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First multi-channel DSD playback solution with Mytek!


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I can see a couple of no frills Sonore ExD's as perfect for this sort of "solution" ;)

 

What do you mean no frills? I'm kidding...I know it only had one input:)

 

So from your main DAC...you could have XLR going to your main stereo rig and RCA to the two front channels of your surround receiver. And two ExD's for sides, front and sub :)

 

No. I have something cooking with our DAC, but this is just for fun:) I fired up an old PC with a Lynx AES16 card. I downloaded a 5 channel .dff track from Channel Classics and dropped it into J-River Media Center 18. I setup JR-MC for multichannel and DoP output. When I add the title for playback I get an error for an unsupported format. Seems multichannel DoP uses 384 and the card only supports 192. If it used 176.4 per L/R channel we would be good and one could use digital into the DACs that support it....

 

Jesus R

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Jesus, Linux has features for doing this stuff, but there are couple of tricky parts:

- You need to have sample clocks synchronized, so one DAC needs to be master and other slave to it's clock, otherwise DACs will eventually drift out of sync. This can be done with word clock output and input.

- More challenging is starting all the DACs sample-accurately at the same time to avoid phase error between channels. This needs a "broadcast launch-control", which I guess can be done with proprietary protocols like the RigiSys' implementation in Mytek.

 

Usually on Windows ASIO driver takes care of this, on Linux ALSA can take care of the same (all the needed stuff is already there).

 

In the old days, over ten years ago, I used to have an M-Audio Delta1010 interface (still in production), and it's ASIO driver has supported bonding four of those interfaces together to form a 32-channel in/out system.

 

My Lynx card has 16 channels on board and the ASIO software and it's control panel take care of all that. In fact you can add more cards in parallel and sync them internally with a mater clock I/O header. Also, there is an OSS Linux driver (i have used it a bunch of times) for the card so it would also work there. To use ALSA with multiple USB devices one would need to write a fancy config file in asound?

 

Jesus R

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All of this is great. Build a good quality 2 ch dac and then use some external device and software to playback multichannel. That way you can start stereo and when you want multichannel just add more dacs.

 

It is more practical for the manufacturer as well since they would only design a stereo DAC instead of a stereo and multichannel one.

 

This is a step in the right direction

[h=2]Don't follow me, I am lost too![/h]

- Unknown

 

 

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All of this is great. Build a good quality 2 ch dac and then use some external device and software to playback multichannel. That way you can start stereo and when you want multichannel just add more dacs.

 

It is more practical for the manufacturer as well since they would only design a stereo DAC instead of a stereo and multichannel one.

 

This is a step in the right direction

 

Yes, and for those 3 channel fans who want to hear things like RCA Living Stereo 3.0 or Nat King Cole (AP) reissues on DSD you get one addtl Mytek and good to go. The USB hub could be made with decent resonable DH Labs, etc USB cable and packaged so as to not look DIY.

 

Jesus, to answer your question...I do not know why I am using a USB hub instead of the numerous USB outs on the Intel mb, but am kinda glad all is running through the SOtM card. I assume the USB hub ensures one USB bus?

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To use ALSA with multiple USB devices one would need to write a fancy config file in asound?

 

Jesus R

 

You do need to write a specific asound.conf to use the ALSA 'multi' plugin. It's not that difficult. I've been using two stereo USB DACs utilizing the 'multi' plugin full-time for about 4 months now, and couldn't be happier. I initially set it up as my own 'proof of concept' test to confirm I could live with it. It's PCM only, currently, but with DoP now supported by mpd, I may upgrade in the future.

 

Mark

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What do you mean no frills? I'm kidding...I know it only had one input:)

 

 

 

No. I have something cooking with our DAC, but this is just for fun:) I fired up an old PC with a Lynx AES16 card. I downloaded a 5 channel .dff track from Channel Classics and dropped it into J-River Media Center 18. I setup JR-MC for multichannel and DoP output. When I add the title for playback I get an error for an unsupported format. Seems multichannel DoP uses 384 and the card only supports 192. If it used 176.4 per L/R channel we would be good and one could use digital into the DACs that support it....

 

Jesus R

 

I have the setup playing via the Lynx card now. I can see 5 channels playing in the Lynx mixer and I have a 176.4 sample rate lock. I can't test the DoP output signal today, I'll try and confirm this tomorrow...

 

Jesus R

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You do need to write a specific asound.conf to use the ALSA 'multi' plugin. It's not that difficult. I've been using two stereo USB DACs utilizing the 'multi' plugin full-time for about 4 months now, and couldn't be happier. I initially set it up as my own 'proof of concept' test to confirm I could live with it. It's PCM only, currently, but with DoP now supported by mpd, I may upgrade in the future.

 

Mark

 

Mark, if you don't mind email me your asound.conf file so I can see what is involved...

