16 hours ago, limberpine said:

running the Abbas USB converter that it really doesn't like anything past 24/96 and in my opinion sounds best locked at 16/44.1. I'm running through a Raspberry Pi

I bought my Abbas USB convertor as a kit with a plan to incorporate it with the 4.1 in a customised timber box.  Its been waiting along time with a Pi4 to do some work but haven't had the time to do it as yet.  Interested to hear that 16/44 sounds best as that's all I enjoy currently from my CDT and love it. 

24/96 would be nice but don't hear many with success in this area?

 

 

On 06/03/2022 at 8:29 PM, MattyW said:

 

Which OS are you running on it? I found VitOS to be rather excellent in many cases. 

I'm not sure. It came preloaded with Moode, but I dunno which OS it uses. 

14 hours ago, Psilonaught said:

Well I can't for the life of me get anything above 44 working. 88 is a no go 🤨

 

The red light comes on above 44. Could it be faulty?

 

That's frustrating. 

 

Its unlikely to be the DAC presuming it was tested before shipping.  Its working with 44.1 and a coax SPDIF should be fine for 192kHz. Its hard to imagine a scenario where the DAC SPDIF would fail in such a defined way.

 

Problem solving can include:

1. Check the streamer isnt trying to do 32bit depth on higher resolutions.

2. Check that Is the system working with  48kHz? What about 24bit?

3. Use a PC with a USB-SPDIF to test different sample rates and bit depths into he DAC

4. Use a DAC that displays input sample rates and bit depths from the streamer.

7 hours ago, Nada said:

 

That's frustrating. 

 

Its unlikely to be the DAC presuming it was tested before shipping.  Its working with 44.1 and a coax SPDIF should be fine for 192kHz. Its hard to imagine a scenario where the DAC SPDIF would fail in such a defined way.

 

Problem solving can include:

1. Check the streamer isnt trying to do 32bit depth on higher resolutions.

2. Check that Is the system working with  48kHz? What about 24bit?

3. Use a PC with a USB-SPDIF to test different sample rates and bit depths into he DAC

4. Use a DAC that displays input sample rates and bit depths from the streamer.

 

Tue issue is I don't see any way to set the bit rate, so I guess I need to try a different source. 

 

What is the max bit rate that the 4.1 supports, is it 24?

1 hour ago, Psilonaught said:

What is the max bit rate that the 4.1 supports, is it 24?

CS8414 SPDIF receiver 24/96 the spec suggest but havent tried it.

 

1 hour ago, Artnet said:

CS8414 SPDIF receiver

 

Thats an unusual receiver choice for a current DAC.   Old school.

 

3 hours ago, Psilonaught said:

What is the max bit rate that the 4.1 supports, is it 24?

 

What does the 4.1 manual say about the max sample rate and bit depth?

 

The DAC design seems to be  using some unusual digital feed choices.

 

Is the 4.1  only specced to only do  44.1kHz by any chance?

I'm not sure I see a problem. My own experimentation over time has found no advantage to higher resolution. Higher resolutions sound just the same down sampled to 16 bit 44khz and there's no benefit to up sampling either. The only DAC's I've found really benefitted from higher (DSD) were DAC's based upon Delta Sigma AKM chips. Multibit and R2R DAC's on the other hand in my experience sound the same irrespective of sampling rate so just feed it 16 bit 44khz. On the upside, this has lower requirements on the device feeding the DAC and if using Roon lower network bandwidth requirements too which is useful for those stuck using Wi-Fi.

 

Just set your playback software to resample everything to 16 bit 44khz and you're golden. Most content is 16 bit 44khz natively anyway 

Edited March 8, 20224 yr by MattyW

2 minutes ago, MattyW said:

I'm not sure I see a problem. My own experimentation over time has found no advantage to higher resolution. Higher resolutions sound just the same down sampled to 16 bit 44khz and there's no benefit to up sampling either. The only DAC's I've found really benefitted from higher (DSD) were DAC's based upon Delta Sigma AKM chips. Multibit and R2R DAC's on the other hand in my experience sound the same irrespective of sampling rate so just feed it 16 bit 44khz. On the upside, this has lower requirements on the device feeding the DAC and if using Roon lower network bandwidth requirements too which is useful for those stuck using Wi-Fi.

 

Just set your playback software to resample everything to 16 bit 44khz and you're golden. Most content is 16 bit 44khz natively anyway 

I just set my roon software as follows and have never had an issue with either of the ABBAS Dacs i've had 

 

16 hours ago, limberpine said:

I'm not sure. It came preloaded with Moode, but I dunno which OS it uses. 

Worth trying. Get an additional MicroSD card and card reader so you can try other Raspberry Pi distro's. There's a lot out there worhwhile trying. The main one had real audible benefits to my ears is VitOS.

