Audioengine D1 upgrade to something that can handle a more complex setup?

[Indigolight]

4 hours ago, davide256 said:

Mac does good hardware integration, no surprise that you like it as a Roon endpoint. I'm assuming you are using  Wifi with the MAC, that's an easy way to achieve electrical isolation from your local network. I do recommend that you put the Roon server on a wired Ethernet connection if you can as intermittent  issues with Wifi are magnified with both server and endpoint on Wifi.

 

When it plays, the SQ is the best I can get now on the Mac + Dragonfly Red. I have the Mac hooked up with a Startech USB-C Ethernet adapter right now. It works, until it doesn't. It tends to stop working after a sleep, and it takes ages to wake back up... Really annoying. This also happens when i connect to other networks when I'm on the road. Wifi is also unrealiable. 2.4gHz works well, but that band is often saturated in the house, especially when 2 Macs start back-upping with timemachine + netflix + tidal streaming. I can't get acceptable speeds on the 5gHz bands (which should theoretically solve the bandwith problem), and haven't been able to troubleshoot it. I hear many people have issues with this type of macbook pro and the 5gHz band... I have awesome signal strength, but no throughput...  So, Ethernet is the least unreliable...  My iPad Pro has also 5gHz AC wifi that does always work on my home WiFi, I'll try it with an Apple USB 3 Camera Adaptor I ordered, which arrives tomorrow...

 

I've just started trying out an HP USB-C docking station I borrowed to see if I can get a more reliable network connection (which it seems to do), but have noticed that my speakers start humming if I connect my Dragonfly to the same dock... It charges the macbook (slowly), but having another dongle sticking out the machine kind of defeats the purpose of having a single cable docking station.

 

So likely back to square one...

 

The server is on an on-board (intel chipset on ASUS mobo) Ethernet and is rock solid. I've even removed the WiFi card I had in it originally.

 

 

 

 

[davide256]

19 minutes ago, Indigolight said:

 

Thanks for your reply

 

What would be the best way to isolate a direct attached usb DAC? Can it be done with something on / between / before the USB connection (currently good USB cable + Jitterbug) or is it easier to just buy a streamer to do it through the network?

 

I've also played with the idea to connect S/PDIF out on my PC on my current dac for non-critical listening, and connect the USB in of the new dac (that has to have an input selector, my current one does not) to a streamer so I get the cleanest path for Roon listening, while keeping the convenience of a direct attached dac for when I use the PC for other things than listening through Roon (the PC is also the Roon Server) I would think optical cable would isolate ground and other noise. 

 

My Roon Core runs on a blazing fast Samsung NVME SSD, the media is on the NAS on 7400rpm NAS drives in raid 1. Roon is super responsive, but I think I can cut down on the time it takes to start a track from the NAS, although it does not bother me atm. Gonna look into that...

Network streaming is the easiest solution... you can buy a bespoke small device at a reasonable price that doesn't have to solve for all the nastiness going on in the "swiss army knife" , "least cost bidder" environment of a typical PC. The only serious criticism  I have of the current xRendu, SoTM devices is that they don't include built in Wifi, something that now "comes with" a Raspberry PI 3+, allowing you to put it anywhere as a streamer

[Indigolight]

1 minute ago, davide256 said:

Network streaming is the easiest solution... you can buy a bespoke small device at a reasonable price that doesn't have to solve for all the nastiness going on in the "swiss army knife" , "least cost bidder" environment of a typical PC. The only serious criticism  I have of the current xRendu, SoTM devices is that they don't include built in Wifi, something that now "comes with"

a Raspberry PI 3+, allowing you to put it anywhere as a streamer

 

Could I just plug in my current DragonFly Red in one of these RPi 3+'s, hook it up to power and Ethernet, discover it in Roon and go? I think I prefer Ethernet over Wifi right now, although it is nice to have it onboard (or, with a dongle, got one of these still). Is there a difference in vendor for these things?

