 7V
Optical receiver Toshiba
Amplifier: ALFET based Class A 10W with Mundorf Supreme input capacitors and Mundorf Power supply capacitors with silver plated pcb and even amplifier is built with a Rcore transformers.
When I started to listen to it on first go i just thought wow what a amazing detail and yes as expected the RAW has even more details and its very obvious with the Highs even the bass was not loosing its grip with even going deeper than expected yet clean. But the mid has got bit suffering or its not open or the sound sounds kinda flat.
The analysis why it sounds flat is my observations.
According to soren the lab measurements are very good and well made so nothing to do with the measurement front but onething I observed this signature whenever I use SMD resistors in amplifier hence all my amplifiers dont use SMDs no matter what I use through hole only. As we have done extensive test on this by listening using the best of the speakers and amplifiers thats what I can say.
But thought to improve it with my cables hence I got Van Den Hul power cable and then connected both the DAC and the Amplifier with this so suddenly the high frequency noise is gone and now the sound is even more smooth or its getting too smooth loosing some dynamics.
I tried the power supply addon to the Analog supply pins as stated on hifiduno website as to change it to panasonic caps but I had Nichicon FG and yes they made some difference like yes mid was coming out but lows had a slight ht and the nano details in highs were disturbed. Elna silmics will definitely rob the details available but i will try and let know.
Muse is a kind of ruthless in presentation but Cerafine will be kind of harsh though but let me test them and get back with results.
But something needs to improve in terms of dynamics Soren you have to improve on this one.
The source: Asus Xonar D2X card and powered with a very good Rcore transformer. sec 7V
Optical receiver Toshiba
Amplifier: ALFET based Class A 10W with Mundorf Supreme input capacitors and Mundorf Power supply capacitors with silver plated pcb and even amplifier is built with a Rcore transformers.
When I started to listen to it on first go i just thought wow what a amazing detail and yes as expected the RAW has even more details and its very obvious with the Highs even the bass was not loosing its grip with even going deeper than expected yet clean. But the mid has got bit suffering or its not open or the sound sounds kinda flat.
The analysis why it sounds flat is my observations.
According to soren the lab measurements are very good and well made so nothing to do with the measurement front but onething I observed this signature whenever I use SMD resistors in amplifier hence all my amplifiers dont use SMDs no matter what I use through hole only. As we have done extensive test on this by listening using the best of the speakers and amplifiers thats what I can say.
But thought to improve it with my cables hence I got Van Den Hul power cable and then connected both the DAC and the Amplifier with this so suddenly the high frequency noise is gone and now the sound is even more smooth or its getting too smooth loosing some dynamics.
I tried the power supply addon to the Analog supply pins as stated on hifiduno website as to change it to panasonic caps but I had Nichicon FG and yes they made some difference like yes mid was coming out but lows had a slight ht and the nano details in highs were disturbed. Elna silmics will definitely rob the details available but i will try and let know.
Muse is a kind of ruthless in presentation but Cerafine will be kind of harsh though but let me test them and get back with results.
But something needs to improve in terms of dynamics Soren you have to improve on this one.
I have been on Pure Music since long time ago as well. For me, the deciding factor was crossover implementation in PM, and the fact it is a Mac app. Is there any other app that has crossover implementation for Mac that you know off? Sorry for the off topic question.
Let me burn the DAC for 200 hours and see if there is any improvement in the mids. I feel some improvement after 74hours and I believe even some improvement will be substantial because it can again be handled at the pre and the power stages.
My 0.01% DAM1021 connected to a Raspberry Pi 2
DAM is using Paul's (spzzzzkt) excellent Steep rolloff Chebychev Filter 1021filt_1015_C150_BW.skr
Output drives a STAX SRM-727/SR-009 headphone amp combo.
Much thanks to Paul for the DSP work and Søren for creating the DAM.
The RPI2 integrates the DAM nicely into my existing Logitech Media Server playback setup.
