toddrhodes

Yep, can confirm - once I put the Zen Stream back in, no change to settings, it's like 12-15 dB more quiet in PCM mode (doesn't matter whether I upsample or not). I'll ping iFi on it. /themoreyouknow.gif

Well this is even weirder... I took a look at the settings and just saw outputs for S/PDIF (motherboard) and monitor sound. Both were at 100%. So I went and plugged May in directly to the PC and viewed the USB output both in Windows and in the Holo ASIO driver control panel - everything set to 100%. Then I took a listen and it's definitely back to what I'd expect - PCM is about 6 dB louder than DSD. Listening to the same album I had on in DSD - ...and Justice for All - and had it at -18 dB on DSD, and it's *loud* now in PCM at -28 dB or thereabouts. So for right now, either my adjustments (I played with the sliders, setting them back to 100) "took" or something is up with Zen Stream in NAA PCM mode, I think? Either way, direct from HQ Player PC --> PCM --> May is not quieter than DSD. Thanks for the nudge @GoldenOne!

I will give it a shot - the HQP PC that feeds my NAA is a headless setup so I need to get logged into it with a terminal to see if that could be it. Definitely seems reasonable!

Color me a little confused here. I've always understood PCM to be 6 db louder than DSD, all else equal. I use HQ Player and I generally upsample to DSD 256. Using a volume range on HQP of -55 to -4 dB, I find a comfortable listening level at about -28. "Loud" on most tracks is -20. "Wake up my wife" is -15. I decided to try out NOS PCM mode (and I've also tried upsampled PCM via HQP as well, no change) and "loud" is way up at -8 dB on the HQP volume control. DSD output is substantially louder than PCM and I'm not quite sure why. I can ask this in the HQP software thread if need be, but wondered if anyone else had anything similar to report with May + HQP.

What sort of realistic situation would exist where the difference between 115 and 130 dB DR could be realized? Considering room noise floor - methinks you'd destroy your hearing before that could be "heard."

My May is about 4 weeks old now I think, and I've got probably 400+ hours of play on it, 100 hours of listening or thereabouts (totally guessing here as that seems real high now that I type it out) - IMO, it does get better with age. Better bass and improvements in imaging precision, meaning room cues and spatial cues, are what stand out to me. I've only used mine in NOS mode with HQP providing DSD256 to it. I've tried 32x PCM but just haven't locked into it yet. More on that in a sec. But to me, I didn't want to believe it and it DOES sound excellent out of the box. But whether it's acclimation or it "burns in," I have no idea, I just know I appreciate it now - I'm going to say "far more" - than right away. And that's saying a lot because right out of the box it presented an improved experience over my Denafrips Venus II it replaces. More on that last point - I've fought this urge real hard, but I've come to the conclusion that going straight out of my USB port on my i9900KF HQ Player PC... is just as good as what I've become accustomed to using my Zen Stream as an NAA. I still intend to make the PC USB output "better" and try an even better USB cable than I have, but I'm simplifying my setup and now I'm just getting rid of the NAA entirely. I might go HQP Embedded and run Linux on this machine eventually, I'm not sure. But I can say the Titanis USB input is legit. I've tried it a few times and thought "Nah, it just can't be as good" and I'd convince myself it wasn't. But really, it is. And this is the same thing being said for Spring 3 L3 with the same input as well. My May does have the "enhanced" USB input but I'm using an Intel chip so it technically shouldn't matter in my setup. I now have a Curious Evolved USB cable coming to try out, and have moved May KTE back out of my room and it sits right next to the HQ Player PC. In terms of preferring DSD over PCM - I do get what others say about PCM being more "exciting" but I prefer the timbre and tone density of 256DSD upsampled with the ASDM7EC modulator - gauss-long fitter. In fact I like this whole combo so much, I'm going to sell off the rest of my vinyl that isn't like an heirloom treasure to me, as I honestly can't see playing it anytime soon. No need.

Funny enough I just use the included iPower SMPS that comes with the Zen Stream. @GoldenOnetested it and it measured extremely well for low noise and very low jitter, so I took a shot on it. I had previously used a Pi4, Jussi's NAA image, and LifePO4 batteries. I did power the Zen Stream with LifePO4 5V for one night, but it can really suck those things down so I didn't stick with it. But to me, I don't recall hearing anything better about batteries than I heard from the PSU it comes with. And the increase in SQ from the battery-powered Pi + DDC (Ian Canada DDC) to the Zen Stream with iPower PSU was substantial - remarkable even. So I got rid of all the Pis and crazy battery power supplies and DDCs and have been very satisfied since :)

Sounds like a really neat setup! As a roon user and a Qobuz user, it's not for me, but I do have a GentooPlayer license floating around here somewhere, it was really powerful and I was only using it for an NAA at the time. Glad you found your sweet spot!

