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Minidsp SHD Review Updated (DSP, DAC & Streamer)

OzarkCDN

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I'm setting up a sub for the first time - looking for a little advice! I bought the monolith m-15 to use with my shd and using the rel transmitter that Amir tested. My thoughts are to bypass as much as I can on the sub and using the shd for control - so, using analog out 3 to the rel transmitter, rel receiver sub out to L rca input on sub, EQ on sub to 'Extended' (using amplifier's EQ), crossover to 'THX/Off' (bypassing sub crossover), level set to 'THX' (0db), phase at 0' (for now). Does that seem about right? Also planning on using the sub open and removing the port plugs. My room is 5600 ft^3 and paired with Revel F208's.
 

Ricwa

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I'm setting up a sub for the first time - looking for a little advice! I bought the monolith m-15 to use with my shd and using the rel transmitter that Amir tested. My thoughts are to bypass as much as I can on the sub and using the shd for control - so, using analog out 3 to the rel transmitter, rel receiver sub out to L rca input on sub, EQ on sub to 'Extended' (using amplifier's EQ), crossover to 'THX/Off' (bypassing sub crossover), level set to 'THX' (0db), phase at 0' (for now). Does that seem about right? Also planning on using the sub open and removing the port plugs. My room is 5600 ft^3 and paired with Revel F208's.
Do you have a Umik-1? If so, you can use Dirac and run a single measurement at the listening position to find the frequency where your main speakers begin to fall off and use that to set your crossover. Once set, run a full Dirac set of sweeps and then use REW to check. It’s very difficult to integrate a sub without measurements.
 

kma100

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Do these devices have Airplay or Airplay2? I couldn't find any reference to it but I thought I read somewhere it is "unofficially" supported(?).
 

OzarkCDN

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Do you have a Umik-1? If so, you can use Dirac and run a single measurement at the listening position to find the frequency where your main speakers begin to fall off and use that to set your crossover. Once set, run a full Dirac set of sweeps and then use REW to check. It’s very difficult to integrate a sub without measurements.
Yes, I'm just looking for what to set the sub at to baseline the readings to start with.
 

deercreekaudio

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Do you have a Umik-1? If so, you can use Dirac and run a single measurement at the listening position to find the frequency where your main speakers begin to fall off and use that to set your crossover. Once set, run a full Dirac set of sweeps and then use REW to check. It’s very difficult to integrate a sub without measurements.
We have this Tech Blog which may help: Simplifying the Science of Subwoofer Integration
Also check out: Adding ultra-deep bass to your home theater sound
Deer Creek Audio is and authorized miniDSP dealer
 

Ricwa

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Yes, I'm just looking for what to set the sub at to baseline the readings to start with.
Good place to start is 80 hz with a 24 dB/octave low pass Butterworth filter on the subs and 12 dB/octave Butterworth high pass on the the mains. It’s as much of an art as a science when you’re first starting out. I found experimenting to be a good learning experience.
 

nothingman

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Good place to start is 80 hz with a 24 dB/octave low pass Butterworth filter on the subs and 12 dB/octave Butterworth high pass on the the mains. It’s as much of an art as a science when you’re first starting out. I found experimenting to be a good learning experience.

Not trying to argue this, but Linkwitz-Riley 24db/oct is the standard for low-pass. That’s THX spec and what the vast majority (basically all?) of the AVRs and rear control panels on subs implement. That LR filter is meant to well match mains (presumably ported like most are) with the BW 12db/oct high-pass that you mentioned, at least as a starting point.
 

Ricwa

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Not trying to argue this, but Linkwitz-Riley 24db/oct is the standard for low-pass. That’s THX spec and what the vast majority (basically all?) of the AVRs and rear control panels on subs implement. That LR filter is meant to well match mains (presumably ported like most are) with the BW 12db/oct high-pass that you mentioned, at least as a starting point.
No problem. Sure, use LR filters instead.
 

OzarkCDN

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Docteur Poulet

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Hi folk,
I'll soon upgrade my current speakers for a pair of PSI Audio A23-m. My second speakers are a pair of Cabasse Sloop 321-5.

I currently own :
- Sonos Port
- RME ADI-2 DAC (AKM4493)
- amplifier Technics SU-500 mk2
- phono preamplifier Art Dj Pre II

I would like to add Dirac Live to my setup.
This MINIDSP SHD seems to be currently the bet solution.

Some questions :
- are there any way to create a 12v trigger output?
- does Dirac have presets for headphones?
- are there a way to completely electrically shut down the SHD?

And a more complexe question : I would like to add in the future a pair of subwoofer (PSI Audio A125m).
I will use the four xlr outputs for these speakers.
I would like to have both Cabasse amplifier and headphones amplifier into the cinch outputs.
Is it possible to swap Dirac live presets easily?
 

Kachda

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Hi folk,
I'll soon upgrade my current speakers for a pair of PSI Audio A23-m. My second speakers are a pair of Cabasse Sloop 321-5.

I currently own :
- Sonos Port
- RME ADI-2 DAC (AKM4493)
- amplifier Technics SU-500 mk2
- phono preamplifier Art Dj Pre II

I would like to add Dirac Live to my setup.
This MINIDSP SHD seems to be currently the bet solution.

