T+a dac 8 dsd

[Quadman]

I too, use an iso-regen with the T+A but find it extremely fussy.  The best sounding way to run it is in the ISO setting but for some reason static bids up (so says Alex) and the PC loses sight of the dac and music stops.  Efforts to get the pc to see the dac again can be frustrating. Alex replaced my IR with another one he called v2 but the same problem persisted.  I can run it in the non-ISO position just fine it still adds a little to the sound especially with my regen located at the PC.  As to filters I used to exclusively run the XTR-MP-2s then I added the Audiophile optimizer program to my PC and after playing a lot with the digital sound filters in that program (changes of which are not subtle) I found that with my preferred AO filter set (3B) that poly-sinc-shrt-MP became my favorite sounding filter with the XTR-mp-2s being just a little more congested than the other.  My PC runs a Ryzen 1800x and it cannot do the XTR non 2s filter even with cuda, in fact if I turn cuda offload off in HQP it won't run closed form either.  With Cuda off load the only filters I cannot run are the non-2s XTR (at 512). I do think the much higher L3 cache of the AMD processor does a sonic improvement over the older 6th and 7th gen intel's.  I haven't heard the new 8th gen with 12mb L3 which still trails the AMD's 16mb. 

 

What surprised me most with the addition of AO was the SQ difference between the digital filter settings, the are much more pronounced the any other program I have used such as HQP, change HQP filters and a non-audiophile would struggle to describe any difference, change the filter signature in AO from say 3B to 3C, not to mention 3B to 4B or another and a non-audiophile could describe some of the differences they heard.  Not sure if these differences are due to the T+A's excellent handling of 512 material, so I am curious if other non-T+A users hear the big differences in AO digital filters?

[Quadman]

4 hours ago, sbenyo said:

Regarding AO and filters - I understand this makes the PC optimized for Audio

 

My IR was dropping every 30 minutes or so and then even in the non-Iso setting it still dropped.  Alex had me do the grounding trick but that did not work.  So he sent me V2 with works fine with no-Iso setting but drops with iso setting.  Maybe in summer with more humidity it will be fine we'll see.  My USB cable is elevated so no contact with carpeting not sure what causes the static.

 

If you use your PC for others things, gaming then I would not do AO.  It can shut down so many features that it probably will affect gaming.  It states very clearly during install use only on dedicated audio PC.  Try Fidelizer pro 8 it helps quite a bit and you can adjust filtering levels so when listening only then use Audiophile or maybe its called purist.  When gaming use consumer.  reboot required after each adjustment.

[Quadman]

16 minutes ago, rickca said:

What is a V2 ISO REGEN and what is different from the original?

 

I am not sure Alex told me that they slightly changed the circuit board to lessen the chance of static build up on the isolation chip he uses (forgot name) and that more folks should have less issues with the dropouts.  I can at least now use it with the non-iso setting just fine.  I'll try again soon with iso as it is finally warming up here in East TN and humidity levels are well north of 20% they were this winter..

[Quadman]

I use the NH-D9L fan in my Grandia 09 case and it has kept my 6700K processor very cool and now my ryzen 1800x also very cool (usually in the mid-40C while doing DSD512 for hours on end) that said I do have 5 additional case fans installed for cooling all low noise and SPL 1 meter from PC is 32 db according to a phone SPL meter.  The D9L fan is about $20-30 cheaper than the C14S and even a bit lower in profile.  I also have 4 sticks of ram in the Pc (corsair Vengeance) so it does provide enough clearance.  Even with he fans I have SQ is breathtaking.

[Quadman]

On 2/27/2018 at 2:28 AM, FatalethaL said:

BTW when it comes to casing (with HDPlex already out of the window), the next alternative/option for me is either a mid tower chassis (Silverstone Grandia), or, test bench chassis....

 

I have used many cases in my builds, it is easier to work on tower builds, I agree with Larry that open cases allow more EMI/RFI in or out of PC.  So look for ones with full metal sides like corsair carbide quiet Q series or Fractal Design define R5.  The HTPC solution like the Granadia series from Silverstone allow one to put the PC on a audio shelf are metal and can accommodate up to a full ATX sized board if desired.  They are a bit more difficult to build inside than a tower case but certainly manageable.  Water cooling with a HTPC case is usually not a option unless you want to go the DIY route and cut part of the stock case.  Those Noctura fans mentioned above are great options and can fit both Intel or AMD Ryzen CPU's.

[Quadman]

Roon at 512 does not suck, but HQP at 512 xtr 2s mp beats it,  just more there. If you didn't compare you wouldn't know.

[Quadman]

18 minutes ago, OE333 said:

if anybody is interested in this solution, please let me know - I could give some hints then,

 

I would be interested in learning more about this, as I have a powerful win 10 PC in the listening area.  What PC holds your roon server software.  It appears you use Roon to upsample to 512, I use HQP mostly.

[Quadman]

51 minutes ago, OE333 said:

my offer to give some hints referred to the LattePanda setup and installation.

Please, are you running win 10 home on this and what tweaks have you done to make this work.  Also what PSU do you use to power it, I would think a good LT3045 based 3A psu would be perfect for this.

[Quadman]

8 hours ago, juanitox said:

sure in DSD512 with HQP and Polysinc long LP , DSD5 V2  the T+A was in another league everywhere but has a " too clean taste" that seems to me unreal.    ( perhaps i just need a noisy tube preamp after the T+A to get what i want 😉)

 

I owned a couple of those dacs you yearn for and in no way shape or form would I ever trade my T+A for that sound again.  What speakers do you have?  Try different filters with HQP, you can certainly change the sound with a filter change.  My favorite right now is Sinc-M with DSD5v2 256+fs.  I also like Ext2, closed form 16M and the XTR MP 2s (I can't run the non 2s version).  Also what server are you using to send to your dac?  Do you have any means of isolating the USB signal from the dac.  The T+A has a pretty good filter on the USB for noise, but I still prefer some isolation between the server and dac.

[Quadman]

6 hours ago, musicbuff said:

Anyone have any idea how I can get the new computer to let my DAC play 48K 512DSD again?

Do you use roon?  One issue I had with my current dac (Holo May, I used to own the T+A) was if I had any other ASIO device active in Roon, the holo would not play DSD.  So I went into roon devices and turned off any device that was asio except the T+A.  USE HQP v4 as it is clearly superior to HQP 3.  I've attached my settings that I use for my dac in Ubuntu but they are very similar to what you should set for the T+A. explained below.

 

For Backend select ASIO, for device make sure it says your T+A ASIO driver.  Very important default output mode is set to SDM as shown.  Under SDM settings change bit rate to 48k x 512.  Then grey or check multicore DSD as I have, check adaptive output rate and check cuda offload.  Then click ok.  that should help greatly.

 

You can also check your PC's power settings and make sure they are set for the most powerful setting (not balanced).  Good luck

 

 

 

 

[Quadman]

@musicbuff  you have installed the T+A driver on your new PC correct?