Topping D90 great but question future

[Mike Rubin]

I can vouch for Barrows' settings on Roon, which I am using on a trial.  They made both of my DAC's (Topping D90 and Wyred4Sound 10th Anniversary) sound much better in many cases.  In fact, I think that Roon generally and these settings particularly have made the D90 quite listenable in my main system, where I previously found it painfully bright on way too many recordings. 

 

I did find that on many recordings, the headroom management makes the music sound a bit compressed and that, on some, the native format sounds better than the upsampled.  I dig that you can adjust whether to enable headroom and file conversion on the fly, so a/b'ing can occur within the few seconds that I actually have auditory memory. 

 

If you want to set it and forget it, though, just go with what Barrows says. They are a good norm for this DAC and, no doubt, many others. 

[Mike Rubin]

43 minutes ago, OldBigEars said:

Quick question about DSD.....when you’re upsampling from PCM to DSD 256 does it matter what quality of file you start with? In other words...any point in 24/96 files as opposed to using 16/44?

I asked this question in another thread just the other day.  The response I got is that there's no way to tell because hi-res files might be remastered or not, i.e., they might just be upsampled in software from the 16/44 or they might in essence be whole new performances. The responder said that the only way to be sure if it does is to try both the Redbook and hi-res versions.   

[Mike Rubin]

1 hour ago, barrows said:

 

1 hour ago, barrows said:

Yes, it matters.  I am assuming the file you start with is legit hi res here, originally recorded at the higher rate.

 

Not sure I understand what you mean, Barrows.  Recorded?  Or remastered?  The vast preponderance of hi-res recordings for sale on the web seem to be of records made before there were hi res recordings at all. 

[Mike Rubin]

1 hour ago, OldBigEars said:

I’m fascinated by the emphasis on the D90’s performance with DSD 256 (specifically).  Wish I understood more clearly what’s behind that.  Yes I can hear a difference vs DSD 128.  It’s definitely got an edge, in terms of clarity and separation.  But the cost in terms of CPU is heavy, which causes me a certain amount of stress that I’m going to overheat my server and cause damage to something. I’m toggling back and forth, trying to decide the best option. 

Funny you should mention this.  Not ten minutes ago, I was noticing how hot my own pc was running, exacerbated by environment because it's in a nook built into my desk.  I had to pull it out of the desk to give it some air. 

[Mike Rubin]

Not sure this is the place to get into this, but this is an issue because I have been running the D90 at DSD256 with Audirvana and Roon. 

 

I just ran Roon for just a few tracks with DSD256 upsampling enabled, to take advantage of DSD mode in the Topping.  I then shut down playback and ran the CoreTemp application to get a look at the CPU temperature.  Here's what's it shows.

 

The exterior of the computer case is quite warm to the touch and the fan is running very loudly. 

 

Am I stressing out my computer excessively by using such aggressive playback settings?

[Mike Rubin]

4 hours ago, Mike Rubin said:

Not sure this is the place to get into this, but this is an issue because I have been running the D90 at DSD256 with Audirvana and Roon. 

 

I just ran Roon for just a few tracks with DSD256 upsampling enabled, to take advantage of DSD mode in the Topping.  I then shut down playback and ran the CoreTemp application to get a look at the CPU temperature.  Here's what's it shows.

 

The exterior of the computer case is quite warm to the touch and the fan is running very loudly. 

 

Am I stressing out my computer excessively by using such aggressive playback settings?

Three songs into a Roon session.

 

 

[Mike Rubin]

Thanks, Rossco.  My Dell XPS 8930's cooling is tough to alter beyond changing the CPU fan, which I am reluctant to do after ruining the CPU in my last computer trying to do that.  However, I figured out that I can reduce the temperatures by throttling the CPU to 95% in Windows' power management settings. I don't mind giving up some performance to avoid destroying the CPU.  I will run Roon upsampled on shuffle overnight and see how the temperature changes.  If it still is too hot, I will look at cooling options more closely. 

[Mike Rubin]

Here's mine after six hours at 95% processor power.   Throttling seems to do the trick.

 

Moral of this story:  if you want to take advantage of the D90's DSD256 capabilities, be sure you have enough processing horsepower.  This is a 9th Generation i7 with 16gb RAM and it's barely able to keep up.

[Mike Rubin]

6 minutes ago, barrows said:

@Mike Rubin,  I am surprised you have these struggles with Roon oversampling to DSD 256?  My I5 Mac Mini runs Roon oversampling to DSD 256 with the 7th order CLANS modulator, all day long, for a couple of years now, with no issues, and fairly low processor activity.  Roon oversampling is not very processor intensive.  This machine is just a 2.8 GHz, I5, with 8 Gb of RAM.  I do set it on some random cones to allow for a little additional airflow around the chassis's and the room ambient temperature is never above 70 D. F.  The fan rarely runs doing this.

Are you also running other things which are effecting your processor activity, room correction/EQ, etc?

Barrows, *nothing* else going on except a download during the times the CPU was running so hot.

 

I have some ventilation issues because the computer is in one of those built-in CPU niches next to the desktop kneehole, but I have had computers in those for decades without overheating.  I am sure that doesn't help, though.

 

Googling "Dell XPS 8930 overheating" shows both that this model has heat dissipation issues and is difficult to retrofit with coolers unless you want to start chopping holes in the case.  Most complaints come from gamers, but one I found came from a video editor.  

 

Maybe the solution is to find a NUC (or something else that runs Windows) that I can dedicate to audio and that I can put on a corner of the desktop.

[Mike Rubin]

I just tried turning the cpu speed back up to 100% because the case was cool and the fan wasn't running.  Within one minute, the fan started up and the cpu core temps were in the 70's.  Turning the cpu back down to 99% shut the fan off immediately and brought the temps into the 40's and 50's again.  I guess I am running this at 99% from now on.

 

Clearly, this is an anomaly in my computer and not a "Topping needs DSD256" so I'll be quiet from this point.  Might take it up with Dell.

[Mike Rubin]

7 minutes ago, barrows said:

Well, for sure a computer for running as a server which is tasked with oversampling should be a dedicated machine not doing anything else, and of course video editing is very, very processor (and memory) intensive activity, especially at 1080p and above, so no surprise there.  For sure my Mac Mini is a dedicated machine.

Why not actively ventilate your computer niche with a hole cut in the back, at the top, fitted with a fan to draw hot air out the back and top and cool in through the bottom?

I've already started to look into that.  Thanks for the suggestion!

[Mike Rubin]

Yeah, I get that.  My living room audio cabinet has doors, for the sake of WAF, but it has an entirely open back and is at some distance from the wall, so I've never had heat issues with it of which I am aware.

 

I just got off the phone with Dell, which told me that they are aware of this cpu issue and that there is a new BIOS that the tech had me download.  (I check for driver and BIOS updates at least weekly, using a scheduler, but this new one has the same version number as the earlier one that I presently use, so the Dell Support app didn't detect that I didn't have the latest installed.)  The tech guy assures me it should allow the cpu to work at the 100% setting, but I will believe that when I see it.  I'll test this afternoon.

 

In the meantime, I am looking at NUC as an option for a dedicated server. I need something with a really small form factor if I am going to place it on the desktop next to LPS, microrendu, and DAC boxes.

 

Apologies to all for getting the thread so far off the rails.