Minidsp Flex Review (Audio DSP)

[abdo123]

I hear clicking noises when I turn standby on and off on the Flex, anyone else having that "problem"?

I do, but it's very very low in level and is not a concern to be honest.

 

[spartan922]

I’m currently trouble shooting. I have disconnected the analog inputs, the hiss remains the same. Does the Flex itself need to be grounded? Faulty unit perhaps?

Edit: UPDATE plugged the power directly into wall rather than surge protector. Hiss is gone!

 

[DavidK442]

Based on Amir’s review of the balanced Flex I just purchased the unbalanced version for my humble two channel living room projector setup. I was satisfied driving the Elac B6.2 bookshelves and a small Paradigm sub with my older Denon AVR, but the wife wasn’t happy with the big black homeless box. I have been searching for a small desktop integrated with bass management to fit on our 12” deep built-in book case but no luck. In fact, proper bass management in two channel is virtually nonexistent. MiniDSP to the rescue. I also ordered the Aiyima A07 amp based on the ASR review. Now just need to find an HDMI 2.0 24bit audio extractor.
Did not want to spend $900+ CAD to solve my space problem and would have preferred a simpler all in one hdmi friendly solution but still really looking forward to the processing flexibility provided by the MiniDSP software. Very happy that it is all ASR approved.

 

[staticV3]

Now just need to find an HDMI 2.0 24bit audio extractor.

Any cheap one from Amazon will do. They all extract 24bit to Toslink or S/PDIF perfectly, just the analog outputs are often garbage.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...amazon-basics-4k-hdmi-extractor-review.39467/

 

[DavidK442]

Any cheap one from Amazon will do. They all extract 24bit to Toslink or S/PDIF perfectly, just the analog outputs are often garbage.
View attachment 249252
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...amazon-basics-4k-hdmi-extractor-review.39467/

24/192? I have seen user comments of a 48khz limit with some, but have more faith in your opinion. Unfortunately the tested Amazon basics extractor does not support hdmi 2.0.
Thanks for your response.

 

[staticV3]

Unfortunately the tested Amazon basics extractor does not support hdmi 2.0.

If your TV supports eARC, then the extractor doesn't have to supprt HDMI 2.0 as you dont have to send video through it.
You can do Video source->HDMI->TV->HDMI->Extractor->Toslink->Flex

 

[MCH]

24/192? I have seen user comments of a 48khz limit with some, but have more faith in your opinion. Unfortunately the tested Amazon basics extractor does not support hdmi 2.0.
Thanks for your response.

I can confirm the Amazon basics can go up to 192khz

 

[FlyingFreak]

If your TV supports eARC, then the extractor doesn't have to supprt HDMI 2.0 as you dont have to send video through it.
You can do Video source->HDMI->TV->HDMI->Extractor->Toslink->Flex

Is there a technical reason to prefer adding an extractor to the chain rather than going Video source > HDMI > TV > Toslink > Flex?

 

[staticV3]

Is there a technical reason to prefer adding an extractor to the chain rather than going Video source > HDMI > TV > Toslink > Flex?

On some TVs, the Toslink out is resampled, noisy, and full of jitter which makes some DACs skip and cut out. The HDMI eARC output on the other hand is a 1:1 pass-through. Here's such an example:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...eview-hdmi-audio-extractor.36478/post-1284094

 

[MCH]

Is there a technical reason to prefer adding an extractor to the chain rather than going Video source > HDMI > TV > Toslink > Flex?

Some people claim their tv toslink output is crap (mdsimon has shared measurements of his). I personally measured 96db Sinad from mine and am a happy camper with the route you propose

 

[DavidK442]

Is there a technical reason to prefer adding an extractor to the chain rather than going Video source > HDMI > TV > Toslink > Flex?

Some of us have projectors, so using the display device for switching/preamp/audio extractor duty isn’t an option.

 

[MaxouPaxou]

I use a Flex Digital in a 2.1 configuration.
The Flex is connected to two Topping DACs (E50 and E30) one via toslink, the other via SPDIF.
When I turn off the Flex, the DACS stay on, while they are supposed to turn off when there is no signal.
Have any of you experienced the same problem ?

 

[HoJ76]

I have received my Flex and I am absolutely loving it. However, running my record player to the balanced analog input results in a very high noise floor (via phono to TS cables). I realize that running an unbalanced signal into the balanced Flex would result in approx 15db drop in SINAD, but this sounds like a much more significant drop. Any ideas as to what else could be contributing to this hiss?

My turn-player has never sounded so good, and noise-free as it does with Flex

 

[HoJ76]

I use a Flex Digital in a 2.1 configuration.
The Flex is connected to two Topping DACs (E50 and E30) one via toslink, the other via SPDIF.
When I turn off the Flex, the DACS stay on, while they are supposed to turn off when there is no signal.
Have any of you experienced the same problem ?

I have two topping dac's. They have never turned off by it self.

 

[ehabheikal]

Firstly you can pay to buy a Dirac Live licence on the Flex.

The standout feature the the Flex not mentioned so far is that is it's functionality for subwoofer integration into a stereo music system. This is not an automated process but it provides users with the capability to apply crossover filters to main speakers as well as a subwoofer (or two), and to set time delays to optimise integration (including delaying the signal to the main speakers).

Can the crossover functionality work at the same time as dirac?

 

[anotherhobby]

Can the crossover functionality work at the same time as dirac?

Yes. You set your crossovers before running Dirac.

 

[ehabheikal]

Is dirac better than setting your own filters with REW and putting them on the device or even applying them on roon?

 

[mike70]

I think the raw technical answer is ... yes.

If it's better in YOUR application ... well, surely that's not that easy. For many people the right parametric EQ is enough, because noise floor, speaker distortion, etc hides tiny improvements.

 

[ehabheikal]

What is the difference between this and the SHD other than the streamer ability and loss of bluetooth on shd?

 

[Ultrasonic]

Is dirac better than setting your own filters with REW and putting them on the device or even applying them on roon?

Firstly all of the miniDSP 'plugin' features work in parallel with Dirac Live, which included the crossover filters you asked about but also crucially the time delays too. This is critical for subwoofer integration as the optimal setup comes from setting these two manually first, and then running Dirac Live on the resulting main speakers plus subwoofer(s) combination.

For context I went from applying REW filters on a 2x4 HD to using Dirac Live on an SHD. One key difference is that Dirac Live is set up to be based on using measured data at multiple measurement locations and targeting a form of average, whereas most people just generate REW filters at a single location (I did). It is possible to use multiple measurement locations in REW, take an average (ideally weighted to the MLP) and then generate filters for this but it is easier to do so in Dirac Live. This for me is probably the single biggest difference which I do thing gives better results. Overall DL is probably more accessible and easier to use for most the REW too. (Although personally as I'm familiar with REW there are some aspects of DL I don't like in comparison.)

The other significant technical difference between DL and filters in REW or Roon is the improvements DL filters bring to the impulse response (time-domain performance). It's easy to confirm with measurements that improvements are made but I still think it's open for debate how audible such improvements may be (others here will know more to comment). It's impossible to only apply the phase corrections in DL but not the amplitude changes and so not really possible to try to test to assess this.