buonassi

For system-wide Audio Unit plugin support on mac, I've use this with great success: https://rogueamoeba.com/soundsource/ I use an older late 2014 mac mini. While I haven't tested it with the Dirac AUs (and I do plan to soon), I can confirm that it works flawlessly for FabFilter and Goodhertz AU plugins. You may find that you can simply load your Dirac AU (with the correct filter file for your room) into 'soundsource'. Who knows? I'm going to be evaluating the Dirac Live 'Room correction suite' in the next few weeks and will report back. Mainly, I'm going to be using it as a plugin with Audirvana 3.5 once the filter is generated, but I'll also test it in 'Soundsource' for system-wide correction potential. -Vince

I've been into head-fi since 2017, climbing the scale into more and more expensive gear. I finally made the switch to 2ch last month upon moving into a residence that allows for speaker listening. Headphones have fewer resonances in the lows, but the highs have peaks and nulls as the standing wavs accumulate in those small cups (even open back headphones). The opposite is true for 2ch. The lows are where you're going to have the most trouble achieving linearity (due to the room), but the highs are pristine! The panning and soundstage are no match against real 2ch. The mix was intended to hear over 2 speakers and NOT bypass your head and shoulders (ref. HRTF). This is even worse for IEMs as you bypass the outer ear as well. All of these things work against sounding 'natural' or at least 'as natural as speakers' as designers of headphones have to add gain to upper mid frequencies to compensate for the bypassing of your natural anatomy. Similarly, the frontal localization of headphones is very rare and usually requires a crossfeed to get close to speaker performance. Everyone has a slightly different HRTF and therefore headphones may come close, but never really hit the mark exactly for balanced FR. With that said, i still find it easier to hear the differences with DACs on a very highly resolving headphone system. But enjoyment and natural presentation, with intelligible delivery of all the sounds on the stage - that goes to speakers and by a huge margin I may add. It's also far less fatiguing and my brain doesn't have to strain to locate sounds nearly as much. -Vince

As of the time of this post, there's still one available secondhand over at TMR: https://tmraudio.com/components/integrated-amplifiers/kinki-studio-ex-m1-stereo-integrated-amplifier-exm1-remote/ I was very close to nabbing it myself, but am really just starting out on my 2 channel journey. I think I need to start more modestly and enjoy the upgrade path (like I did with my headphone journey).

LG v30/v40 will resample all third party apps like youtube (except a few special ones) to 48k variant. So, if you want to avoid SRC, get a DAP that can change the ALSA state for all apps you install. DX160 is a solid choice and I own one - it avoids SRC. It's sound is deceptively better than move expensive DAPs I've owned, but not quite TOTL. Plus, you said you'd be driving planars? The DX160 in balanced mode has tremendous power and a low noise floor (as well as low output impedance).

Yes! Good point. I'd of expected more of an "audiophile" outcry here. Is it possible we're just in the minority of users who digitally attenuate? I'm convinced my system sounds better using digital attenuation vs accepting the non-linearities of a traditional potentiometer (like that on my headphone amps). Full tilt just sounds so clean and pristine when the 'pot' is essentially bypassed (resistance removed from the circuit). I'm with you on this. It's just generally accepted DSP principle. Even my $7 USD android player software (Neutron Music Player) does this. I really doubt it. the probability equation is an easy calculation for a computer processor. It's nowhere near the calculation power needed for 4 or 8x upsampling. At least anecdotally this seems to be the case with my battery observations on my DAP (digital audio player). I'm not 100% certain however. To your point, @Piano Man , how audible it is (especially if you're only attenuating by a few bits) isn't the concern. Just knowing that that there is empirically more distortion without dither, is. That doesn't really sit well with an audiophile's mind.

So your software 'algorithm' is not using dither at all? Not even standard 1-bit TPDF? I typically run my amps full tilt and use software to control volume at around -30dB (ish). I'm probably just being paranoid, but have always assumed dither would preserve the justification of the bitstream so that quantization noise was eliminated. Having 6dbs of white noise (unshaped) always made me 'feel better' but can't say I heard a difference TBH. Probably because I have a 32 bit DAC and -30dBs is far above the noise floor. So, I kind of see your point with the 'usefulness'. But those who use a 24 bit DAC and attenuate heavily by software may still find dither useful. I gather in this case we'll have to use a dither AU plugin?

