Hi all, I’m in the market for a new DAC.
I know there’s already a ‘which Dac are you using’ thread but I wanted to ask what DACs people are using specifically with Roon’s DSD512 up-sampling
Some DAC manufacturers (of DACs that I have owned) don’t really recommend up-sampling before their DACs because their DACs (FPGA’s) will up-sample regardless of what happens beforehand, so the DAC is not doing ‘less work’.
Looking forward to reading which DACs people are using with DSD512 up-sampling!
Cheers
Ok I use an OPPO Sonica SDAC3 that under ASIO (Windows 10 Pro) supports DSD512, but have yet to get my processor (i7-7700) to step up to the plate at that DSD rate…working on it though.
Its all working now…was an issue with the DSD Up sampling setting not using Multplecores due to Parallelize Sigma-Delta Modulator set to on 
Hi there,
I would receive by tomorrow a Amare Musica Tube DAC DSD. This DAC is PCM and DSD. If the signal at the entry is DSD then it goes through a passive conversion. If PCM at the entry the signal is converted into DSD through a AKM chip.
As it is based on Amanero the DSD is limited to DSD 128 under Linux…waiting for a potential Amanero upgrade.
Let’s see how it would play.
Lampizator L4G5 balanced recently upgraded to DSD512.
i7-7700k PC/Win10 running Roon + HQPlayer
Since upgrading, the only way (at the moment) for DSD512 playback with the Amanero usb module is by using Windows ASIO driver.
To this end I’m using Tronsmart Ara 5 mini pc with Win10 as an NAA for HQPlayer.
This is being powered (5v 2A) by an Anker battery psu and I am very happy with the sound.
Thanks for sharing all and keep them coming !
And keep us posted with your progress @wizardofoz and @Patatorz
It’s sad I know but this stuff interests me lol
T+A Dac8 DSD with a win 10 pro, i7-6700K with a GeForce 1060 GPU for cuda off loading. Direct connected from PC to Dac thru a AQ Jitterbug and Uptone Regen, soon to be iso regen. Roon-HQP, I can get all filters in HQP EXCEPT the XTR (non2s) to work, even tho CPU core load looks fine I get stuttering with the XTR filters the 2S XTR work fine, tho I prefer MinRingFir and Closed form at the moment at 512.
When I tried Roon up sampling only (no-HQP) my processing speed runs at 2.1x so CPU seems to have the horses to do it in Roon only. Tho I prefer the sound of HQP.
Empty your bankaccount and buy a dCS or a Moon 780 and forget the rest…
I’m using Holo Audio Spring R2R DAC and i5 NUC under Windows 10 with parallelised SDM enabled . It just barely make it at index of 1 when transcode from 44.1k to DSD512, so I will get some shuttering effects at times. I’m considering Intel NUC6i7KYK, a quad core i7, small enough to fit into my Hi-Fi system… Would like to hear anyone using this and their feedbacks.
P.S: By the way, The title ‘DSD512 up-sampling…’ in my opinion is a bit misleading if it is transcode from PCM to DSD. Strictly DSD up-sampling means up-sampling say, DSD64 to DSD512 should sounds correct.
I’ve adjusted the title based on Guys comment and tend to agree it was a bit misleading, but if the OP has a better or preferred I’ll be happy to adjust it.
All good mate ! Yes title is more accurate now - up-sampling any format to DSD 512.
Thanks for that
i7 7700
GTX-970 for CUDA with HQP
Closed-form, AMSDM7+fs
microRendu - NAA
Holo Audio Spring (lvl 2) - NOS setting
Listening to Tidal MQA Masters Playlists at the moment; 48x512.
There is currently a popping issue with native DSD with the mR/Spring. I understand this may be fixed with the SonicOrbiter 2.5 OS and look forward to trying it.
Edit: 17/11/18 The native DSD pop was indeed fixed. Very happy with the Spring but now have the mR into a Matrix Audio X-SPDIF2 which connects to the I2S input of the Spring. Now using the xtr-mp-2s filter in HQP and the DSD7 256fs+ modulator.
