Schiit Loki - DSD-only for 149 USD

[WINDIANRECORDS]

Sasaki,

Please give me some details on how to hook up RaspyFi with Loki so that it can do both Hi-Res PCM and DAD Decoding.

 

Thanks,

 

Smileallways,

 

I believe I asked the same question earlier*, but from closely reading what he's saying, the Loki is playing DSF/DSD files, not transcoding PCM->DSD. I highly doubt the Rasbpi has the processing power to do that; if anyone can prove me wrong, I'd be estatic.

 

I am going to order one of these soon, I've been fixing up an old Magnavox tube amp, building a passive volume attenuator, and using my old 1820m; I'm going to throw a Loki in the mix since the price is so nice and I've been blown away by my Asgard 2.

 

*EDIT: Asked in the Raspyfi thread...

[WINDIANRECORDS]

I was waiting until this paycheck to pick one up, and I just ordered it; I'll come back and let everyone know what I learn. Am looking forward to it, have not been disappointed by Schiit before.

[WINDIANRECORDS]

Please do share your impressions - I've been thinking about this as well, for my dedicated headphone setup. I am getting an LH Geek Pulse, but not until April / May next year, and I may not be able to wait that long - for $150, this could be a good short-term solution for me.

 

Funny, I too was thinking about the Geek Pulse, but really needed a DAC now for a new build (now now now!). I'll be playing it through a modified Magnavox tube amp into some big ol' Klipsch Epics, but i'll definitely run it through my Schiit Asgard 2/DT 880s and my main rig as well. I'm extremely interested in what it does to PCM->DSD, but I know that some of that magic relies on the software used for the translation as well...

[WINDIANRECORDS]

My little man is here; does anyone know what the correct settings are for Foobar to upsample PCM->DSD on the fly? I know that JRiver is supposed to be able to do the same, but I've never been able to get v18 or v19 to not crash consistently on my set-up.

 

By the way, I'm listening to the Loki tear through Roy Orbison's "Black and White Night" right now through my Asgard 2 headphone amp, and while I'm not a/b'ing PCM v DSD right now, I've heard it close to a hundred times before, and it sounds sweet right now... legitmately smoother, and transients from one of the many acoustic guitars are so forward... There may be some bias because this is my new toy, but it's not going to stop me from listening all the way through!

[WINDIANRECORDS]

I'm not sure this functionality has been used a lot so far, but here's a thread about it:

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/foobar-sacd-plugin-asioplugin-6-0-pcm-x44-1k-dsd-upsampler-13822/

 

Yep, and I was reading some more this morning (if anyone else cares, here's another pretty common link on Foobar setup - Foobar 2000 for Dummies (Part 2) | DIY-Audio-Heaven) ... Looks like my main problem was that I was feeding it some HDTracks at 96 and 192kHZ, which is not x44.1khz - Hence the wonderful white noise I was getting.

 

I'm going to try the Resampler plugin setting in Foobar to see if that can run before going to the Loki, but when I had that on and was playing DSFF files, they wouldn't work. I may create a portable Foobar install with settings for DSD/F files, and one for my FLAC; I know the Loki has a DAC passthrough, but I just want to see how well it can stand alone.

 

Thanks for the link, btw.

[WINDIANRECORDS]

So, as an update - The reason I was so bent on getting the Loki to take PCM->DSD was because this was a new computer build, and having 1 great dac for $149 that could decode both would pretty much beat anything else I can do ...

 

I've never gotten Jriver to work on my HTPC, as it froze on Library import on various installs, but my HTPC has been trudging along for a few years and didn't really need Jriver for the task at hand - on a brand new Windows 7x64 install, the Jriver demo has only crashed once in the last week, and that was when I switched from HDMI video out to DVI video out, and I'm guessing that had something to do with my HDMI audio drivers, which have since been removed.

 

With simply setting the Loki as the output in Audio Settings, then doing Output Decoding in DSD OVER DoP, it takes anything I've thrown at it so far.

 

I have to say, I had an Oppo BD-93 to decode SACD via analog out into the same amp I'm using right now, and, memory failing me or not, the Loki to me is smoother, or at least just as nice. It also imparts all that DSD entails to any PCM->DSD, and I have to say that may turn some people off. Since I tend to like my pre section as clean and neutral as possible, then use my tube amp to impart any musicality that isn't inherent (not that I need that, but that's what my amp does and I don't have the money to buy/build a new one right now), the combination of Jriver and Loki suits my needs incredibly well right now.

 

To note, you can play with the HPF/Lo Pass under - TOOLS->Options->Audio->Advanced->...Configure Input Plugin->Jriver DSD ...