Show us your signal path

[Magnus]

Nowadays mine is small and neat but sounds better than before.

[Henry_McLeod (Henry)]

The arrival of my latest DAC has resulted in the shortest signal path yet. The first time I have preferred an unmolested signal path.

[Henning]

Since I’m still relatively new to Roon I’d like to ask if there is anything to improve in my signal path.

Please don’t tell me to buy the H590 or to not use Tidal because of MQA😂

Would it make sense to do anything to the MQA processing? Like deactivating it in Roon?

Sometimes I use Volume Leveling DSP because I often listen to playlists where volume is all over the place. So there it comes in really handy. (Not active in this screenshot)

[Henry_McLeod (Henry)]

No. Roon is doing what it needs to do, which is to pass the MQA file to the Hegel bit perfect. The Hegel is then treating the MQA signal correctly. If this was school you’d get an A!

[Arlen]

@Henning

if there is anything to improve in my signal path

Fellow H390 user here… I have a room correction convolution filter made by Home Audio Fidelity, and this made a tremendous positive effect on the sound in my room. Relatively cheap (about 200 euros for a MiniDSP microphone and the convolution files themselves).

[Baker]

[Rockhound]

Buy a Lumin T2 to bypass the Hegel’s DAC, and let the Hegel’s analog section really shine - the improvement in SQ is quite dramatic (admittedly not a cheap option) - IMHO a better investment than the H590. The T2 also handles MQA processing extremely well. Also, I never use volume leveling, although I get the convenience factor - it sounds unnatural to me.

[killdozer (Brutalise me with music)]

Long and “lossy”.

[AceRimmer (Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)]

Short and very sweet😎

[Henry_McLeod (Henry)]

[Jazzfan_NJ (Listening to JAZZ since 1972!)]

Does ALSA (last step in many signal paths) stand for: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture? If not, then what it stand for?

[AceRimmer (Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)]

AlsaProject (alsa-project.org)

[AceRimmer (Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)]

So…yes…lol

[BeersOnMe (New Haven, CT, USA)]

A Dragonfly DAC is definitely on my Xmas list this year

[UliR (Uli)]

Here is mine, from my main system.

[UliR (Uli)]

I use a DragonFly Cobalt for mobile listening. Superb thing! But good to know (from the AudioQuest site):

“DragonFly will play music or audio data at sample rates of 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, or 96kHz.”

96kHz native resolution are therefore the maximum for this small unit. It has never bothered me so far, I can really recommend it.

Possibly an alternative: Pro-Ject DAC Box E mobile (up to 32bit and 192kHz).

[Tian_Liu]

1. Paul Anka - Apple Lossless local file from CD rip

2. a-ha - Tidal CD quality streaming

3. Simple Minds - Tidal CD quality streaming

[Henry_McLeod (Henry)]

What hardware are you streaming to?

[ericafterdark (dark and moody)]

LOL!

[Tian_Liu]

I use the good old Apple AirPort Express as wireless streamer; it’s the little white vertical box with green light in the left photo; mini-optical out to PSA DAC/PreAmp, the audio component on the top.