Hi, after so many hours of listening and setup changes I finally found the optimal setup for my environment. It is a minimalistic configuration with just the two 220 in a mono setup using the WLAN interface to stream directly from Roon into the Expert Pros. No other inputs are active and have been switched off. Speakers are Sonus Faber Amati Tradition. With the upsampling to DSD64 I get the full dynamic range, deep not booming bass and an exceptional wide soundstage with a lot more “air” in between the instruments as with all other upsampling and non upsampling configurations. Singers, especially female singers, are fixed in the middle of the stage while the instruments are grouped around the vocalist. If you should have a similar configuration, go and try my settings.
Hi Franz and welcome to the community!
I also have an Expert 440 Pro setup, with Sonus faber Olympica ll speakers. I’ll try your settings later and give you my thoughts. Thanks for posting…
This is exactly what I do too. I also use a 440 Pro CI in my setup …
It sounds waaayyy better than sending PCM files. The phasing is much superior and very noticeable when playing classical orchestral music wherein with DSD, the precise positions with respect to width, depth and height is very clearly shown. Also, low, midbass and mids are rendered better in DSD setting. The same with the soundstage … superior width, depth and height and on the overall, better 3-dimensional effect.
Beautiful setups you people have!
Will try to setup your suggestions for my Expert 120 connected via Ethernet/AIR protocol.
Will give feedback soon.
The signal path works perfectly with Devialet’s AIR protocol!
I usually prefer linear phase filters, need to play about with that a bit to see if it makes any difference.
I did the same setting (upsampling to DSD64, without any other DSP) for two DACs, both connected by USB:
- RME ADI-2 DAC FS
- DEVIALET Expert 440 Pro
I noticed a major difference between the two DACs: on DEVIALET, there is a considerable decrease in volume when applying upsampling to DSD64.
This does not happen on RME. It doesn’t even happen with DEVIALET for PCM to PCM upsampling.
Does this volume decrease appear in your system?
I think it could be a difference between the way DEVIALET processes DSD64 on the USB interface versus the Ethernet (which would not be OK).
Hm interesting question.
Has anyone of you also compared Upsampling DSD64 vs PCM 192/24 ?
Yes the volume decreases. But still more than enough volume even for rock music.
I have not noticed considerable loss in volume levels. I use Ethernet.
Is there a loss of volume level in our Devialet, when doing DSD64 in USB or Ethernet ?
You can easily check this if you enable and disable sample rate conversion while the music is playing.
Iswitched to USB connection by running Roon Server via GentooPlayer along with the Diretta Protocol (Diretta host on a MacBook Air, Diretta target on a Raspberry Pi 4B) and upsampling to DSD64.
The sound is really good!
I did and indeed, you do lose some few dBs when you go DSD64 over PCM. For me, I am ok with this as I make up the loss using Devialet’s Volume control and add those few dBs.
Absolutely … you can always make it up using your preamp.
This looks like a bug to me.
In addition, the digital volume reduction of the signal can be accompanied by the reduction of the dynamic range of the signal.
For me this is a no go.
Thanks for a revelation.
I have a Devialet Original d’Atelier linked by ethernet to a NUC and Focal Sopra No 2 speakers.
I hadn’t previously delved into DSP and the improvement is significant. Everything sounds clearer and better spaced.
I carried out a few tests of DSD as prescribed against 24/192 and can hear a noticeable difference.
As others have suggested, the volume is lower and if this is a bug, resolving it can only help even more.
I wish that I had experimented long ago but am having great fun now.
I’m curious… doesn’t the Devialet Expert Pros automatically convert all digital input to 192/24 for processing? So I’m scratching my head as to why having Roon take it to DSD64 only for the Expert Pro to take it back to 192 PCM could create a sonic improvement? Any theory on that? I’ll certainly give your config a try though (I’ve got a 440 Pro setup as well).
That is correct. DSD64 is converted to 40/384 PCM, so converting to DSD makes no sense for several reasons.
https://www.devialet.com/media/wysiwyg/docs/whitepaperfirmwarev8.pdf
Well it might sound not logical - but the sound quality improvements are confirmed by many people worldwide using a Devialet.
Has anyone reported to Devialet support about the db loss?
@PFBTG can you post screenshots of your settings used?
Maybe this is interesting and might help explaining:
@anon80830635 Do you have an idea about the Devialet DSD vs PCM phenomenon?
I took the settings from @Franz_Stibitzhofer without making any changes. The signal path is also similar but from Qobuz so no MQA.
Has anyone else done any testing yet? I am pretty sure that the improvement is not mere confirmation bias, especially as instruments have been coming from unusual directions, almost like a 5 channel system.