Hi Jan, looking great! Are those the D&D stands?
And thanks for all the info concerning the updates, sounds really promising!
Thanks for the info. What features does Ascend have that Lanspeaker lacks, and how is it accessed?
Thanks 
Hi eka,
According to Martijn these are the D&D stand prototypes. He was so kind to let me borrow the stands until I get my Liedtke LM REFERENZ-X-ONE in black.
Your welcome!
Cheers, Jan
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Setting up the system is different in Ascend by making rooms, assigning positions in the rooms, adding a speaker to a position, and assigning a channel to that speaker, making the system really multiroom. At the moment Ascend is web based, but Martijn told me the D&D team is working on a native app. I will asked Martijn if I am allowed to share some pictures of the current test-environment.
Yesterday my speakers got beta-version and this is how it looks like in Roon. Everything seems to work fine, including sending streams to other rooms and back, automatically waking the 8câs when playing music, Roon volume control, Roon on/sleep button.
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For those interested. I had been asking D&D for info on the 8Câs internal DSP processing to ensure the optimal way to send music to the 8Cs and recently I got this info from Martijn, the designer of the speakers.
"Long story short, if the DACs and ADCs used are of high quality (as is the case in the 8c), going higher than 48 khz doesnât make a lot of sense. In some situations in the production stage it does make sense, but not on the playback side. The DSP and DAC in the 8c are capable of handling 96 khz, but we chose the higher performance that comes with 48 khz. The reasons are that 1) the S/R ratio of the DAC is better at 48 khz than at 96 khz, and 2) the tweeter in the 8c has an aluminium/magnesium dome with a bell-resonance at about 28 khz, which doesnât get excited when the DSP works at 48 khz. Resampling done well, is inaudible. It doesnât really matter if you do it in Roon or the 8c. If you have content that has a higher sample rate than 192 khz, itâs probably best to do resampling in Roon, because the 8c does not accept audio files with a sample rate higher than 192 khz. "
Given this, Iâd summarize in the following way:
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If all your music is PCM <= 192K you can let either roon or the 8Cs resample. Try both and see what you like better.
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If you have music that is outside of PCM <= 192K then itâs better to let roon resample everything and send only 48K to the 8Cs.
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Thanks to D&D for stating this clearly. Itâs not always an easy truth to say.
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I agree. I think they have been tremendously scared of stating this publicly which might drive buyers away who only buy only on specs (maybe to the the KII3 whoâs DSP operates at 96K I believe). But like everything, what matters is how the whole package is put together and how if performs in your environment which you canât assess unless you go listen. And BTW, I asked Martijn if it was ok to publish this info and he said yes.
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This is very good and honest information from D&D. Thanks for posting @Craig_Palmer! No info or pictures on the new Studio version of the 8c yet. I just checked their web site. MDF is a very good box material so with metal on the outside this could be an interesting alternative. Iâd easily give up direct Roon integration for a lower price point. Plenty of SPDIF and even AES/EBU Pi hats out there.
There are some partial pictures on their facebook site. Just showing the M10 mounting arrangement really. It looks like every other black paint finished studio monitor, so not much to reveal.
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Thanks Tony! Very similar to the domestic version. Same front definitely. Might have thicker sides and top MDF since outer dimensions seem to be the same (and the steel cover is probably not as thick as the wood on the domestic).
I do not have a facebook login so after viewing a few pictures the âcreate an account or loginâŚâ covered my screen. I dislike the tendency to update Facebook/Instagram/Twitter, but not the official web site. I know I am a dinosaur, but not happy being reminded 
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You have both miniDSP SHD and Grimm MU1. Are there any obvious difference on the performance? Or just similar. What do you mean about oversampling alone with MU1? TIA.
I use the SHD as a Roon endpoint for the D & Ds and I run Roon on the Mu1 (and output to my Grimm speakers). So I use them for different purposes.
This review accurately maps to my experience of the upsampling Grimm Mu1 Review
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Just noticed tonight on the Lanspeaker page that the Automatic Update for the speakers has now been enabled againâŚAlthough my speakers still remain on version 1.3.12
Iâve gotten on their beta release list and have been upgraded 1.4.32. Roon gets turned on in 1.4.34 so hopefully it will get released soon and I can finally test it.
Craig how do these updates occur? I take it the speakers have to be in standby?
Any firmware update only occurs when the speakers are on and need to be on for a long time, generally about 24 hours for it to occur. In order to get beta updates you have to be on their beta release list. That takes a conversation with them.
Automatic update is also enabled and I have firmware version 1.3.12. How can we see that the firmware is updating?
Mine no longer say anything next to âVersionâ. Odd.
I guess an 8c could get any of the firmware versions on D&Dâs list all the way up to 1.5.x. It is probably just a question of which access level the serial number has been given by D&D.