While legal matters aren't allowed, general sentiments about LHL abound and it's well understood that 'buyer beware'. It's sort of a shame, because I feel headfi should be in support of the community of enthusiasts (consumers) above all other stakeholders. They have a banned list of manufacturers, and we're not even allowed to discuss those products, let alone link to them. Why they haven't placed LH on this list is baffling.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again and again, the Eitr was revelatory and a game changer for me on my metrum Amethyst. First off, the fact that you can get one used on head-fi relatively risk free for $120 and B stock brand new for now much more direct from Schiit is mind boggling. The ONLY limitation is the transient AC spike interruptions. Despite that, I rec this product weekly to folks I chat with. It's almost consternating to see it being discontinued Certainly a bit sad.

clicking back (using browser back button) to see my custom activity stream now refreshes faster. And as @Superdad mentioned, overall experience is snappier indeed. It's cool to see this site progress professionally AND functionally. Good work Chris.

That's kinda what he does.... he's awesome.

Agreed. I consider this the climax of the entire movie. Will he do the right thing here? Or will he double down and seal his fate? I really believe that if he does not take action now, any ventures related to (even peripherally) Larry Ho will fail because of consumer sentiment. It will reach overseas and cross language barriers - oh yes it will. The only way to save his career as a public audio hardware designer is to do this IMO: apologize - first and foremost - and do it with humility explain what went wrong - without lofting the blame onto someone else explain where the money went - even if the funds were used inconsistently with the IGG contractual terms explain what he will do to fix it - even if he can't do anything, then he should say that and not make any promises he can't keep Honesty is his only way out of it. If he does this, I believe the rest of the market (who didn't get screwed already) would still purchase his future products. But, they'd stay away from crowdfunding . The forums would slowly stop talking about it and he'd have a chance....a good chance at making it in this biz. And he may even pick up a few proponents if his character and integrity come out intact. He can't run and he can't hide if he wants to stay in the industry. He may be a great engineer, but his inability/unwillingness to confront this is difficult for me to understand. I simply don't get this guy's lack of self-preservation. It's almost like he's nailing his coffin shut from the inside. If that makes sense?

@John Fitzpatrick, reviews of the unit abound. Here's one of my favorite sites for personal audio: https://headfonics.com/2018/08/ifi-audio-xdsd-review/ I think you'll find your answer there. Technical or more specific questions about the unit that aren't publicly available is what @AMR/iFi audio can help with. But I don't think they'd be dissuaded from a sales pitch if you PM them.

Geek Wave Chassis Design Geek Wave has the future proof SOM digital structure, with optional dual mono DAC engine and Femto clocks. It's definitely one of the kind. It took us a lot of reversions to find a sleep and nice chassis to fit its internal guts. ^^^^ taken from the IGG page - that's miraculously still hosted. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/geek-wave-a-no-compromise-portable-music-player#/ You can really tell that 20 new employees were hard at work with the ad copy. Just check out that rich wording and awesome spelling. One thing's for sure, you can't accuse them of lying. Turns out this Geek Wave really was 'one of a kind'. 🤭

here's a good one.... LH is developing another IEM. This time the allure is its 21 balanced armature transducers - and it's 6K price tag https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-discovery-thread-new-bgvp-dmg-initial-impressions-pg2507.586909/page-2758#post-14731766 https://www.head-fi.org/threads/flinkenicks-17-flagship-iem-shootout-thread-and-general-high-end-portable-audio-discussion.826876/page-918#post-14721521 "The Oscar XXI" - as if "Stella" wasn't a big enough slap in the face to all the folks who got ripped in the previous LH crowdfunding Ponzi. You can't perform this racket nowadays. Maybe in the 90s before the internet was commonplace. I really can't wrap my brain around this. Does not compute. The sheer will and determination of Larry Ho is puzzling.

check this out. Here, @copy_of_a outlines his most recent "set and forget". I wasn't sure if you saw this recent post of his. Could be helpful for you. Personally, I've bookmarked it: And just because... if you want to try my most recent settings here they are, with some help from 'the upsampling master' himself. Here's where he helped me out, and attached are my tweaked configs. Note that I only have 2x only selected. I find it doesn't sound so 'oversampled' and keeps the transients a bit thicker, more organic. I only use this with my metrum NOS Dac, for my Chord, I'm rather enjoying its WTA filters for now. The max filter length is arbitrary, no need to go beyond 500K - at least I can't discern any difference.