When playback NativeDSD or HQplayers' DSD512, R2R ladder (Holo spring dac) vs pure 1 bit converter (T+A DAC8 DSD), which is genuine?

I agree. Any NOS dac will benefit from HQplayer. Either R2R or SDM dac (good example: exasound, since exasound doesn’t put any hardware for upsampling)

But the difference is HQplayer’s upsampling setting has two sections, one for PCM, the other for SDM.

For R2R, users should pick the PCM upsampling section while for SDM DAC, pick the SDM setting part.

I have no idea how your Holo spring will perform under those two, since it’s a little bit hybrid DAC.

For R2R dac like ROCKNA dreamwave, using SDM upsampling to its DSD512 is meaningless, this can be also proved by some users’ experience. HQplayers’ SDM upsampling doesn’t give any bonus to Rockna compared to HQplayer PCM’s upsampling.

If I’m correct, this “no SQ effect” DSD512 is because Rockna uses FPGA for the processing. So instead of saying DSD512 feature on this R2R dac is a plus, I would prefer to consider it’s just a marketing trick let consumers think it can support all the formats on the market so far.

No idea of your holo spring since it might have a dedicated DSD resistor array for DSD procesing.

Anyway, looking forward to the big educational moment from Jussi. :slight_smile:

Yes, if the DAC already built-in FPGA processing, such like PS Audio DirectStream DAC. It actually convert all inputs whether PCM or DSD and up sampled to ‘high speed DSD’ then this is fed to their customed designed ‘1-bit converter’. Now if you doing HQP in the source, your effectiveness is now limited by the FPGA processing of DAC. That may explain there’s little SQ effect here.

What we want is to do HQP at the source (up sampling, digital filters) and fed directly to a digital to analog conversion stage, whether it can be R2R or SDM. Simply put it this way, we want to do all processing in software level, conversion from digital to analog is done by the hardware.

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I’m upsampling Redbook to DSD 512 into the Holo Audio Spring using HQP with native DSD. It sounds great. Jussi uses SDM as a term, not a prescription. I’ve never seen him say that R2R can’t or shouldn’t be used with SDM settings.

I’m looking at the T+A DAC 8 DSD and one day up sampling to DSD512 but having to build or buy a good computer is holding me back since I have to do more research

For curiosity what computer do you use @andybob ? Self made or off the self?

Thanks!

The reason it sounds good because your holo spring dac possibly has a resistor array which is not R2R strictly speaking, but a DSD one similar to Jussi’s DSC1.

If you check CA, Jussi mentioned hundreds of times that it’s pointless for R2R to playback his HQplayer DSD512

I just recently asked him on HQplayer thread, please have a look.

Post 7793:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/hq-player-20293/index312.html

As I said, some Rockna wavedream users I know feel no difference in terms of DSD512 compare to DSD64, 128,256, or even think PCM sound is better than DSD512.

So for pure R2R dac, using SDM setting will be also pointless. Because for a R2R dac, in order to support DSD512, most of them using FPGA.

However, Holo spring dac is an exception since its resistor array might be dedicated for DSD (I’m just guessing), but is this hybrid architecture performs equivalent in DSD512 to some dedicated pure-1 bit converter DAC? That’s the question to be answered. That’s why I’m waiting for Ted_b’s review on CA.

Some serious R2R dac won’t support DSD to be honest, do you find Metrum support DSD? No.

As I said, for R2R dac, either we can understand DSD support is a plus feature or meaningless marketing trick.

Self made:

CoolerMaster Elite 110 mini ITX case
i7 7700
ASRock H270M ITX
8Gb GSkill 2133 RAM
256Gb Samsung M.2 960 EVO
Gigabyte GTX-970 ITX
Corsair SF600 PSU

Music files on a 1Tb Samsung EVO 840.

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Thanks, @andybob. Gives me real world components I can research about. Did wonder though if that computer is quiet?

Hey,

I think my case is a good example for you as reference, because my hardware is on the edge but still can upsample everyting to DSD512.

Jussi will recommend you i7 7700K for stero-channel and i7 6950X for mutlti-channel.

My case:

CPU: i7 3770
GPU: GTX 780

I need to turn on pipeline SDM, CUDA offload, auto rate family check, 24576000 sampling rate, modulator:ASDM7, filter: Poly-sinc-2s

Then DSD512 can be played smoothly.

