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I auditioned Dutch & Dutch 8c, and I have more questions now than before

They are doing a lot of things right.
As a 8c owner, I am strongly biased, but the way Dutch&Dutch has been backing up the product and how they are interacting with the user community is nothing short of extraordinary.

On Martinjs recommendation, I added a small cheap yamaha streamer for third party connectivity, lyrion, volume knob, wifi and multiroom. Works very well. Will probably replace this with a Wiim Ultra just to get HDMI ARC.

I think it speaks volumes that the company isn't shaming anybody for using a cheap streamer but actually recommending it. There is no audiopholery and snobbishness going on. Zero snakeoil, only physics in the marketing. This is a company in the spirit of ASR.

The problem with this approach is that most people that are willing to pay so much money for a speaker are old men with hearing aids and strong opinions. I am happy that companies like D&D are not tempted to use typical audiophile marketing.

I hate that I probably have become a fanboy, but I am a happy listener.
 
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Thanks, everyone, for contributing to this thread. I am still trying to understand the signal chain for my use case.

Is it possible to: (1) stream Tidal Connect direct to the 8c using just a mobile device and LAN connection; (2) connect an analog source with volume control via XLR inputs; (3) control the streaming volume via Ascend app; and, (4) switch 8c input - LAN or XLR - via Ascend?

If the answer to any of the above is “no” then it would be helpful for me to understand what I’m missing (e.g., Do I need a dedicated network player to stream Tidal Connect? Or, does the 8c/Ascend combo not allow digital/analog input selection?)

Many thanks!
 
At the moment only Roon and Spotify connect can be streamed directly ( just a device and the speakers LAN connection) although I believe Martijn mentioned just recently that they were working with other sources.
Ascend does everything, volume attenuation and input selection.
Roon/Spotify goes into the rj45 connectors, analogue source into the XLRs which have been set to ‘analogue’ via the app or rear of the speaker.
Keith
 
In an iEar interview Martijn said they are working on TIDAL and Qobuz. Would to be released this year according to that interview, but my guess would be next year. They probably want that ready for the 6c release I guess.
 
Didn’t he also recently state that ‘sub out’ firmware would be implemented by next year?
Keith
 
It was this post. I don't know how to link to a post soz...

Yeah, I hear you. Who wouldn’t want a lower price? That said, the 8c is expensive to produce. When you consider what you’re getting, it’s a fair price. In fact, many of our hi-fi customers switched to the 8c from much more expensive and complex setups. Surprisingly, not only did they simplify their systems, but in most cases, they also noticed an improvement in sound quality. Therefore, depending on your perspective, you could even argue it offers great value for money.



Latency isn't an issue here. In low-latency mode, it's around 3 milliseconds, about the same time it takes sound to travel one meter through air. In linear-phase mode, it's about 30 ms, but that's expected if you want 4th order crossovers and flat phase response. The crossover filters cause some frequencies to be delayed relative to others. The phase-linearization filter simply delays all frequencies equally, so they align perfectly in time.

The internal DSP computation time is negligible. Most of the 3 ms delay comes from the ADC and DAC.




I get where this "beef" is coming from. The 8c does have a subwoofer output, but the setup interface still isn’t developed yet, as other features have taken priority. That said, I’m curious: what other speakers are you comparing it to that do offer a fully configurable subwoofer output? There are very few out there, if any.

Alright, you’ve heard it here first: this particular issue will be resolved in 2025.



Sounds like we need to clear up the fog. What is unclear about it? Perhaps I can help lift the haze.



I agree in principle. I’ve done plenty of ABX blind tests comparing Spotify's 320 kbps Ogg Vorbis to lossless. When focusing on specific half-second audio fragments, I could reliably tell the difference after some practice. But during normal listening, the difference is imperceptible to me.
 
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