Might be interesting for everyone if those that have replied post their CPU and I had assumed that HQP is not included as it’s based on upsampiling in roon? But I could be wrong so if it’s HQP then I guess indicate that too.
Me I’m on an i7-7700 no gpu or HQP and getting around 1.5 X with windows
Interestingly on my i5-4570 iMac with NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M (no idea if that has effect) I am seeing with the same DAC and track processing speeds in the 1.9-2.0X
Still looking at what other things might be going on there but having the new Paralleling SD modulator turned on make a huge difference.
1.5x should be at the safer side to avoid possible shuttering playback. I was looking around 2.x range. Sometimes Windows 10 does Windows Update on the background and some extra buffering is a good idea.
Hopefully, Roon can improve the Parallelized SDM further so conventional i7 can do it without a sweat!
Would be nice to be able to have more info available as to what resources are really being used like number of cores and threads etc within the app.
Some amazing Dacs mentioned here.
On the other end of the price scale, I’m late to this I know, but the iFi iDSD and the Black Label edition.
They handle DSD512 (with no conversion to PCM) and even have a NOS mode for PCM.
iFi Micro iDSD. A most capable DAC.
Unfortunately, my i7 bite the dust. Until I buy a new chip, I am running the core on an i5 Mini, which doesn’t have the necessary horsepower to handle octa-DSD.
My Surface Pro 4 i5 struggles with DSD256 (over PCM) currently 
So seeing which computers people are using to up-sample to DSD512 in Roon is definitely helping me.
Hi,
I’ve bought T+A DAC8 DSD and would like to play it at DSD512 “sweet spot” via HQPlayer or Roon DSP.
However:
DAC8 DSD Sound Quality is quite good at DSD128 but i presume DSD512 is even better.
So what i’m planning to use is:
I’m interested on feedback from others T+A DAC8 DSD owners about their strategy to play DSD512.
FYI future RYZEN 1700 PC build to run Roon and HQPlayer up to DSD512 (+ eventually convolution).
* Case: FRACTAL DESIGN NODE 804
* Gamer Mobo: ASUS PRIME B350M or GIGABYTE GA-AB350M-GAMING 3
* Modular PSU: SEASONIC PRIME 80 PLUS Gold 650W (to allow future GPU powering if needed)
* SSD (OS, Roon, HQP): SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2 512 Go (very fast to deal with big Roon database)
* CPU: AMD RYSEN 1700 (8 core, 16 thread, 3 Ghz)
* GPU: MSI GT710 (eventually replaced with NVIDIA GTX 1080 for CUDA offload if more power needed from HQP )
* RAM: G.Skill F4-3200C14D-16GFX - 16Go
* OS: WINDOWS 10 64 pro
Are you really sure that more threads is better for the workload than higher single thread performance with fever cores?
If the answer is yes then Ryzen is a good plan but if it is no or maybe then a better plan would be to consider a i5 7600K and overclock it to 5Gh.
And if you are planning to use a very fast GPU do you then need the fastest CPU?
You don’t need the fastest M.2 SSD drive to get really good Roon performance. The only benefit you get from the 960 PRO is knowing that you have the very best not better performance with Roon compared to some of the other inferior in benchmarks M.2 drives. The 960 EVO would still be overkill.
Not sure at all, but some feedbacks and metrics from @jussi_laako (HQPlayer father) and others show RYZEN 1700 very good price / perfs. R1700 is 8 cores and with HQP (and perhaps Roon DSP) that’s matter. You think 4 cores 7600K would be better if OverClocked ?
[quote=“Rune, post:19, topic:24852, full:true”]
And if you are planning to use a very fast GPU do you then need the fastest CPU?[/quote]
I hope not to have to use fast GPU but only if needed in the future.
OK, good advice ! 960 Pro M2 SSD very expensive and if no better performance with Roon database, overkill.