Why aren't we pushing for more 4-8 channel DACS for a quality Stereo setup

[Honken]

Yeah, the benefit is surely academic but why not? Note that some players will adjust their output to match the output on the loopback card. At least MPD does this, a stop and resume "fixes" it though. Not sure if there's a workaround for that.

Oh and, that script is from when I was toying with a quadraphonic setup. If you have MCH music and you do your XO on lower channels you could be in for a surprise I suppose.

 

[B&WTube]

You do not need to configure the MOTU for any particular OS. There is a small amount of setup needed in CueMix but that is very straightforward. Things like routing the usb input channels to usb output channels and saying which channels you want to have controlled by the master volume knob. Anyone that has ever used a computer will be able to do it. Once you have these basics setup you never need to touch CueMix.

Setting up CamillaDSP is a much more daunting task for the uninitiated. As some one who has both the Okto and the MOTU it is pretty much the same between the two. MOTU does seem to need a newer kernel version but works fine on Ubuntu 21.04. I posted step by step instructions as well as a basic CamillaDSP configuration in the thread below.

MOTU UltraLite-mk5 Review (Audio Interface)

when I read the manual, it looked like it was possible to assign multiple outputs to the volume control. page 35. https://cdn-data.motu.com/manuals/usb-c-audio/UltraLite-mk5_User_Guide.pdf Sorry, the question I answered was about the M4, but I should have made that clear that in the reply...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The MOTU does not have a fixed sample rate and can adjust with the source. CamillaDSP DOES have a fixed sample rate once started, so you either need to resample everything to a consistent rate or you can use a plugin to restart CamillaDSP each time the sample rate changes. This is the same with using CamillaDSP with any DAC. I personally resample as going to a higher sample rate like 96 kHz prevents high frequency warping.

Michael

Thanks for clearing some things up for me- this is very helpful. While this still isn't a perfect solution, it is looking like its the best value of what we have, so I will likely dive deeper into this stuff, later. I am still trying to lobby with a few venders and manufacturers, to get someone interested in a better/simpler/cheaper solution. I am hoping a dac Hat maker will latch on. However, if no one is going to bite now- at least the cause will be on their radar, and perhaps eventually something gets done. Thanks for all your help/advice/insight!

 

[dualazmak]

Hello everyone,

Al Clark of Danville Signal would be another candidate.

At Danville Signal, they have been already producing/marketing dspNexus 2/8, 2-in 8-out onebox DSP/EQ multichannel DAC capable of up to 384k in all of the 8 channels, using the excellent AKK DAC processor.

As shared in my post here and here, recently I had nice e-mail communication with Al Clark of Danville Signal, and I intensively discussed with him on their new dspNexsus 2/16 which will be hopefully available by the end of this year.

He said that for dspNexus 2/16, they will use two of ES9028PRO or ES9038PRO since AKK DAC processors are currently unavailable after the catastrophic fire accident at AKK's Oita Factory on October 20, 2020, in Oita, Japan. (This is just fine for me, since I am currently using Okto DAC8PRO with ES9028 in it.)

He also informed me that in the coming dspNexus 2/16, of course all of the 16 channels are fully in sync controlled by two of the synced XMOS and their excellent firmware.

These clearly mean that Al Clark and Danville Signal would be highly capable of developing "2-in 16-out fully in-sync simple and excellent mulitichannel DAC in onebox".

Edit: For the possible simple onebox multichannel DACs, of course we need reliable USB ASIO driver which should recognize all of the 16 channels of the DAC as output channel looking from digital software crossover DSP/EQ in PC through single USB 2.0 cable connection!

As you understand, the coming Danville's dspNexus 2/16 will look like onebox alternative for the very expensive Trinnov Altitude 32; we (at least myself), however, do not need all of the DSP/EQ functions, and we/I need only the fully sync "2-in 16-out" (or "2-in 12-out") excellent multichannel DAC unit.

I assume that it should be highly worthwhile if OP @B&WTube could also contact with Al Clark of Danville Signal for your (our) serious demands for such simle multichannel DAC unit (all XLR balanced I/O, I hope) referring this nice thread. I do hope the possible DAC unit would have functionality of synchronization between two of them (by common outer clock unit, or by AES/EBU sync mechanism).

Al Clark has nice "Talk to US" web page, and he always responds very quickly and intensively.

 

[B&WTube]

Hello everyone,

Al Clark of Danville Signal would be another candidate.

At Danville Signal, they have been already producing/marketing dspNexus 2/8, 2-in 8-out onebox DSP/EQ multichannel DAC capable of up to 384k in all of the 8 channels, using the excellent AKK DAC processor.

As shared in my post here and here, recently I had nice e-mail communication with Al Clark of Danville Signal, and I intensively discussed with him on their new dspNexsus 2/16 which will be hopefully available by the end of this year.

