exaSound e18 - e20 - e28 - Info and Experiences Post All Here

[wisnon]

Native DSD has already posted free music files in DSD256 and has announced they plan to sell albums in DSD256 as a special request item.

 

So I think the question is more one of how many albums get released in DSD256. That's different than "256 will not happen commerically". It will - and it's already been announced.

 

dsd

 

You did see my follow up post, right?

 

Wont happen in any quantity, commercially.

[EuroDriver]

Eurodriver, what is your server? I have a 16GB i5 Mac Mini running JRMC on OSX 10.9

I installed HQPlayer and will try it shortly to send PCM converted by HQP to DSD128 to an Oppo 105D via Ethernet and a SOtM SMS100 server running HQPlayer's NAA firmware (whew, sorry!). I just want to be sure my server is up for the job. Thanks!

 

.

 

My Server was put together by Item Audio with quadcore i5 Ivy Bridge with a Benchmark Score of about 6000. It is not overclocked, so the passive cooling heatpipes can handle the CPU heat without a Fan. 8GB RAM Win 8 OS

[EuroDriver]

 

Wont happen in any quantity, commercially.

 

Sadly that may well be the case for quite a while as DSD64 upsampled sounds so superb already.

 

However for good DAC's DSD256 Playback is essential, it sounds so much better than DSD128, it's not subtle. The difference is an Order of magnitude greater than the difference between 24/96 and 24/192 (I struggle to hear much of a difference)

 

Kudos to George and his colleagues for pushing the envelope, it. has real paid off big time in sound quality

[elcorso]

Sadly that may well be the case for quite a while as DSD64 upsampled sounds so superb already.

 

However for good DAC's DSD256 Playback is essential, it sounds so much better than DSD128, it's not subtle. The difference is an Order of magnitude greater than the difference between 24/96 and 24/192 (I struggle to hear much of a difference)

 

Kudos to George and his colleagues for pushing the envelope, it. has real paid off big time in sound quality

 

+1

 

C'mon Wisnon, let us dream!... (And enjoy 256)

 

Did you remember so little time ago where a lot of people said DSD64 would not succeed?

 

Now we are getting some DSD128, I can't think why no DSD256...

 

I guess Lukasz Fikus is wise enough to get 256 from his DACs.

 

Cheers!

 

Roch

[wisnon]

+1

 

C'mon Wisnon, let us dream!... (And enjoy 256)

 

Did you remember so little time ago where a lot of people said DSD64 would not succeed?

 

Now we are getting some DSD128, I can't think why no DSD256...

 

I guess Lukasz Fikus is wise enough to get 256 from his DACs.

 

Cheers!

 

Roch

Each time you are doubling space! Bruce Brown from Puget agrees with me. He has tons of DSD equipment and cant hear any difference between 128 and 256, and said something about 256 only developed for MC mixing as the UHF violates Scarlett book standards.

 

I always said that DSD 64 would succeed, but I dont expect commercial viability from 128, much less 256. People can upsample yes and vinyl rip yes, but I dont expect tons of DL options from the higher frequencies. I could be wrong and hope I am.

 

I still cant imagine anything better than the DSD128 I currenty enjoy. How to improve on perfection?

[elcorso]

Each time you are doubling space! Bruce Brown from Puget agrees with me. He has tons of DSD equipment and cant hear any difference between 128 and 256, and said something about 256 only developed for MC mixing as the UHF violates Scarlett book standards.

 

I always said that DSD 64 would succeed, but I dont expect commercial viability from 128, much less 256. People can upsample yes and vinyl rip yes, but I dont expect tons of DL options from the higher frequencies. I could be wrong and hope I am.

 

I still cant imagine anything better than the DSD128 I currenty enjoy. How to improve on perfection?

 

Good for Bruce, he is saving space!...

 

Now I have 12TB of hard drive space, plus backup, then I'm ready...

 

Why Bruce don't speak by himself?

 

I'm going to bed now, dreaming about dsd256, will be long, long dreams (just teasing...)

 

Best,

 

Roch

[bmoura]

I still cant imagine anything better than the DSD128 I currenty enjoy. How to improve on perfection?

 

The good news, here on the exaSound thread, is that exaSound e20, e22 & e28 owners don't have to imagine! They can download the free Stereo & Multichannel DSD256 music downloads from Native DSD.Com's "Just Listen" web site and judge for themselves.

[Miska]

I always said that DSD 64 would succeed, but I dont expect commercial viability from 128, much less 256. People can upsample yes and vinyl rip yes, but I dont expect tons of DL options from the higher frequencies. I could be wrong and hope I am.

 

It is good to have 2x higher rate available than the highest you can buy in case you want to do something like digital volume, level processing for multichannel, digital room correction or such. I've been recommending to upsample DSD at least 2x when you do any DSP on it.

 

For PCM, for the same reason I recommend having a DAC with 32-bit sample support, so that you have some extra space doing level adjustments also for 24-bit material. In case the DAC is only 24-bit, you can gain the same by upsampling and using noise shaping - this is similar effect as you get with DSD upsampling. And to lesser effect by just upsampling but using flat dither.

 

On DSD you increase both dynamic range and bandwidth by increasing sampling rate. On PCM you can choose to either increase sample width or sampling rate independently. With DSD these two are more or less tied together.

[Sam Lord]

My Server was put together by Item Audio with quadcore i5 Ivy Bridge with a Benchmark Score of about 6000....

