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Review and Measurements of Okto DAC8 8Ch DAC & Amp

dualazmak

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I've used multiple Mytek stereo DACs with one as master and the others with their clocks slaved and daisy-chained. The signal is USB from JRiver via a USB hub and the output is formatted for a virtual multichannel device by MacOS. In theory, any DACs with clock in/outs could work.

Thank you, Kal,

In my plan with DAC8PRO, I will use just one another DAC for SWs in up to only 24bit 192kHz from EKIO. Can you specifically suggest any suitable such DAC which is sync capable with DAC8PRO?
 

Kal Rubinson

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In my plan with DAC8PRO, I will use just one another DAC for SWs in up to only 24bit 192kHz from EKIO. Can you specifically suggest any suitable such DAC which is sync capable with DAC8PRO?
No because the DAC8 has no accessible clock in/outs.
 

dualazmak

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No because the DAC8 has no accessible clock in/outs.

OK, noted and understood!

Then I will go forward with two options;
1. to use another DAC for SWs with rather frequent EKIO restart (easy and quick!)
2. to branch WOs' SP cabling into SWs; hi-cut, phase matching, volume matching will be done in SWs

(SW: sub-woofer, WO: woofer)
 

dualazmak

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Well, I notice one point with my SWs, YST-SW1000. It has SP level in and out!
WS000326.JPG


I believe that the SP-out terminal is just the "through out" from SP-in. If the SP-out, however, would be low cut-off signal by its hi-cut filter (-24 dB/Oct), it should be very nice to connect to WOs from this SP-out of SWs. Just for sure, I should check it by Fq response, or just to contact with YAMAHA...
 
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dualazmak

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Let me share with you the current FQ responses of SW, WO, SQ, TW, ST through the outer LC crossover network and attenuators. Here the SWs were receiving line level input from E-460's pre-out.

After building the outer LC network box with new coils and capacitors in August 2019, the WOs sound quite nicely even at 45 Hz - 70 Hz. This may indicate that my option-2 of branching from WOs' SP terminal into SWs would be most feasible to drive SWs by signal below ca.50 Hz in the coming multi-amplifiers system.

WS000343.JPG


WS000329.JPG
 
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maxxevv

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Just for your quick notice and understanding, what I am planning with DAC8PRO is shown in this draft scheme.
Does anyone here have similar idea? Did anyone here already build similar system with DAC8PRO?

View attachment 56460

This looks really complicated.

My depth on electronics is really quite rudimentary so I may be missing some important things from what you are doing.
I am wondering if it made sense to run 8x mono-bloc or 4x dual channel amps between the Okto channel outputs and the individual drivers of the speakers instead ?

It would make for simpler connections, no ? The Active woofers could possibly split channel signal prior to the amplifiers for those channels connected to the the WO drivers in the speakers. The frequency range needing to be expanded from 20hz to 500hz instead of the 55-500hz you are planning on using. The internal adjustable signal crossovers of the active woofers would take care of the frequency cut-offs between the speakers and the active woofers.

So you end up with only 1 DAC, 4 (dual channel) or 8 (single channel) power amps. And of course your active woofers and stereo speakers and your control PC.

Would it make more sense that way ??
 

dualazmak

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This looks really complicated.

My depth on electronics is really quite rudimentary so I may be missing some important things from what you are doing.
I am wondering if it made sense to run 8x mono-bloc or 4x dual channel amps between the Okto channel outputs and the individual drivers of the speakers instead ?

It would make for simpler connections, no ? The Active woofers could possibly split channel signal prior to the amplifiers for those channels connected to the the WO drivers in the speakers. The frequency range needing to be expanded from 20hz to 500hz instead of the 55-500hz you are planning on using. The internal adjustable signal crossovers of the active woofers would take care of the frequency cut-offs between the speakers and the active woofers.

So you end up with only 1 DAC, 4 (dual channel) or 8 (single channel) power amps. And of course your active woofers and stereo speakers and your control PC.

