Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Yep bang on. Digital source to DSP to dacs. The crossover happens in digital realm before the amp so each channel from each amp only deals with a narrow frequency band.

wut

Multiple dacs?

Digital signal processor box. You get 2 channels in (l+r). You can split that into 8 channels out. Those outputs can be left, right or both (mono), each of the 8 can be individually EQ’d and assigned a frequency band.
I’ll be using 5 outputs. #1 is left channel 80-800hz, #2 is the same but for right channel. 3&4 are 800-20khz left and right, #5 is 20-80hz mono to the subwoofer.
The idea is that none of the drivers is being given frequencies it’s no good at reproducing.
Each channel needs d/a conversion. Each DAC has 2 channels so I need 3 of them.

Lockdown projects be lockdown projects.

I know what a DSP is, just seems insanely complicated. I understand the logic but man. That's wild. Good luck tomorrow!

Yeah it’s silly, I’m enjoying it though.

Got this done, here's all the kit. It all gets closed away, the gear on top still looks tidy.

The Creek integrated amp has a power amp input. Turns out it doesn't defeat the volume control, so if I understand it, that means variable gain and you need to be careful. I Looked up setting gain with a multimeter and test tone and set it at 20v which was pretty close to the bottom of the volume pot. When I started playing music it sounded really bloaty in the midrange so I turned it down all the way and it sounded much better.

Top end I've had to pull down loads, its -24dB with the woofers at 0. Don't know if that's down to efficiency, wattage or what.

It sounds alright, a downside is software based volume control, not keen on that. I can comfortably turn the volume all the way up and it not be crazy, which is way down on what it was capable of before in analogue config, but that might be down to the digital preamp. I'll see how it is running in Audirvana when I've got this usb-coax converter, that may well be a lot better. I'm currently streaming to Chromecast through the Tidal app natively.

Listening as I write this it sounds lovely, but it sounded lovely before too. Who would have known?I'll have to live with it for a bit.

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Sounds overly complex

which can be achieved with 1 amp + 1 dac and with various (3) crossovers.

Ha! Fuxake.

You bought a d70 now? Where’s the d50 gone

No never had one. Just the D70 since end of last year.

Now I've spent the day with it, being able to hear each driver in isolation is something new, its surprising how unlistenable they are on their own. Being able to get hold of the signal and mess with it is fun. The DSP box and the little amp are the only new things here, reconfiguring the gear like a lego set to allow different stuff is a nice diversion. I really want to do the measured room correction filters now. And get hold of an old pair of bookshelves, pull the crossovers out and make them into actives.

Lol, this hobby 😂
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15090679/

Ha! Funny how it goes innit. This has pretty much been a thought diversion project, it’s kept me sane through the madness.

Sorted out the levels now by connecting the integrated amp to the woofers differently. I’ve got full volume output and no more 24dB cut to the treble.

Change of subject but I think you mentioned an OSX file syncing program on a thread recently. I've got the modern audiophool problem of keeping a number of different storage locations in sync and I'm bored of doing it by hand.

Apologies if it wasn't you.

If you like how it works you can streamline the process with Hypex 3 way amps. They have dsp etc. built in. I'm not sure but I think you can send them audio over ethernet.

Hi HiFi lovers!
Due to dangerous 3 years old in the house, there's no vinyl playing facility in our living room but I could fit speakers somewhere and link them to the system in adjacent room, using the "B" speaker output of the amp.
What kind of maximum (under floor board) cable length is it acceptable to have? I reckon I'd need 12 meters.

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Check how long the cables are in movie theatres...

That’s great to know, thanks. Looked at their website but couldn’t quite figure it out as it’s oem type stuff.

So they do a multi-channel amp with DSP on each channel and digital in? That would be amazing!

What kind of maximum (under floor board) cable length is it acceptable to have?

For 8Ω speakers, you'd presumably want to keep the wire resistance down to under 0.8Ω on the AvE basis of being able to pull 10% out of any voltage without serious consequences, which equates to around 50m cable length in the common 79/0.2mm speaker wire.
The cable resistance might start to become a material element in any RC low-pass filter in your crossover, but unless you have a much bigger house than we're imagining, that's going to lower your cut-off frequency by an insignificant margin once you're down to cable runs in the 10m range.

They are the leading guys in class d amps. My PMC setup uses them. My mains are Dynaudio Air20, 3 ways with B&O amps and some early dsp. It's becoming more usual to have this sort of setup. Some of the active ATC's have class A or A/B 3 ways.

Only problem with the class D amps is problems cropping up that are near impossible to diagnose and can cause sudden terminal failure.

https://www.hypex.nl/product/nc500-oem/50

for multichannel. Basically the ncore range. You match an amp to a power supply and mount the lot in a case.

While the Class D nerds are in the house, what's the thinking on PSUs for audiophile use? When I was a boy, DNM did a battery power supply for their preamp on the grounds of providing low noise and low impedance. With 30 years of battery advances since then, I wonder whether the #tartmode power amp PSU might be something like a 48V Lithium pack out of an e-bike?

If you ignore the old guard, switch mode PSUs are the best - for the same reason class D is the best. Able to keep up with big swings in current requirement, efficient, and the switching frequency is well out of audible range. As with everything though, you get what you pay or. I think the battery brigade are still into lead acid.

The Hypex MP based amps are appealing to me as they have onboard PSUs - presumably designed by Hypex. SMPS, natch.

The only Hypex amps I've seen that are off-the-shelf multi-channel with DSP are their fusion range, made to be build into speakers.

SoundImports have them, as do Wilsmlow Audio if you want to go local.

Could put them in a new case, or convince Hypex you're a speaker builder and buy the OEM module.