He said that for dspNexus 2/16, they will use two of ES9028PRO or ES9038PRO since AKK DAC processors are currently unavailable after the catastrophic fire accident at AKK's Oita Factory on October 20, 2020, in Oita, Japan. (This is just fine for me, since I am currently using Okto DAC8PRO with ES9028 in it.)

He also informed me that in the coming dspNexus 2/16, of course all of the 16 channels are fully in sync controlled by two of the synced XMOS and their excellent firmware.

These clearly mean that Al Clark and Danville Signal would be highly capable of developing "2-in 16-out fully in-sync simple and excellent mulitichannel DAC in onebox".

As you understand, the coming Danville's dspNexus 2/16 will look like onebox alternative for the very expensive Trinnov Altitude 32; we (at least myself), however, do not need all of the DSP/EQ functions, and we/I need only the fully sync "2-in 16-out" (or "2-in 12-out") excellent multichannel DAC unit.

I assume that it should be highly worthwhile if OP @B&WTube could also contact with Al Clark of Danville Signal for your (our) serious demands for such simle multichannel DAC unit (all XLR balanced I/O, I hope) referring this nice thread. I do hope the possible DAC unit would have functionality of synchronization between two of them (by common outer clock unit, or by AES/EBU sync mechanism).

Al Clark has nice "Talk to US" web page, and he always responds very quickly and intensively.

Thanks for bringing all of this to my/out attention. As you suggest, I will reach out to him tomorrow, and see what interest he might have in making something that fits the bill. I may reach out to Gishelli, as was recommending, as well. Worst any of them can do is say ‘No’.

 

[goryu]

I was told a few weeks ago that the Danville 2 in 8 out dac was not yet in production. I was also told it would cost around $3000+, or approximately 3x what the Octo Research dac8 pro costs.

 

[dualazmak]

Thanks for bringing all of this to my/out attention. As you suggest, I will reach out to him tomorrow, and see what interest he might have in making something that fits the bill. I may reach out to Gishelli, as was recommending, as well. Worst any of them can do is say ‘No’.

Thank you, I do hope much good luck for your contacts with them!

BTW, I edited above my post adding one paragraph there.

 

[dualazmak]

I was told a few weeks ago that the Danville 2 in 8 out dac was not yet in production. I was also told it would cost around $3000+, or approximately 3x what the Octo Research dac8 pro costs.

Thank you for your follow-up. It is a rather disappointing news...

The price of $3000+ for dspNexus 2/8 would be understandable since the unit is almost equivalent to Trinnov Altitude 16, both containing intensive hardware plus software DSP/EQ in them.

I believe, as I wrote in my post above, Danville is capable of designing/manufacturing simple, reasonable and excellent multichannel DACs like Okto's DAC8PRO. The possibilities would be, of course, depending on their corporate strategies and the potential market size...

 

[dualazmak]

I was told a few weeks ago that the Danville 2 in 8 out dac was not yet in production. I was also told it would cost around $3000+, or approximately 3x what the Octo Research dac8 pro costs.

BTW, I am aware of this post, but I am not sure which Danville product @AudioGuruJax is using...

 

[B&WTube]

BTW, I am aware of this post, but I am not sure which Danville product @AudioGuruJax is using...

Al is a really nice guy, and we talked on the phone for over an hour today. This man really knows what he is doing, and he knows all of the names in the business (not that he was name dropping at all, but we covered a variety of topics). While he has great products, his $3k Nexus is going to be the closest he to "affordable consumer products" as he cares to get. wants to get to budget, as he has a certain branding/target audience/price point he wants to maintain. He is not interested in a race to the bottom price (I can't say I blame him, at all- I wouldn't want that in his shoes). However, racing to the best priced good stuff is exactly what I am about.

So, long story short- he has no interest in making it, but a worthwhile conversation with a very nice and highly intelligent individual.

 

[JRS]

Deqx gen4 has been announced, due in 2022.

Just noticed this--I am curious in a morbid fashion. Trinnov has upped the bar big time, and the DEQX rejoinder is likely more money than everything else I have in my system including my 65 OLED display. Be fun to see what Alan L. and crew have done--all I know is that it will finally be 8 channel and provide streaming.

 

[OdysseusG]

Just noticed this--I am curious in a morbid fashion. Trinnov has upped the bar big time, and the DEQX rejoinder is likely more money than everything else I have in my system including my 65 OLED display. Be fun to see what Alan L. and crew have done--all I know is that it will finally be 8 channel and provide streaming.

Yeah, the feature set seems laser focused on me. I currently have a HDP-4 running 3-way xover on my mains and got a PDC-2.6 to slave to it for my subs, but gave up on running two units due to the complexity. However, I only have those two pieces because I found screaming bargains in the used market after years of optimism/hunting. It's going to be bittersweet reading about how perfect it is and then seeing a retail price 2-3 times higher than I can stomach.

 

[Spocko]

Just noticed this--I am curious in a morbid fashion. Trinnov has upped the bar big time, and the DEQX rejoinder is likely more money than everything else I have in my system including my 65 OLED display. Be fun to see what Alan L. and crew have done--all I know is that it will finally be 8 channel and provide streaming.