Were you using DSD256 and 7EC modulator as well? I was surprised how good PCM 1.5 sounded directly off my HQP motherboard - kinda makes me wonder how it might sound if using HQP Embedded without all the Windows stuff going on like I have now. But still, there was definitely some grain to it that I don't get from my Zen Stream. My hope is that iFi puts out a new streamer at some point (or someone, anyway) that can do PCM 1.5. I don't really see the point in DSD rates higher than 256 (or below that, for that matter), because I just don't feel like any sort of direct connection from a PC to a DAC can compete with a quiet, low-jitter streamer with even decent clocks in it like the iFi. Shame it only does PCM384 though. Anyway, reason I ask is that in 265/7EC with gauss long or sinc-s or sinc-mx, there is no shortage of dynamics, sharpness where needed, "excitement," and so forth. It's startling on many tracks I listen to.

For both DF and Holo DACs (and probably others, these are just the ones I'm familiar with), they will accept DSD at 48k rates, which I believe, in conjunction with "Adaptive Output Rate," makes for an easier load on HQPlayer to convert sample rates. I would be willing to bet that you'll see better performance if you check or gray Adaptive Output Rate and check 48k DSD, then set your DSD rate to 48k 256. Basically what you're telling HQPlayer right now is that if you are playing 24/96, then it should resample to multiples of 44.1 (but in the DSD range, which is much higher but I'm lazy and don't feel like doing the conversion math right now) only. But really, it should be able to do 44.1 rate families in even multiples, and 48k families in even multiples (96, 192, 384 - but again in DSD rates). Checking Adaptive Output Rate allows for this "keep it in the family" feature. There is nothing to be gained by taking 88.2 and converting it to 96, or vice versa - just more work for the machine which might just add unnecessary noise. This reduces the work your machine has to do to resample one rate family to another, which your current settings are forcing it to do :) And without 48k DSD checked, I don't think it will even try to use that rate family for DSD conversion since not all DACs support it. But ours and yours do.

Good deal - I'll update that now. I sometimes flip back and forth from PCM so I would just leave it but I think I'm pretty settled that for me, DSD is the way. Thanks!

This is my setup:

I just use "ASDM7EC" - the other one is for 512+ rates, which no PC on the planet can do right now, so that's more HQ Player Pro territory I believe. That said, if I were you, I'd gray out "Multicore DSP" and also "Adaptive output rate." On my setup, I have Multicore DSP gray, Adaptive Rate checked, CUDA checked. It may have changed but at one point, having Multicore DSP checked like you have, caused poor performance/skips and such. Graying it fixed that and allowed for a higher rate and better modulator on my end.

I just use the same filter in both areas. I will say - when you're doing DSD256 - Sinc L is using a ratio based on what you're converting from and to. And that conversion ratio generally results in a LOT of taps. I don't know the exact math, but I gave up on that thing a long time ago. I think Sinc Mx does a great job filling the gap with it, anyway.

Granted I don't have a terribly convenient way to try PCM 1.5 except for a 3M dual head USB cable directly from my HQP PC via ASIO driver to May - it's pretty good. Far better than I remember a "direct PC to DAC" connection sounding prior, at least. That said, I still prefer, by no small margin, DSD256 + 7EC + gauss-long from my Zen Stream to May KTE. I just went through a few filters on Chocolate Chip Trip: All filters assume DSD256/7EC modulator: EXT2 - very exciting filter, lots of snap, but doesn't layer like I prefer Sinc S - better than I remember. Been awhile since I revisited this one but it's a great filter for minimal overhead but nice slam, good layering, and good detail Sinc M - to me, just more of what I like about Sinc S, but with a little performance penalty Sinc Mx - on my setup I have to have CUDA fully checked to use this one without a severe penalty at DSD256/7EC. But it does sound great. Probably my favorite overall sound, but I don't use it much if I'm hopping around tracks because it takes some power to wind up and play Gauss-Long - still my goto. To me it's everything I love about Sinc Mx - detail, slam, layering, sparkle and startling dynamics - but with very little performance penalty. However, it does push my 9900kf pretty darn good. Apparently I should be looking at watercooling this setup at some point... Temps are getting a little toasty. Either way. For me, I still prefer DSD through the May and I enjoy gauss-long for its performance and quality proposition.