When I hear "soft" I try to think about our Royal Concert Hall and what I hear there. Never hard. But resolved with inner core. Expansion is an other term that come to mind. So when i start to hear "soft" in my system I'm positive and exchange it for an even more straight FR in my listening position. My take is that the downwards tilted "house curve" is just compensation of to harsh upper register. Once you can go full in without a compensation for this, "soft" will be your friend - as long as details etc have not been lost in the process.
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ynmichael...can you please reveal what settings (firmware, filter)did you use for real piano sound.
What is your digital source?
analog_sa... no need to talk about other product, it was implemented in specific design an optimized for it...i think for 99% owners of this dac info will be useless, because i am sure sound will not be so pleasant to listen.
What is your digital source?
analog_sa... no need to talk about other product, it was implemented in specific design an optimized for it...i think for 99% owners of this dac info will be useless, because i am sure sound will not be so pleasant to listen.
I managed to solder the Vref- caps without destroying something. Results were no big improvement after the Vref+ to my surprise.
Still the music had that electronic hash accompanying most of the musical events above the lower midrange.
And yesterday I tried the above suggested by Danny, and to my big surprise this sounds much better.
I use Linux ever since, because it always sounded way better than Windows so far, especially wih RT-Kernel and some minor tweaks.
But not this time...almost all of the "dirty" addition is gone with Foobar, this plugin and resampling to 96khz.
I have no idea how Foobar manages to go around the on board filters, but it works.
Still the dac is not on the warm side, but at least I can enjoy music now.
TNT calls it softness, and I agree that this is a criterium I try to go after, because tenderness and the beauty of a tone is essential to music. And when a component can reproduce that, I start to relax and the meaning is transported, a communication between me as the listener and the musician/composer takes place.
My SD card player is really good at that, I listened the other day to music from Giacinto Scelsi, a crazy Italian composer whose music is very much sound/tone oriented. With a lesser equipment you don't want to listen to that and switch on the TV instead.
With that player it is just fascinating and I want more.
The Soekris is still not there, but much much closer now.
So, maybe one of you Gentlemen out there is willing to try that Foobar thing to confirm what I hear. Especially when no hardware change ws satisfying.
So as Androa pointed out it is probably not just hardware related, although it also makes a big difference.
@TNT: Could you give some hints for installing a Toslink connection, which parts do you use? Want to try that, because I don't trust that USB thing.
If you upsample to 384, all by-passable filters in the DAM are ... bypassed 
To add an Toslink interface you need:
- a receiver
- a 3,3 v DC source
- a C + L as suggested by the receiver data-sheet.
I have used: 1x Original Toshiba TORX147L RX147L TORX147 15Mbps Fiber Optical Receiver | eBay
https://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/torx147.pdf
Check DAM manual for "SPDIF Input Connections".
Good luck!
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To add an Toslink interface you need:
- a receiver
- a 3,3 v DC source
- a C + L as suggested by the receiver data-sheet.
I have used: 1x Original Toshiba TORX147L RX147L TORX147 15Mbps Fiber Optical Receiver | eBay
https://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/torx147.pdf
Check DAM manual for "SPDIF Input Connections".
Good luck!
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Thanks TNT, that's the receiver part, but how do I send when my computer has no Toslink output?
And I tried to find a plugin to upsample to 384khz, but no success so far. But obviously this Resampler-V plugin takes care of that and bypasses the onboard filters, and I can play with Pass-and stop band and attenuation, very nice. Although I can barely hear a difference, as I do with the stock filters. I could never distinguish them in a test, the Vref or this plugin for sure.
And I tried to find a plugin to upsample to 384khz, but no success so far. But obviously this Resampler-V plugin takes care of that and bypasses the onboard filters, and I can play with Pass-and stop band and attenuation, very nice. Although I can barely hear a difference, as I do with the stock filters. I could never distinguish them in a test, the Vref or this plugin for sure.
