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Review and Measurements and miniDSP 2x4 HD DSP and DAC

Juhazi

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I have used Minidsp 4x10HD and three 2x4HD units for many years. I and my friends have never heard any degradation of sound passed thru them, be it analog or digital signal. Measured performance is very good in my eyes too, the imperfections are not audible to me at least. In some casest there has been some hum induced in too long and unshielded RCA cables.

These should be used only with competent measurements of acoustic output. It is too easy to eq. induce clipping in digital or analog domain with wrong settings. With subwoofers, running main speaker signal through minidsp enables to set delay to mains, which I have found very important!
 

flaviowolff

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Guys, do you think there is a difference on the overall quality of the optical input vs the USB input?
Thanks,
 
D

Deleted member 2944

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Guys, do you think there is a difference on the overall quality of the optical input vs the USB input?
Thanks,
Amir tested jitter differences between the USB and optical inputs. (Check the first post of this thread.)
Differences in jitter performance would be the most representative relative testing scheme for these two inputs.

Dave.
 

Sal1950

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Guys, do you think there is a difference on the overall quality of the optical input vs the USB input?
Thanks,
Taking for granted equal quality of the two systems input/output implementation, no. As long as your talking about nothing with higher data speed requirements than 2 channel 24/96. Some systems have no issues with 24/192 over optical, some do. Otherwise optical is out of the running for any multichannel or DSD use.
 

muad

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Does anyone have an idea where the minidsp 2x4hds usb input would land in the SINAD ranking?
 

B&WTube

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Any thoughts on whether the DAC sound issues, are exclusive to it the DAC process, or if the Active Crossover (the only part that interests me) is lower performing, also?
 

Wes

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Are there easy to use DSP (equalization) DACs with xlnt. measurements?
 

milosz

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Does anyone have an idea where the minidsp 2x4hds usb input would land in the SINAD ranking?
MiniDSP does not have a USB input. The USB connector is only used to connect to a computer to load the DSP software to the board. USB audio cannot be played through a MiniDSP.
 

stunta

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MiniDSP does not have a USB input. The USB connector is only used to connect to a computer to load the DSP software to the board. USB audio cannot be played through a MiniDSP.

I don't think so. From product page:

USB Audio Class 2 Bidirectional streaming with ASIO drivers, driverless under MAC OSx
 

milosz

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Any thoughts on whether the DAC sound issues, are exclusive to it the DAC process, or if the Active Crossover (the only part that interests me) is lower performing, also?
I would guess that the analog implementation - input as well as output- is not optimal, and there may be some issues with their design in the A-to-D and D-to-A conversions as well. It's not the DSP per se that is letting down the performance. Keep in mind that the MiniDSP is a fairly old design and is not very expensive at all.

If you want DSP with better performance perhaps look at something like the DEQX. Of course you won't get one for the same low price of the MiniDSP.

If you have digital audio to begin with, you can do DSP in a home computer and output it to a high quality DAC like the recently reviewed Topping E30 DAC. If you are doing crossovers you will need multiple DACs, one for each pair of drivers. (I just bought an E30 from APOS AUDIO for $129 incl. shipping to Chicago...) This sort of thing would not be too hard to implement if you are handy with computers. There's a fair amount of open-source software for DSP in a computer, like foo_dsp_xover http://xover.sourceforge.net/ You could use a cheap, used small form factor computer as a dedicated DSP machine or something like an Intel NUC tiny little machine.

If you must use analog audio and want DSP you will also need a high quality A-to-D converter. I'm sure you can find a review in ASR of a unit that does a good job of A-to-D conversion.
 

milosz

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I don't think so. From product page:
The MiniDSP 2x4 doesn't offer USB audio, see https://www.minidsp.com/products/minidspkits/2-x-in-4-x-out

You are right, though, about the "MiniDSP 2x4 In A Box" product which I guess is what was reviewed here on ASR, my bad. I am more familiar with MiniDSP's raw PCB products.

They are using the XMOS chipset for USB, which is good, though I prefer the Amanero (mostly because I know how to implement it....)
 

Davelemi

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The MiniDSP 2x4 doesn't offer USB audio, see https://www.minidsp.com/products/minidspkits/2-x-in-4-x-out

You are right, though, about the "MiniDSP 2x4 In A Box" product which I guess is what was reviewed here on ASR, my bad. I am more familiar with MiniDSP's raw PCB products.

They are using the XMOS chipset for USB, which is good, though I prefer the Amanero (mostly because I know how to implement it....)
I believe he's talking about the 2x4HD, which does have usb input.
 
D

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Any thoughts on whether the DAC sound issues, are exclusive to it the DAC process, or if the Active Crossover (the only part that interests me) is lower performing, also?
The whole thing is low performing. I wouldn't consider it if I were you.

Dave.
 

mieswall

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MiniDSP does not have a USB input. The USB connector is only used to connect to a computer to load the DSP software to the board. USB audio cannot be played through a MiniDSP.
Wrong. I've been feeding the unit with the usb port of my mac daily for months now, without any problem.
Btw, i've got used to the *slightly* inferior sound of the 2x4hd (compared with my other dacs). The sonic improvement of using active crossover functions for my monitors and subwoofer compensate that flaw.
But: One serious problem i had was the bad idea of "upgrading" the unit to Dirac, that never worked, presumably because of software conflicts with other apps running in my mac, related with ip ports usage. After an absurd reply from minidsp ("upgrade the unit", "read the manuals" both of wich i was describing in my questions), they stopped answering my requests for support. Worse, i can't use the previous wonderful EQ's i've done, not compatible with the new firmware. Now in self reclusion, I hope to have some time to "downgrade" the unit, getting rid of this Dirac upgrade (and the money of the upgrade). Not a problem of Dirac, of course, but poor implementation and support by minidsp. A shame.
 

Sal1950

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Not a problem of Dirac, of course, but poor implementation and support by minidsp. A shame.
That surprises and disappoints me. :(
 
D

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That surprises and disappoints me. :(
When the miniDSP guys went the Dirac route it really complicated their support structure/issues.
I refuse to hop on the Dirac train myself. It's too effing expensive and I can do a pretty good job of "room correction" manually.

Dave.
 

stunta

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When the miniDSP guys went the Dirac route it really complicated their support structure/issues.
I refuse to hop on the Dirac train myself. It's too effing expensive and I can do a pretty good job of "room correction" manually.

Dave.

I have the 8 channel version with Dirac and haven't really had any major issues with it. Perhaps it was designed for Dirac from the get go and this 2 channel unit was a retro-fit.
 
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