Would it make more sense that way ??

Hello maxxevv,

Thank you, you are quite right and making sense.

As discussed in the above a few posts, I maybe better to go with stereo 4-way 8-channel cross over (EKIO and DAC8PRO) with multi-amplifiers (4 stereo amps or 8 mono amps) so that the lowest channels (I & 2) would be 20 Hz - ca. 600 Hz to be covered by SWs (sub-woofers) and WOs (woofers), and SWs' own hi-cut filter would be set at ca. 55Hz of -24 dB/Oct slope. As written in above post, the physical connection to SWs can be done by branching SP cables at WOs' SP terminal.

Just show in my schematic diagram, I would like to preserve my current single amp - LC network system, to which I may easily go back by physical screw-up change of the SP cables at the connection boards.
 

maxxevv

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Hello maxxevv,

Thank you, you are quite right and making sense.

As discussed in the above a few posts, I maybe better to go with stereo 4-way 8-channel cross over (EKIO and DAC8PRO) with multi-amplifiers (4 stereo amps or 8 mono amps) so that the lowest channels (I & 2) would be 20 Hz - ca. 600 Hz to be covered by SWs (sub-woofers) and WOs (woofers), and SWs' own hi-cut filter would be set at ca. 55Hz of -24 dB/Oct slope. As written in above post, the physical connection to SWs can be done by branching SP cables at WOs' SP terminal.

Just show in my schematic diagram, I would like to preserve my current single amp - LC network system, to which I may easily go back by physical screw-up change of the SP cables at the connection boards.

Thanks for sharing your ideas. The software controls for the crossovers is interesting.

I seriously might consider running something similar with a 3-way speaker and then the spare 2 channels for active subwoofers (at least 1 of them) sometime in the future just as a project.

How much processing power does the DSP software you run need? It was thinking of running a Windows based tablet that serves as a streamer too. A Wifi connection would enable it to tap off from a NAS setup or even streaming sites.

Touch screen would certainly make for easier control of the software too.
 

dualazmak

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Thank you everyone,
Here is the revised plan with SWs (sub-woofers) SP level connections are branched from WOs' SP cables.

WS000331.JPG
 

maxxevv

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The Active Subs should branch out before the amplifiers.

They only need nominal voltage signals.
 

dualazmak

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Thanks for sharing your ideas. The software controls for the crossovers is interesting.

I seriously might consider running something similar with a 3-way speaker and then the spare 2 channels for active subwoofers (at least 1 of them) sometime in the future just as a project.

How much processing power does the DSP software you run need? It was thinking of running a Windows based tablet that serves as a streamer too. A Wifi connection would enable it to tap off from a NAS setup or even streaming sites.

Touch screen would certainly make for easier control of the software too.

To operate EKIO on Windows 10 Pro 64bit PC, you need to also install;

ASIO4ALL
VB-AUDIO VIRTUAL AUDIO CABLE
VB-AUDIO VIRTUAL Hi-Fi CABLE / ASIO BRIDGE

Please refer to my previous posts for input routing from Roon, JRiver MC and browsers through VB AUDIO Hi-Fi VIRTUAL CABLE into EKIO using ASIO4ALL. EKIO also uses ASIO4ALL for output into any of the available USB DACs via ASIO4ALL.

If you would have difficulties in I/O routing, please let me know in this forum. In any way, once the I/O would be properly established, EKIO is very reliable and stable.

Please note that EKIO's processing is all in 24bit 192 kHz; you need to set, by up-sampling or down-sampling, all the output of your players and browsers in 24bit 192kHz. (This is one of the reasons for my preservation of single amp & LC network system for DSD native playback up to 4xDSD format, when needed).

Even the sampling rate is up to 24bit 192 kHz, I highly recommend you to try EKIO's wonderful crossover capabilities and very nice sound quality.

