miniDSP UMIK-1 or UMIK-2

[whoareyou]

Sorry, I missed that, but as you have found out from @2234rew it is a high quality MCH converter. And now you are getting consistent and repeatable measurements with the timing intact. It does make an audible difference. (PS. I own an mk5 as well).

Well, I'm sure you missed it because you were busy with other stuff

But yes, the repeatability is something I didn't realize I was missing. Some of my filters would sound good, and some would sound worse with new measurments. I couldn't understand it out until now.

I've now taken a handful of measurements and every resulting filter, although graphing slightly different, sounds very good and similar to those of prior measurements.

It's a real eye opener.

 

[2234rew]

Also, I still need to test the MK5 with playlists containing mixed sample rates, and make certain it switches properly between all rates. I've seen reviews on ASR where people have complained about slow switching.

What is connected to your Motu? Windows? macOS ? Linux streamer?

 

[whoareyou]

Windows 11

 

[whoareyou]

With MK5, after testing playlists with multiple sample rates I've found the switching to be a bit slow at times. Result is start of song has a very brief drop-off. Not too bad, but my other DACs play the same playlist without issue. Of course this can all be mitigated by having player software handle the sample rate conversion prior to sending to MK5.

This is with latest firmware and drivers.

 

[2234rew]

With MK5, after testing playlists with multiple sample rates I've found the switching to be a bit slow at times. Result is start of song has a very brief drop-off. Not too bad, but my other DACs play the same playlist without issue. Of course this can all be mitigated by having player software handle the sample rate conversion prior to sending to MK5.

This is with latest firmware and drivers.

If it starts to bother you, there's nothing stopping you from using your other multichannel DAC for playback.

The main thing is the 'best practise' for the measurement part (1 clock for ADC and DAC)

 

[whoareyou]

If it starts to bother you, there's nothing stopping you from using your other multichannel DAC for playback.

The main thing is the 'best practise' for the measurement part (1 clock for ADC and DAC)

Yes, I consistently get better measurements with the MK5, but one thing that still happens and really bothers me is I'm still having the issue with spurious pops and clicks. And they can be loud!
I thought these had gone away with the new setup, but not the case.

Because I never encounter these pops and clicks with any other measurement software I use, I have to once again ask the question to @juicehifi ; Are you positive there is not something floating around in the Audiolense code base that could be root cause of this issue? These noises are a bit concerning at times.

I measure exclusively with the MOTU ASIO drivers, and they seem very stable.

 

[juicehifi]

Audiolense is using Portaudio, which is widely used by commercial and non- commercial companies.

If you could point me towards software that does multichannel measurement without these problems I will see is I can find a replacement.

 

[whoareyou]

Well, I've now completed many more measurements with AL/ Motu ASIO and it's worked perfectly.

Perhaps it was one of the Motu's default configuration options (that I've since changed) which somehow interfered. Maybe something else was running and I didn' realize it..... Like I said, at this point it's rock solid. If it occurs again, I'll dig a bit deeper.

Before AL I used Dirac extensively but I have no idea which library they use. All I can really say is that with Dirac measurements and UMIK-1, over course of many years, I had no issues to speak of. Probably hundreds of measurements.

Thanks

 

[2234rew]

Audiolense is using Portaudio, which is widely used by commercial and non- commercial companies.

If you could point me towards software that does multichannel measurement without these problems I will see is I can find a replacement.

Acourate - this does multichannel measurement a completely different way to Audiolense.

 

[mccarty350]

Whoareyou, huge question here. I've been looking for a person that uses a Parasound P7 as their preamp. I can't get any answers to the question below, I even contacted parasound with no answer:
If you are running in analog bypass with a Parasound P7 can you get 8 channels of xlr output instead of 7 channels and one sub out that leverages bass management? I've just been looking for a high quality 8 channel preout and all I've been able to get so far that is even remotely reasonable are AV processor/preamps but my guess is that that P7 is a significant leg up.