 

P.s.: I've been going to that Darko list for a while now...

[davide256]

1 hour ago, Indigolight said:

 

Could I just plug in my current DragonFly Red in one of these RPi 3+'s, hook it up to power and Ethernet, discover it in Roon and go? I think I prefer Ethernet over Wifi right now, although it is nice to have it onboard (or, with a dongle, got one of these still). Is there a difference in vendor for these things?

 

P.s.: I've been going to that Darko list for a while now...

It will depend on the software you run as a player, here is a  Volumio  (UPNPDLNA) link as an example. Just search page for Dragonfly

 

https://volumio.org/forum/usb-dac-compatibility-list-t2151-100.html#p38582

 

Allo/DietPi comes with Roon endpoint capability but seems more limited, USB 1.1 mode.

 

 

If funds are limited, I think  Allo USBridge, LPS 1.2 power supply, and Chord Mojo would be a good  Roon endpoint solution, all totaled ~$1100 . 

 

 

[davide256]

1 hour ago, Indigolight said:

 

Could I just plug in my current DragonFly Red in one of these RPi 3+'s, hook it up to power and Ethernet, discover it in Roon and go? I think I prefer Ethernet over Wifi right now, although it is nice to have it onboard (or, with a dongle, got one of these still). Is there a difference in vendor for these things?

 

P.s.: I've been going to that Darko list for a while now...

 

25 minutes ago, davide256 said:

...

 

If funds are limited, I think  Allo USBridge, LPS 1.2 power supply, and Chord Mojo would be a good  Roon endpoint solution, all totaled ~$1100 . 

 

 

 

FWIW I think biggest bang for the buck is re configuring Roon setup you already have and auditioning a Chord Mojo to see if its a fit... Macbook  will sound better than Pi as Roon endpoint if you don't spend money on a good power supply.

[Indigolight]

1 hour ago, davide256 said:

It will depend on the software you run as a player, here is a  Volumio  (UPNPDLNA) link as an example. Just search page for Dragonfly

 

https://volumio.org/forum/usb-dac-compatibility-list-t2151-100.html#p38582

 

Allo/DietPi comes with Roon endpoint capability but seems more limited, USB 1.1 mode.

 

If funds are limited, I think  Allo USBridge, LPS 1.2 power supply, and Chord Mojo would be a good  Roon endpoint solution, all totaled ~$1100 . 

 

 

It seems Volumio only works with a DF Red without volume control, but that feature is currently essential for me...

 

If I could get the network connection on the Macbook stable, running that as an endpoint would be ok for me.

 

I also learned it would be possible to use a VPN to connect to my Roon core when I am out of the house instead of only using Tidal. That is interesting, and a reason to keep the MBPr in the running as a mobile endpoint...! Other options I will test in the near future is an iPad pro 9,7" and either an obsolete iPhone 5S or 6 with an Apple CCK usb 3.0 as a permanent option, tucked away behind the speakers. 

 

I've been recommended the Mojo a lot, but since I intend to use my DAC on the desktop most of the time, it does not look that nice with cables sticking out every end... I did just find out a Mojo + Poly does Roon wirelessly. A USB charger on one end, end then 1 or 2 mini-jacks out (1 to speakers, 1 to headphones) on the other end... It's still no pretty thing, but maybe it would be an option... Still not convinced about the Mojo...

 

 

 

[Phonautograph]

On 6/16/2018 at 12:25 PM, Indigolight said:

, the Dragonfly is overall better sounding as well, clearer, more controlled bass, wider soundstage

 

Have You compared the sounding of the RCA outputs of the D1 ( AK4396) against the dragonfly on your bookshelf monitors ? or  did you compare the amped headphone output only of the D1 (OPA2134) with dragonfly ? because sometimes mixing a dac chip with a certain amp could result in decrease in overall sound quality 

 

I was thinking of replacing my D1 with the dragonfly  , my use for them would be explicitly on my speakers though not headphones , would you recommend ?

