Review and Measurements of miniDSP SHD DAC, DSP And Streamer

[Deleted member 6802]

Yes, what is the question?

How dose it sound compare to your previous pre amp? I am asking because once me and my father tested 3 different pre amps for his primare a32 and end up going with primare pre32 pre amplifer as it sounded best. So what I am trying to say is if it is good to use it with example the new class D power amps from audiophonic without loss in sound quality?

 

[Deleted member 2944]

Dose anyone has experience with using the Minidsp SHD as an pre amp?

The SHD is not a preamp. At least not in the traditional sense.
There's no phono section, no line-amp section, no tape-monitor or looping capability, no voltage gain in excess of unity, etc, etc, etc.

If your intention is to use without utilizing the extensive DSP/Dirac capability, then I think you should look for another solution.

Dave.

 

[Deleted member 6802]

The SHD is not a preamp. At least not in the traditional sense.
There's no phono section, no line-amp section, no tape-monitor or looping capability, no voltage gain in excess of unity, etc, etc, etc.

If your intention is to use without utilizing the extensive DSP/Dirac capability, then I think you should look for another solution.

Dave.

I planned to use it as a streamer and volume controller for a power amp and ofc use its room correction to improve sound quality. What I am concerned about is if its volume control is good for such use case or do I need a traditional preamp?

 

[ironhorse128]

I planned to use it as a streamer and volume controller for a power amp and ofc use its room correction to improve sound quality. What I am concerned about is if its volume control is good for such use case or do I need a traditional preamp?

It is a modern digital volume control. Works perfectly. No concerns.

 

[BeepPeep_61]

I planned to use it as a streamer and volume controller for a power amp and ofc use its room correction to improve sound quality. What I am concerned about is if its volume control is good for such use case or do I need a traditional preamp?

Hello,
I have owned the SDH miniDSP for several months and have been using it to drive two McIntosh MC601 monophonic amplifiers.
I can say that using the balanced XLR outputs, there are no problems driving the amplifiers, that the wide range of attenuation of the volume (100dB) and the silence of the output stage of the SDH are doing an excellent job inside my HI system FI.
Never had any problems and the environment correction works great by solving the problems that my room had.
In summary it is an apparatus that I recommend.
Happy listening to everyone

 

[Deleted member 6802]

It is a modern digital volume control. Works perfectly. No concerns.

Hello,
I have owned the SDH miniDSP for several months and have been using it to drive two McIntosh MC601 monophonic amplifiers.
I can say that using the balanced XLR outputs, there are no problems driving the amplifiers, that the wide range of attenuation of the volume (100dB) and the silence of the output stage of the SDH are doing an excellent job inside my HI system FI.
Never had any problems and the environment correction works great by solving the problems that my room had.
In summary it is an apparatus that I recommend.
Happy listening to everyone

Thank you for your replies, now i have confidence in buying one when my bank account allows for it

 

[murraycamp]

How dose it sound compare to your previous pre amp? I am asking because once me and my father tested 3 different pre amps for his primare a32 and end up going with primare pre32 pre amplifer as it sounded best. So what I am trying to say is if it is good to use it with example the new class D power amps from audiophonic without loss in sound quality?

I don't know about "sound quality" as that is a purely subjective determination and really doesn't mean anything useful when discussing equipment. Based on measurements, it should be audibly transparent. Mine is.

I use it as a "pre-amp" and agree that it would be great if it had HT bypass and a more user (read: wife/gf/so) friendly input selector. But in terms of it's transparency, it's great. HTH, IMHO, YMMV, etc.

 

[dwkdnvr]

FWIW MiniDSP provides Harmony configuration for the SHD. I have mine running our Living Room system via a Harmony, and my wife hasn't complianed (yet) about it. I do agree though - on/off via the remote and a trigger out are annoying omissions on what is otherwise almost a perfect unit.
I would like per-source volume memory though. For some reason our TV has much lower output over toslink than the Squeezebox Touch does over coax for music - I need to back off the volume 8-10dB when swiching over to music (which is actually the opposite of what I'd expect). Haven't tried the built-in Volumio yet, so I'm not sure whether it behaves similarly.

 

[Deleted member 6802]

I don't know about "sound quality" as that is a purely subjective determination and really doesn't mean anything useful when discussing equipment. Based on measurements, it should be audibly transparent. Mine is.

I use it as a "pre-amp" and agree that it would be great if it had HT bypass and a more user (read: wife/gf/so) friendly input selector. But in terms of it's transparency, it's great. HTH, IMHO, YMMV, etc.

I agree on that, i should correct my self and say that by sound quality i mean that it is transparent and dosnt negatively impact the sound. My technical knowledge of how he audio equipment works is very shallow so i apologise for my poor explanations. I am just talking out of listening experience. Why is the HT bypass so important? asking out of curiosity

 

[murraycamp]

I agree on that, i should correct my self and say that by sound quality i mean that it is transparent and dosnt negatively impact the sound. My technical knowledge of how he audio equipment works is very shallow so i apologise for my poor explanations. I am just talking out of listening experience. Why is the HT bypass so important? asking out of curiosity

No worries. It's a journey. I have learned a lot since I joined ASR. You will too.