 

[whoareyou]

Whoareyou, huge question here. I've been looking for a person that uses a Parasound P7 as their preamp. I can't get any answers to the question below, I even contacted parasound with no answer:
If you are running in analog bypass with a Parasound P7 can you get 8 channels of xlr output instead of 7 channels and one sub out that leverages bass management? I've just been looking for a high quality 8 channel preout and all I've been able to get so far that is even remotely reasonable are AV processor/preamps but my guess is that that P7 is a significant leg up.

If I'm remembering correctly, the P7 does have some rudimentary channel balance and subwoofer level adjustments, but I leave them disabled with AL's bass management.
Leave everything disabled and the P7 simply passes through whatever type of signal you'd like to pass for each channel.

So, I put one extra subwoofer on the channel that the P7 calls left rear (or something like that), connect my DACs extra suwoofer channel to that input, and connect the subwoofer to the same channel's speaker out. You just need to make certain that all your input/output/speaker output channels are routed properly.

Also doesn't matter if you have bypass on or not. If you need more headroom (as I do with one DAC) then use the extra output the P7 provides. If you have enough headroom and want to use your DAC'S digital volume leave it in bypass. To me the P7 sounds the same in either mode.

I've also used the same DAC directly connected to my amps (without P7), and there is very little difference between the two configurations. The DAC alone may sound a bit more "open", but honestly if I was blind testing I doubt I could tell which was playing.

Just to make sure, the P7 has only provides RCA inputs for the multichannel. It does have one input with XLR inputs but only for a 2 channel source. XLR outputs are provided for all channels.

 

[mccarty350]

So basically I could use all 8 channels for any purpose that I wanted i.e. I could treat the subwoofer rca input/xlr output as a tweeter input?

Yeah, from what I could see it's all RCA input and balanced XLR output, I understand that part.

I would do the same thing you did i.e. disable any settings for that analog in and out and use AL for literally everything. I just have seen systems where the sub input/output can't be treated like 'just another channel' and is subject to subwoofer levels and crossover settings.

My primary purpose is to add some headroom and to have an analog volume control as a failsave, Im sure all of us have had a PC randomly blast noise out of every channel occasionally and it would be nice to have a mute button/failsafe to stop that or to keep there from being some random scenario where windows blasts at maximum volume for no reason.

Sounds like the P7 is about as transparent as anything could be from your assessment.

 

[whoareyou]

So basically I could use all 8 channels for any purpose that I wanted i.e. I could treat the subwoofer rca input/xlr output as a tweeter input?

Yeah, from what I could see it's all RCA input and balanced XLR output, I understand that part.

I would do the same thing you did i.e. disable any settings for that analog in and out and use AL for literally everything. I just have seen systems where the sub input/output can't be treated like 'just another channel' and is subject to subwoofer levels and crossover settings.

My primary purpose is to add some headroom and to have an analog volume control as a failsave, Im sure all of us have had a PC randomly blast noise out of every channel occasionally and it would be nice to have a mute button/failsafe to stop that or to keep there from being some random scenario where windows blasts at maximum volume for no reason.

Sounds like the P7 is about as transparent as anything could be from your assessment.

It's pure analog in / out so I don't see why it wouldn't work. Unless you've enabled the SW analog xover / volume controls, there is no concept of a specific channel per say, I do connect my SW to the channel designated as SW, but I've done out of shear convention.

As I'm sure you're aware, you'd run into problems is if you wanted to use any of the other preamp's inputs.

As far as the "failsafe" volume, I never figured out a a way to set a default volume on this thing. It always turns on to a preset level which depending on overall system efficiency may be a little loud. But yeah, at least it's not full voltage being thrown into your amps.

Not sure what your budget is, but other alternative could be multiple 2 channel preamps to use as line amps to increase voltage. If you get preamps with stepped volume control you could easily use them to evenly balance channels and imit volume to your max listening level.