[Indigolight]

19 minutes ago, Phonautograph said:

Have You compared the sounding of the RCA outputs of the D1 ( AK4396) against the dragonfly on your bookshelf monitors ? or  did you compare the amped headphone output only of the D1 (OPA2134) with dragonfly ? because sometimes mixing a dac chip with a certain amp could result in decrease in overall sound quality 

 

I was thinking of replacing my D1 with the dragonfly  , my use for them would be explicitly on my speakers though not headphones , would you recommend ?

Hi

My D1 is hooked up through the RCA's on the back to the A5+'s with the bundled RCA cables (and connected through an AQ Cinnamon USB cable + Jitterbug). The Dragonfly is connected through a short 3,5mm to 3,5mm jack AudioQuest Evergreen cable at the same time. I haven't tried the D1's  headphone amp out to the A5+'s, as I use those for my Nightowl's.

 

I find the difference between the D1 and the Dragonfly Red (in the setup above) really pronounced with exactly the same settings in Roon (upsampled to x2 whenever possible, both in "exclusive" mode on the machine they run from). My girlfriend can tell as well every time. The AQ is clearer, more spacious, better instrument separation, has a tighter, possibly deeper bass as well. I've tested the D1 on my mac as well to make sure it is not the source. It is not.

 

Mind you my D1 unit is defective (confirmed by AE but out of warranty), and plays with little audible skipping defects on tracks with sampling rates higher than 44.1 on 24b bit depth. To my ears a AQ R, it is a big upgrade in SQ, but a bit of a downgrade in convenience. I really like the analog volume control on the D1, the fact that is has RCA's, and the switching between RCA and front 3,5mm jack when headphones are plugged in.

 

For the replacement of the D1, I want a volume knob I can manually adjust on the hardware, but one that also responds to volume control in Roon like the AQ R does...  I wonder how that function is called :). Oh, and I need at least two inputs I can switch between... Neither the AG R or the D1 have that... function.

 

EDIT: And the AQ R has MQA. On my system, the SQ is better on MQA compared to redbook FLAC. I know there is a lot of controversy about that file format, and I think "regular" 24/96 or higher will be equal or better, but still. It sounds better than normal FLAC on the AQ R...

 

[Phonautograph]

14 minutes ago, Indigolight said:

 

Mind you my D1 unit is defective (confirmed by AE but out of warranty), and plays with little audible skipping defects on tracks with sampling rates higher than 44.1 on 24b bit depth. 

 

For the replacement of the D1, I want a volume knob I can manually adjust on the hardware, but one that also responds to volume control in Roon like the AQ R does...  I wonder how that function is called

I am a noob when it comes to audio so my replies may sound a bit naive :)but have you tried latencymon to see if the skipping is due to high DPC latency ? 

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Thanks for your detailed answer, i have been searching the web for a longtime to find an answer , all the reviews focus on the headphone output of the D1 when compared to the dragonfly 

SQ(which is the major point) and portability  is then much better for the dragonfly , but i guess versatility and durability would go to the D1 , i dont trust a usb stick with stress from both the 3.5mm side and the usb side would last very long.

and if you had a hardware volume control knob  what advantages does the software volume control  offer that would make you need it ? 

[Indigolight]

Hi @Phonautograph

 

I haven't tried that app, but I am running it now on the pc. It does report my system having an issue with real-time playback. Are you able to troubleshoot a report from that program?

 

A little excerpt from latencymon:

 

Quote

 

 REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 roon.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       4428
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          2835
Number of processes hit:                              40

 

 

The way the behaviour is described is similar to my experience...

 

The issue is not only PC-related but also happens on my Macbook by the way. Use through Roon on both machines is much more likely to generate the problem compared to the Tidal app or iTunes (both don't upsample as Roon does). It happens both with Tidal streams (especially MQA Masters files), local 24/88.2 or 24/96 files and the same files on a NAS. The DragonFly never has any issue. I have an elaborate test sequence written down if you want...

