eternaloptimist

@Gavin1977. Sorry, has been crazy busy here.... haven't had a chance to do a direct comparison of the Hugo TT2 and T+A DAC8 DSD. Will likely set up in the new year when the rest of the family are away for a week!

I have a Chord Hugo TT2 and a T+A DAC8 DSD.... I bought the TT2 when the power supply on the T+A DAC8 died a couple of months ago. Will finally get the repaired and serviced unit back from T+A Germany (!) this coming Friday. The T+A DAC8 DSD is a lovely, lovely DAC - either PCM or DSD. I bought it within 6 months or release. I tend to feed it DSD from Roon or HQPlayer+Roon if listening to high quality recordings. However, I find the TT2 a little "sweeter". It seems less "fussy" with what its fed. Following a lot of experimentation, I now stick with PCM and the Chord filters. A bonus is less processing "overhead" when running Audiolense room correction filters (this is amazing software!) as no DSD conversion required. Don't forget... the TT2 is significantly more expensive than the T+A DAC8 DSD. It is likely that I will sell the T+A DAC 8 DSD (part of the agreement with my wife when buying the TT2 - given the cost!). I am not sure of the level of interest, though. Just my 2 cents.

Mitch, a very good point about most people not starting from scratch. I have a UMIK-1 from Dirac v1.0 days... that didn't go so well as per earlier post! I can just imagine the trials you would go through professionally to help people get set up! I do think that Dirac were onto something in the past (v 1.0) with their very user friendly GUI, wizard and the Virtual soundcard+convolver (can't remember what it was called). UMIK-1 strongly recommended and easily available (including here in Australia). It really did help that the program generated a suggested starting target room curve. Unfortunately, it seems that Dirac aren't particularly interested in the PC music server market.... I play piano, synths etc. and have a little home music studio so have some familiarity with DAWs, VST and other plugins. I can sort of see why Dirac make their filters in VST form for the studio market, but cannot understand why they can't also release their filters in more typical filter formats (compatible with Roon, HQ player etc.) that could be VST hosted if needed.... I did actually manage to get the latest Dirac working but the fiddle required... including having to have the Dirac processor running and actually playing music (!) in order for the measuring section of the software to "connect" and work is crazy. Why on earth did they break the previous v1 workflow model that worked..? The end result didn't sound as good as Audiolense in any case.... and was messier ++. And yes, I am really enjoying the music! :D

Duplicate, please remove.

Thanks Mitch. At the risk of sounding a bit cheeky.... I think this highlights why the overall take up of DRC with non-experts is low overall... way too much setting "tweaking" required, particularly in the absence of step by step documentation of the main program. Scares a lot of people off, I think. This is why I ended up using the Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 interface: No requirement to install additional ASIO drivers and configure. No requirement to check "Use Clock Drift Correction". It just works. I really do think there would be increased take up of DRC if a straightforward 2 channel passive setup solution was outlined for Newbies with specified hardware e.g. EMM-6 mic, Focusrite 2i2 interface and a step by step setup guide with photos including how to connect the cables with photos of every single step. Just my 2 cents... BTW, Mitch without your contributions in multiple forums, I would not have had success! many thanks.

Hmmm. I couldn't get Settings to work that had the UMIK-1 as the input mic with the Chord ASIO USB as the output. I would like to edit my previous post, but it seems editing is locked... :D