The background is the LMS playlist manager WebUI and the foreground is the SqueezePlay app with the Squeezebox touch UI.
DAM is using Paul's (spzzzzkt) excellent Steep rolloff Chebychev Filter 1021filt_1015_C150_BW.skr
Output drives a STAX SRM-727/SR-009 headphone amp combo.
Much thanks to Paul for the DSP work and Søren for creating the DAM.
The RPI2 integrates the DAM nicely into my existing Logitech Media Server playback setup.
The background is the LMS playlist manager WebUI and the foreground is the SqueezePlay app with the Squeezebox touch UI.
Attachments
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You've made no mention of filters used. Do upgrade the FPGA firmware too.
I would suggest trying the 1021filtNewNOS if you are after dynamics. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...ilter-brewing-soekris-r2r-10.html#post4245752
The new Nyquist filters also sound very good. If you prefer a more polished sound they are excellent.
I would agree that even after months of burn in and dozens of filters, I have consistently searched for ways to improve the percussive dynamics of the DAM.
Good luck and enjoy!
Im using the default Filter which comes with the DAM.I would suggest trying the 1021filtNewNOS if you are after dynamics. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...ilter-brewing-soekris-r2r-10.html#post4245752
The new Nyquist filters also sound very good. If you prefer a more polished sound they are excellent.
I would agree that even after months of burn in and dozens of filters, I have consistently searched for ways to improve the percussive dynamics of the DAM.
Good luck and enjoy!
Just now listening and now the sound is quite different after 100hours of burning.
would updating the firmware increases the quality?
The filter you have mentioned does increases the dynamics without sacrificing the microdetails?
Is the current Filter NOS?
Unsure if I understand the question but spzzzzk has a great tutorial in commands used in the umanager
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vend...magnitude-24-bit-384-khz-236.html#post4273014
If you wonder about the serial connection itself it is a good user guide here
https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/soekris-dam-1021-r-2r-dac-users-guide/
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vend...magnitude-24-bit-384-khz-236.html#post4273014
If you wonder about the serial connection itself it is a good user guide here
https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/soekris-dam-1021-r-2r-dac-users-guide/
You really need to try some of the alternative filters. The default filter was mainly something to get the DAM up and running based on what Søren has posted, so it is in not what I'd call a benchmark for SQ.
To my ears the more recent filters are detailed, but flesh out the sound a bit more than stock, plus improve sound staging and depth.
The NewNOS filter has a few fans, and is worth trying if you are into that sort of thing.
I'd recommend trying some of the more recent filters. I tend to listen to the "filter of the day" - for obvious reasons...
The EQ (equiripple) filters are my current approach, and sound pretty good.
EQ_n001 is a steep roll off filter, and is a slight improvement over the previous BW filters.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...ilter-brewing-soekris-r2r-23.html#post4335673
EQ_n011 is steep roll-off with a shaped stop band.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...ilter-brewing-soekris-r2r-23.html#post4337492
EQ_n017 is intermediate phase filter, and is the current "bleeding edge" filter. At least one user thinks this will replace the SoX HiAtt as his listening filter of choice. From what I've heard so far it's one of the better filters.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...ilter-brewing-soekris-r2r-23.html#post4339567
Slightly older
1021filt_1015_Kb16_BW.skr and 1021filt_1015_C150_BW.skr are in the zip attached to this post. the Kb16 is my preferred filter out of the two.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...ilter-brewing-soekris-r2r-21.html#post4325278
SoX HiAtt - quite a few people like this one. I personally prefer the Kb16_BW above.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...ilter-brewing-soekris-r2r-20.html#post4318883
Going back much beyond that is getting into shark infested waters...
glt has a good index of the old filters but I wouldn't bother with 90% of what is listed.
Will be great if you (or someone else) give a short description of characteristics of those filters, warmth/bright, smooth/detail, forward/wide stage? etc, etc.