HT bypass is useful if your HT set up and your music system all run through the same back end.

 

[stunta]

With SHD Studio + 1 2-channel DAC, isn't the crossover feature effectively useless? One of the main reasons I have 2 miniDsp units is the crossover functionality.

 

[Deleted member 6802]

No worries. It's a journey. I have learned a lot since I joined ASR. You will too.

HT bypass is useful if your HT set up and your music system all run through the same back end.

I sober up a lot since i noticed this forum, especially when you are coming from what-hifi, headphone.org etc. Especially regarding class d amplifiers

The way i imagine it is a power amp with both xlr and rca outputs. The xlr outputs are occupied by the minidsp so you still have the RCA outputs to use with a AV-Reciver. Are these RCA outputs from a power amp not as usefull as an HT bypass?

 

[murraycamp]

I sober up a lot since i noticed this forum, especially when you are coming from what-hifi, headphone.org etc. Especially regarding class d amplifiers

The way i imagine it is a power amp with both xlr and rca outputs. The xlr outputs are occupied by the minidsp so you still have the RCA outputs to use with a AV-Reciver. Are these RCA outputs from a power amp not as usefull as an HT bypass?

I don't know. I run my AV receiver through the balanced input on the SHD (with an adapter cable).

 

[bughunt62]

I'm definitely intrigued by the SHD and adding room correction.

I'm thinking it could replace my pre-amp (Simaudio Neo 350P, the version without digital inputs) and digital source (I use Roon via MacMini -> SMSL M500 to the preamp using XLRs). My phono preamp could go into the XLR input on the SHD; my only other sources are an SACD player (which frankly doesn't get much use) and a second turntable hooked up to another phono preamp with both XLR and SE output (so I could use something like a Schiit Sys as a switch with the second turntable & SACD player going into the SE analog input, if I really wanted to keep all of my current sources active).

I appreciate everyone's efforts & inputs to this thread; it is extremely informative.

 

[RigorDude]

I'll add that I use my miniDSP SHD with a Benchmark AHB2 and, while I can't use low gain on the amp, it works wonderfully. I connect my turntable to the SHD via a phono stage, and that works perfectly for me.

My only complaint regards the remote control. It does the job but is of low quality. A specific issue that drives me batty is that I cannot use it to turn the SHD on or off. I think you can use one of those fancy third party ones, but I find them too big, full of redundant features, and cumbersome.

Other than that I am EXTREMELY happy with the set up.



miniDSP: please upgrade the control (the unit is more than $1000, it should come with a better one) and add power functionality to it!!!

This is encouraging, but is the miniDSP transparent with an analog input? Amir's review didn't test the ADC, and I can't find a review anywhere else with this info.

I'm not looking for state of the art, just something around 100 dB.

 

[Dimifoot]

I'm not looking for state of the art, just something around 100 dB.

Why do you care? it’s just vinyl.
70db max dynamic range

 

[oohlou]

This is encouraging, but is the miniDSP transparent with an analog input? Amir's review didn't test the ADC, and I can't find a review anywhere else with this info.

I'm not looking for state of the art, just something around 100 dB.

Take a look at the miniDSP 2x4HD measurements: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...urements-and-minidsp-2x4-hd-dsp-and-dac.2674/

Perhaps this is naive on my part, but I would expect the SHD to perform at least as well as the 2x4HD's analog inputs.

 

[RigorDude]

Perhaps this is naive on my part, but I would expect the SHD to perform at least as well as the 2x4HD's analog inputs.

Thanks. That seems like a reasonable assumption, though one never knows for sure. It looks like the 2x4HD achieves15 bits on the analog input, if I understand it right.

 

[RigorDude]

Why do you care? it’s just vinyl.
70db max dynamic range

My understanding is that the resolution of the ADC will be the limiting resolution overall for this type of unit. And you only have the maximum bit depth to begin if you input the analog signal at or near the highest possible level for the ADC -- not a good thing, apparently. In Amir's reviews of ADCs, he sometimes finds it necessary to back off the rated input level to avoid generating lots of distortion.

Once in the digital domain, you will then throw away bits from whatever you had to start -- with EQ and any other DSP, as well as the digital volume control if there is one. (I don't know whether the miniDSP has a fixed analog output.)

So if you take 70 dB as the maximum dynamic range you might need for LP playback or an RTR deck, then -- so I think -- you need to allow some unspecified further margin. Is 20 dB or so not a reasonable margin?

More generally, it seems better to have more resolution than one will actually use -- sort of like 24-bit DACs being a desirable thing. I'm open to new information, and would be much obliged to anyone who can help me see how the above isn't the best way to think about it.

 

[RigorDude]

I believe that Amir doesn't think that there are significant differences between inputs in good, modern equipment, so he generally doesn't bother to test them all.

Given that Amir's measurements have shown that miniDSP has been honest about their measurements, I see absolutely no reason to not trust them here.

MiniDSP's spec sheet for the 2X4 HD claims SNR of 103 dB. Looking at Amir's graphs, the ADC appears to have 2nd harmonic content at about 92 dB. Resolution via the analog input is 15 bits.