Can I put in a vote for Audiolense XO? Brilliant software and amazing results in my 2 channel passive system. I am in awe of the author Bernt Rønningsbakk. To get it up and running..... Must read (and then re-read!): https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/ca-academy/audiolense-digital-loudspeaker-and-room-correction-software-walkthrough-r682/. Thank you mitchco! In addition, a few comments from my experience getting Audiolense up and running on my 2 channel passive system: USB measurement mics don't work - I have a UMIK-1 from Dirac 1.0 days. Don't bother trying. I bought a Dayton Audio EMM-6 measurement mic. Relatively cheap. Calibration file downloaded from the Dayton website. Need an XLR to TR (1/4", 6.5 mm) mic cable. I can strongly recommend a Focusrite Scarlett interface. I used a 4i4 3rd Gen from my music home studio. (The cheaper 2i2 or "Solo" would also work and I suggest the 2i2). You do need TRS (not TR) to XLR cables to connect to power amps directly or system preamp. Has a great mic preamp with 48v supply (required to provide "phantom power" to the mic) and a solid DAC with ASIO drivers that are "bombproof". Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 with mic plugged into input 1 (left front), TRS outputs 1 and 2 plugged directly into power amps. I was extremely careful the volume control (attentuator) on the front panel was low and the routing hadn't been changed in software or bang would go the drivers! Also, ensuring that the output cables are plugged into line output 1 and 2 which are volume controlled by the front panel volume control (and not line 3 and 4 which are line level outputs and can be controlled in software but risky!) The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 / Solo only has one set of line outputs. When setting up, don't expect the "microphone input monitor" to show anything until actually running a measurement. This caused me a lot of headaches thinking that the microphone input was set up incorrectly. Once I worked this out...fine. (I actually used Room EQ Wizard and the SPL meter tool to check the microphone setup. I wish there was similar in Audiolense.) Also, the Input channel for the Focusrite 4i4 needs to be set at "0" in the Setup Measurement page, even though it is labelled channel "1" in the Focusrite control software and documentation. Setting up the Target curves is not particularly intuitive. No default curves that I could see, you have to start from scratch. Without the example from mitchco in the above article which I followed as tightly as possible, I would have abandoned ship, I think. His included picture of Dr Floyd Toole's preferred target room curves was extremely useful for experimenting e.g. with bass boost. Exporting filters and importing into different software needs a little more explanation, I think.... You have to go into Settings and set the file type of filters to be created before hitting Save filter. For JRiver.... then copy the multiple filter files created (in .cfg form) into a single folder, then zip it up! After which JRiver sees it as a "group" of filter files in the Convolver section of DSP Studio. For Roon.... Audiolense can export ("save") filters as a zipped single folder, but again, have to set the output in Settings. Before I found this, I worked out that grouping filter files in .wav form into a single folder, then zipping it up was recognised appropriately. I understand that this is fine for 2 channel passive systems but not for more complex setups... I initially created correction files all the way up to 172.4 and 192 KHz but... from reading the Audiolense forums, it seems that there is little point in going above 88.2 and 96 KHz which are then ?resampled in the convolver as needed. Audiolense does offer a convolver, but... although it is a virtual ASIO sound card, it does not include Windows audio sys drivers (as clarified for this newbie by Bernt). What does this mean? It means that Windows doesn't "see it" in Sound preferences as an output device and other software has to be used to interface between Windows and the Audiolense convolver, which then hosts the filter files and outputs to the DAC... (this is my understanding, happy to be corrected). I found using Hifi Cable and ASIO Bridge (donationware, as suggested on the Audiolense forum) worked https://shop.vb-audio.com/en/win-apps/19-hifi-cable-asio-bridge.html. Alternatively, just using JRiver's WDM Driver (hosting the convolution filters) worked well as an output for Spotify etc. Anyway, just a few longwinded thoughts! Not sure if anyone would be interested in a few setup photos from this newbie? A lot of commentary on the forums is from people with complex setups including digital crossovers etc. I couldn't find an "idiot's guide" for people with simple 2 channel passive speaker systems.

Isn't the Roon RP limited to 320kps.... ? (Would be delighted if I am wrong!) The JRiver implementation streams FLAC.

I still use JRiver on a daily basis. Mainly because of the JRemote and recent addition of Radio Paradise FLAC streaming - is just so easy and the sound quality is great. Where is Radio Paradise on Roon.... ? Nope. I am trying to love Roon, but am struggling. It is very pretty, supports HQPlayer, has lots of album info etc, but.... I can't configure it how I would like. Dammit, I like folders!! Also... J River's smartlists are very easy to setup and just work. Without J Remote, I'm not sure I would be sticking around.

For me the biggest factors are: speakers, room and DAC in that order.... Changes in pre and power amps were more subtle, although I wasn't starting with crap...

This. When we designed our house, I made sure to have multiple cat6 runs between the server "room" (AKA study) and the living room.

The system is exactly as you outlined. The server is in the study and is pretty quiet, actually. The endpoint is a silent Windows 10 PC in the living room with the HiFi system. It runs the HQPlayer NAA. Connected via LAN ethernet connection. Have tried via wifi and was fine also. Cheers,

Might be a tricky ask given the computing grunt required for the conversion. I have a T&A DAC8 DSD. In order to upsample any rate to DSD512 with HQPlayer xtr filters, I have server based on 6700K with a new ASUS DUAL RTX 2080 (CPU load 35-40%, GPU 70%). A powerful graphics card is required to facilitate the highest conversion rates with the extreme filters. I then feed this to an HQPlayer NAA endpoint on a silent Streacom FC5 alpha case based PC which is in the living room! (Before the RTX 2080, I had a 960GTX which was OK on DSD256 but stuttered on DSD512). I recommend using a small silent machine as an endpoint and a grunty server in the basement!! Good luck.

Sorry.... I made a mistake in testing.... i cannot get poly-sinc-xtr filters to work from 44.1 (and multiples) to 512k x 48. Just hangs with the progress bar... No problem with 48 to 512x48 as expected. Maybe hold off on the order until the DAC is fixed...

From 44.1... CPU 28%, GPU 12%. Stable, no problems.