EKIO is rather light and stable software at least in my case, on my audio dedicated silent PC;
M/B: GigaByte Z77MX-D3
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600S 4-core 8-thread
MEMORY: 16 GB
OS and Software SSD: 512 GB Windows 10 Pro 64bit
DATA SSD: 3 TB
Roon, JRiver MC26, AudaCity, TrueRTA, MySpeaker, MS Edge, MS IE, Google Chrome, etc.

EKIO is running together with Roon like;

WS000333.JPG
 

dualazmak

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The Active Subs should branch out before the amplifiers.

They only need nominal voltage signals.
Do you mean by using XLR splitters/distributors? Do you have specific suggestions for splitters/distributors?
 

dualazmak

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The Active Subs should branch out before the amplifiers.

They only need nominal voltage signals.

In this case, I also need to convert the splitted XLR to RCA, as SWs' line level input is unbalanced RCA.... Maybe after the XLR splitter, a XLR-to-RCA cable should work, I hope. Right?
 

dualazmak

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Do you think splitter cable like this would work fine without sound deterioration for SWs and WOs?

WS000334.JPG
 

maxxevv

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To operate EKIO on Windows 10 Pro 64bit PC, you need to also install;

ASIO4ALL
VB-AUDIO VIRTUAL AUDIO CABLE
VB-AUDIO VIRTUAL Hi-Fi CABLE / ASIO BRIDGE

Please refer to my previous posts for input routing from Roon, JRiver MC and browsers through VB AUDIO Hi-Fi VIRTUAL CABLE into EKIO using ASIO4ALL. EKIO also uses ASIO4ALL for output into any of the available USB DACs via ASIO4ALL.

If you would have difficulties in I/O routing, please let me know in this forum. In any way, once the I/O would be properly established, EKIO is very reliable and stable.

Please note that EKIO's processing is all in 24bit 192 kHz; you need to set, by up-sampling or down-sampling, all the output of your players and browsers in 24bit 192kHz. (This is one of the reasons for my preservation of single amp & LC network system for DSD native playback up to 4xDSD format, when needed).

Even the sampling rate is up to 24bit 192 kHz, I highly recommend you to try EKIO's wonderful crossover capabilities and very nice sound quality.

EKIO is rather light and stable software at least in my case, on my audio dedicated silent PC;
M/B: GigaByte Z77MX-D3
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600S 4-core 8-thread
MEMORY: 16 GB
OS and Software SSD: 512 GB Windows 10 Pro 64bit
DATA SSD: 3 TB
Roon, JRiver MC26, AudaCity, TrueRTA, MySpeaker, MS Edge, MS IE, Google Chrome, etc.

EKIO is running together with Roon like;

View attachment 56648

Those are very low memory overheads ! CPU load is not trivial though. But I think a tablet with 8Gb of RAM should cope fine.

In this case, I also need to convert the splitted XLR to RCA, as SWs' line level input is unbalanced RCA.... Maybe after the XLR splitter, a XLR-to-RCA cable should work, I hope. Right?

I'm not sure, but you shouldn't power amp the signal going into an active subwoofer, that I'm very sure.
 

dualazmak

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Those are very low memory overheads ! CPU load is not trivial though. But I think a tablet with 8Gb of RAM should cope fine.
I'm not sure, but you shouldn't power amp the signal going into an active subwoofer, that I'm very sure.

As wrote in previous several posts, My SW YAMAHA YST-SW1000 has both line level input and also speaker level input.... I have used either of these, and there is essentially no difference in sound quality.

WS000326.JPG


WS000335.JPG
 

maxxevv

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If the subs are designed to take in Speaker inputs after amplifiers, then I guess its alright.

Most those active ones I have seen are just designed to take pre-amp or direct DAC inputs only.
 

dualazmak

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Hi all,

YAMAHA quickly responded to my inquiry. As I thought, the SP-out of YST-SW1000 is just the "through" of SP-input.
Consequently, the SP cable branching for SW and WO can be done at YST-SW1000's SP-in/SP-out terminals or WO's (woofer's) SP terminals.
 
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