iFi's Pro iDSD (official) - NEW Firmware - MQA and more.

[asdf1000]

6 hours ago, gordec said:

I can get like 2 seconds of audio then Roon just cuts off. I think I need to wait for Roon to support Pro iDSD as an USB DAC.

 

I had it working. I’ll share my Roon settings later so you can copy and try to see if that works for you.

 

[asdf1000]

7 hours ago, gordec said:

I was trying to get Roon to play through iPad as endpoint -> Pro iDSD via CCK adapter. It would play like 2 seconds then everything stops. 

 

Check your device setup settings match the below. Private zone needs to be off. Change volume to fixed.

 

 

It's best to charge your iOS endpoint with a powerbank if you have one, when it's used as a Roon Endpoint.

 

If you charge it at the wall while playing, you lose the advantage of the 'off the grid' endpoint.

 

Having said that - Pro iDSD's USB input is very well sorted.

[MoWa]

On 8/25/2018 at 11:26 AM, jimdukey said:

Dsd upsampling with HQ is great!

From pcm and dsd files.

 

Tried it and like it. 

 

Use HQplayer and Roon as the transport now to convert and upsample to DSD256 (cannot get higher). Sounds better, than the in built remastering machine of the PiDSD. 

 

It does make my veteran Macbook Pro work quite hard now. With one of the poly sinc filters and DSD7 256 the CPU utilisation is apprx. 30%, which is firing the internal fan up occasionally - mostly when I start a new file. 

 

Sound is best so far, what I had until today, worth the money and effort.

 

Thanks for the advice. 

 

[asdf1000]

Agreed, HQPlayer and Roon with this Pro iDSD is something special.

 

3 hours ago, MoWa said:

It does make my veteran Macbook Pro work quite hard now. With one of the poly sinc filters and DSD7 256 the CPU utilisation is apprx. 30%, which is firing the internal fan up occasionally - mostly when I start a new file. 

 

I'm upgrading to a fanless i7-7700T soon, and will run HQP 'Embedded' edition on it. It's a headless version, booted from a USB drive and controlled via any web browser. No more annoying fan sound. Plenty of power for all 2s versions of filters at DSD512.

 

Probably will get this one or similar:

 

https://www.atlastsolutions.com/fanless-tx-series-pc-core-i7-7700t-kaby-lake-8gb-250gb-860-evo-ssd-asus-h110t/

 

 

[firedog]

27 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

Agreed, HQPlayer and Roon with this Pro iDSD is something special.

 

 

I'm upgrading to a fanless i7-7700T soon, and will run HQP 'Embedded' edition on it. It's a headless version, booted from a USB drive and controlled via any web browser. No more annoying fan sound. Plenty of power for all 2s versions of filters at DSD512.

 

Probably will get this one or similar:

 

https://www.atlastsolutions.com/fanless-tx-series-pc-core-i7-7700t-kaby-lake-8gb-250gb-860-evo-ssd-asus-h110t/

 

 

That looks like a nice server at a good price. 

[asdf1000]

43 minutes ago, firedog said:

That looks like a nice server at a good price. 

 

It'll probably be a couple hundred dollars cheaper a year from now... but that's how these things go.

 

 

But still, for those happy with the 2s poly-sinc filters (like I am) this should be plenty powerful for a good couple of years (at least) I would guess.

 

 

 

[AMR/iFi audio]

On 8/25/2018 at 5:17 PM, Em2016 said:

 

Noted, thanks!

 

Is it the XMOS USB interface that does PCM filtering/up-sampling?

Or does the FPGA handle both the PCM up-sampling AND DSD re-mastering?

 

And what is underneath the big heat sink in the pic below?

 

Crysopeia FPGA is the reason why you can upsample every incoming data up to DSD1024 but we'll leave to ourselves which chip does what exactly. 

 

There are J-FETs and MOSFETs under that radiator.

[AMR/iFi audio]

Folks, we have something interesting to share...

 

iFi audio - The GTO filter 
Part 1/4 - The TL;DR

 

What iFi GTO^TM is?

Based on AMR’s ‘Organic’ mode, the further refined iFi GTO^TM Digital Filter resolves a number of audible problems associated with both classic digital filters AND non-oversampling systems, sounds on par (or better in optimal systems) to the latter and its transient optimised performance is similar.

 

How iFi GTO^TM does it?

Our GTO^TM filter tuned to fit inside the ‘ringing envelope’ of our own hearing makes ultrasonic ringing objectively measurable yet not perceived. It essentially ‘masks’ this time-domain distortion to make it inaudible.

 

Why do I want iFi GTO^TM?

Because it provides natural sound free from audible time domain distortion!

[applesnowleo]

I am having some strange issues with SOTM and ROON and also iFi iDSD Pro.

 

And this issue happens more frequently than I hopped, a video of the issue could be seen on the link below.

 

When changing the format on a playlist from PCM to DSD and DSD to PCM this happens sometimes, the only way of stopping it is change to another sample rate, or turn off the DAC and again ON.

 

Is something that has been present for sometime, and not only ROON related, anyone has had this issue?

 

https://youtu.be/iNyhjnLg2iA

[AMR/iFi audio]

28 minutes ago, applesnowleo said:

I am having some strange issues with SOTM and ROON and also iFi iDSD Pro.

 

And this issue happens more frequently than I hopped, a video of the issue could be seen on the link below.