But I do think uncheck auto sampling rate, ASDM7 512+FS modulator, Poly-sinc (without-2s) will improve the sound further.

I will build a dedicated PC with powerful GPU and CPU in the future, at the moment, I’m just squeezing my old PC unitl its wasted. :slight_smile:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/blogs/miska/building-new-server-multichannel-processing-702/

Also, check Jussi’s advice.

No it’s not quiet. That’s why it’s in a closet in another room connected by Ethernet to a microRendu, which is silent.

Yes I see.

The Holo Audio Spring had 4 resistor networks. Two handle PCM and are R2R. Two handle DSD in a similar fashion to Jussi’s SC-1. Within each group one network performs the processing and the second is used to correct linearity.

The surface mount PCB with the resistor networks is double sided, repeating on the underside:

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Interesting, So mircrorendu supports DSD512 in Holo spring DAC?

For T+A users, Amanero drivers of microrendu still cannot support T+A’'s DSD512.

So I have no chance to use the mighty microrendu but Intona+Uptone regendu instead.

Well done, the picture you upload is valuable for Jussi to make further comment :slight_smile:

Guess he is more active on CA :wink:

Yes. Using the NAA app. Both native DSD and DoP. I’ve been listening to native, but it’s important to mute the pre-amp before pressing Play, nasty pop at volume.

Wow! Now I’ve more reason to up grade my Zotac i5 fan-less Mini PC to a more powerful ones. I was thinking of this:

Not sure it is up to its task to up sample to DSD256 or even DSD512 from Redbook?

The loud ‘pop loud’ seemed to happen when Holo Spring is used in Linux OS, I read from Computer Audiophile, but Windows with the Holo Spring driver shouldn’t have any loud pop, probably some low level clicks when switch tracks.

If I turn off CUDA I get some pops with the i7 7700 alone. CUDA makes all the difference, so a case with a slot made sense for me.

I’m not sure about Rockna wavedream DAC, there’s no mention in the website that they can do direct DSD conversion in the R2R converter. Is there’s a possibility that Rockna convert DSD to PCM to the the R2R ladder DAC? If there’s the case, there will be little SQ difference between different DSD sampling rate. Again this is just speculation but it will best to ask Rockna directly.

What is CUDA? It is some kind of hardware accelerator?

I can confirm that Rockna uses FPGA and cannot do direct DSD512

(since it is mentioned by someone on some thread in China, the person sounds like an technician-ish guy connected to Rockna)

There are even some nasty commercial review regarding Rockna vs Holo spring dac on Chinese Hifi thread. (Better not discuss it further, becasue it’s quite sensitive)

That’s why I tell you this is a typical example of meaningless DSD512 on R2R dac. Because in practice, DSD512 brings no SQ improvement.

There is no DSD512 recording, so upsampling is the only way to get DSD512, but does no-SQ-improvment DSD512 is the purpose from HQplayer? I don’t think so.

CUDA offload, is a feature when your CPU is not powerful enough, by using the Nvidia graphic card’s CUDA floating point to ease the load from CPU.

So in my case, i7 3770 cannot run DSD512 alone but with the help of my graphic GTX 780 which has CUDA feature, can smoothly run the DSD512.

Thanks @Wei_Xia1, looks like I need to build a custom designed PC with i7 and Nvidia GTX-780 graphic card to do DSD512. This is going to be tough. Any off selves ready made PCs that may contain the above components that I can purchase directly?

Sound gallries SGM is a beast audio PC for T+A DSD512, but for that price, I’m not going to pay for it even my wallet is heathy enough. It’s just my personal opinion or my personal attitude towards what kind of things I should splash out or not.

GTX 780 is not good enough I’m afraid, flagship serious double-precision graphic card like Titan is a good choice. But please note that HQplayer relys on CPU more than GPU, so a powerful CPU is crucial. (Jussi is a nice person, mentioned the setup lots of times since so many users ask him the same questions from time to time)

The Noise from the fan is also a factor to consider, CPU water cooling system or low-speed, low noise CPU cooling fan is the way to go.

Check the link of Jussi’s recommendation.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/blogs/miska/building-new-server-multichannel-processing-702/