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miniDSP Tide16 - Holy Grail with 16 Channel Atmos/DTS:X, high SINAD
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2026
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Got my tracking number today. Ordered it May 8.
Delivery is scheduled for 5/29. Signature required.
Delivery is scheduled for 5/29. Signature required.
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Got my tracking number today as well. Ordered May 7th and scheduled delivery June 1st. It seems you may win the race
Why not get it direct from MiniDSP?
Raj21p
Member
On paper, this looks like a very compelling product 16 balanced outputs, Dirac Live + DLBC + ART included, and the published noise/distortion specs are impressive for the price. The big question is how well the HDMI implementation, bass management, and real-world usability hold up, but if miniDSP delivers here, it could be a serious alternative to much more expensive immersive processors.
Because in the event of needing to return it or make a warranty claim you have to deal with shipping it to Hong Kong and the export and import paperwork. Right now buying direct from minidsp would cost you at least $4725 post tariff and pre tax and shipping ie $3500 plus $1225 in tariffs. Many people would buy from the local authorised dealer even though it might work out slightly more expensive.
I hope Amir gets one in for review. Sooner the better.
welwynnick
Major Contributor
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- Dec 26, 2023
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Tide16
. . . . yet in order to meet their spec of 118 dB, they chose to implement Quad differential/balance on the signal path of the Tide 16. So, instead of using just 2 pieces of the 8 channel DACs like the much more expensive Marantz and Anthem AVPs, they used 8 of them, 64 DAC channels for a 16...
www.minidsp.com
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- Mar 30, 2026
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I know we are all VERY interested in reviews for the miniSDSP Tide16 and the Hyperion APR-16, both of which will take a significant investment of Amir's time. I imagine Amir has a big backlog of units waiting for review. He did mention, in one of his prior posts, "if there was enough interest in reviewing a unit before its [normal] time up, that he might be influenced to analyze and review a unit earlier"; and that statement has very loose quotations around my re-statement of his.
I think Amir has a lot of pending reviews on his plate and we may just have to be patient enough to wait for the ones we want. But if you really want these reviews to come in sooner than their "normal time-up", then I suggest you voice your interest in some way; just my opinion (obviously, by your post [laurelkurt], you have done just that). I know he has had the Hyperion APR-16 already sent to him (by a follower, THANK YOU very much!). I have no idea if anyone has sent him a miniDSP Tide16 for review, unless the manufacturer themselves have already sent him one. I suggest you submit your interest in some way on this forum if you want an expedited review of either of these two units; this gives Amir some justification to do the review before the reviews of other units that have been waiting in-line a while -- my two-cents.
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I’ve been struggling to get Dirac Live to connect to my Tide16 for a couple of days. Turned out to be my antivirus software that blocked a lot of ports..
But now I’m up and running with Dirac ART on my 7.5.4 system. There’s room for 50 preset Dirac ART filters in the Tide16, so plenty to play around with.
Had to use a MiniDSP 2x4 Balanced to drive two of my subs on one of the Tide16 sub outputs since it only supports 4 subs. Annoyingly enough the 16th output can’t be used at all when the Tide16 is configured as a 7.4.4 system.
I set up gain, delay, PEQ, Low shelf’s and crossovers for my subs before running ART since those settings are locked once Dirac is activated. So I spent a couple of hours on getting everything tuned with REW before Dirac. All my subs are passive and they all needed protection with HPF etc which the Tide16 now handles.
The Tide16 replaced an Anthem AVM60 that’s been working flawlessly for 8 years now, but I’ve had a nagging feeling that there was something missing that made my system less enjoyable for listening to music than my 2ch rig. Let’s hope the Tide16 fixes that issue.
But now I’m up and running with Dirac ART on my 7.5.4 system. There’s room for 50 preset Dirac ART filters in the Tide16, so plenty to play around with.
Had to use a MiniDSP 2x4 Balanced to drive two of my subs on one of the Tide16 sub outputs since it only supports 4 subs. Annoyingly enough the 16th output can’t be used at all when the Tide16 is configured as a 7.4.4 system.
I set up gain, delay, PEQ, Low shelf’s and crossovers for my subs before running ART since those settings are locked once Dirac is activated. So I spent a couple of hours on getting everything tuned with REW before Dirac. All my subs are passive and they all needed protection with HPF etc which the Tide16 now handles.
The Tide16 replaced an Anthem AVM60 that’s been working flawlessly for 8 years now, but I’ve had a nagging feeling that there was something missing that made my system less enjoyable for listening to music than my 2ch rig. Let’s hope the Tide16 fixes that issue.
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Congrats and hope your new adventure with the Tide 16 is a successful one. Look forward to your reporting on the Tide 16 performance and results in your room.
Awaiting your review!
I think DLART overwrites all of this settings after measurements.
No, every setting done prior to DLART is definitely still there.
I can review each and every setting I’ve done but I can’t change them and I can’t add new ones.
As I understand it, a change of any of these setting would require me to rerun DLART. That’s why they’ve implemented it this way.
It’s a very elegant way of doing things since it means you have the full power of the extremely versatile MiniDSP platform and can use DLART at the same time. That’s partly what got me interested in the Tide16 in the first place.
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staticV3
Grand Contributor
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- Aug 29, 2019
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How-to: Infra-bass bypass in ART | Dirac Live Active Room Treatment
Problem formulationDirac Live ART implicitly enforces a steep high-pass filter at 20 Hz, with the consequence that any content below 20 Hz present in a recording would not make its way out to any of the speakers, including infra bass-capable subwoofers. For reference, neither Dirac Live Room...
For each channel it can be set i 1Hz steps between 1-1000Hz and be disabled (Full-Range).