 

I will try the D1 once more with an Apple usb 3.0 CCK on an iPad and iPhone if I receive it today. 

 

As for the volume control issue, it is specific to how I use my system:

I often listen in a nearfield configuration when I work. In that usecase, I am much more likely to use my headphones, although the D1 also serves as a preamp for my active speakers.

 

The D1 sits on my desk, within my reach. It is fast and convenient to adjust the volume through it's potentiometer. It's much faster compared to switching to the Roon app and adjusting the volume that way. I also use the pc for other things that create sound, like browsing the web, looking things up on Youtube etc... The D1 is my only sound output on the PC. Only when I use Roon, or sit behind my Macbook, I use the AQ. 

 

However, when I can take the time to really listen to music I often take my iPad as remote and go sit in the couch about 3 meters behind my desk. Then the AQ's software controlled volume is much more convenient as I am allready within the Roon app. I could technically take the A5+'s remote along, but that's far less convenient... It also messes up the volume balance between the D1 and the AQ :).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Indigolight]

7 hours ago, Indigolight said:

I will try the D1 once more with an Apple usb 3.0 CCK on an iPad and iPhone if I receive it today.

 

The SQ seems really nice on the iPad pro 10.5". Different bitrates work well, even MQA files work flawless...

I'm currently testing the iPhone (a model 6). 

 

The visibility of both iOS devices as an endpoint does drop out of Roon after I pause the music and try to re-activate playback from another remote after some waiting. I have to manually go to the iPad or iPhone, log in and activate the Roon app for it to work. There might be work-arounds available for that?

 

 

 

 

[davide256]

8 minutes ago, Indigolight said:

 

The SQ seems really nice on the iPad pro 10.5". Different bitrates work well, even MQA files work flawless...

I'm currently testing the iPhone (a model 6). 

 

The visibility of both iOS devices as an endpoint does drop out of Roon after I pause the music and try to re-activate playback from another remote after some waiting. I have to manually go to the iPad or iPhone, log in and activate the Roon app for it to work. There might be work-arounds available for that?

 

 

 

 

Some folks say they had no issues but I always had iPhone/iPad endpoint disappear if screen saver was active and Roon finished the end of its playback queue to the device. Ended up disabling screen saver while using Roon. The CCK Lightning to USB3 cable allows you to  connect USB + a second Lightning connection for charging, I used an Ankar battery to avoid running out off iPhone/iPad battery.

 

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK0W2AM/A/lightning-to-usb-3-camera-adapter

[Indigolight]

1 minute ago, davide256 said:

Some folks say they had no issues but I always had iPhone/iPad endpoint disappear if screen saver was active and Roon finished the end of its playback queue to the device. Ended up disabling screen saver while using Roon. The CCK Lightning to USB3 cable allows you to  connect USB + a second Lightning connection for charging, I used an Ankar battery to avoid running out off iPhone/iPad battery.

 

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK0W2AM/A/lightning-to-usb-3-camera-adapter

 

I am using it with a usb-c => Lightning cable from my Macbook connected. It charges well, but also works without it. My endpoint drops out when paused + screensaver indeed. Not really an option for a "tuck away and forget about it" endpoint then. 

 

Correction on my previous post: I am testing with the AQ now, not the D1...

 

 

[Phonautograph]

the website offers the following advice 

Quote

About Hard Pagefaults

Windows uses a concept of virtual memory which relies on the page translation system provided by the CPU. Whenever a memory address is requested which is not available in physical memory (not resident), the page fault handler provided by the operating system will take over and temporarily suspend the task the CPU was performing. If the page in which the address resides is known to Windows but not resident, Windows will read in the required page from the page file. That is known as a hard pagefault and can take a lot of time to complete. If the page can be read in from the hard disk cache, or if the pagefile resides on a SSD (solid state drive), the price will be limited. However if it needs to physically read in the data from disk sectors on a spinning harddisk this takes a lot of time. This has an adverse effect on performance, responsiveness and real-time processing capabilities of your system. 

