Setting up NAD C658/C298

[Tedzap]

We are adding a new addition onto the house, and I decided to dedicate some space to 2 channel music listening. After consideration, I have acquired the following hardware:

NAD C658 streaming DAC/pre-amp
NAD C298 amp
B&W Matrix 805 mains
B&W Matrix ASW800 subwoofer
Rocket33 cables
Audioquest XLR interconnects
Main source is Tidal HIFI using Roon

I basically hooked everything together in a temporary location and ran a tightly focussed Dirac room equalization. Doing an A/B test of the results sound better with Dirac... Quite a bit better.

I didn't really spend much time worrying about the Dirac process, am wondering if there are ways to improve the results. The setup process was making statements about what volume to have things set, but I didn't grok what they were saying.

I am wondering if there are any setup things I can do better. Specifically I am wondering about how to setup the subwoofer.

1. I have it attached via RCA cable to the sub out of the C658, but I think I read somewhere that I might get better performance if I attach it to the C298 sub out. Does this mess up the Dirac room eq? Would there be any advantage to attaching via the speaker level outputs of the amp? The sub can accept those as well.

2. Is the crossover controlled in the C658? If so should I adjust the crossver on the sub to the max amount?

3. What volume level should I have the sub to when doing the EQ?


Do I need to worry about the INPUT LEVEL switches and knob on the C298 when hooked up this way?

Should I use the trigger between the two units? Basically if the unit is turned off then I can't send anything to it from ROON. So I have been just turning it on manually... but wondering if there is a simpler way to do this (auto on/off).



Thanks!

 

[Tedzap]

crickets.... guess the questions are just dumb.

 

[Beershaun]

I don't think changing the hook up will make much difference. Dirac runs on the pre-amp so I think hooking it up to the sub from there is best. You get the DSP doing the crossover. Dirac can handle the phasing and delays required to make sure the sub and speakers are correctly timed.

Where you may be able to improve your sound is by using REW with a microphone on your PC and seeing if you can measure the in room results of the Dirac settings and tweak them to improve it's performance.

 

[Tedzap]

Thanks.

I have been burning things in for the last few days. I turned the system off for 24 hours and today when I turned it on I was hearing popping and what I would call discontinuity in the music coming through the speakers. It's like when there is a pop, the music jumps to a slightly different time. Analogous to a skip when using a turntable.


I don't know how to diagnose this, could be Tidal, Roon, C658, C298.


I powered down the Roon core, and also powered down the NADs. Rebooting all seems to have solved the problem as I am not hearing it now.


Can these get out of step somehow? It's almost like the problem stems from the order in which things were powered up.

 

[Beershaun]

how is your Roon core and C658 connected to your network? If they are both on wifi it may be latency introduced due to wifi performance. I recommend both be wired if possible and if not at least one be wired so you are only using 1 wifi hop. In my experience 2 devices on wifi can't stream music reliably between them.

 

[Tedzap]

both are hard wired through a netgear gigabit switch.

 

[Beershaun]

OK. What you described sounds like data transfer latency causing the c658 to have to wait for data from the Roon core and stop playing. If restarting it solved the problem. Keep on the lookout for it occurring again and try just restarting one thing at a time to narrow down to which thing is the problem. the Roon core, the NAD, your home network router, your switch.

Other possibilities to test one at a time:
Also does it occur when playing local music or just streaming from Tidal? If it's just streaming it may be latency or interruption coming from Tidal to your network/Roon core. If it's just local it could be a problem with the file itself or the hard drive on your Roon core.

If it's a problem only with a local file you could try copying it to your personal PC and playing it directly on the PC to see if the file itself plays fine. If the file exhibits the same problem then try re-ripping the song. I have a few songs that do this because when I ripped the CD it was dirty and actually skipped during the ripping process.

If it's a problem with the Roon Core device check to see if there is a software update for it or any way to have it perform a diagnostic and disk maintenance.

If it's the NAD device causing the problems you may want to check if there is a software/firmware update available for it and update it to see if that addresses the problem.

 

[Tedzap]

Well, so far I don't have any way to play local music on this system, so it is streaming only. When this was happening, I tried music ripped to my NAS, from the Tidal database, and live streaming radio. All had the same issue.

Since rebooting, have not heard it. Agree, it seems to have been some sort of latency problem.

 

[Shoaibexpert]

Where you may be able to improve your sound is by using REW with a microphone on your PC and seeing if you can measure the in room results of the Dirac settings and tweak them to improve it's performance.

I also am planning to setup the C298 but with my existing DAC feeding balanced signal to the amp. My question was around overcoming the lack of DIRAC in my setup (since i am not going for the C658, especially after how poorly it performed in Amir's tests). Is there a way to completely replace the DIRAC's time domain corrections with REW (which i know does frequency adjustments) or some other Room EQ SW (using PC + Roon as player) without having to buy any extra HW (that say includes DIRAC)?

Thanks

 

[Beershaun]

I also am planning to setup the C298 but with my existing DAC feeding balanced signal to the amp. My question was around overcoming the lack of DIRAC in my setup (since i am not going for the C658, especially after how poorly it performed in Amir's tests). Is there a way to completely replace the DIRAC's time domain corrections with REW (which i know does frequency adjustments) or some other Room EQ SW (using PC + Roon as player) without having to buy any extra HW (that say includes DIRAC)?

Thanks

I think you could use your pc in the chain to run a dsp program. You need some piece of hardware running a dsp program in the chain when you are playing your music.

 

[EB1000]

Hi

Can you please test this for me:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...st-this-for-me-female-vocal-distortion.22151/

Thanks