You think they would have waited until it was available for all platforms. Disappointing.
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Okto 8 Owner’s Thread
- Thread starter Tom C
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You think they would have waited until it was available for all platforms. Disappointing.
Disappointing perhaps yes, but at this point I think all Okto fans are quite used to their delays unfortunately.
@mdsimon2 have you heard anything as to when we may expect a multiplatform updater? If Oktos position is 'never' I might put some effort into plugging the DAC8Pro into one of my Windows boxes, but it'd be nicer if I didn't have to bother with that.
Personally, I tihnk I'll stick with Camilla for DSP but I am really curious to see how this firmware performs in DSP duties for others. One thing I like about my CamillaDSP setup is that if my CamillaDSP isn't engaged "properly" for my setup it is likely going to output silence, seeing how channel 1 & 2 are unused. The players in my stereo output to channel 3, 4, 5 & 6 and Camilla makes the magic happen with room EQ and XO.
@mdsimon2 have you heard anything as to when we may expect a multiplatform updater? If Oktos position is 'never' I might put some effort into plugging the DAC8Pro into one of my Windows boxes, but it'd be nicer if I didn't have to bother with that.
Personally, I tihnk I'll stick with Camilla for DSP but I am really curious to see how this firmware performs in DSP duties for others. One thing I like about my CamillaDSP setup is that if my CamillaDSP isn't engaged "properly" for my setup it is likely going to output silence, seeing how channel 1 & 2 are unused. The players in my stereo output to channel 3, 4, 5 & 6 and Camilla makes the magic happen with room EQ and XO.
No idea but it has been only Windows since May 10. I also had to dig out a non-work Windows laptop as I don't typically use one.
Michael
I emailed Okto and basically said the same thing. I got a reply back from Pavel a day later saying the mac update would be out in a week....let's hope...
Here's something very exciting: Octo has come up with a way of aggregating 2 or more units. this is from an e-mail I just received from them:
"Announcing Support for Parallel Operation
Another highlight at our booth will be a live demonstration of three dac8 PRO units operating in parallel, combined into a single aggregate USB device. This setup delivers 24 channels of audio, supporting up to 192kHz/32-bit resolution. The clocks are synchronized via AES/EBU, ensuring zero clock drift and phase shift, while volume control is unified across all units and fully managed from the master DAC.
This feature opens up many possibilities for home cinema and multichannel audio setups and will be included in the upcoming firmware release."
Makes me very interested in seeing what the aggregating device is. Now all we need is an LPCM 16-24 channel Atmos stream.
"Announcing Support for Parallel Operation
Another highlight at our booth will be a live demonstration of three dac8 PRO units operating in parallel, combined into a single aggregate USB device. This setup delivers 24 channels of audio, supporting up to 192kHz/32-bit resolution. The clocks are synchronized via AES/EBU, ensuring zero clock drift and phase shift, while volume control is unified across all units and fully managed from the master DAC.
This feature opens up many possibilities for home cinema and multichannel audio setups and will be included in the upcoming firmware release."
Makes me very interested in seeing what the aggregating device is. Now all we need is an LPCM 16-24 channel Atmos stream.
staticV3
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staticV3
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What's the harm? It's a free feature upgrade for those that need it.
OP
Tom C
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According to the latest CEDIA guidelines, my 20’ x 14’ media room should have 9 channels on the bed layer, and six height channels (for the highest quality system). Some of us want to have, say four subs. If you feed all the subs from a single channel, you’d need a total of sixteen, so Okto x 2. If you want to be able to EQ each sub individually, or if you’re half nuts like me and want to do a high-pass filter on the mains, routing the low frequencies on each channel to the subs, and separate into left sub and right sub, you’re going to need 18 channels, so now Okto x3. I think that’s the reason for up to three units. Small number of users? Probably.
staticV3
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Out of curiosity, what hardware and software would you use to decode, route, mix, and EQ 18ch surround sound?
But they're supporting that. And they now have firmware that will basically do all the functions of a miniDSP (crossover, PEQ, limiter, etc), so bravo. And it's free for anyone who's already bought one, and they're doing it years after it was introduced. And did anyone mention, its SINAD, even today, compares favorably with anything on the market, and with eight channels, no less? And it's AES/USB mode is unique. And all done at a time when Topping discontinued the DM-7.
So, bravo. Hella yeah, Bravo!!!
Now tell us all about that usb to AES aggregating device!
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It did not say that, have to see how it is aggregating exactly. Presumably some external device is feeding the 24 channels to the three OCTO units via AES/EBU. but that's not exactly clear either. But we'll find out because, it's scheduled for the next firmware release. I might finally be persuaded to update my firmware, after all these improvements and added features, even though I don't have a second unit. Yet.
Mitchco's Hang Loose Convolver can manage 18ch easily. 2ch stereo operation would be no different than an active XO but how someone might decode Atmos or similar surround is beyond me.
L
I enquired to Pavel a few weeks ago regarding the aggregation of 2 units as I wanted to get another dac8 pro. Here is his reply (11th October):
''At this time, it's not possible to daisy chain two dac8 PRO units via AES/EBU and have them recognized as a 16-channel DAC under Windows 11 using the Okto Research ASIO driver. We are, however, in contact with the developers to explore this functionality.
While it may be possible using ASIO4ALL, I have personally found that it can be unreliable and inconsistent.
On MacOS, this setup is already achievable through the aggregate device function. We're also working on a solution to synchronize volume across multiple units for added convenience.''
Looks like it won't be possible with Win 11.
I enquired to Pavel a few weeks ago regarding the aggregation of 2 units as I wanted to get another dac8 pro. Here is his reply (11th October):
''At this time, it's not possible to daisy chain two dac8 PRO units via AES/EBU and have them recognized as a 16-channel DAC under Windows 11 using the Okto Research ASIO driver. We are, however, in contact with the developers to explore this functionality.
While it may be possible using ASIO4ALL, I have personally found that it can be unreliable and inconsistent.
On MacOS, this setup is already achievable through the aggregate device function. We're also working on a solution to synchronize volume across multiple units for added convenience.''
Looks like it won't be possible with Win 11.
Yes, very much exciting!
I too shared this news in my post #2,487 on the thread "Review and Measurements of Okto DAC8 8Ch DAC & Amp".
I do not think so since the aggregation setting in Mac OS has already been possible by Mac OS's multiple DACs aggregation feature as shared by @mdsimon2 "in general" in his post here on my project thread.
I do hope OKTO (Pavel) will release firmware update which will enable the aggregation of multiple DAC8PRO (through AES/EBU clocking) for all the OS platforms, i.e. Mac OS, Linux, and Windows 11.
In any way, we will see it very soon!
Yes, you are right!
I use DSP "EKIO" (uses IIR filters/EQs) which can manage unlimited number of I/O channels; the capability would be only limited by CPU's processing power, I assume.
I successfully and easily tested 24-channel workload with "EKIO" on Windows 11 (ref. here, Day-3 Experiment) in my rather outdated (but completely silent!) PC of Intel Core i7 2600S CPU plus 16 GB DDR3 memory (ref. here, Fig.33).
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