Minidsp SHD Review Updated (DSP, DAC & Streamer)

[BearWant]

Great news: Tidal is now able to stream directly onto the miniDSP SHD through Tidal Connect. Simply update the Volumio player on the SHD and then you'll see it as an option on Tidal.

Thank you sir. I've been waiting on this.

 

[dunga]

Hi, I would be grateful if someone could help me, I am wondering is it possible to connect two DACs that would never work at the same time to the SHD Studio. Active speakers via coax (with Dirac enabled), and DAC/headphone amp via USB (with Dirac disabled).
Is it doable, and can I switch from one setup to another without too much hassle...?

Thanks!

 

[Karu]

Yes. You can switch between the presets (can have up to 4) and route one to Outputs 1|2 and another to 3|4. And switch between the presets with the remote.

 

[dunga]

Great, thanks!

 

[OzarkCDN]

If I understand this product correctly - does it function as a digital / analog 'preamp'? For instance, I have a TV with toslink output and a xbox hooked into the TV, so the TV is effectively my 'a/v preamp', then TV toslink to a dac toslink to rca converter -> current preamp. If I bought this device, I could route the tv/xbox directly into the toslink into this device and then a phono preamp into the analogue rca input and then use the actual device itself for DAC/streaming through volumio?

 

[samysound]

If I understand this product correctly - does it function as a digital / analog 'preamp'? For instance, I have a TV with toslink output and a xbox hooked into the TV, so the TV is effectively my 'a/v preamp', then TV toslink to a dac toslink to rca converter -> current preamp. If I bought this device, I could route the tv/xbox directly into the toslink into this device and then a phono preamp into the analogue rca input and then use the actual device itself for DAC/streaming through volumio?

correct!

 

[OzarkCDN]

OK - and it would be the 'SHD' product we're talking about and not the 'SHD studio'? The minidsp website is a little overwhelming.. So, if the SHD covers all these functions, would it be redundant to consider something like the RME ADI-2 as a DAC/preamp?

 

[deercreekaudio]

Yes this will all work and be a good application for the SHD. Keep in mind you will need to your TV optical output set to stereo PCM.

 

[samysound]

OK - and it would be the 'SHD' product we're talking about and not the 'SHD studio'? The minidsp website is a little overwhelming.. So, if the SHD covers all these functions, would it be redundant to consider something like the RME ADI-2 as a DAC/preamp?

The SHD studio version does not output an analog signal (no DAC built in). digital only. it would work if you have a DAC already or are using powered speakers that have digital inputs

 

[Deleted member 4708]

Been using the SHD for awhile now. The SHD Qobuz experience is subpar: the player skips to the next track in the middle of the current track. There is a thread about this on minDSP website. My LAN connection never worked - ever. I am still talking with the minDSP guys trying to get it resolved. At this point I would not recommend minDSP SHD for Qobuz.

 

[Deleted member 4708]

Update on the Ethernet problem: a couple emails later nothing changed. I am being asked to restart, reset the SHD and so on. Made it clear I read and tried everything I could find on their forums to no avail. Following their instructions - even though I have done it before. Their support is not that good after all.

 

[nothingman]

It’s well documented that they love using their customer’s time for endless, unsuccessful troubleshooting. They and their dealers have terrible return policies too, so good luck with that if you pursue it.

I forget if this has been discussed with you but grab a wireless extender like the TP Link AC750, then run it as a wireless access point and connect cat5 cable from there to SHD. If that doesn’t work then you really have a deeper hardware problem. Let us know how it progresses.

 

[Deleted member 4708]

It’s well documented that they love using their customer’s time for endless, unsuccessful troubleshooting. They and their dealers have terrible return policies too, so good luck with that if you pursue it.

I forget if this has been discussed with you but grab a wireless extender like the TP Link AC750, then run it as a wireless access point and connect cat5 cable from there to SHD. If that doesn’t work then you really have a deeper hardware problem. Let us know how it progresses.

That's exactly the configuration I am trying to use - extender + CAT6 to miniDSP SHD.

 

[Deleted member 4708]

MiniDSP just sent me another email... I reset my SHD 3 times this month so far trying to debug the Ethernet problem.
Maybe a new thread about the miniDSP support should spell out their lack of support.
A company with this kind of support should not be encouraged (and receive rave product reviews).

