Dutch & Dutch 8c: pre-Roon Ready thread

No :slight_smile: I went with the KIIs :smiley: but analyzed the D&D very intensively in the decision phase.

It was actually Martijn Mensink himself that described how they would sync Roon ready 8c’s. If they have changed to network sync it is more than likely a marketing argument involved.

im sorry that’s right ! totally forgot about that :slight_smile: Nice !

I did some measurements today with a friend that knows his stuff.
They sound much better in my room now.

I really recommend you to do some filters in ROON, if you are using ROON. The results is absolutely insane. He has done a lot of them. We did a digital filter in Jriver, it was awesome !

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Either way, I wished Dutch and Dutch could confirm this haha :smiley:

you have me :slight_smile:

I agree. I hope the user can choose how to sync speakers, but most of all I wish that the method D&D selects is stable in the long run and don’t require use of special hard ware (like Ravenna and Dante does).

Me too ! That would not be good !

https://www.stereophile.com/content/dutch-dutch-8c-active-loudspeaker-system

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Interesting: The internal processing (sample rate) is 48kHz which is too low and rare nowadays. 96kHz is/should be the standard. So everything higher than 48kHz will be downsampled + AES Input won’t work for more than 96/24. Hmmm

But it’s achieving state of the art performance as it is, no?

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I was under the impression that the internal sampling frequency was 96kHz — this came up in other reviews I believe. Could there be another explanation for the sharp drop-off after 24kHz that is not related to the internal sampling frequency?

From @Martijn_Mensink on another forum:

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/54065-article-dutch-dutch-8c-loudspeaker-review/?do=findComment&comment=902618

Not that I find it an issue, given the overall state of the art performance:

https://6moons.com/audioreviews2/dutchdutch/2.html

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This is the spec of the chip. Not the sample frequency

That is a dodgy term to use amongst audiophiles. Sort of- nothing is relevant because they sound great. Fair enough but it’s not bringing much to the party.

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No… I was referring to the objective measurements I’ve seen of these speakers. Check out the Stereophile measurements, for example…

I would never dismiss other people’s subjective opinions…

I too was very surprised to read in Stereophile that the 8C downsamples all digital data higher than 48khz sampling rate. None of the half dozen other reviews I’ve read pointed this out. Aside from the 8C, I can’t think of a single digital audio product today that can’t do high resolution sampling rates of at least 96khz. So I’m more surprised by the rarity than anything else. That aside, I’m sure the acoustic advantages of the 8C’s unique cardioid dispersion, front wall coupled bass, time coherence, and FR linearity all outweigh the marginal gains of high-res audio word length and sampling frequency. I’m given pause, but would still love to own this speaker. I wonder if the internal sampling frequency might change with a firmware update in the future. I wonder if such a move would increase the latency. I’m also curious if the redbook sampling frequency of the 8C matters to professional mastering engineers which are also a target audience.

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Reading the comments on the article, the measurements aren’t without criticism…

I wouldn’t dismiss other people’s subjective opinions either but ā€œoverall state of the art performanceā€? I’m sure they sound fab but typically the average reader is looking for a little more here.

New owner of D&D 8Cs here. I do not have the beta firmware that allows a direct Roon connection via ethernet so am running them via AES from a Lumin U1 Mini and I use Roon to downsample to 96K/24 bits for any resolution/sample rates higher than that. I will compare this chain to a direct Roon ethernet chain when that capability is available but the sound is fabulous as is.

I’m now going to tackle room correction and am wondering whether it’s better to use the parametric filter capability in the speakers themselves or use a convolution filter within Roon for this. I’m curious if anyone has tackled either and has any insight or opinions…

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Good evening @Craig_Palmer !

I just did some parametric eq to my DD8C a week ago or so. The difference is huge . I got rid of the worst low frequencies in my room and made some minor corrections at 3000 and 4000 hz and the soundstage went from good to amazing ! I had a lot of low frequencies cancelling out some good stuff in the midrange and higher up . The problem with parametric EQ is that I can only guess the Q factor and I felt that I might be doing more harm than right. But like I said , fixed the biggest problems and it made a huge difference. I did a blind test on my girlfriend, we listened to Hans Zimmer - Mountains from the Interstellar OST . I turned the filters on and off and her conclusion was - ā€œIt’s like I am changing seats , from the back rows , to the front . Her words of explaining the improvement in the soundstage .

Digital filters in Roon will be far more superior… I am waiting for Roon like crazy right now.

I downloaded jRiver and took the room measurements , drag and dropped it , made a digital filter with all the problems solved and correct Q factor and the results … well you will hear for yourself.

With proper measurements, placement and digital filter , I truly believe that the DD8C is impossible to beat for the money .

Hope this makes sense. I’ve had a bottle of wine !

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