 

Thanks. That sounds like a well-optimized machine, mine is not (very). Now that I have a ethernet switch installed, and have JRMC under control, I'll try upsampling redbook with JRMC first and then try HQPLayer on the same tracks. My new DAC, an Oppo 105D, can manage DSD128.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

There is a significant difference between up-sampling Redbook to DSD128 and DSD256. It's the best argument, in my book for buying a DSD256 capable DAC. Unfortunately up-sampling High-Rez PCM to DSD256 seems to put too much strain on resources.

 

On eurodriver's T1 this resulted in edgy sound, on my Mac Mini simply unreliable playback. I will try it again on a Mac Pro next week running Win 8.1

 

For a while I actually thought I preferred J River with High Res; but yesterday I realised that it was only because J River is limited to 2XDSD conversion to the exasound via ASIO. Drop HQPlayer Down to DSD128 for high-res PCM conversion and the sound is smooth and natural.

 

I've compared the Oppo 105D as a DAC with the exasound and they are worlds apart. The exasound is so much better. I'm not knocking the Oppo because it's great value for money if you need support for all the discs and other features. To use as a DSD DAC though, give me an exasound any day.

 

geoff

[matthias]

Unfortunately up-sampling High-Rez PCM to DSD256 seems to put too much strain on resources.

On eurodriver's T1 this resulted in edgy sound, on my Mac Mini simply unreliable playback. I will try it again on a Mac Pro next week running Win 8.1

 

Geoff,

do you think a 2014 Mac Mini with 2,3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 is up to the task?

 

Matt

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Geoff,

do you think a 2014 Mac Mini with 2,3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 is up to the task?

 

Matt

 

There's a good chance Matt. Based on our experience on the T1 with i5, once CPU gets towards 40 SQ suffers. Run process explorer to check this. If HQPlayer hovers around 30 you should be good. After that, trust your ears

 

geoff

[Sam Lord]

There's a good chance Matt. Based on our experience on the T1 with i5, once CPU gets towards 40 SQ suffers. Run process explorer to check this. If HQPlayer hovers around 30 you should be good. After that, trust your ears

 

I'm getting dropouts attempting to convert 16/44 PCM to DSD128 using either HQPlayer or JRMC. I need to streamline my mid-2012 Mac Mini (2.3 GHz i5, 16GB ram); HQP has a cpu load around 27% while converting redbook to DSD64 on the fly.

[EuroDriver]

I'm getting dropouts attempting to convert 16/44 PCM to DSD128 using either HQPlayer or JRMC. I need to streamline my mid-2012 Mac Mini (2.3 GHz i5, 16GB ram); HQP has a cpu load around 27% while converting redbook to DSD64 on the fly.

 

Which OS(s) are you running HQPlayer and JRMC under ?

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

...also which settings are you using in HQPLayer? Specifically the filter for conversion/up-sampling?

[Sam Lord]

Which OS(s) are you running HQPlayer and JRMC under ?

...also which settings are you using in HQPLayer? Specifically the filter for conversion/up-sampling?

 

Thanks folks,

 

I'm running the newest Mac OS 10.9.3, HQPlayer is the newest for Macs (3.3.2);

 

HQPlayer settings: Original files are all redbook flac (16/44 PCM); No DSP activity except for format conversion. 2 channels only; Oversampling filter is poly-sinc, modulator is DSD5 (tried DSD 7 also), output level either 0 or +6dB (I believe the latter setting normalizes output with PCM data), tried both IIR and FIR filters (great discussion ready for that). Enabled logging and full screen. I run with mail, browser, bluetooth, and wifi off, screen usually asleep. My activity monitor during DSD64 playback shows nothing except HQPlayer and a hint of Activity Monitor using cPU resources. Note, I'm brand new to Mac diagnostics. Thanks again fellas!

[Sam Lord]

Ah, I see I should try poly-sinc-2s and poly-sinc-mp-2s for minimum cpu load

[wappinghigh]

Where is the Linux driver?

[Sam Lord]

HQPlayer sits in the Mac, the NAA software which I recall is a very small bit of a Linux flavor is on the SMS100, IIRC.

[Sam Lord]

Whoa, the efficient conversion poly-sinc-2s is running without a dropout at the moment...about 27 % cpu load (user, 1.3% system...); looking good! I'll listen a bit... OOO the excitement...

[Sam Lord]

Aha, I knew my friend from Blighty would rescue the day! Seriously, thanks everyone. Really amazing sound. I'm getting more reach, ie the soundstage is continuous to my ears, maybe a bit past. Liquid timbre in the highs but not loose like I got with some settings of DSD64. Well this is very exciting! I'll keep looking here for recommendations on HQPlayer settings. Perhaps it's time to create a new dedicated thread.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

I was about to suggest the 2s versions as well. Glad you've found them to your liking and working well. Yes, I think a thread about HQPlayer settings would be a great idea!

 

geoff

[wisnon]

Good for Bruce, he is saving space!...

 

Now I have 12TB of hard drive space, plus backup, then I'm ready...

 

Why Bruce don't speak by himself?

 

I'm going to bed now, dreaming about dsd256, will be long, long dreams (just teasing...)

 

Best,

 

Roch

 

He did speak for himself...over at Whatsbest!

[wisnon]

HQPlayer works with mac??? That update missed me, as when I checked last I dont think it did.

 

HQPlayer sits in the Mac, the NAA software which I recall is a very small bit of a Linux flavor is on the SMS100, IIRC.

[wappinghigh]

HQPlayer sits in the Mac, the NAA software which I recall is a very small bit of a Linux flavor is on the SMS100, IIRC.

 

No, the Linux driver for the DAC (to allow the SMS100 to play out via USB)....