 

When changing the format on a playlist from PCM to DSD and DSD to PCM this happens sometimes, the only way of stopping it is change to another sample rate, or turn off the DAC and again ON.

 

Is something that has been present for sometime, and not only ROON related, anyone has had this issue?

 

https://youtu.be/iNyhjnLg2iA

 

It's highly likely that your settings are the culprit. You can shoot us a message here: http://www.amr-audio.co.uk/index.html

 

Our tech team will do their best to sort you out, though there's a third-party software involved, which Pro iDSD doesn't support.

[applesnowleo]

I will try with HQPlayer and audirvana, to see if the problem still occurs first.

[asdf1000]

5 hours ago, applesnowleo said:

When changing the format on a playlist from PCM to DSD and DSD to PCM this happens sometimes, the only way of stopping it is change to another sample rate, or turn off the DAC and again ON.

 

I tried to reproduce this with an Allo USBridge but PCM to DSD to PCM to DSD (and repeat) is ok for me.

 

Do you have Roon set to play DSD via DoP?

 

 

[applesnowleo]

18 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

 

I tried to reproduce this with an Allo USBridge but PCM to DSD to PCM to DSD (and repeat) is ok for me.

 

Do you have Roon set to play DSD via DoP?

 

 

 

Yes I have.

 

could be on the SOTM, I will dig into it. This is an intermittent issue.

[Stings]

On 8/7/2018 at 2:56 PM, Pocobear said:

The SoTM doesn't help with the Pro at all, IMS, I tried it and decided to keep it simple. It helps with my Holo Spring Green Lv 3 as it's not galvanically isolated like the Pro. 

pocobear

 

Pocobear: you mentioned the Holo Spring DAC. I am debating buying the Holo Spring or the ifi Pro iDSD DAC. Witch one sounds more detailed and life like?

 

thanks

Stings

 

 

[Holzohr]

Hello everybody, another pretty happy owner of the Pro IDSD here for about 4 weeks. I use the USB input for Roon and the ethernet port (that I really like) for LMS. The UPnP/DLNA-bridge plugin (thanks to Philippe) makes the Pro iDSD to a Squeezebox. And with activated DoP flag you can stream DSD64. Please have a look at the attached pic.

 

For some reason the Pro iDSD "surprised" me with kind of relay clicks this morning. I had this issue maybe twice so far and power cycling did fix it but this morning I really thought my DAC is kind of broken. Power cycling didn't help at all. The strange thing is the clicks have vanished now. Is this a known issue? I am going to mail the ifi support, too. I have uploaded two video clips:

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XYAimlzRVE&list=WL&index=3

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOqFWWjHHy8&list=WL&index=1

 

Thank you,

Mario

 

 

[Holzohr]

On 9/1/2018 at 3:03 PM, Holzohr said:

For some reason the Pro iDSD "surprised" me with kind of relay clicks this morning.

 

Update! It seems my USB cable (Supra) caused these clicks. Is that possible? I had these clicks yesterday morning and today again when switching on the DAC. After a while and several power cyclings the clicks have vanished yesterday but today I got the idea to remove the USB cable and voilá! No more clicks. It seems to work now (with my old Nuforce USB cable) *knocking on wood*

 

What else? I am waiting for this adaptor from China for my Sennheiser HD 660S.

[AMR/iFi audio]

On 8/25/2018 at 4:24 PM, Em2016 said:

Hi @AMR/iFi audio

 

For long term health of Pro iDSD components, do you recommend leaving the unit on 24/7?

 

Or turning it to 'standby' when not in use?

 

And does this recommendation apply to solid state AND tube state? Or only solid state?

 

Some designers like Rob Watts of Chord recommend leaving their gear on 24/7 - fewer power cycles, less stress cycles on certain components.

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

It's possible to leave the unit on, but we don't recommend it because we want to save the polar bears.

 

Pro iDSD doesn't have a standby more, it's either on or off. 

 

We will leave other companies to speak for themselves about leaving gear on  ?

[AMR/iFi audio]

This happened several days ago, enjoy!

 

 

[Stings]

How do you turn on and change the upsampling between passthrough and DSD1024? There are no instructions with the iDSD pro.

 

thanks

[applesnowleo]

2 minutes ago, Stings said:

How do you turn on and change the upsampling between passthrough and DSD1024? There are no instructions with the iDSD pro.

 

thanks

 

Press the filter knob.

[Stings]

Did yours come with a cr2025 battery for the remote? Mine came with the plastic separator inserted into the remote that you pull out to make a connection to the battery, so i pulled it out and clicked the buttons but nothing. I opened the remote and oops, no battery. Okay. You got me. I went out and bought a battery and it works.

[Stings]

The volume is also not controllable through Spotify. Is there a way to change it so i can use Spotify on my ipad to control the volume level?

 I am set to veritable out on the iDSD Pro. Not the Pro Varitable out.

 

Thanks

[applesnowleo]

The battery was not included, it's a normal CR 2025, I also noticed that when I opened the box.

[applesnowleo]

I do not use the Muso APP, as my main use is on desktop, so the dac is at the reach of my hand. Maybe you can control the sound with the master sound of the phone by airplay, I do not think you can control the dac volume by the app itself, but is really something I can't help.

[Stings]

Oh, i figured out how to upsample. You press the Filter knob to switch between passthrough, DSD512 and DSD1024.