The more programs you have loaded, the higher will be your memory load. Because Windows uses a concept of virtual memory with the use of a pagefile, your system is more likely to hit hard pagefaults as memory load increases. This will have an adverse effect on both performance and latency of your system. If you see that both memory load and the number of hard pagefaults per second is high, your system is likely to appear sluggish. 
 

Reducing Hard Pagefaults

You can reduce the number of hard pagefaults by closing down programs that consume and make use of a lot of memory. Also, you could consider decreasing the size of the pagefile on your system. If it's an option to upgrade RAM on your system, you could consider adding more. 

http://www.resplendence.com/whysoslow_help_hardpagefaults

 

have you tried it with your dragonfly AQ to see if the latncymon report is the same ? and have you tried the D1 without the AQ jitterbug?

 

 

 

[Indigolight]

Hmm, as for the recommendations to reduce page faults:

 

This is a system with a Samsung 960EVO NVME SSD as primary storage in it with ample free space and 16GB of 2666mHz DDR4. In task manager, I usually only get around 50% RAM usage when browsing + playing music on the Roon Core + Endpoint on this machine. Chrome takes 3-4gig, Roon 500mb or so... The disk is getting .1% usage and the cpu 8%. I recently got a new brand of anti-virus, but the problem was present before the switch so it's unlikly it has an effect. 

 

It would be hard to believe this machine has not enough performance, given the minimum specs of Roon or even RPi based end-points are much, much lower and non-server pc's don't get much faster ... I can't believe upgrading to 32GB RAM would solve this, and in terms of SSD's there are only 2 or maybe 3 specific versions of SSD's that are faster than this one.

 

I ran the test again and it gave me 3 suggestions:

 

1) Issues with my LAN driver. I re-installed it - This has an effect in generating less interrupts as before, at least enough to make Latencymon stay "green" and say "Your system appears to be suitable for handling real time audio and other tasks without dropouts."

=> This is unexepected, and while it does seem te please latencymon, does not fix the skipping in the D1.

 

2) Fix DirectX and / or Nvidia driver issues. I'm on the latest version of both DX12 and my Nvidea drivers. It might be an issue with having 2 GPU's in SLI that generates some overhead. - Nothing I can fix easily...

3) It might be something to do with the power savings features on the cpu, I might try and disable the cpu's automatic downclocking when it has not much load but this also seems an esoteric suggestion...

 

 

Mind you the D1 also has the same kind of behavior on my mac. I still think it is the D1 and not the pc. 

Latencymon stays "green" now after the Intel Lan driver update. (at least the last half hour)...

 

I've tried all possible combinations of OS + DAC with and without Jitterbug. The D1 sputters consistently on higher bitrates (with some differences in how bad it is depending on the setup), the AQ never sputters. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Phonautograph]

i used to have latency issues and crackling  sound a long time ago on my PC  , it stopped after i set my PC to high performance from power options  ,  it is and old machine but still it was a core2quad oc'ed to 4.2 GHz that should handle audio processing with ease 

it does sound like the D1 you have is defective but trying this wont hurt 

[Indigolight]

6 hours ago, Phonautograph said:

i used to have latency issues and crackling  sound a long time ago on my PC  , it stopped after i set my PC to high performance from power options  

Does that feature still exist in the current Win 10 build? Can't seem to find it...

 

Also,  I'm wondering what a Pro-Ject Pre box S2 digital would give me in terms of SQ improvement over the AQ DF R and/or D1. I don't like the idea of a Mojo sitting on my desk and I intend to use the AQ on the go... I need desktop conveneince... The Pro-Ject looks like a cross between the D1 and the AQ.

 

I would use the PC on Toslink for non critical stuff and switch to the USB input with over time a streamer to isolate the noise from the USB bus when I do critical listening. The thing seems to be rather capable for it's price, is fully Roon Ready and really affordable compared to the other options...

