Or previous owner already did the update?
Worth checking before bricking 
Sure, but likely only if the previous owner is HQPlayer user though.
Bricking is of course risk, like happened to my D300.
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True. It wasn’t a firmware I downloaded, it was the XMOS drivers for windows. Installed that this morning & now it works with DSD512 on my PC and DSD256 on my Mac Mini.
My Mac Mini has a heart attack if I try poly-sinc-short-mp (which I have seen ppl rec for prog rock) even at DSD128. So I guess I might be better evaluating on PC which will do it at DSD512.
Just got to decide whether to stay with that or still go ahead with NAA so I don’t have to worry about noise in usb input from PC/Graphics card etc.
That D-6 is very cute, it’s tiny.
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You can try with lighter poly-sinc-short-mp-2s. It is very close the same, but much lighter to process.
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NAA is ideal for HQPlayer.
But if you also use the DAC for other PC audio, a USB isolator like Intona is a great solution, to have between noisy PC and USB DAC.
OK, thanks, I’ll give it a go.
That’s a huge difference - handles poly-sinc-short-mp-2s easily, even at DSD256.
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Only using DAC for music & NAA sounds more elegant/flexible so might go that way.
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I have a Topping D10S that supposedly supports DSD256 Native and DSD128 Dop - I am thinking of adding a Mac Mini for Hqplayer – But I read somewhere about a problem with DSD on the Topping D10s. That is too bad because this seems like a good low priced option to me. Does anyone have thoughts or suggestions?
Thought I’d drop in here to recommend the Audio-gd R2R DACs, which have an improved DSD ladder in them. The latest v3 modulators in HQPlayer are a very good match with them, as well as various PCM filters when the DAC is set to NOS mode.
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If you like to run HQPlayer on Mac Mini and use that DAC with native DSD, solution is to use a suitable Linux based NAA. Raspberry Pi4 is among the least expensive options for doing that and I provide a full microSD card OS image for the purpose. So it is easy to set up.
Do you have some more information which models have such improved DSD ladder? I could consider getting one for testing.
Stereophile reviewed thr R7HE MK3 Mk2 last year and there is Mk3 now:
http://www.audio-gd.com/HE/R7HEMK3/R7HE_MK3EN.htm
Looks like R-27HE and R-27RE have similar D to A design too.
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I think it was some time back with one of his upgrades that it mentioned improved performance from the DSD ladder, so any of his current designs that use the R7 boards at least would have it. The cheapest at present is the R1NOS.
It’d be great if you could test one of his DACs and recommend ideal filters and settings for it. The R-27HE was what I was using when I noticed the improvements with the v3 modulators.
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I changed my iFi NEO iDSD to NEO iDSD 2. At least there is much more power in the headphone and line outputs. At the same time I changed iFi Power Elite 5v - Elite 12v. It feels and sounds like a good exchange.
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Oh they updated the unit? Interesting.
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I also bought Meze Audio 109 Pros after the new dac. You have to burn in for a few hours, but it sounds interesting already!
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SMSL have new AKM 4499EX DACs out at the moment. Maybe one of them is actually great with DSD256 
! All support DSD Direct (you can confirm in the user manual).
And a new ROHM DAC
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