It’s been noted with several users of Denafrips Dacs that the I know that AES bests the USB input but the I2S is still the best one. I say different rather than better but all sounded listenable to me.
Really the only way is to try and see for yourself the results - what you might like might not be preferred by others. Maybe you can’t even determine a difference or if there is one that sounds nicer or better or just different.
Trust your own ears - and your own brain for all these things…even MQA etc or formats and data rates…you have to assess yourself what really floats your boat.
I can’t honestly say I have heard any reasonable setup that in isolation is so bad I cant enjoy the music - and really that’s what we are all supposed to be doing - enjoying the music - not the gear so much.
When you start playing systems side by side by all means try to evaluate what sounds best to you and run with that, and where you have options you can have in place permanently like AES/USB/COAX at the flick of a switch/input count yourselves lucky to be able to find an option that works better than another…many systems wont give you that luxury.
Leedh sounds fine to me…so does MQA or not MQA for that matter…I have more issues with loudness wars than I do with codecs and DSP based resampling or volume levels.
Yes, I trust my ears. I only ask out of curiosity. As I mentioned in previous posts, I am surprised that I can hear a difference and that the difference (in my fully digital chain all the way to the speakers) is obvious. Whether I prefer AES/EBU over USB I think depends on the quality of the recording. With respect to the loudness war you mention and the abundance of compressed harsh sounding recordings, going over USB makes a bit of a nice tone control though…
I have detected a possible problem with the Leedh volume control during comparison of the volume control in my new MiniDSP SHD Studio and the Leedh control. I have been changing between attenuated volume in the SHD Studio and full volume in the U1 Mini and vice versa. When changing to the later state (attenuated volume in the U1 Mini) and then pressing play it has happened several times that for a split second max volume goes to the speakers and then by it self adjusts to a lower level. I think that this phenomenon is related to my observation that sometimes when adjusting the volume in the U1 Mini, the slider starts jumping back an forth (seemingly radomly) before settle.
This happened in a beta version of the LEEDH implementation with switching between Spotify and Roon and back, but Peter was able to fix this for the public version.
I got an answer in my mail box (from Peter) that I for some reason cannot see in this thread. Anyone know why (does not seem to be a private message, just the same as I get other times when someone answer)?
In any case Peter, unfortunately I don’t remember now, but I think it was with USB the volume problem occurred. I have the AES/EBU cable connected when playing USB, if that is useful information. I think I read your comment in some forum (perhaps this) that other digital will not work if USB is connected to a DAC. Apparently that is not the case when USB is connected to a digital format converter like the MiniDSP SHD Studio.
I just remember that I have had similar problems before I got the SHD Studio and played to my Benchmark DAC over S/PDIF. That is, after adjusting the volume the slider sometimes (usually after a large change in volume) moved randomly back and forth.
I have been trying Leedh Processing with my D2 and Mcintosh MA252
May be I am doing something wrong, but SQ is MUCH better without Leedh processing.
I have checked with Mcintosh the unity gain level (its 75%), turned Volume control ON in Lumin and turned Leed processing volume ON. While sound became a little bit more transparent, bass has disappeared, and the warmness and “Mac” sound just disappeared as well.
Time for an update. Surprisingly, after a very long break-in period (over three weeks) with the system also playing over-night things has changed completely. Playing over AES/EBU from the Lumini U1 Mini now sounds very, very good. Gone is the “digital” dry and slightly harsh sound and it just sounds correct. Again, my signal chain is Lumin U1 Mini → AES/EBU → MiniDSP SHD Studio → AES/EBU → Dutch & Dutch 8C. The AES/EBU cables are Mogami 3080. These “pro”-cables are an absolute steal. Costs a tiny fraction of traditional hifi-cables and are absolutely neutral and transparent. I can see why upper-end recording studios use them.
Furthermore, while I have not had time to critically compare the Leedh volume in the U1 Mini with the volume control in the SHD Studio (a 32-bit floating point SHARC processor manage the volume) I can say that I now use the volume control in the SHD Studio. It seems to be very good. I am not saying that it is better than the Leedh volume (need more time to compare), but it is definitely good enough so that the practicality of using only one volume control for different sources greatly overweight any difference between the Leedh control and that in the SHD Studio.
I have a beta firmware that may have a minor improvement for those using AES / BNC / coaxial / toslink (i.e. not USB) output especially when using Leedh Processing Volume. PM me if you like to try it.