 

Other devices I consider are Questyle's CMA400i and CMA600i, and the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+. The higher the price for a DAC, the less convinced I am since the LS50Wireless I am eyeballing don't benefit from having a good DAC since the convert their analog in back to digital anyway...

 

The replacement for the D1 has to have a pre-amp (volume) on RCA's as well as a headphone amp, I need at least 2 sources to switch between, it needs a physical volume control and must be able to be software volume controlled through Roon...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ron Scubadiver]

What I can say as a D1 owner is their USB implementation is somewhat iffy.  Playback at 88.2 on a Mac was impossible although it worked great on Toslink going all the way to 192.

[Indigolight]

8 hours ago, Ron Scubadiver said:

What I can say as a D1 owner is their USB implementation is somewhat iffy.  Playback at 88.2 on a Mac was impossible although it worked great on Toslink going all the way to 192.

 

Oh! Do you have the same issue?? Mine has that issue especially on the PC over USB (even, but less with a jitterbug). On a Mac it is still there, but less pronounced. It generates some sort of skipping. 96kHz over USB is not flawless, but the errors are less pronounced. I also only have that issue with Roon, not with iTunes + Bitperfect. AudioEngine Support said I need to return the unit, but it is out of warranty. 

 

 

[Ron Scubadiver]

14 hours ago, Indigolight said:

 

Oh! Do you have the same issue?? Mine has that issue especially on the PC over USB (even, but less with a jitterbug). On a Mac it is still there, but less pronounced. It generates some sort of skipping. 96kHz over USB is not flawless, but the errors are less pronounced. I also only have that issue with Roon, not with iTunes + Bitperfect. AudioEngine Support said I need to return the unit, but it is out of warranty. 

 

 

Try ASIO4All on Windows, Toslink on Mac.  It fixed things over here.

[Indigolight]

I changed my setup a bit. 

 

Bought a NUC, installed ROCK and attached the Dragonfly Red directly to the NUC. I put a 500GB SSD in the NUC and switched all my music files over from my NAS to the internal storage of the NUC so the NAS becomes back-up again. So, for listening through speakers, I have a solution that works fairly well and sounds the best that I have experienced yet.

 

Headphones are still on the PC / defective D1 combination. I didn't get ASIO4All to work yet, might need to try harder... I've ordered a Toslink cable (nothing expensive) to try it out on the D1 on the PC. 

 

The idea that I have now is to buy a CMA400i or something similar. Use Toslink on the pc for non-critical desktop use like Youtube, and use USB-in from the ROCK (maybe later through a dedicated endpoint like a mRendu / RPi) for everything Roon related. A CMA400i has a switch button for Preamp mode and (headphone) amp mode. The CMA400i seems the best candidate at this moment.

 

2 perceived issues with that are:

- Digital volume control on the Dragonfly works really well if i'm in my couch with the Roon remote. I fear I won't have that option anymore if I use a CMA400i that only has a local, analog volume attenuator? Would I need the separate remote of my active speakers? (less convenient). 

- MQA, not critical, but I wonder if a CMA400i without MQA rendering sounds better on Tidal MQA tracks, compared to a DF Red with MQA rendering built in...

[Indigolight]

On 7/17/2018 at 11:18 PM, Ron Scubadiver said:

Try ASIO4All on Windows, Toslink on Mac.  It fixed things over here.

I received the TOSLINK cable today and installed it between the PC and the D1.

 

I selected the ASIO version of the Realtek TOSLINK output in Roon and it seems to work a lot better compared to USB. The D1 seems to have no issues with 24/196 over TOSLINK but still has them on 24/88.2. I did not install that ASIO4ALL program though.

 

I still have artifacts on 24/88.2 over TOSLINK but far less and fewer in between compared to USB...

I will still replace the D1 over time, just not 100% sure with what. In the mean time I really enjoy I went for Roon + a dedicated ROCK.

