Hello all,
Have a dilemma/mystery to solve. Currently enjoying Roon managing playback on my systems at home. Main system is fed by a streamer outputting USB signal to USB input of a DAC. DAC is outputting analog signal to MiniDSP (for room correction curve). The MiniDSP converts A-D-A for analog output to amplifier input.
My worry is that this is too many conversion jobs in the signal path and that the MiniDSP conversion may degrade/harm the original DAC output. OTOH, I require the room correction effect of the MiniDSP in order to listen without frustration.
Now to the question: if I were to remove the MiniDSP from the chain, keeping the DAC conversion pure and direct, would use of Roon’s DSP functionality for managing/attenuating bass signals <250 hz be a reasonable substitute?
Quite interested in hearing your experience/feedback/suggestions.
Could you put miniDSP before DAC and have digital in and out from miniDSP? Might depend on which miniDSP and also whether streamer and/or DSAC can do SPDIF in/out as well as USB.
Eliminate miniDSP and use filters in Roon. You could use parametric equaliser or go further and use software like REW / rePhase to generate a convolution filter.
Almost any PC (don’t know what you are runing Core on) will have substantially more processing power than minDSP so more complex filters become possible.
Simplest way is just to try it - take the minDSP out, play around with parametric equaliser in Roon and listen.
It will work and probably will outperform the miniDSP.
You can copy/paste PEQ parameters into Roon. Use procedural EQ if you have different filters between channels. FIR filters can be handled in the convolution engine.
Bonjour,
Thanks for the proposal. I do have a working curve, after room measurement, that I use in the MiniDSP DDRC-24. If I could capture that data and inject it into Roon, it just might be worth a try.
Not sure how/where to copy the target curve data from the MiniDSP software however. Any clue on how/where to do that?
Secondly, on the corrected MiniDSP curve that I’m using, there have been no additional PEQ settings added…it’s all at zero modification or bypassed, so inactive.
Would definitely like to hand this over to Roon and let the Intel i7 hosting roon core do the work…
Unless you are simply using a high pass filter, or you have a Dirac version which, of course, provides a target curve.
The former is easy to replicate with Roon dsp.
The latter, I suspect, will be difficult as I do not think you can export the Dirac target curve. However, I suspect someone will have generated a ‘Dirac’ target curve in a form compatible with Roon.
You mention room measurement. What room measurement software did you use to generate the correction filters that you apply in miniDSP? What filters were generated?
I use REW and this allows room correction filters to be exported as convolution files (.WAV format). These can then be applied using the convolution engine in Roon. This is easier and, in my view, better than trying to use PEQ to apply lots of filters.
Hi Mike,
I used the original Dirac version for MiniDSP and am now using the updated Dirac 2.2.3 version. Measurements were done with a Umik microphone. The slightly tweaked target curve I’ve uploaded to a slot in the MiniDSP is very acceptable. However, if I want to take the MiniDSP out of the signal path (to preserve the DAC’s conversion) I was hoping to re-build or reproduce the MiniDSP room correction in Roon. Looks like it may be a challenge to capture the correct data from a Dirac profile…Unless someone knows of a way to do this. Thanks.
I don’t think that there’s any way of putting the Dirac correction into Roon. Dirac doesn’t have the facility to export a convolution file.
You could, however, use REW software to generate a correction file that could then be used in Roon. There’s a guide to doing this here:
As far as I know Dirac does more than REW because it tries to correct both amplitude and phase. REW only does amplitude correction. It is possible to do phase correction using rePhase software - I am currently experimenting with this.
I did try Dirac (on a limited trial basis) and felt that I could get just as good a result using REW and rePhase.
You could try using REW and then compare Roon / REW Filter with what your Dirac / miniDSP does do decide whether it’s worth changing.