1 minute ago, DrMikeOz said:

I just set my roon software as follows and have never had an issue with either of the ABBAS Dacs i've had 

 

Are you running the Mutec though? That will reclock things.....

1 minute ago, MattyW said:

Are you running the Mutec though? That will reclock things.....

Same regardless of whether it went through the mutec or the abbas convertor (which didn't reclock). 

4 minutes ago, MattyW said:

Worth trying. Get an additional MicroSD card and card reader so you can try other Raspberry Pi distro's. There's a lot out there worhwhile trying. The main one had real audible benefits to my ears is VitOS.

Gentooplayer is worth trying as well - as long as you like tinkering and don't mind poor documentation. 

17 minutes ago, DrMikeOz said:

I just set my roon software as follows and have never had an issue with either of the ABBAS Dacs i've had 

 

 

That's good to see. Did you notice any difference playing 96/24 tracks over 44.1/16 with any of your Abbas DACs?

25 minutes ago, Nada said:

 

That's good to see. Did you notice any difference playing 96/24 tracks over 44.1/16 with any of your Abbas DACs?

honestly - not really. but i don't have super hearing like some members

3 hours ago, MattyW said:

Worth trying. Get an additional MicroSD card and card reader so you can try other Raspberry Pi distro's. There's a lot out there worhwhile trying. The main one had real audible benefits to my ears is VitOS.

i've got a few spare microSD's so i'm going to give VitOS a try  

 

updater: bugger looks like for RPi4 only - my Allo USB Signature is still a 3B

Edited March 9, 20224 yr by DrMikeOz

I had a response from Abbas who seems ok

2 hours ago, Psilonaught said:

had a response from Abbas who seems ok

 

Thats good to know. What town is he in?

21 hours ago, Nada said:

 

Thats good to know. What town is he in?

I didn't ask

I've just installed a used (not NOS) tung sol 5687 with the skinny plates, and become it is already broken in, I can immediately hear how nice it is. Wow.

 

Musical paradise dac is about to go up for sale, I've enjoyed it for over two years, but the 4.1 SE is just better. 

 

I'm buying myself a pair Atma-sphere ma-1 mk11.3 to compliment the natural sound of the Abbas dac. 

I've taken the tung sol skinny plate out and put the orange Raytheon back in, the TS is tipped up and sharp to my ear. Not a winner, despite the earlier recommendation. 

Edited March 13, 20224 yr by Psilonaught

On 06/03/2022 at 11:06 AM, Nada said:

 

Thats annoying. Have you checked and rechecked the streamer settings?

 

Have you got a Windows laptop and a USB-SPDIF DDC to bypass the streamer?

 

The issue is unlikely to be the DAC.  SPDIF receivers usually are robust.

 

NOS DACs benefit from not having bad filters on internal resampling chips.  But 44.1 NOS is flawed with artefacts folding down into the audio spectrum.

 

Good  upsampling filters should improve the sound in many ways over the 44.kHz NOS.

 

If you ever want to mod the Abbas use a USB to right justified digital feed straight into the PCM58 via  a JLSounds card.

 

Enjoy your superb system.

 

Quick update on the upsampling issue I had. I just received my Oyaide dr-510 coaxial cable today to replace my pretty old belden blue jeans cable and now all upsampling works fine. Very odd.

 

On 09/03/2022 at 10:38 AM, DrMikeOz said:

honestly - not really. but i don't have super hearing like some members

That reminds me - time for a ear cleanout at the GP... nothing worst then having ear wax dampening all those fine harmonics that our highly tweaked up dacs provide..🤣

On 09/03/2022 at 9:45 AM, MattyW said:

I'm not sure I see a problem. My own experimentation over time has found no advantage to higher resolution. Higher resolutions sound just the same down sampled to 16 bit 44khz and there's no benefit to up sampling either. The only DAC's I've found really benefitted from higher (DSD) were DAC's based upon Delta Sigma AKM chips. Multibit and R2R DAC's on the other hand in my experience sound the same irrespective of sampling rate so just feed it 16 bit 44khz. On the upside, this has lower requirements on the device feeding the DAC and if using Roon lower network bandwidth requirements too which is useful for those stuck using Wi-Fi.

 

Most content is 16 bit 44khz natively anyway 

Agreed here.

12 hours ago, MrBurns84 said:

That reminds me - time for a ear cleanout at the GP... nothing worst then having ear wax dampening all those fine harmonics that our highly tweaked up dacs provide..🤣

Don't go to a GP man, audiologist or even better an ENT. I see them once a year for a clean and review.

On 08/03/2022 at 2:52 PM, MattyW said:

Worth trying. Get an additional MicroSD card and card reader so you can try other Raspberry Pi distro's. There's a lot out there worhwhile trying. The main one had real audible benefits to my ears is VitOS.

can you dm me a link to the software you're talking about ?