 

[nothingman]

MiniDSP just sent me another email... I reset my SHD 3 times this month so far trying to debug the Ethernet problem.
Maybe a new thread about the miniDSP support should spell out their lack of support.
A company with this kind of support should not be encouraged (and receive rave product reviews).

Believe me, they know what people say about them. They don’t care. If you haven’t seen the mess from about 20 pages ago yet, at first it’s just us lot griping about their customer service and my specific problem starting around here, then it really turned into a trainwreck here when devteam shows up to refute me (they did so very poorly). ”Devteam” is them. I won’t @ them because I don’t want to risk tempting evil spirits.

I compiled a list of all the criticism they received during this episode and sent it to them in an email, entirely comprised of comments that were from other people, not me personally. Y’know, to keep it impartial. It’s daunting. This is just from ASR in the matter of a couple weeks in June 2021. I bolded the last one because it perfectly encapsulates what you and others are trying to get through to them.

Before devteam (Tony Rouget, the owner of miniDSP) appeared i

• “Their engagement with interested buyers is the worst I've ever seen”
• “100% agree this is terrible customer support”
• “I would definitely look for another solution before jumping on that train”
• “It seems to me that they were much more active, provided much better support and actively worked with the community to implement new features in their early days”
• “It is unbelievable for an electronics company to have such a unique and performant product and with the possibility of dominating Room Correction market can piss off customers this way. If they paid a little more attention to customer service, they could become a stellar audio electronics company.”
• “It's shame they aren't aiming higher in terms of customer service. If they are doing it because their margins are tight it seems like a false economy”
• “All this talk about several problems with the SHD and Minidsp's awful client service has really put me off buying a unit”
• “How incompetent do you have to be to have some of the best products in the industry, yet have customers actively despise you so much they will refuse to do business with you?”
• “Seems like this site has done a great job of flushing out and making obvious those companies that are less than complete (great products but non-existent customer service in this case).”

After devteam appeared:

• “Based upon your [miniDSP’s] above responses I am back open to reconsidering a shd purchase.”
• “We all make mistakes or have problems we encounter (product problems, timelines that arent met, etc) but what differentiates business leaders from those that dont survive is how they respond to those mistakes/problems.”
• “Seems most of this could have been avoided by offering a replacement unit up front, especially for a new unit under warranty. Does MiniDSP ever do this? As a consumer, I would expect this for a $1000+ product that can easily be shipped.”
• “Don’t really see why you [miniDSP] need to talk to the dealer a lot… in the grand scheme of things it would cost you, the manufacturer, much less to swap this unit for another one, given the likely sales you’ve already lost from people reading this thread.”
• “At this point, @devteam , the cost of a new replacement, delivered quickly, is the best (and least costly) investment you can make in the future of your company. Considering the amount of negative exposure this has received, and from this audience especially, the alternative could be disastrous.”
• “Speaking for myself, I have the SHD on a shortlist of my next major upgrade. Knowing I was rolling the dice with that amount of money has me reconsidering already...”
• “I am too on the fence but what is disappointing regardless of what the eventual outcome is, it took peer group pressure and negative exposure to get them to respond.”
• “A company with the right standards and ethics will ALWAYS do the right thing regardless of what pressure or exposure they receive. Its the leader that sets the standard for the company, not the other way around and as such these decisions are a reflection of their management.”
• “This is a very sad tale and does not reflect well on MiniDSP. The SHD is expensive and the customer should not have to deal with sending things back to HK.”
• “I followed this thread because I was very interested in MiniDSP. Was.”
• “Minidsp, I think, has bowed out. Good thing as the hole he was in was only getting deeper with each post. I do think though, he realizes the damage that has been done and no matter what is done to rectify, it wont make it disappear. The diving catch in the end zone was fumbled.”
• “I have learned that once that trust has been lost (by the community), it takes a long time to build it back and it will not be fixed by finally doing the right thing for @nothingman. Somehow these posts seem to find their way to the top of search engines results for a long time. The internet can be both a blessing and curse for businesses.”
• “That response from the distributor [Deer Creek] is totally [facepalm emoji].”
• “Sell the damn thing and buy another product from a company you can trust.”
• “Good lord, this is unbelievable, @devteam. I was about to buy an SHD but for miniDSP to stubbornly refuse to simply offer a replacement unit to this point is baffling.”
• “So it goes when an engineer runs the company I guess. They assume customers are willing to conduct endless if-then-else diagnostics with them until they finally solve the puzzle. They fail to see the damage it causes their company in terms of goodwill and reputation and subsequent downstream revenue losses. Nobody cares how many emails you sent back and forth - it doesn't make you look like you have good service to me. It makes it look like you're cheap and lack confidence in your own products and/or hope to pin the blame on the customer if you try enough. It's dodgy. Just replace the damn unit ASAP and take the faulty unit back; have your QA guys go over it and learn from it once you figure out the issue.....at your own pace ....and the customer gets to be happy and possibly evangelize the wonderments of miniDSP.....thusly leading to more sales downstream."

