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Okto 8 Owner’s Thread

poopy said:
Why were you hesitating in first place? Not sure I followed, sorry.

Therry are other excellent 8-channel DAC from Exasound (s88) and Merging (Hapi Mk3) for instance, but not the same price tag.
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I wasn't hesitant. I contacted them on their website almost a month ago. After the good feedback I got from this thread I wanted to put down an order once I got a reply.
But the reply never came. And when I have wrote them a week ago, seeing there is no answer, I decided that I need to move on.
I already have a Merging Anubis and a Solaris. But the review of the unit really made me want one and see if it is any better than what I have.
Even recently I have contacted Merging and they replied within 2 days tops. Kept regular email exchanges like you should when you are a business and have a client in need.
 
EmilD said:
I wasn't hesitant. I contacted them on their website almost a month ago. After the good feedback I got from this thread I wanted to put down an order once I got a reply.
But the reply never came. And when I have wrote them a week ago, seeing there is no answer, I decided that I need to move on.
I already have a Merging Anubis and a Solaris. But the review of the unit really made me want one and see if it is any better than what I have.
Even recently I have contacted Merging and they replied within 2 days tops. Kept regular email exchanges like you should when you are a business and have a client in need.
Click to expand...
You emailed them as a test to see if the customer service was serious?

I emailed them a few times, and Pavel got back to me most of the time with some delay, but nothing critical. I got mine early 2021 and never had any issues really.
 
I did not email them as a test! I wanted informations and they never got back!! Anyways, I don't want to derail this thread.
 
Hi all,

I guess I'll start with physically asking questions (as opposed to just searching the web for answers) from here...

Got an OktoDAC8Pro, feed it via USB from a W11 PC running JRiver (or Roon... depends on the day :)), and have no issues with the DAC. Anyway, it is technically not a DAC-related question.

Now, exploring/experimenting with other PC-based network players (Volumio, mostly, but also tried to build an mpd-based thing on Debian "from the ground up"), and I am hitting a very specific, almost a niche, snag with 5.0 dsf files... in a sense that I can't make them play. 2.0 or 5.1 dsf all play. 5.0 flacs (I have a few) play AND map the channels correctly. 5.0 dsf -- nope. Interwebs illuminated me on the issue of a missing LFE channel that, without some "special sauce", throws ALSA for a loop -- but failed to inform me on the nature of the said special sauce (other than "just use Roon/JRiver/Audirvana/etc).

I am talking Native DSD playback, of course, which the OctoDAC8Pro is very much capable of.

Any one of you wise people have any insight to share?

Manythanks in advance!
 
I remember that problem from way back............................ but it seems to have disappeared with "modern" players.
The only thing I can suggest is to convert the files to 5.1 with the insertion of a dummy/silent channel where the LFE would be.
 
Kal Rubinson said:
I remember that problem from way back............................ but it seems to have disappeared with "modern" players.
The only thing I can suggest is to convert the files to 5.1 with the insertion of a dummy/silent channel where the LFE would be.
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Thanks Kal,

That approach would involve converting dsf to PCM, manipulating PCM, and converting back to dsf, correct?.. (transcoding my precious dsf's is something I'd like to avoid :))
 
Hi There,
if you are working on Linux with alsa, this is "normal" that DSD 5.0 is not accepted.
The reason is that the USB Descriptor within the dac8pro is supporting 8 configuration (PCM 2ch 16/24/32, PCM 6ch/32, PCM 8ch/32, DSD 2ch, DSD 6ch, DSD 8ch) which is already exceptional as most DAC would only offer PCM 8ch/32 or DSD 8ch.

But when using DSD flow, you cannot use the "plughw" to convert 5.0 to 6.0 or 8.0.
so you must use the "hw" directly and alsa cannot find 5.0 so will not play.

that's why and there is nothing we can do inside the DAC8PRO about it, unless we set more than 8 "alternate settings'....
Maybe some new version of alsa will address this, or may be some third party plugin can do the job but I m not aware.

As suggested by Kalmoukes, converting to 5.1 with silence channel is a good way forward
Best Regars
Fabriceo
 
fabriceo said:
Hi There,
if you are working on Linux with alsa, this is "normal" that DSD 5.0 is not accepted.
The reason is that the USB Descriptor within the dac8pro is supporting 8 configuration (PCM 2ch 16/24/32, PCM 6ch/32, PCM 8ch/32, DSD 2ch, DSD 6ch, DSD 8ch) which is already exceptional as most DAC would only offer PCM 8ch/32 or DSD 8ch.

But when using DSD flow, you cannot use the "plughw" to convert 5.0 to 6.0 or 8.0.
so you must use the "hw" directly and alsa cannot find 5.0 so will not play.

that's why and there is nothing we can do inside the DAC8PRO about it, unless we set more than 8 "alternate settings'....
Maybe some new version of alsa will address this, or may be some third party plugin can do the job but I m not aware.

As suggested by Kalmoukes, converting to 5.1 with silence channel is a good way forward
Best Regars
Fabriceo
Click to expand...
Thank you Fabriceo,

That was roughly my understanding from what I've read on the web. Was just hoping there is some arcane thing, like a flag to compile ALSA with, or some such... since commercial software can -- and does -- natively play 5.0 DSD on DAC8Pro.

Here is to hope things will change; I'll stick with JRMC and/or Roon for the time being.

And while I'm searching the web for a Linux-based app capable of inserting a dummy LFE channel into a dsf file (very much preferably without going via PCM transcoding), anyone here aware of such a thing?
 
Alex_Vv said:
Thanks Kal,

That approach would involve converting dsf to PCM, manipulating PCM, and converting back to dsf, correct?.. (transcoding my precious dsf's is something I'd like to avoid :))
Click to expand...
Well, there's no reason or value to convert it back to DSF. Just play the PCM.
 
My Dac8 Pro broke after 6 years. Along with a few other devices. No fault of Okto. My electric company. They came down & fixed.

Dac8 won't power up. The Dac8 nor my Wifi equipment.
My Benchmark AHB's had some sotra protection & shut it self down. Too bad Dac8 has no protection.

I cannot find any other 8 channel DAC that has AES and that was measured, so ordered another one. I use it with the Vanity -> Trinnov Demon-> Dac8. Hurts buying same tech 6 years later. I normally replace things that are that old. LOL

I am hoping 2 things got fixed since my last purchase. Someone said the channels were not synced perfect? Has this been addressed? What about the bit depth screen for AES?

I figured out how I can use the Oppo to get the bit depth limited for it plays physical media. If I hold down the info button it gives the audio bit rate. But it depends on the channel count on what to expect. For DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 will be 3-5mb for 24-bit. And 1-2mb for 16. Would be nice to see it without clicking buttons. Dolby Atmos seams to always be 16-bit. So in terms of bit-depth I guess we went backwards.
 
Did you check the fuse? I had an electrical mishap with power company too and mine blew. It's integrated into the AC plug on the back of the Okto.
 
If my 11 year old Trinnov ever breaks I probably would get the Trinnov CI. It also has aes in/out.

Although not sure if I would use my vanity 203 aes or the hdmi to the CI. I kind of like that my audio never even touches hdmi. And the vanity 203 had a nice audio geek tweak that each connection has its own transformer.
 
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