I know this is like swearing in church, but NOS does sound pretty cozy and nice on the Holo Audio Spring 3. Less technical perfect, sure, but suitable when working and not listening fully actively.
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@jussi_laako Damn, your software keeps surprising me. My love affair with Sinc-L and Sinc-M seems to be over for good now because of that Gauss-Long and Gauss-Hires-Lp combo (to be fair, I havenāt experimented with the other Gauss ones). You were right - what it does to the placement of sounds and their separation (especially in depth perception) is clearly superior to the other filters I have tested.
But what has been a game-changer now is using this filter in DSD. Things got way more 3D and the sound is āmeatierā/fuller/less harsh/less ādigitalā/closer to real life. Am I right in thinking that this would be because a Delta-Sigma DAC like my Gus 26 Pro can never ideally reproduce all 16 bits (approximating most of them) but it can āperfectlyā reproduce the 1-bit DSD files? Is my understanding correct that a proper R2R DAC could squeeze the most out of upsampled 16-bit PCM but a DAC like the Gus will do better being fed DSD?
Just to confirm, did you have the PCM Gain Compensation set to -6 dB in HQPlayer? So that both are equal volume. So that PCM is not just 6 dB louder than DSD and would just seem to sound better because it is louder. This value is specific to Holo Audio DACs (each DAC tends to have different level ratio).
DAC Bits set to 20?
Yes and no, depending on how you look at it.
I have established what I consider most optimal for Spring3/May from multiple aspects, for a lot of content. But you may of course prefer something else and it is completely fine. Especially choice of filter is particularly personal and also depending on the source content (genre, etc).
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Since it is ESS-based, with DSD inputs, it does less processing work in itās on-chip DSP. So you get more straight through to the conversion stage.
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Yes, (in previous posts on several forums you are clear about this.)
That doesnāt seem possible. 16 bit is the maximum setting for 1.4112M. 18 bit also isnāt working. Sound from the speakers is just some gibberish. 20 bit is working with 705.6k.
Donāt know why i cannot use 20 bit at 1.4122M. Any ideas?
That is the beauty of your software: choice and playing with different settings. But eventually i think most will settle with a favourite setting.
Possibly, but I have trouble holding all the different contexts in my head, especially across different forums.
You are or macOS? Or Linux, but not with my custom kernel? It should work fine with my custom kernel on Linux (or HQPlayer OS). Or with the Windows drivers. Assuming Intel USB controllerā¦
But 16-bit is fine at those rates as well. As long as it is not more than 20 bits.
I use mac mini 2018 i7 with MacOS 10.15.7 Catalina.
The mac is connected to an Innuos PhoenixUSB reclocker and then to the spring 3. (the holo has nice USB filtering also, but had this from my previous setup)
I know 16 bit is enough. It all sounds very good. Iām just a bit concerned something is wrong or fault with my dac.
Thatās the reason thenā¦
Although these kind of intermediate devices could also cause such limitations depending on their implementation.
No, nothing wrong with your DAC. The behaviour you get is expected.
I was wondering how youād manage.
I think your level of support is simply amazing. Thank you.
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Jussi,
I have been meaning to ask for a whileā¦why do you not label the gain compensation box in the UI:
Thanks!
Thereās no spaceā¦ That screenshot is from macOS where thereās no CUDA offload checkbox visible. But thereās the mouse hover hint that appears when you leave mouse pointer on top of the control. Same for the other controls too.
I would need to redesign the dialog. Or just accept that it is scrollable (almost) always, something that Iāve been planning to do. So far the idea has been that the dialog would fit in most cases to 1080p resolution display that is using 1:1 scaling.
Eventually I need to redesign the whole thing. Iām not particularly happy with it the way it is right now.
I discovered DSD5 & DSD5v2 sounding really nice at 1024 using poly sinc short mp 2s with 5v2 sounding more sub bassy and after a while more fatiguing.
Is there anything inferior with those modulators compared to EC and others at lower rates or is it possible that 1024 sounds really well even with the more primitive modulators?
Alternatively, tonight I discovered ASDM5EC 1024 and closed form fast is hitting the spot.
Increasing rate already makes the performance better, as is. If you just look at the raw output data.
But it also depends on the DAC which ways the performance is affected when rate is increased. Overall performance usually increases until a specific sweet spot. And then beyond that it is more like balancing between different aspects rather than everything getting better across the board.
At equal rates, EC is always objectively better. But sometimes if you cannot get higher rate with EC anymore, you can still gain desirable results with a non-EC modulator using even higher rate.
P.S. There is also DSD5EC which is the simplest EC modulator. ASDM5EC is the next step from there. Difference between EC and ECv2 is rather small compared to difference between non-EC and EC.
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So, reading this should I change from 7-nonEC to 5-EC?
Im still working on my config, Ive been trying with 48k DSD selected on my akm4499, and it works. Should I let this option enabled? The bitrate should be changed to 48k256 right?
This is how I seem to figure out what filters and modulators are fit for me, listening fatigue.
It seems to me that the xtr filters bother me and yesterday, I had the DSD5v2 modulator running all day. Eventually, I had to stop it, ear fatigue.
I canāt easily tell the difference between the filters/modulators right away, itās not obvious to me. Long term listening is my way to find out.
As I mentioned previously in this thread, I always come back to:
gauss-long or gauss-hires-lp / ASDM7ECv2 or 5ECv2 / SDM 256 or 512 depending on cpu ability.
Those combos are simply comfortable to me.
I think each person will eventually have to try different combos till they reach their nirvana.
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Up to you, but it is one option.
Also check if it plays at correct speed. Best is to check with precise enough spectrum analyzer that 1 kHz tone is at 1 kHz. Some DACs play sound, but at 44.1k clock still, so giving wrong speed.
Yes, thatās correct.
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Well, this is my setup with K9pro (AKM 4499) and i5 6600k + 1080GTX
CPU is around 70% and GPU only 18% (would like to get more load on it)
Really like the sound, im gonna enjoy it for a few weeksā¦ maybe Ill get the software soon
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This is the way
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Using Sinc-L, AMSDM7EC 512+fs, SDM, DSD512
For DSD to DSD I am using CIC/XFI = DSD512
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Hello, can you recommend any PCM filter and other settings, that works the best with headphones?
Thanks