I remember in June 2021 they said they’d have someone starting in August 2021 to better attend to their forums and customer communications. Never happened. Their forum is more of a ghost town now than it was then. The same problems keep happening. It’ll never end.

 

[Ricwa]

I have an SHD and use Qobuz exclusively along with an older Netgear Orbi wireless mesh router with ethernet cable from the Orbi to the SHD. I've been using this configuration since pre-covid times very successfully until recently.

I don't have dropouts but do have occasional skipping problems where it "chokes", then stops and then begins playing the next track. In my case, I believe this to be a bandwidth issue, either with Qobuz or my internet provider (XFinity) or both. Evidence for this is that it only ever happens between 7pm and 9pm on weekdays and is worse on Fridays. If I run a speedtest on my PC I do see degraded speeds during these times but I also suspect Qobuz popularity may be at least part of the problem.

 

[nothingman]

I have an SHD and use Qobuz exclusively along with an older Netgear Orbi wireless mesh router with ethernet cable from the Orbi to the SHD. I've been using this configuration since pre-covid times very successfully until recently.

I don't have dropouts but do have occasional skipping problems where it "chokes", then stops and then begins playing the next track. In my case, I believe this to be a bandwidth issue, either with Qobuz or my internet provider (XFinity) or both. Evidence for this is that it only ever happens between 7pm and 9pm on weekdays and is worse on Fridays. If I run a speedtest on my PC I do see degraded speeds during these times but I also suspect Qobuz popularity may be at least part of the problem.

I jest, but Qobuz is remotely popular enough to slow down at busy times? Seriously? They can’t scale for something like 200,000 total subscribers globally? I hope the reality is it’s just your cable internet for their sake.

 

[Ricwa]

I jest, but Qobuz is remotely popular enough to slow down at busy times? Seriously? They can’t scale for something like 200,000 total subscribers globally? I hope the reality is it’s just your cable internet for their sake.

I'm not a network engineer but I think these sorts of scaling problems are decentralized and very complex. So yes, it's likely growing pains and yes, they can be solved but my guess is Qobuz is on tight budgets and only add more regional bandwidth as the need arises (i.e., complaints increase). Overall I'm very happy with Qobuz and feel $12.99 is a bargain. It's still amazing to me that I can download and play just about any piece of music on demand with higher than CD fidelity. I'm more irked about paying this same amount per month for Roon. Don't get me wrong, Roon is great but feel it should be about $5/month.

 

[Deleted member 4708]

MiniDSP saga update: miniDSP is asking for yet another reset. This time I am supposed to open the SHD, extract the microSD and re-image it.
I will never buy anything from this company. The typical race to the bottom company.

 

[nothingman]

MiniDSP saga update: miniDSP is asking for yet another reset. This time I am supposed to open the SHD, extract the microSD and re-image it.
I will never buy anything from this company. The typical race to the bottom company.

That was a step they made me do too. It did nothing in my case.

Anytime a customer is getting out a screwdriver and messing around with the PCB while wearing a static discharge bracelet at the behest of a company’s tech support, that company has failed. I’m sure many of their customers have the stomach for that, but that doesn’t mean miniDSP should expect it of all of their customers like they do.

Of course they view it as “well, otherwise, you’ll have to send it in to Hong Kong for repair, so this is better for everyone, right?” They’re doing you a favor. Instead of the much more obvious solution of them just taking responsibility and sending a replacement and a prepaid return label on their busted unit so they can get it in for proper testing.

Sorry you’re going through this, friend.