It's been many years since I have spent time on this forum. (And BTW am absolutely delighted that things are not that different--the passion and creativity is what I love--even when it boils over into a 10 page argument).
I'm in need of some help--since I was last here (maybe 2013) I have built some pretty decent sounding systems using a DEQX for xo's and correction. Well she's getting pretty long in tooth and is showing her age--mic input is dead, input jack receiver severed from board, etc. Hey nearly 20 years of service and likely tens of thousands of dollars spent on commercial systems and who knows what foo-fah in the pursuit of .... I've been a happy camper and I knew the say would come when I finally just had to suck it up, and move on. But oh my have things changed. I am just blown away by all the technology available--both in a good way, and in a whoa, I am overwhelmed as to where to even start. So I'm starting here.
My budget is in the 1000 to 1500. range--this would be for software, hardware, and a dedicated PC if needed. No qualms about buying used--the DEQX was--slightly (likely the buyer opened the manual and said bloody, no, off to Australia back you go). Thanks to the DEQX and the experience of putting together a few systems, and that I recall enough digital processing to understand what convolution is and what a bloody marvel it is, I can look through the kindle guide (M. Barnett) to Acourate, and recognize the general process of getting it do what you want.
And I am entirely willing to go down that road--I suspect never having owned an external sound card is gonna cause great pain in the beginning, so the idea of picking up a 10 year old legacy pro sound rig to save a few bucks is out of the question. Gotta have support. I'm 65 and have a finite amount of patience, and nowhere near the concentration and aptitude I once had needed to get tangled up in some jungle of technical mayhem.
So that's one option. I noticed, though, the author jumped ship after a while because of an awkward interface and lack of automation--I can totally get that (see above) and DEQX was a luxury in that regard. You could do quite a bit while never really had to get your hands dirty with all the under the hood work. So In the process, I become aware of Audiolense--looks like almost the same feature set without much of the hassle. 500 for a software suite, a solid 4/10 board (thinking another 500 or so), and I have money left over for some Dayton ice amps and get a JRiver subscription.
And that's another eye opener for a guy accustomed to a diet of Spotify and Netflix. An honestly I am still not sure what it's good for unless you have a large collection of media. Whatever else they can do is something I need to read up on.
And then today, I learn of Re-Phase, also open source that appears as powerful. Haven't read any comments plus or minus on the ease of use.
And then lastly, miniDSP seems to have grown up, and has some offerings worth considering--if Careers | The Mind Research Network (MRN) understand, the DDRC-88 is sort of a poor man's DEQX--can optimize a 4way set of drivers, crossovers, and does room tuning separately. Speaking of that, they use Dirac! I can't seem to find much about the relative strengths of the different approaches to room tuning, nor beyond ironing out the lumps in bass response, not something I've used much. A good listening area is pretty much numero uno on the priorities list when I look for a place.
So that' s the state of my ignorance--there is so much I don't know, I'm not sure even how to articulate the questions clearly. But time I do have, and if folks can point me to some useful sources, I will be all over it.
I
I'm in need of some help--since I was last here (maybe 2013) I have built some pretty decent sounding systems using a DEQX for xo's and correction. Well she's getting pretty long in tooth and is showing her age--mic input is dead, input jack receiver severed from board, etc. Hey nearly 20 years of service and likely tens of thousands of dollars spent on commercial systems and who knows what foo-fah in the pursuit of .... I've been a happy camper and I knew the say would come when I finally just had to suck it up, and move on. But oh my have things changed. I am just blown away by all the technology available--both in a good way, and in a whoa, I am overwhelmed as to where to even start. So I'm starting here.
My budget is in the 1000 to 1500. range--this would be for software, hardware, and a dedicated PC if needed. No qualms about buying used--the DEQX was--slightly (likely the buyer opened the manual and said bloody, no, off to Australia back you go). Thanks to the DEQX and the experience of putting together a few systems, and that I recall enough digital processing to understand what convolution is and what a bloody marvel it is, I can look through the kindle guide (M. Barnett) to Acourate, and recognize the general process of getting it do what you want.
