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MDAC first listen thread

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JohnW said:
With MDAC set -20dB AND using your integrated amplifier volume control, you apply two levels of attenuation - so you get the worst of both worlds. But if sounds better in your system then that's all that counts.

Selection of Digital filters is a personal choice, based upon the system and personal preferences.

I learnt long ago from the "Dacapo" days which had "user replaceable" filters - that there is no "perfect sound" everyone has there own personal preferences.

So rather then making it a "hardware change" as on the Dacapo - we achieve the same with software configurable digital filters – which makes it a lot easier to fine tune to your system preferences.

Again, it’s what YOU prefer, nobody can tell you otherwise :)
Click to expand...

Hi John

I'll try it again at 0dB as you suggest.

Good to have a choice of filers particularly if at some stage more options are made available to choose from.

Thanks for your time.
 
JohnW said:
With MDAC set -20dB AND using your integrated amplifier volume control, you apply two levels of attenuation - so you get the worst of both worlds. But if sounds better in your system then that's all that counts.

Selection of Digital filters is a personal choice, based upon the system and personal preferences.

I learnt long ago from the "Dacapo" days which had "user replaceable" filters - that there is no "perfect sound" everyone has there own personal preferences.

So rather then making it a "hardware change" as on the Dacapo - we achieve the same with software configurable digital filters – which makes it a lot easier to fine tune to your system preferences.

Again, it’s what YOU prefer, nobody can tell you otherwise :)
Click to expand...

I love the filter options and find that some recordings sound better with a different one to my usual (DD)
 
arthur said:
Lo spxy.

What level of attenuation are you using the Mdac at? anything less than about -20dB may well sound a bit thin, especially if there is a tendancy for that in your system anyway.

I don't know the input gain of your amp but perhaps some attenuators may fix your issue if it's not down entirely to taste?
Click to expand...

hi arthur, how do you adjust attenuation?
 
dtd said:
There might be an option in the freesat box to only output PCM only. I just had to do this for the Sky HD box 10mins ago, so might exist for yourself.
Click to expand...

No option for PCM in the Freesat menu but switching Dolby Digital to off has solved it.

Thanks very much.
 
I'm going through the filters trying to work out what I like. Reading the manual there is a lot of mention of "ringing" what is this?
 
Just checking but Spotify I thought was not 96/24. But when playing certain files today the unit was definately stating 96/24 , I'm right in assuming its not upsampling in anyway is it? :confused:
 
PhilCTTE said:
Just checking but Spotify I thought was not 96/24. But when playing certain files today the unit was definately stating 96/24 , I'm right in assuming its not upsampling in anyway is it? :confused:
Click to expand...

Hi Phil,

I don't recall if you using a MAC or PC? It does sound like your application is "Upsampling" to the highest avaliable sample rate (with USB this is 24/96 kHz).

I would not loose sleep - Spotify is a "Compressed - lossey" streaming service, so the data is not Bit perfect to start with - and who knows what algorithms are used for reconstruction - they might benefit from Upsampling to 24/96 - the data is not "real" in any case.
 
JohnW said:
Hi Phil,

I don't recall if you using a MAC or PC? It does sound like your application is "Upsampling" to the highest avaliable sample rate (with USB this is 24/96 kHz).

I would not loose sleep - Spotify is a "Compressed - lossey" streaming service, so the data is not Bit perfect to start with - and who knows what algorithms are used for reconstruction - they might benefit from Upsampling to 24/96 - the data is not "real" in any case.
Click to expand...

PC using Spotify , got no idea what spotify is doing , but never heard of any up sampling by Spotify it sounded pretty good and on examination prefered it to the flac version

edit ** just double checked device settings and checked properties "disable all enhancements" and noticed that PC app must have reset this, as I know I've set this to disabled also under advanced there is a another check box "allow applications to take exclusive control of this device". I will uncheck this and see what happens

Thanks for response just wanted to check the MDAC does not upsample. (can't see anything in documentation)
 
mark.king said:
I'm going through the filters trying to work out what I like. Reading the manual there is a lot of mention of "ringing" what is this?
Click to expand...

http://ap.com/images/kb/202/apx_impulse_resp.png

The perfect Impulse should only have the centre spike (the impulse) with no pre-ringing (the ripples building up before the main impulse), and no post ringing – (the ripples decaying after the main impulse).

Shows a typical FIR digital filter type impulse – which would apply in varying degrees to all filters types apart from the Minim Phase Filter which has no Pre- ringing, and the optimal transient types which have no ringing whatsoever - so no Pre or Post ringing.
 
PhilCTTE said:
PC using Spotify , got no idea what spotify is doing , but never heard of any up sampling by Spotify it sounded pretty good and on examination prefered it to the flac version
Click to expand...

Looks like your operating system is doing the up-sampling. Its hard work to make computers behave themselves.

With lossey - reconstructed Data - who’s to say if upsampling is going to be beneficial or not...
 
Either this Dacs changed in the last hour or my ears have changed (although i doubt it, looking in the mirror they're still the sexy ears i had before) or i'm getting use to the Dac, don't know but it definitely seems to have opened up, will post more thoughts tomorrow when i get in from work.
 
JohnW said:
Looks like your operating system is doing the up-sampling. Its hard work to make computers behave themselves.

With lossey - reconstructed Data - who’s to say if upsampling is going to be beneficial or not...
Click to expand...

Indeed.

And now that everything is exposed via the clarity of the MDAC it's really showing up the bad recordings in my collection. And thats where these filters come in handy
 
Phil

You may have set spotify to examine/play your local music library?
Otherwise spotify doesn't upsample its streamed files

I'd have believed that the sabre is effectively doing its own upsampling/resampling and even with a lossy format will get the best out of the signal in comparison to other upsampling

Leave the 'allow exclusiv' box ticked as that's what lets windows allow any sound player to control the output data rate - or more importantly stops windows from overriding/resampling the audio output.
 
ChrisPa said:
Phil

You may have set spotify to examine/play your local music library?
Otherwise spotify doesn't upsample its streamed files

I'd have believed that the sabre is effectively doing its own upsampling/resampling and even with a lossy format will get the best out of the signal in comparison to other upsampling

Leave the 'allow exclusiv' box ticked as that's what lets windows allow any sound player to control the output data rate - or more importantly stops windows from overriding/resampling the audio output.
Click to expand...

Cheers Chris , allow exclusiv , got it the wrong way round in my head..
Wasn't from local and my flac files aren't listed only mp4 mp3 etc..

Was planning to play some more after footy.
 
PhilCTTE said:
And now that everything is exposed via the clarity of the MDAC it's really showing up the bad recordings in my collection. And thats where these filters come in handy
Click to expand...

I find that sadly a significant majority of recordings are pretty poor - but a select few are just stunning!

Even older recordings can be incredibly good! - and many are!

Modern “Pop” recordings on the whole are generally really terrible – bright, hard & shrill…

I work with musicians who are so fed-up with the SQ of PC based editing software such as Pro-tools that they are rebuilding old 24 track recorders – recently a good friend even bought from auction an ex BBC unit weighing over 350kg!!! Every couple of days I get a Skype message asking for help to understand a circuit section as they rebuild the machine!!! Its fascinating trying to understand old circuits – where Analogue engineering was really a true art, nowadays its just Digital trash box full of OPAMP’s and DSP…

I've even encountered discs that sound brilliant - but which have got "scuffed up" over time - so I buy a later "pressing" only to find it sounds totally inferior - analyses on the computer shows the data is not the same.

So what appears to be have been once a good recording is not necessarily true for later “Pressings"

John
 
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