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Streamers from miniDSP with built in room correction!

Hey everyone,
So one of my dirty habits is looking around used equipment sites trying to score a great, cheap surround processor. I admit it, I’m cheap, and demanding when it comes to audio gear. Some A’goner once tried to insult me by saying the could not imagine me spending money on gear, and honestly it was a badge of honor for me.


- HAH! -


So anyway, I came across a couple of neat, inexpensive streamers from miniDSP! Among the cheapest I’ve seen, plus they include Dirac room correction!


https://www.minidsp.com/products/streaming-hd-series


While some of them include DAC’s, at least one DOES NOT!! This is so cool. Essentially it is a pure streamer + room correction system, but still outputs to a DAC via S/PDIF / AES or ... USB!

Outstanding!!


I am really tempted to get one, if I don’t just get a new surround processor instead.

Best,

E
erik_squires
9 responses Add your response
erik_squires OP
16,056 posts
 
You might want to look in this thread for clues about using Dirac Live with Roon:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/how-to-enable-dirac-live-with-roon/2753

If you wanted to do this with miniDSP, you could use this all-digital unit before your DAC:

https://www.minidsp.com/products/streaming-hd-series/shd-studio


Before you go nuts with Dirac though, consider that Roon does have pretty full feature DSP capabilities built in.  You can do some elaborate bass correction using parametric EQ's without Dirac if you know what you are doing.
bluevelcro
1 posts
 
I have a question related to these (and Digital Room Correction generally).  I have not tried it before but am interested in giving it a shot, particularly DIRAC. I am just not sure about the best way to incorporate it into my system.

The system I'd like to use it with is currently: Roon on a Mac Mini --> Bluesound Node 2i (Soon to be a Lumin u1 mini) -- > Chord Qutest DAC --> Musical Fidelity M5si Integrated Amp --> Focal Aria 926s + SVS SB-2000. 

Can I incorporate DIRAC through the Mac Mini? I would also buy a miniDSP product but am not sure which one would be best because I don't really need any features other than the room correction.  If I got a miniDSP product, where would it go in the setup? In between the streamer and the DAC?

Thanks for any thoughts.


amitnagra
1 posts
 
@mktmkt, thx for the useful inputs. how is your Roon-> SHD->DAC3 setup doing? Are you happy with sound quality? Do you have DIRAC enabled? How about usability/stability of the ROON+SHD? On the configuration side how/where do you do the volume adjustments? In Roon or SHD studio or the DAC3?
erik_squires OP
16,056 posts
 
@richardk69


Ethernet.
richardk69
1 posts
 
@mktmkt  How would Roon connect to the SHD Studio? Ethernet, USB ?
Really curious to find out...
erik_squires OP
16,056 posts
 
Two main reasons I want to get off LMS:

1 - Support for streaming services is mediocre. I want a live Tidal experience

2 - I just refreshed my piCore and lost all my stations. They're in the "mysqueezebox" but I'm kind of tired with it feeling like I'm tinkering all the damn time. I want it to just work and i don't wan tto spend $5,000 for $30 worth of parts wiht an ethernet port.
mktmkt
16 posts
 
LMS is hard to beat, and piCorePlayer is very nice. I have Roon but it annoys me.

The SHD Studio comes with Volumio but I turned it off. miniDPS support can feel a little haphazard but they seem to be well meaning. I had to ask for the user name /password so that I could ssh into it and fix squeezelite. https://www.minidsp.com/forum/shd-series/15598-volumio-and-squeezelite But in the end it was OK. I have not upgraded to Dirac 2 yet.

If you want Dirac and are trying to keep the number of boxes at a minimum, it seems like a reasonable option. I have LSM or Roon -> SHD Studio -> Benchmark DAC3 -> Benchmark amps.

The SHD (non-Studio) can do crossovers and integrate a sub-woofer.

erik_squires OP
16,056 posts
 
Thanks @mktmkt !
That's exactly the environment I'm moving from.

I've got a Raspberry Pi streaming to my DAC via USB, but the LMS is getting old, and doesn't support much besides Tidal. I could just switch to Volumio too, but I am not a fan of subscription software.
mktmkt
16 posts
 
I’m pretty happy with the SHD Studio. It has replaced a Logitech Touch. It runs squeezelite, and I stream to it using LMS or Roon. It applies Dirac corrections and outputs to my dac. 
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