ROON and DRC Software

[amirm]

I am setting up a music system at a new home. Straight two channel for now. Ideally:

Roon on screaming i7 desktop in a nearby office.
Dirac or Fab Filter Pro providing digital equalization. (Willing to try Acourate (again), despite the rough user interface issues)
All control via an iPad
MSB stack as my DAC, maybe feeding VTL preamp feeding active speakers
(Not yet sure if I will do volume control in the preamp, or at either the desktop or speakers)
Feed the MSB stack locally with a microRendu or similar Ethernet to USB converter

I know that Fab Filter is 96k limited. I suspect Dirac has a sampling rate at which it works best too. I will "sacrifice" bit and sample rate conversion "sonic losses" for the sonic gains from PEQ.

If I am going to have to resample everything to 96k (or 192k) for Dirac or for Fab Filter Pro, then I suspect I should add HQ Player to the chain? (I currently use J River's built in resampling functionality.)

So, if you were going to use Dirac or Fab Filter remote from the DAC, and wanted to use Roon, with local control via an iPad, what would you recommend as the best playback chain(s) to consider?

Appreciate the help!

Hi Bruce. Good to see you again.

On resampling, Roon has its own and works very well. I am having it resample all DSD to it and it has a choice of three different algorithms from what I recall.

Dirac Live supports 192 Khz anyway so no resampling is needed for that. Only DSD and higher sample rates need to be converted which Roon handles internally.

As far as the main system, why not build a quiet PC like I have and use it next to your audio gear? I just documented mine: http://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/amirs-music-server-build-thread.415/

Better yet, we wanted to build one for a customer and we handed it to our local computer shop. They came back with an estimate of $1,642 with identical components fully built! All we had to do is give them the above link and we were good to go.

Once you have that, then everything you want to do is there.

 

[amirm]

Dallas, thanks.

Amir, what would you do if you wanted to use Dirac rather than Acourate?

There is really not much to do. Buy Dirac software, run through the calibration routine. Once done, you just select your current USB DAC device and Dirac inserts itself between that, and Roon. In Roon you tell it to use Dirac as your output. What is neat is that inside Roon you can also still talk to your USB DAC driver. So with just a click, you can put Dirac in the loop or not!

It is really pretty easy.

 

[Brucemck2]

Another Dirac question ...

I've got Dirac on an Emotiva processor. I can change the target curves, but, there's no parameter that lets me limit the amount of correction applied to each channel or even overall (Trinnov has a max gain and max cut parameter that works really well.)

I'd like to limit the degree of correction, and, to increase the overall gain available to the LCR within the system post correction. (Currently, I get almost 10db lower volume out of the LCR post-correction than I get pre-correction, using pink noise as the volume reference.) A few questions ....

What limits "overall gain" .... If I set the target curve to track above most of the actual/measured, with only (say) a few humps (all under 3db) over the target curve, will that provide more gain in the end result than if I set the target curve below most of the actual/measured with only a (say) a few dips (all under 3db) below the target curve?

If one set of speakers is much louder than another (the case with my surrounds), will I get more gain out of my fronts if they start higher than my surrounds in uncorrected level or lower? I can change the gain of the fronts and surrounds at the amps prior to running Dirac. The same question with my subs: will I get more gain out of my LCR post-correction if I start with my subs hot or if I start with my subs lower than my mains?

Finally, can I "mimic" Trinnov's boost/cut parameter by simply creating target curves that more closely track the actuals?

Thanks.

 

[microstrip]

An audiophile question concerning Roon - how do you see/select digital formats (DSD/DFF or DXD, for example) when browsing in your library?

 

[asiufy]

Use the "Focus" button. That'll invoke a panel showing you statistics about your collection. Scroll all the way to the right, and you'll see another button for "Format". That will show another panel, with all the formats available in your library, and how many items are in that format. Then you'll be able to use the checkboxes in that panel to effectively filter only the formats you want to see.