And I am entirely willing to go down that road--I suspect never having owned an external sound card is gonna cause great pain in the beginning, so the idea of picking up a 10 year old legacy pro sound rig to save a few bucks is out of the question. Gotta have support. I'm 65 and have a finite amount of patience, and nowhere near the concentration and aptitude I once had needed to get tangled up in some jungle of technical mayhem.
So that's one option. I noticed, though, the author jumped ship after a while because of an awkward interface and lack of automation--I can totally get that (see above) and DEQX was a luxury in that regard. You could do quite a bit while never really had to get your hands dirty with all the under the hood work. So In the process, I become aware of Audiolense--looks like almost the same feature set without much of the hassle. 500 for a software suite, a solid 4/10 board (thinking another 500 or so), and I have money left over for some Dayton ice amps and get a JRiver subscription.
And that's another eye opener for a guy accustomed to a diet of Spotify and Netflix. An honestly I am still not sure what it's good for unless you have a large collection of media. Whatever else they can do is something I need to read up on.
And then today, I learn of Re-Phase, also open source that appears as powerful. Haven't read any comments plus or minus on the ease of use.
And then lastly, miniDSP seems to have grown up, and has some offerings worth considering--if Careers | The Mind Research Network (MRN) understand, the DDRC-88 is sort of a poor man's DEQX--can optimize a 4way set of drivers, crossovers, and does room tuning separately. Speaking of that, they use Dirac! I can't seem to find much about the relative strengths of the different approaches to room tuning, nor beyond ironing out the lumps in bass response, not something I've used much. A good listening area is pretty much numero uno on the priorities list when I look for a place.
So that' s the state of my ignorance--there is so much I don't know, I'm not sure even how to articulate the questions clearly. But time I do have, and if folks can point me to some useful sources, I will be all over it.
I
Diagram may help
Maybe if you draw a diagram with your equipment in, it may help you & others to suggest options - such as I have done here - Apogee Rosetta 800 +
Maybe if you draw a diagram with your equipment in, it may help you & others to suggest options - such as I have done here - Apogee Rosetta 800 +
Agree with Mr BA.
Also, it might help if you could be more specific about what matters most to you for audio reproduction. DSP is only one factor, but it seems to be of particular interest to you. In addition you mentioned a budget. It might be plenty depending on what you are thinking of doing. OTOH, we all know its not too hard to spend that much or more on, say, one speaker, or maybe for a good amplifier.
Also, it might help if you could be more specific about what matters most to you for audio reproduction. DSP is only one factor, but it seems to be of particular interest to you. In addition you mentioned a budget. It might be plenty depending on what you are thinking of doing. OTOH, we all know its not too hard to spend that much or more on, say, one speaker, or maybe for a good amplifier.
I can do a diagram, but just an explanation should suffice:
Drivers: Aurum Cantus G1 (xo = 2200) Ribbon 99dB
Audio technology 7" mid (xo = 220, 2200) 89 dB
Acoustic Elegance 15" (xo = 220) 93dB
Sources: DVD (seldom used)
Laptop streaming + files USB (95%)---> via HDMI to LG OLED--
optical dig out to DEQX
Laptop straight audio-------> via USB----->DEQX
Needs replacing: DEQX (preamp + DSP), functions as preamp, active XO and driver optimization (level matching baffle correction) + room correction drives 3 separate stereo amps.
I have been using active system since 2003. No desireto go back to passive XO's. I'm also sold on room correction esp. bass. I also need some way of selecting inputs (DVD, USB, toslink).
So I have drivers and most of the amplification--I have Marantz 5 channel amp, and an Adcom 4 channel amp: thinking about gutting these and using the power supplies to drive ICE amp modules, and buying an inexpensive Class D dedicated amp for the woofers.
