Minidsp Flex Review (Audio DSP)

[aikofan]

And is it just me or do these things get crazy hot to the touch?

The case gets hotter than any other piece of equipment I own right now, but not alarmingly so. It used to stay hot sometimes even when on standby, which is one of the reasons why I used to turn off external power, but that no longer happens. This is one instance where firmware updates have definitely made a product better and more reliable.

 

[aku]

The case gets hotter than any other piece of equipment I own right now, but not alarmingly so. It used to stay hot sometimes even when on standby, which is one of the reasons why I used to turn off external power, but that no longer happens. This is one instance where firmware updates have definitely made a product better and more reliable.

Same here. Used to be alarmingly hot. After one of the updates it is only quite warm when powered on. Cool when in standby.

 

[ByteCurious]

I wish they had auto standby when there’s no input signal.

 

[aikofan]

Usually for pop music, I set the volume around -22dB. However, recently, I've been setting it more like -27 or -28dB. Has there been a firmware update in the past few months that might have changed the output level per volume setting?

 

[aku]

At some point they added per-input volume offset configuration. Perhaps what you describe is related to this?

 

[olds1959special]

I recommended this to my friend who wants to build a screening room setup where people can bring their laptops and plug in with USB-C or play music through Bluetooth. I'm going to help him use PEQ to help improve the sound in the space.

 

[SanojS]

What's wrong with using the MiniDSP as a volume control?

As others have stated it's about safety and I don't trust the on-chip digital volume control. Also, if you have really good gear, you can get improvements using a properly designed analog volume control with better gain-staging and dynamic control.
DAC on-chip volume control is fine but have inherent limitations. A good quality analog preamp volume control is always better. A bad preamp volume control is always worse.

 

[James240]

Apologies as this thread is quite large at 131 pages is this able to integrate Dirac to your system?

 

[staticV3]

Apologies as this thread is quite large at 131 pages is this able to integrate Dirac to your system?

No need to read the thread, the product page has all the answers:


https://www.minidsp.com/products/minidsp-in-a-box/flex

 

[Mort]

Apologies as this thread is quite large at 131 pages is this able to integrate Dirac to your system?

Yes

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

Apologies as this thread is quite large at 131 pages is this able to integrate Dirac to your system?

It does as long as you either buy a unit with DIRAC Live license preinstalled or use the miniDSP console to purchase a DIRAC Live license and activate the license.

 

[klettermann]

I got a MiniDSP Studio. I ran it through my preamp for while but soon questioned why? I never blew up anything by accidentally leaving the volume too high and figured my track record would continue with the Studio. So the preamp went away. I didn't notice any audible difference, but figured that, while the preamp might not hurt, that it certainly couldn't make anything better.

1. As others have stated it's about safety and I don't trust the on-chip digital volume control.

I can understand this, though perhaps I'm living dangerously. Never had a problem though.

2. Also, if you have really good gear, (2A) you can get improvements using a properly designed analog volume control with better gain-staging and dynamic control.
(2B) DAC on-chip volume control is fine but have inherent limitations. A good quality analog preamp volume control is always better. A bad preamp volume control is always worse.

These claims are new to me.
2A - Can you elaborate or provide examples? What kind of improvements? I struggle to see how any preamp is going to somehow improve on what it's being fed.
2B - What are these limitations? And why always worse than preamp? Thanks and cheers,

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

I got a MiniDSP Studio. I ran it through my preamp for while but soon questioned why? I never blew up anything by accidentally leaving the volume too high and figured my track record would continue with the Studio. So the preamp went away. I didn't notice any audible difference, but figured that, while the preamp might not hurt, that it certainly couldn't make anything better.


I can understand this, though perhaps I'm living dangerously. Never had a problem though.


These claims are new to me.
2A - Can you elaborate or provide examples? What kind of improvements? I struggle to see how any preamp is going to somehow improve on what it's being fed.
2B - What are these limitations? And why always worse than preamp? Thanks and cheers,

2A) only in situations where there’s a major impedance mismatch between the DAC output and the amp inputs—preamps (particularly active ones) can bridge this gap.
2B) with digital volume attenuation, particularly with high attenuation/low volume levels, you lose digital dynamic range. Furthermore, lowering volume digitally does not lower the noise floor of the DAC’s output signal. An analog volume attenuator will attenuate both, the signal and the noise floor, so it has multiple benefits, which are better realized the lower your volume/higher your attenuation.

Also with reference to 2B, there are DACs with analog volume controls built in. Examples include Topping DX9 or DX9 Discrete.

Additionally, the Luxsin X9 provides a higher than average degree of (digital) bass management, including dual mono/stereo analog subwoofer outputs with adjustable low-pass filter frequency, slope, and delay, combined with remote, relay-controlled resistor ladder analog volume control for the speaker line outs, which have their own high-pass filter with adjustable slope and delay. The subwoofer outputs use a digital volume control that is synced to the analog attenuator for the main lines out.

