Decision to make for a large audio setup under the roof

[MEGB1262]

Dear Forum participants,

i am uncertain with an upgrade from the actual miniDSP Flex8 DL to some better hardware with higher sampling rate for the DRC processing that is limited to 48 kHz with the actual device

here is a picture of the speakers, designed in the spirit of the great studio monitors of the 1970s

these monitors are merciless and expose every weakness in the playback chain

A ) miniDSP SHD Studio
B ) Mac Mini with Dirac software and a serious audio interface, i have Hypex plate amps that could be fed directly from the SHD Studio digital output, but for the two subs i would need an additional stereo audio interface or additional Hypex plate amps instead of my PA power amps

any thoughts?

actually i'm running my Roon Server on an 10 years old Dell Latitude E5550 notebook that could stop working already tomorrow
for B ) i could host the Roon server on the Mac Mini too

many thanks in advance for your comments and kind regards,
Stefano

 

[DVDdoug]

to some better hardware with higher sampling rate for the DRC processing that is limited to 48 kHz

any thoughts?

44.1kHz ("CD quality") is generally better than human hearing, and that includes "processing". There is a myth that processing can work better at higher resolution and in some cases that MIGHT be true for the bit-depth but not the sample rate.

It's certainly worth down-sampling to 48kHz if the DSP is improving the sound!!! Unless you are doing something super-subtle with DSP the DSP will have a far-far bigger impact than down-sampling .

 

[MEGB1262]

Hello @DVDdoug , many thanks for the quick reply!

This is the first question, do i need an upgrade at all, we are talking here about 1500 EUR investment minimum for the miniDSP SHD Studio and the audio interface for the two subwoofer

indeed i would use the miniDSP Flex 8 DL im the home office listening room where i have only a DDRC-24 device running where i can hear some imperfection

so far - so good, Stefano

 

[MEGB1262]

switched to the miniDSP Flex8DL under the roof

i switched to this one in the home office

audio device A ) miniDSP DDRC-24
audio device B ) miniDSP 2X4HD

configured as one group with Roon as audio streaming software

the interesting thing has been to determine for which part
A ) full range drive unit with front horn and super tweeter
B ) ripole mono sub and left / right kick bass
to use the DL DRC ( Dirac Live Digital Room Correction )

for me it turned out that to adopt the DL DRC for FR drive unit and tweeter makes the sound even worse than better
may be this is the cheap DDRC-24 audio device - i am not sure

so i tried the other way around and used the audio device with DL DRC for ripole sub and left / right kick bass, looks like this way around it is working fine, with some improvement in the bass precision in the room

so far - so good, Stefano