This is indeed impressive - opens up a whole new world for speaker designers incorporating this next gen DEQX as an integral part of the speaker.

 

[dualazmak]

Al is a really nice guy, and we talked on the phone for over an hour today. This man really knows what he is doing, and he knows all of the names in the business (not that he was name dropping at all, but we covered a variety of topics). While he has great products, his $3k Nexus is going to be the closest he to "affordable consumer products" as he cares to get. ......

Only for our reference,,,

I just received "October DSP News Updates" from Al Clark of Danville containing announcement of coming dspNexus 2/8 to be available towards the end of 2021. This time Al shared the inside view of dspNexus 2/8;

Looks he is slow but really steady. As I wrote in my post #143, I am not in a hurry, and ready to wait possible launch of dspNexus 2/16.

 

[somebodyelse]

Only for our reference,,,

I just received "October DSP News Updates" from Al Clark of Danville containing announcement of coming dspNexus 2/8 to be available towards the end of 2021. This time Al shared the inside view of dspNexus 2/8;
View attachment 157193
View attachment 157194
View attachment 157195

Looks he is slow but really steady. As I wrote in my post #143, I am not in a hurry, and ready to wait possible launch of dspNexus 2/16.

Any news on what you get to do with the included Pi 4?

 

[goryu]

wish he would put out a simpler 8 channel dac that would compete with the Octo Research dac. I personally don't want to pay twice the price of the Octo when I can do all the extra dsp with a computer I already have.

 

[dualazmak]

Any news on what you get to do with the included Pi 4?

No, not yet...

We have some hints,,,
Danville is using built in digital XO functionality programmed by Audio Weaver from DSP Concepts.
and, https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=163490.msg1738165#msg1738165

Also the Product Brief and User Manual for Danville's past product "dspMusic" which you can find here, would give you some suggestions.

In any way, I do hope dspNexus 2/8 will be released very soon with detailed information on how to control and configure it.

 

[dualazmak]

wish he would put out a simpler 8 channel dac that would compete with the Octo Research dac. I personally don't want to pay twice the price of the Octo when I can do all the extra dsp with a computer I already have.

Yes, I agree...

Since I already have and fully utilize OKTO DAC8PRO, I am greatly expecting similar 12-Ch or 16-Ch simple multichannel DAC without XO functionality; I like to do it upstream in PC by nice software XO/DSP/EQ like EKIO as I am using. I believe OKTO and Danville are capable of designing and manufacturing such 12-CH or 16-Ch DACs, but I am afraid the market size would not be large enough for their decisions...

At least judging from @B&WTube's recent nice discussion with Al Clark of Danville, Al seems to be rather reluctant in this regards on their possible products under USD 3k.

 

[jtatknox]

I would buy something like this if the price were right. See the recent ASR review today fo the Parasound 4 DAX, which did not measure great.

 

[JRS]

Yeah, the feature set seems laser focused on me. I currently have a HDP-4 running 3-way xover on my mains and got a PDC-2.6 to slave to it for my subs, but gave up on running two units due to the complexity. However, I only have those two pieces because I found screaming bargains in the used market after years of optimism/hunting. It's going to be bittersweet reading about how perfect it is and then seeing a retail price 2-3 times higher than I can stomach.

I hear you--for a long time I have been wanting to try my hand at a 2.5 + SW's (thought of doing an analog LP x/o for one of the woofers, and measuring/correcting as an ensemble but would like to do it all digitally to get some traction on the phase issues). My 2.6 is running on empty, has no mic input response, and thinking sooner or later, would have to make the switch to a software solution. Looked around and followed this thread.

Now, pretty certain that I will go with Audiolense and maybe one of those Unicorn Mk 5's, the octopus being unobtanium. Too old to thrash I also decided to enlist the support of MitchCo who has set up many active 3 ways with the same gear. But I will miss a single box PC-less solution, though I understand with Roon or whatever, I can just upload the filters and disconnect the computer once the filter set is designed. But no way am I dropping 2K on a streamer. More like 250. I'll keep all apprised of progress, I'm in the middle of a domestic mess and it will take some time for the dust to settle. I did splurge a bit and ordered some Sundaras and a Topping dac/amp combo. Should keep me entertained in the meantime, especially as I have never owned an audiophile set of phones.

 

[JRS]

I would buy something like this if the price were right. See the recent ASR review today fo the Parasound 4 DAX, which did not measure great.

In a heartbeat. And my heart was a twitter when I saw the 2x8 Parasound descriptor--alas, not what I hand in mind, counting balanced and unbalanced outputs separately, ear screeching artefact, etc.

Still wish miniDSP would get their act together and outfit a 2x8 or a 4x10 with the better DAC's and SHARC's used in the SHD, bundled with Dirac to at least have the option--say for 1200. That would be close to perfect, esp with remote control and some PEQ's for crappy recordings.