DAC vs EQ

[FrantzM]

I did some reading on the minidsp. This piece of equipment is very interesting and complicated. I would might be getting in over my head. Maybe after more reading I gain comfort with setting it up and programmed. For now I’m going go the E30 Dac. Thanks everyone.

Hi

Getting ino EQ is never easy. Requires some knowledge thus research. miniDSP is actually a very straightforward way to EQ. Dirac is not for th faint of heart but is potentially a better solution. Start small:
Get the miniDSP 2x4 HD.
Work/Play with it for a few months (yes, months).
Download REW (free) (if you have loudspeakers)
get a UMIK-1(if you have loudspeakers)
Get the Dirac plug-in which transform into the DDRC-24

What you are trying to do is not plug and play. Great results in Audio are seldom so.

Happy New Year

Peace

 

[Killingbeans]

If you just want DAC and some EQ in one box, there's the RME ADI-2 DAC.

 

[tvrgeek]

I found it informative to listen to some Y-Tubes from sound engineers on what they are listing for and changing in a mix.
You can load something like EQ APO on your PC and play around with either parametric or 1/3 octave EQ. ( cool, you can even change target frequencies and Q so the graphic EQ is really a parametric! Thus you can learn what you want to fix.

 

[Gotbanjo]

We’ve come full circle. I agree that stepping up to an E30 will not improve the sound significantly which is why I am considering a Schiit Loki EQ. This way I can tweak the sound to improve or mask the iFi Dac shortcomings. As said earlier, a DAC and an EQ solve different problems. Now that I say it, I will start with a Loki and take your advice and maybe add a Schiit Modi DAC later. I do like my Bifrost in my other system.

 

[tvrgeek]

The Loki and the big brother will do fine for big general slopes like rolling off the top end, but they will NOT have the resolution to correct specific room issues or the errors common in many recordings. I find I need parametric or 1/3 octave for that. If you take Loki and drop the upper-mid, you may reduce the harshness, but the overall image may recede. Room treatments, if possible are really the place to start. If a studio or HT, no excuse, If a living room, that gets a lot harder. If the Lokius had a band centered on 3000, I would probably buy one myself.

 

[Gotbanjo]

I read some on the RME ADI-2 DAC. Interesting device. I like to keep the cost of each component commensurate with every other piece. Having one component that is significantly better doesn’t work. A system is only as good as weakest link. I would prefer to keep it simple as possible and listen to the music and not the system, if that makes sense

 

[Gotbanjo]

The folks who have contributed to this thread are really educated on perfecting music sound quality. I appreciate that you have shared so much. You are way ahead of me. I’m going reread this thread a couple times and do more to educate myself.
thank you

 

[Jimbob54]

Need some advice. I am a frugal audiophile, finding bang for my buck is fun. So, I use an iFi Zen Blue as a source for my Reisong A10 integrated amp. To make it sound a better I am weighing two options. Route the Blue into a Topping E30 via Toslink then to the A10. Or route the Blue with RCA interconnects to a Schiit Loki, then to the A10. With the Loki I can tweak the sound in a way that I can’t with the E30. Or, use both the E30 and Loki. Suggestions welcome.

What's your source device and player. Local files or streaming? Which streaming service if the latter?

 

[mudy]

We’ve come full circle. I agree that stepping up to an E30 will not improve the sound significantly which is why I am considering a Schiit Loki EQ. This way I can tweak the sound to improve or mask the iFi Dac shortcomings. As said earlier, a DAC and an EQ solve different problems. Now that I say it, I will start with a Loki and take your advice and maybe add a Schiit Modi DAC later. I do like my Bifrost in my other system.

In my setup, I feel e30 sounds much cleaner than blue by itself. I am not sure the difference is due to frequency response difference or DAC itself. I also have the RME which works great with zen blue as well but I think it’s overkill for playing Bluetooth source. I haven’t used e30 lately because the click sound when switching rate is annoying.

 

[tvrgeek]

True. So true. So, pay attention to eq and your speakers. Ignore cost, look at performance. If you spring for a pair of the top line Wilsons or Martin Logans, your weakest link is still the speakers. Second biggest link is the source material.

Will you hear the difference between the $1200 RME and a $109 Adam+? I doubt it. Some may with $5000 headphones. With my over revealing Grados, I could just barely make out the difference between Schiit and Topping. Not through my speakers, which if I say so myself, are very good. (Mine) My interest in the more expensive SCHIIT is more of the USB improvements. If I looked at another Chinese DAC it would be the Gustard. What I am looking at now is Amazon CDs. More music. I really could care less if a DAC does 192K 32 bits as I am not in a recording studio. Do I care if the SINAD is 114 or 115? Nope. Do I care about DSD? Nope, can't afford it. MQA? Nope, sounds bad anyway. I do want to get have 48/24 capability. That level we can hear. I am still more interested in the Bifrost. But for the price of a Bifrost, I could get some very nice drivers and see if I can outdo my old Seas jobs. For the price of the RME, I could get some really killer tweeters!

Of course, we all love a new bit if kit. Makes us feel good. Just sold several pieces of "upgrades" on Craig's list. As far as ego and price, I learned how to break that. ( Old codger who does not care what you think) so I can clearly say, the Topping is better, but I can't hear it. So it's not an upgrade. The old amp is way better and I can hear it. New one selling on the WEB. I have heard about a dozen sets of speakers recently. Only one pair that was over 5K was better. Not 5K better. Now some 10K speakers are getting really nice. Most of them under 3K were clearly worse. Revel was the only contender, though there are hundreds of speaker brands.

 

[tvrgeek]

In my setup, I feel e30 sounds much cleaner than blue by itself. I am not sure the difference is due to frequency response difference or DAC itself. I also have the RME which works great with zen blue as well but I think it’s overkill for playing Bluetooth source. I haven’t used e30 lately because the click sound when switching rate is annoying.

It won't be frequency response. They both will be less than half a dB 20 to 20.

 

[Gotbanjo]

I stream Tidal HIFI on my iPad and Bluetooth to the iFi zen blue and dac. I get better resolution on my other system where I run Volumio on RPi with an Ethernet connection and route via Toslink to a bifrost multibit.