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Marchand XM44 Analog Active Crossover Review

birkbott

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Oct 11, 2019
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Yes I’m aware of the signal chain I was just letting you know that you can’t bypass the ADC on the PA2.

I’m not a fan of MQA either but if you have a MQA DAC before going into the DSP unit the it should work, as long as you don’t mind a 2nd ADC/DAC conversion in your chain.

I posted in another thread about how I like the PA2 overall but is has introduced mild hiss into my system that wasn’t there before. Not sure if there are any systems like this that are noiseless though without spending $$$$
 

Qwin

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Jul 15, 2020
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Yes I’m aware of the signal chain I was just letting you know that you can’t bypass the ADC on the PA2.

I’m not a fan of MQA either but if you have a MQA DAC before going into the DSP unit the it should work, as long as you don’t mind a 2nd ADC/DAC conversion in your chain.

I posted in another thread about how I like the PA2 overall but is has introduced mild hiss into my system that wasn’t there before. Not sure if there are any systems like this that are noiseless though without spending $$$$
Can you not just use a better external ADC and feed its digital output into the PA2's digital input?
Using a high quality ADC like the Burl B2 Bomber is what I was considering. DSP has many obvious advantages, its just for me, having a vinyl front end meant ready packaged hardware like the MiniDSP and Hypex offerings, were major downgrades, due to their poor internal ADC's.
With MQA, doubling the ADC/DAC's in the path is only likely to increase noise, so not ideal. I just wish MQA would go away (that's the polite version).
The mild hiss would be unacceptable to me, I'm sure there are silent DSP units, but you are probably right, they will be expensive. As I indicated previously, using the Marchand XM44EMB, my set up is totally silent between tracks, even when close up to the speakers. I use a 700w class D amp after it, to power my bass drivers.
A friend uses a dedicated PC and Acourate software for DSP duties and an OKTO multi channel DAC, this works very well on his LX521 speakers.
 
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birkbott

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Oct 11, 2019
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The PA 2 doesn’t have digital inputs. It’s really a live sound tool which is probably why it isn’t working out in my setup.

I’m considering simplifying to a SHD since you can stream right from the unit itself.
 
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