I see that there meay be much better alternatives to Spotify, but am not that finicky about pristine FLAC 192/24 files. I confess I can't even hear much of a difference between SACD and CD where I have copies of both. All of which is to say I'm nowhere as picky as many of you when it comes to sampling and encoding. (Maybe ignorance is bliss).
An off the rack replacement for the DEQX is in the 4K USD neighborhood. So not doing that--but I need to replace the functionality--whether through building the filters mostly from scratch (using Rephase, or Acourate etc) and using a home theater PC + an entry level high def soundcard to do that vs a more off the shelf plug-and-play device like the miniDSP that is more like the DEQX as it provides the switching and processor power for tri-amping.
I have also considered trying different smaller woofers and adding sub(s) so I want 4 channels available, even though I will only be using 3 for now.
Thx for your time.
Drivers: Aurum Cantus G1 (xo = 2200) Ribbon 99dB
Audio technology 7" mid (xo = 220, 2200) 89 dB
Acoustic Elegance 15" (xo = 220) 93dB
Sources: DVD (seldom used)
Laptop streaming + files USB (95%)---> via HDMI to LG OLED--
optical dig out to DEQX
Laptop straight audio-------> via USB----->DEQX
Needs replacing: DEQX (preamp + DSP), functions as preamp, active XO and driver optimization (level matching baffle correction) + room correction drives 3 separate stereo amps.
I have been using active system since 2003. No desireto go back to passive XO's. I'm also sold on room correction esp. bass. I also need some way of selecting inputs (DVD, USB, toslink).
So I have drivers and most of the amplification--I have Marantz 5 channel amp, and an Adcom 4 channel amp: thinking about gutting these and using the power supplies to drive ICE amp modules, and buying an inexpensive Class D dedicated amp for the woofers.
I see that there meay be much better alternatives to Spotify, but am not that finicky about pristine FLAC 192/24 files. I confess I can't even hear much of a difference between SACD and CD where I have copies of both. All of which is to say I'm nowhere as picky as many of you when it comes to sampling and encoding. (Maybe ignorance is bliss).
An off the rack replacement for the DEQX is in the 4K USD neighborhood. So not doing that--but I need to replace the functionality--whether through building the filters mostly from scratch (using Rephase, or Acourate etc) and using a home theater PC + an entry level high def soundcard to do that vs a more off the shelf plug-and-play device like the miniDSP that is more like the DEQX as it provides the switching and processor power for tri-amping.
I have also considered trying different smaller woofers and adding sub(s) so I want 4 channels available, even though I will only be using 3 for now.
Thx for your time.
What in the system is doing the DAC function? DEQX? If so, are you also using it as an ADC at all?
Reason I ask is DSP chips or finished DSP boards are fairly cheap and easy to come by. Depending on SQ needs, low cost multi-channel data converters could be one option. Say, perhaps something like Focusrite Scarlett boxes. For higher SQ (and better measurements), RME makes some highly-rated boxes.
By the time one adds up the cost of all the desired subsystem components, and then considers the complexity of making them all work together, maybe DEQX would look more attractive.
Probably the most straightforward diy way to go about at project at low-ish cost might be to use a PC, a muti-channel recording interface (such as a Scarlett box), and do everything wanted using those two main building blocks. A lot of DSP software is available for free, or else at reasonable cost.
Reason I ask is DSP chips or finished DSP boards are fairly cheap and easy to come by. Depending on SQ needs, low cost multi-channel data converters could be one option. Say, perhaps something like Focusrite Scarlett boxes. For higher SQ (and better measurements), RME makes some highly-rated boxes.
By the time one adds up the cost of all the desired subsystem components, and then considers the complexity of making them all work together, maybe DEQX would look more attractive.
Probably the most straightforward diy way to go about at project at low-ish cost might be to use a PC, a muti-channel recording interface (such as a Scarlett box), and do everything wanted using those two main building blocks. A lot of DSP software is available for free, or else at reasonable cost.