Some questions :
- are there any way to create a 12v trigger output?
- does Dirac have presets for headphones?
- are there a way to completely electrically shut down the SHD?

And a more complexe question : I would like to add in the future a pair of subwoofer (PSI Audio A125m).
I will use the four xlr outputs for these speakers.
I would like to have both Cabasse amplifier and headphones amplifier into the cinch outputs.
Is it possible to swap Dirac live presets easily?
1. Newer minidsp shds shutoff the usb host port when switched off. You can create a usb to 3.5mm mono cable as a trigger. Search the forum to see posts by members who have done it.
2. You get 4 presets in minidsp shd dirac. You can use them anyway you like. You could use 1 preset for headphone.
3. There is a power button at the back to completely switch it off
 

joshz

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Got my SHD yesterday, Tidal Connect works most of the time but it‘s mostly the same with BluOS. Via Volumio it even plays DSD although VERY buggy. Can anyone confirm this is native (within the 96khz limitation of the dsp)?

10E2FF4B-33EB-443C-82AB-7B824DFF9558.jpeg
 

TabCam

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Got my SHD yesterday, Tidal Connect works most of the time but it‘s mostly the same with BluOS. Via Volumio it even plays DSD although VERY buggy. Can anyone confirm this is native (within the 96khz limitation of the dsp)?

View attachment 243748
Highly unlikely it is native as the digital volume control needs PCM. If the volume control works it is converted to PCM.
 

luckyguliver

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First of all many thanks for all the posts. I've got some answers that I was looking for. Having said that I wonder about one more thing. Can I run SHD as a dac-streaming device only? I would imagine in this case I need fixed output at 0dB? Can I do it? Ta
 

tallbeardedone

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First of all many thanks for all the posts. I've got some answers that I was looking for. Having said that I wonder about one more thing. Can I run SHD as a dac-streaming device only? I would imagine in this case I need fixed output at 0dB? Can I do it? Ta
To prevent digital clipping (due to dB boost of Dirac) you may need to set your SHD volume below 0.0 dB. The max amount of headroom needed is -10dB (this is the max boost Dirac can add) but may be less. To determine exactly how much less you will need to run Dirac and then do one of the techniques detailed on this thread:


I am in the same boat. (My SHD will be here this week.) I am running it as DSP in digital domain only and outputting digital to my Hegel h390 DAC and integrated, which will control volume. I will use REW and the technique specified on the second page of that forum post to determine how much I need to turn down my SHD volume to prevent digital clipping.
 

MCH

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To prevent digital clipping (due to dB boost of Dirac) you may need to set your SHD volume below 0.0 dB. The max amount of headroom needed is -10dB (this is the max boost Dirac can add) but may be less. To determine exactly how much less you will need to run Dirac and then do one of the techniques detailed on this thread:


I am in the same boat. (My SHD will be here this week.) I am running it as DSP in digital domain only and outputting digital to my Hegel h390 DAC and integrated, which will control volume. I will use REW and the technique specified on the second page of that forum post to determine how much I need to turn down my SHD volume to prevent digital clipping.
Thanks for posting. I always thought Dirac would set a negative gain automatically to avoid clipping.
The post in the minidsp forum seems old though. Can any Dirac-minidsp user confirm it? Thanks
 

tallbeardedone

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Thanks for posting. I always thought Dirac would set a negative gain automatically to avoid clipping.
The post in the minidsp forum seems old though. Can any Dirac-minidsp user confirm it? Thanks
I've been speaking to a few of the people from that chat and it all still applies. The MiniDSP doesn't have an easy way to see how much boost Dirac puts on so you have to either set it at -10dB to be guaranteed no clipping, but that will reduce headroom on your amp. So if you want max headroom without clipping you need to measure how much boost Dirac has added in your room via one of the techniques in that thread and then attenuated your SHD master volume by that amount. It most likely won't be more than -6dB but there's no way to know for sure unless you measure.
I'm going to use this method:

[Thanks @Tony_J for the detailed research. I've recently acquired an SHD, which I guess has more or less the same signal processing architecture, and this is the best description I've found so far about how it all fits together, and has clarified a couple of things I was confused about.

Something I learnt about recently is that you can use REW to directly measure what the SHD is doing, via USB. So the chain is:

REW -> USB Output -> SHD processing -> USB Input -> REW .

Obviously you don't see what's happening directly in the analogue domain, but I assume any clipping would show up in REW anyway.

Attached is a graph from this method using a measurement sweep that shows the frequency response of the Dirac filters in my setup. It looks like the maximum boost applied for me is around 5db.

diracpic.jpg ]
 
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luckyguliver

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To prevent digital clipping (due to dB boost of Dirac) you may need to set your SHD volume below 0.0 dB. The max amount of headroom needed is -10dB (this is the max boost Dirac can add) but may be less. To determine exactly how much less you will need to run Dirac and then do one of the techniques detailed on this thread:


I am in the same boat. (My SHD will be here this week.) I am running it as DSP in digital domain only and outputting digital to my Hegel h390 DAC and integrated, which will control volume. I will use REW and the technique specified on the second page of that forum post to determine how much I need to turn down my SHD volume to prevent digital clipping.
What if you don't use Dirac?
 
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