 

[staticV3]

with digital volume attenuation, particularly with high attenuation/low volume levels, you lose digital dynamic range. Furthermore, lowering volume digitally does not lower the noise floor of the DAC’s output signal. An analog volume attenuator will attenuate both, the signal and the noise floor, so it has multiple benefits, which are better realized the lower your volume/higher your attenuation.

Unless you can hear your DAC's noise floor as additional hiss coming from your speakers at your MLP, an analog attenuator's benefits can never be realized anyway.

And if your system's gain staging is setup badly enough that a modern DAC with its 120+ dB of SNR emits audible noise, then I'd say you have bigger fish to fry.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

Unless you can hear your DAC's noise floor as additional hiss coming from your speakers at your MLP, an analog attenuator's benefits can never be realized anyway.

And if your system's gain staging is setup badly enough that a modern DAC with its 120+ dB of SNR emits audible noise, then I'd say you have bigger fish to fry.

I’m simply providing possible scenarios; these are certainly not problems that I have.

 

[klettermann]

Unless you can hear your DAC's noise floor as additional hiss coming from your speakers at your MLP, an analog attenuator's benefits can never be realized anyway.

And if your system's gain staging is setup badly enough that a modern DAC with its 120+ dB of SNR emits audible noise, then I'd say you have bigger fish to fry.

You beat me to it, LOL. These are really edge case scenarios. Ditto gross impedance mismatch. Not really good reasons to fault an otherwise good product with enormous utility. My preamp now sits in a box, unlikely to see the light of day again. Also, the MiniDSP SHDs do warn you to turn off your amp when changing some settings, importing/exporting config files etc. My unit never lost any settings after prolonged no-power periods. Of course the past is no guarantee of the future...

 

[antcollinet]

I’m simply providing possible scenarios; these are certainly not problems that I have.

There is a tradeoff though.


With digital volume control you have an inaudble (as pointed out by @staticV3) loss of dynamic range. On the other hand you gain perfect channel matching - which no analogue pot can achieve at low volume levels (though again - with the best (and very expensive ones) the mismatch might be inaudible.)

Bottom line - there is no audible downside to digital volume control (assuming it is carried out at 24 bit or better, as it is on all modern DACs). Putting an analogue pre-amp in the path can only degrade the sound - perhaps audibly under some circumstances.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

There is a tradeoff though.


With digital volume control you have an inaudble (as pointed out by @staticV3) loss of dynamic range. On the other hand you gain perfect channel matching - which no analogue pot can achieve at low volume levels (though again - with the best (and very expensive ones) the mismatch might be inaudible.)

Bottom line - there is no audible downside to digital volume control (assuming it is carried out at 24 bit or better, as it is on all modern DACs). Putting an analogue pre-amp in the path can only degrade the sound - perhaps audibly under some circumstances.

That's my own experience. I ended up removing Pre90 from my chain once I tested R26 II's volume control instead of using the separate preamp.

As I said, I am only listing known reasons for using one. I don't have any of the issues presented.

The question was asked, so I answered it.

 

[aikofan]

I don't know if this is the correct thread for this question, but using an ASIO driver, I noticed that multiple apps will play sound simultaneously.

I'm playing local audio files using Lyrion Music Server and Squeezelite-x64 running on a headless Windows 11 Pro PC to a miniDSP Flex. I've selected the miniDSP ASIO driver in the LMS Local Player settings.

Last time I tried months ago, I wouldn't be able to play music on LMS and play other Windows sounds at the same time. But now I can. I can play iTunes and YouTube on a browser at the same time as music on my LMS which supposedly is set to ASIO.

One possibility is my headless setup. I hate the way that Windows 11 Pro Remote Desktop creates a new windows session when you access it remotely. When I'm playing music through devices physically connected locally while trying to control the PC remotely, it can make things very confusing. I wonder if it's creating a different session when I control it remotely to play iTunes while LMS is playing locally. But remotely in this case means I'm a couple of feet away, and just trying to avoid having a bulky monitor and keyboard right in the middle of my living room, so it's counterintuitive in my situation.

Does anyone have a clue as to what's going on and why ASIO isn't acting exclusively here?

 

[girtab]

I follow Toole's advice and never use room correction above the transition frequency range. (PEQ based on correcting the speakers anechoic response is good though)Following the idea that hammering the measured "room energy" into a room curve is not a hifidelity move and is counter to all the science of the Spinorama and what needs to be correct for the sound to be convincing in a real room.

So basically just do broad low Q filters above transition frequency is what im understanding from this because it will most likely correlate to the anechoic reponse of the speaker anyway.