Bill,
If one does enough dac building, enough dac listening, enough reading dac specs, eventually one learns some things you have not yet learned. By now I can tell a lot from looking at circuitry and reading data sheets for parts used. You can believe or not believe it, I know you are particularly skeptical about such things.
If one does enough dac building, enough dac listening, enough reading dac specs, eventually one learns some things you have not yet learned. By now I can tell a lot from looking at circuitry and reading data sheets for parts used. You can believe or not believe it, I know you are particularly skeptical about such things.
we have ears. We listen and we hear. Some time we hear nothing different and sometimes he hear differences. Sometime it is more and other times it is less accurate after a mod.
I also have test equipment to measure distortion. My choice in orientation is to accept what is stated as heard until proven other wise.
If I do a mod or circuit change that others have detected change with and I hear no difference, thats all it means. I heard no difference.
However, if that mod affected THD from -130 to -140dbv and i or other heard a difference, I would say there was some other things affected by the change I am hearing. Not the thd.
THx-RNMarsh
I also have test equipment to measure distortion. My choice in orientation is to accept what is stated as heard until proven other wise.
If I do a mod or circuit change that others have detected change with and I hear no difference, thats all it means. I heard no difference.
However, if that mod affected THD from -130 to -140dbv and i or other heard a difference, I would say there was some other things affected by the change I am hearing. Not the thd.
THx-RNMarsh
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I don't really know why 'Markw4' would chime in on this thread. A 4-way DSP speaker is going to need 8 channels of D/A conversion. If you believe that only high-end boutique converters have a chance to do it right, then IMHO you would never consider an active DSP system since it would be astronomically expensive and a single high-end DAC + passive xover is going to be better than a compromised DSP solution. Joining a thread only to tell the OP that he's wrong and should do something different isn't really all that helpful.
My personal feeling is that if you want 8 or more channels of output, then PC audio interfaces are likely to be the best way to go. The Okto for example is 8-channels of Sabre DAC and measures extremely well and isn't overly expensive (relatively speaking). The newest Motu units also seem to be very good. The problem is that PC DSP solutions have some ergonomic challenges that work well in some cases but maybe not for everyone. If you need it to fit into an existing multi-source system, it's a tougher call - in that case, if you were going 3-way I'd suggest the hypex dsp amps, but I don't think they have a 4-way version. I guess you could do a 3-way + separate sub amp, but that's going to be fairly expensive.
My personal feeling is that if you want 8 or more channels of output, then PC audio interfaces are likely to be the best way to go. The Okto for example is 8-channels of Sabre DAC and measures extremely well and isn't overly expensive (relatively speaking). The newest Motu units also seem to be very good. The problem is that PC DSP solutions have some ergonomic challenges that work well in some cases but maybe not for everyone. If you need it to fit into an existing multi-source system, it's a tougher call - in that case, if you were going 3-way I'd suggest the hypex dsp amps, but I don't think they have a 4-way version. I guess you could do a 3-way + separate sub amp, but that's going to be fairly expensive.
Since Mark won't answer me, I'll ask you, has he ever shown you an evidence of sound quality claims he's made?
What kind of listening would that be? It matters a lot because people perceive all sorts of thing depending on how it's set up. Lets see the details of such listening setup.
It hasn't been verified via objective testing to see if you really can, has it?
Okto might be the best 8-channel dac for a diy 4-way digital crossover at this point. It looks to be a standard ESS eval board type implementation. I have modded and built the standard ESS designs, listened to them, tweaked the registers, modded the clocks and power supplies, etc. They are not up to the level of a Benchmark DAC-3 which uses a more sophisticated architecture. Okto sound would be expected to be much closer to the last Oppo dac before they went under (another standard ESS implementation). You know Oppo, that's the one Joe Rasmussen has written about modding (the wrong way I would opine, but that's another topic). So, if that sort of sound quality is what the OP likes, then Okto could be a plausible choice. Also, the Okto dac could likely be modded in ways very similar to ES9038Q2M so as to make it sound quite a bit better (less distorted, as anyone who has turned down DPLL bandwidth, upgraded clocks, upgraded voltage regulators, etc., understands).
I also have some experience with some of the multi-channel dac boxes from Tascam, Focusrite, and a few others. Have a Crane Song HEDD 192 as well. Also an RMI ADI-2. If someone can't hear the weaknesses of them, fine. Any of them could possibly be a good solution for that particular person. But not appropriate for fine and expensive speakers like Richard's M2s.
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You'd think with all Mark's "trusted listeners" and equipment they could do a good blind test, of course he'll say it will cost thousands of pounds because he heard Earl Geddes say that and it sounded like a good excuse to him, however we all know that the kind of test Earl was talking about is not required here to provide sufficient evidence.
Right. Just like John A. of S-phile mag keeps repeating "it's haaaard" to do DBT therefore it's not worth a consideration when publishing reviews. Now, if the results of DBT favors their view, he and others (in or affiliated with boutique audio business) would be propping it up like a precious jewel.
What kind of blind test, double, single or something else? Also, was it level matched? I know it wasn't any of those when you went over to RNMarsh's former residence to listen to DACs as RNMarsh revealed the method on this forum.
Why don't people who want this forum to be just like Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org move over there?
This is a friendly reminder that the rules of diyAudio can be found here - diyAudio Rules
Please take the time to review them.
This is not a request.
Digital ( music) provokes this.
This is a friendly reminder that the rules of diyAudio can be found here - diyAudio Rules
Please take the time to review them.
This is not a request.
A DSP chip yields what you run on it. Saying a SHARC doesn't do distortion below -120 dBFS doesn't even make sense. A SHARC+ DSP supports 64-bit double precision FP, btw. You do not need a PC for that. I am not a DSP expert but I know enough to know that you have barely a clue what you are talking about.
These guys are worth checking out:
dspMusik 2/8 Multichannel DAC | High Performance Audio | Products
The quality appears to be a step up from the usual minidsp etc.
I have no idea whether they are strictly B2B or will sell to anyone.
cheers
TCD
dspMusik 2/8 Multichannel DAC | High Performance Audio | Products
The quality appears to be a step up from the usual minidsp etc.
I have no idea whether they are strictly B2B or will sell to anyone.
cheers
TCD