 

Jesus R

[email protected]

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Is it possible to make the "chain" using the firewire?

 

Esprit,

since this report thread of mine has gone off into tangents I am not sure if you are asking about the Mytek stack, or some other set of DACS. If Mytek, then no, not currently. The ASIO driver is the magic here.

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Ted

 

So for the Mytek stack its usb only and not firewire because its the ASIO drivers that do do the clever spliting of the channels, but does ASIO drivers mean that its Windows only also and not Mac? Did the drivers get modified by Mytek to make it all work? You seem to imply that f/w is coming, but are Mac based drivers coming too?

 

Thanks

 

Paul

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Ted

 

So for the Mytek stack its usb only and not firewire because its the ASIO drivers that do do the clever spliting of the channels, but does ASIO drivers mean that its Windows only also and not Mac? Did the drivers get modified by Mytek to make it all work? You seem to imply that f/w is coming, but are Mac based drivers coming too?

 

Thanks

 

Paul

 

No idea if MAc is coming. J River is required right now, so yes Windows ASIO and USB is required.

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^Yeh. A big thanks Ted. "Hear hear" to that!

New simplified setup: STEREO- Primary listening Area: Cullen Circuits Mod ZP90> Benchmark DAC1>RotelRKB250 Power amp>KEF Q Series. Secondary listening areas: 1/ QNAP 119P II(running MinimServer)>UPnP>Linn Majik DSI>Linn Majik 140's. 2/ (Source awaiting)>Invicta DAC>RotelRKB2100 Power amp>Rega's. Tertiary multiroom areas: Same QNAP>SMB>Sonos>Various. MULTICHANNEL- MacMini>A+(Standalone mode)>Exasound e28 >5.1 analog out>Yamaha Avantage Receiver>Pre-outs>Linn Chakra power amps>Linn Katan front and sides. Linn Trikan Centre. Velodyne SPL1000 Ultra

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I have the setup playing via the Lynx card now. I can see 5 channels playing in the Lynx mixer and I have a 176.4 sample rate lock. I can't test the DoP output signal today, I'll try and confirm this tomorrow...

 

Jesus R

 

My test today confirmed that playback via J-River and the Lynx card is resulting in a multi channel DSD to PCM conversion at 176.4.

 

BTW I think the USB solution is very cool and I was just trying to see if I could figure out a way to use your Meitner and two Mytek...

 

Jesus R

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My test today confirmed that playback via J-River and the Lynx card is resulting in a multi channel DSD to PCM conversion at 176.4.

 

BTW I think the USB solution is very cool and I was just trying to see if I could figure out a way to use your Meitner and two Mytek...

 

I've been playing multichannel DSD with DoP on Linux and Windows (since I added DoP support), as well as DSD->PCM converted multichannel to various different 8-channel pro-interfaces. Any bit-perfect multichannel AES card should work fine with stack of Mytek's.

 

Only new thing to me in this set up has been linking of multiple USB devices.

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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I've been playing multichannel DSD with DoP on Linux and Windows (since I added DoP support), as well as DSD->PCM converted multichannel to various different 8-channel pro-interfaces. Any bit-perfect multichannel AES card should work fine with stack of Mytek's.

 

Only new thing to me in this set up has been linking of multiple USB devices.

 

Miska, I have HQ Player on this machine and will give it a try next..

 

Jesus R

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Got my second Mytek installed today so I could run a 2.2 system. Just as Ted explained it was fairly simple to configure with a simple USB hub. Still got lots of tweaking to do with JRiver but so far I'm happy that I have a great way to integrate my bass all within JRiver. If you have any configuration pointers, shoot them my way. Thanks Ted for the break-through idea.

 

 

David

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Got my second Mytek installed today so I could run a 2.2 system. Just as Ted explained it was fairly simple to configure with a simple USB hub. Still got lots of tweaking to do with JRiver but so far I'm happy that I have a great way to integrate my bass all within JRiver. If you have any configuration pointers, shoot them my way. Thanks Ted for the break-through idea.

 

 

David

 

Great to hear!

 

But gang, although I will take full credit for being the first of us to try this, I will NOT take credit for the idea. It was Michal, Chebon and the rest of the Mytek gang that came up with it. They just asked me to try it out and report on it. There are other beta testers out there, now, too...I'm sure we'll hear from them soon enough.

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For my 2.2 setup with 2 Myteks would you expect to see a difference in the device configurations?

 

Anyone know the difference or what I need to do differently? Couple pics of the 2:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4375[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]4376[/ATTACH]

 

I don't really know what I'm looking for. Normally 2 Myteks would give you l/f and c/lfe (but that's for a multichannel input). I didn't realize you are simply trying to do 2 channel with 2 subs. I can't help you there; my setup (and thread) was ALL about multichannel. Sorry. What makes you think 2 Myteks are needed to split subs?

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