 

I saw this video of a Guy who has a CMA400i but seems to have ground loop issues with his USB connection.

[Indigolight]

Some time has passed now and I find myself listening to my speakers a lot more often than what I described in my opening post.

 

Currently my A5+ active speakers are still in near field setup (desk) and receive music into both inputs depending on the use case.

 

Path one: Win 10 PC => Toslink => D1 => RCA => A5+ (used for general computer audio / Youtube)

Path one b: Win 10 PC => Toslink => D1 => 3,5mm amped output => AQ Nightowl's (used for general computer audio and Roon)

Path two: Roon Rock => Jitterbug => AQ Dragonfly Red => 3,5mm output => A5+'s  (used only for Roon music upsampled x2 to a max of 96kHz)

 

Both DAC / AMP's are used as preamp (volume control)

 

There are some trade-offs still:

- The AQ DF Red has clearly superior SQ compared to the D1

- The D1 has an analog attenuator which I prefer when I am listening at the desk

- The DF Red volume can be controlled from within Roon which gives a superior experience when I'm not at the desk (called USB hid volume control if I am correct) but worse when I am at the desk.

- The Roon Rock (NUC 7i5BNH model) has an audible fan noise I'd like to ban to the server closet.

- I tend to use the D1 for convenience with my Nightowls instead of the better sounding DF red that is more or less "permanently" connected to the ROCK.

- I think I'm kind of maxing out the SQ potential of those A5+'s and want to upgrade those as well.

 

Things I tried and stopped doing:

- Use an iPhone 6 + CCK 3.0 + AQ DF Red: Similar SQ to direct from ROCK: no fan noise but annoying wake-up routine for the iPhone which exclude it as a permanent option for me.

- Use a Macbook Pro as endpoint: SQ ok, but less compared to the ROCK, inconvenient to need to have the MBPr connected to be able to play a song.

 

Things I learned experimenting and want to achieve:

- Better SQ through my headphones (aka replace the D1)

- Silent setup (aka ROCK in the server closet)

- An "always on" Roon endpoint (no wake-up routine) I can use with the Roon Remote Volume control

- A physical attenuator for the headphone system

- Free up my AQ DF Red for on the go listening through the CCK 3.0

- As "clean" / "clutter free" a look as possible. 

- A headphone dac/amp that is also a roon ready streamer would be awesome as I could then leave the PC off.

 

I have more or less decided I will get the LS50w's over time. They have on-board dac's and are a roon ready endpoint, have roon volume control  and thus solve all but the headphone related requirements, except maybe physical volume control if I use them as speakers for computer audio (similar to the path one described above).

 

Since we expect a baby soon, I am giving upgrading the headphone side of things priority still. Considerations there: LS50w's convert analog-in back to digital and then back to analog internally. Having a stellar dac doesn't benefit the LS50w's, only the headphone part so I don't want to go overboard on the headphone dac. Choosing a more expensive system will delay a purchase of LS50w's. 

 

I have been looking into the Mytek Brooklyn which has hid volume AND analog volume control, even MQA (only nice to have). I expect it to be nice enough, but rather expensive especially when I add LS50w's that don't benefit from the Mytek's DAC. Also, Nightowl's seem to like "current mode" amp designs and these seem to be rather limited? Not sure how much of an issue the kind of amplification is?

 

A CMA400i seems to fit the bill both technically and from a price perspective, it would also work esthetically under my monitor but it is just a headphone dac / amp with analog volume and requires a powered on pc (or other streamer) to work. I do fear it having issues with my PC who is known to be really noisy on the usb side of things. The DF Red with jitterbug still has a high noisefloor connected to it. I could do a CMA400i to upgrade path one for casual speaker listening and mainly my headphones and ad a RPi + DF Red to eliminate the ROCK in the room for under 1000 euro to build a system that can scale into LS50w's but maybe there are other solutions I don't know about?

 

Any suggestions?