Are you sure that your 3,5mm output don't double as an optical. It does on Apple laptops. I use an adaptor to make it work.
RS PRO Optical Jack Fibre Optic Adapter, ≤ 2dB Insertion Loss | RS Components
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RS PRO Optical Jack Fibre Optic Adapter, ≤ 2dB Insertion Loss | RS Components
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If you upsample to 384, all by-passable filters in the DAM are ... bypassed
To add an Toslink interface you need:
- a receiver
- a 3,3 v DC source
- a C + L as suggested by the receiver data-sheet.
I have used: 1x Original Toshiba TORX147L RX147L TORX147 15Mbps Fiber Optical Receiver | eBay
https://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/torx147.pdf
Check DAM manual for "SPDIF Input Connections".
Good luck!
//
With a 15Mbps Receiver you only can receive up to 96kHz rate without problems. For 192kHz yo need a 25Mbps receiver. Compare with
this post.
Hi Jogi,
Nice that you get a good result with the Resampler-V plugin,
there are plenty of upsampling options you can try with this plugin and change them in realtime.
In the Resampler-V settings you need to add some entries in the "Resampling frequencies tables":
one from 44.1 to 176.4 or 352.8
another from 48 to 192 or 384
Always select multiples of your source frequency.
Regards,
Danny
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Paul’s simulations still look relevant to me, but like TNT said there might’ve been changes in the newer revs. Could you comment on whether it reflects performance in rev4? Thanks
Strange, I have no problems.
Here's the doc from the author for creating them:
* resampling table - to config an individual parameters for each samplerate.
** A brief description of the functionality as follows:
1. After selecting Source and Target samplerates, the resampler suggests the optimal configuration. In most cases this is the best choise.
2. The graphs always shows the current selection. [when both samplerates combos have a value or table row selected].
3. During the playback the table is locked, and the controls is enabled only if there is a relevant samperate in the table [i.e. current conversion is defined].
4. The Link checkbox is for proportional aliasing (about -6dB in the Nyquist).
5. Also added Bypass, for quick and easy comparison.
Double click to remove an entry.
If this does not work can you try with starting foobar in administrator mode ?
Maybe it's a windows security problem.
Here's the doc from the author for creating them:
* resampling table - to config an individual parameters for each samplerate.
** A brief description of the functionality as follows:
1. After selecting Source and Target samplerates, the resampler suggests the optimal configuration. In most cases this is the best choise.
2. The graphs always shows the current selection. [when both samplerates combos have a value or table row selected].
3. During the playback the table is locked, and the controls is enabled only if there is a relevant samperate in the table [i.e. current conversion is defined].
4. The Link checkbox is for proportional aliasing (about -6dB in the Nyquist).
5. Also added Bypass, for quick and easy comparison.
Double click to remove an entry.
If this does not work can you try with starting foobar in administrator mode ?
Maybe it's a windows security problem.
As is stated in the linked post, the higher sample rate is received fine for most of the samples.
To my experience it works fine for 99,99..% of the samples. But if I do fft of long length, using the 15Mbps receiver, every minute or so one of the fft-s is corrupted (due a glitch in the date - the fft is very sensitive to that).
Have you had a look at the linked post ?
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/equ...er-ak5397-ak5394a-ak4490-227.html#post5446063
I am quite sure it is the the receiver. With my fireface 800 (192kHz specified receivers/transmitters) no problems occur.
Aslo, if I use (copper) Toslink instead of the optical connection on the affected devices no problems occur.
I have some 25Mbps receivers now but have not yet found the time to replaces the 15Mbps receivers.
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/equ...er-ak5397-ak5394a-ak4490-227.html#post5446063
I am quite sure it is the the receiver. With my fireface 800 (192kHz specified receivers/transmitters) no problems occur.
Aslo, if I use (copper) Toslink instead of the optical connection on the affected devices no problems occur.
I have some 25Mbps receivers now but have not yet found the time to replaces the 15Mbps receivers.