Dirac without losing resolution

I think I will take kr4's advice and load dirac suite on my pc.

I ordered the umik thingymajig and will initially test with REW.

Then I will use the dirac trial to see if helps.

thanks again for everyone's advice!

I also looked into using the new nova from trinnov.  I could connect that between my streamer (hifirose rs130) and either my dac or directly to an amp with xlr inputs.

I could still utilize my dx9 dac as a headphone amp as it works pretty nice with that part.  I would connect the I2S on the rs130 streamer to the I2S on the dx9 dac and listen with the headphones.

I haven't found many folks using the trinnov nova for 2.1 listening.  I think that device was designed for studio monitoring.

Although it does seem to be able to work for my use case.

Perhaps the new Auralic Aries S1 can be updated for Dirac Live soon. 

I am open to any dirac "endpoint" but have been directed to the SHD Studio.

It looks like that is limited to 96kHz.

Typical of miniDSP stuff.

the rel 31 sub is currently connect via the amp speaker outputs per rel's recommendation.  It looks like I could change the sub connections to connect to one of the outputs of the shd studio if I wanted to play with those settings.

Having the sub directly and independently accessible to DL is a good idea.

are there any other dirac endpoints that might get better results than the minidsp shd studio?

Why not just run DL in your PC?  I've been doing that for years and it is capable of 24/192 (in as many channels as one could wish.

I am open to any dirac "endpoint" but have been directed to the SHD Studio.

It looks like that is limited to 96kHz.

my guess is that I could connect my pc (or hifirose rs130 in the future) to the usb input on the shd studio.  The output would probably need to use the spdif or aes-ebu to the topping dx9.

It looks like it also supports tidal connect so I might be able to connect the shd studio directly to my network via the ethernet port.

the rel 31 sub is currently connect via the amp speaker outputs per rel's recommendation.  It looks like I could change the sub connections to connect to one of the outputs of the shd studio if I wanted to play with those settings.

so I have narrowed my questions to the following (thanks to everyone's help):

1. mahler123 mentioned that the minidsp that he has applies DSP up to 24/192.  Which minidsp product is able to do that?  the shd studio looks like it is limited to 96kHz:

Digital Signal Processor 32-bit Floating point Analog Devices SHARC ADSP21489 / 450MHz Internal sample rate: 96kHz 

2. the dx9 dac's spec show that the spdif and aes-ebu have the same limits:  up to 24/192

is there a recommended choice between the 2?

3. does dirac further limit the DSP to 48kHz regardless of the shd studio specs?  ex. are the specs for the shd studio of 96kHz referring to their own processing vs dirac?

4. are there any other dirac endpoints that might get better results than the minidsp shd studio?

thanks again for everyone's help!

Name the miniDSP devices you are considering.

Let me try and be more specific as I now understand that it needs to be digital.  My PC currently only has USB.  I couldn't clearly confirm if the minidsp devices have USB in and USB out.  That is why I was asking those that are using these devices.

The answer already given is digital and the particular nature would depend on what is available on the specific miniDSP and the HiFi Rose devices chosen.

Thanks again for the confirmation.

That still leaves the question as to which connections for the input and output to at least get the optimal resolution.

Dirac needs to work in the digital domain . . . that’s why it’s called DSP (digital signal processing). That kind of processing is not feasible in the analog domain. Until recently, processing typically was done at 48 kHz or 96 kHz, so 192 kHz is current state of the art.

Some DSP devices can be fed with an analog signal; however, it is converted to digital before processing and then re-converted back. So I would not advise doing DAC before Dirac, as you’d be adding a DAC-ADC cycle to the signal processing. In my experience, the fewer conversions, the better.

Thanks for all of the feedback.  I agree that most of the source material is within the limits of these dirac devices.

For those of you that are using it, how do you have it connected?  Ex between the streamer and dac?  If so, which connectors are you using for the input and output?

I was hoping to at least connect my PC via its USB to the minidsp but not sure if it even has a USB input.

Does dirac need to work in the digital domain?  If not, can I connect the analog output of the dac to the input of the minidsp?

the issue is that I can’t seem to find a way to avoid limiting the resolution to 24/192 or even lower with most dirac endpoints.

AFAIK, DL is limited to 24/192. So what?

Yes, I lose the DSP benefits with those recordings but they still sound amazing. It makes me wonder if most of the benefits of DSP occur in the standard resolution ranges (which is where 99%) of all records live). Perhaps the super high resolution records overcome my room limitations because they are just so open. Can’t say.

I can. What DSP/DL does has nothing to do with resolution. It is as capable with high resolution (>24/192) as it is with 16/44.1. Super high resolution has nothing to do with speaker faults, poorly matched speakers or room effects, all of which are addressed by DSP/DL.

You might call it a trade-off between the two but, in my experience, the improvements wrought by DSP/DL are much more significant than those due to increases resolution beyond 24/96.

I believe the RME DACs are limited in sampling rates when using it's DSP functionality for EQ and other features ,.   There is just not enough processing power to process the incoming data and perform DSP.    These limits start at 384k and higher.   It passes DSD content untouched , no DSP

Same thing with room EQ on eversolo streamers.   Except they are limited to 24/48k.   

I have a Minidsp.  Most recordings that I listen to are not above 24/192.

For the ones that are, I use a different input on the DAC than the one that connects to the MiniDSP.

Yes, I lose the DSP benefits with those recordings but they still sound amazing.  It makes me wonder if most of the benefits of DSP occur in the standard resolution ranges (which is where 99%) of all records live).  Perhaps the super high resolution records overcome my room limitations because they are just so open.  Can’t say.

  This doesn’t answer your question, but I recommend trying it for yourself