[marcmccalmont]

For serious listening I have to turn off the AC and the refrigerator! Yes I agree dynamic range is about noise floor

That would imply about 60 seconds of delay when hitting play.

In the end, if such a tap count is worthwhile, it would only be practical if the file was processed before listening. In theory it's possible to process an entire file in less than real time. The constraint Rob has with a DAC is that it accepts a stream of digital data - it can't read the entire file, upsample it in its entirety, then play it to you. The DAC has to wait for the samples to arrive!

A streaming product which reads files directly, on the other hand, would be able to do this.

There is then a related problem: When you listen to a piece of music, the sound quality will change over the first minute, and change again as the final minute plays. Within a minute of either the start or finish of the music, there's less samples for the upsampler to use.

Now playing: Laurie Anderson - Let X = X

But if you read a piece of the end of the file first to “prime” the pump no loss of fidelity

 

[Birdboy01]

Cannot get Audirvana Plus to DSD 512 With DAVE --only 256
Im using 2015 MBpr 16GB 2.5mhz
In Preferences , DSD 512 is greyed out

Help appreciated!

thanks
Mike

 

[Christer]

For serious listening I have to turn off the AC and the refrigerator! Yes I agree dynamic range is about noise floor

But if you read a piece of the end of the file first to “prime” the pump no loss of fidelity

Back home I am lucky.
I live in the countryside away from most modern day noise and all I need to do is close the door to the kitchen when listening to music. Both my AC and my noisy fridge reside there.
My music room has "no other noise makers than me and my stereo".
And my nearest neighbour lives almost a mile away.

One of very few TRULY EXCELLENT showrooms I know of here in Singapore is AVI at Millenia Walk. They have one of the best demo rooms in the trade.
On Wednesday I will have my first audition of Beolab's 90 at a special reception there.
According to Kal Rubinsson at Stereophile they are quite special.
I had a quick look at them last night before going to a concert.
Weird looking "little things" weighing in at 137kg each and selling for close to 85K USD obviously.
Both those and the Estelon Extreme speakers would be interesting to hear via DAVE/BLU2 IMO.

So do some Streamers load and read the whole file?
How does that differ from memory play?
Cheers Christer
Who has so far has only been "partly Blued" but completely "Bached" live last night!

 

[Christer]

Cannot get Audirvana Plus to DSD 512 With DAVE --only 256
Im using 2015 MBpr 16GB 2.5mhz
In Preferences , DSD 512 is greyed out

Help appreciated!

thanks
Mike

Could be your version of Audirvana or your mac?My Audirvana greys out already above DSD 128.

 

[6aardvark9]

Cannot get Audirvana Plus to DSD 512 With DAVE --only 256
Im using 2015 MBpr 16GB 2.5mhz
In Preferences , DSD 512 is greyed out

Help appreciated!

thanks
Mike

I was advised that this may be a limitation of the Mac OS

 

[Sonic77]

Audirvana sounds so good thru the Blu Dave, couldn't stop listening last night.

 

[Malcyg]

I have now, IMO, perfected my digital front end into the BluDave and posted it in a reply to a different thread, but include it here since it relates equally to BluDave and may be of interest to someone on here.

I started off not wanting to like the tX-USBUltra (tX-U) because it was another extra box, power cable, LPS and USB cable that I’d prefer to avoid. It is also black whereas all my units in my main system are silver, but I wanted to try it out, even if only to be able to reject it with confidence. So, I was pleased when I first connected it up to find that it sounded a little harsh and digital and certainly a few steps back from the Zenith SE plugged directly into my BluDave via USB. My initial reaction was just to send the tX-U back but, when I checked it out a bit online, feedback suggested that it does seem to need a good running in period to deliver its potential. Sure enough, the sound improved by degrees and after a couple of weeks, the sound was significantly improved over first impressions. After 3 weeks of use, I compared the sound of the SE>tX-U to the SE direct and also to the Blu II CD transport. The results were disappointing in a way because the SE>tX-U combination sounded so good that I feel compelled to keep the tX-U.

Plugging the SE USB output into the tX-U adds a degree of height, width, depth and transparency to the sound stage opening it up whilst at the same time enhancing focus, control and accuracy, which were already very good with the SE. It also provides a degree more subtlety, air and finesse - everything you might hope for actually. I’d say that the SE>tX-U combination is nigh on perfect for me as a Roon Core digital front end into the BluDave and illustrates why it is always worth trying these things out. The sound quality is now so good that I don’t see myself using the Blu CD drive much at all but, nonetheless, it is still nice to have the facility to occasionally spin a disc without needing an extra shelf for another component, so I still personally quite like that the M-Scaler comes packaged with the CD transport. There are certainly no sound quality reasons for spinning a disc since the SE>tX-U is clearly superior to me however, the Blu CD transport has been extremely beneficial in helping me to resolve and refine my digital front end to the level that it is now at and I probably would not have ended up where I am now without it.

Whilst trying to reconcile my initial negative perception of the tX-U, I found some reviews and this one below which, whilst being somewhat lengthy and elaborate, I did agree with most of the broad conclusions drawn in the piece. https://audiobacon.net/2017/05/23/s...nerator-review-the-ultimate-digital-defuzzer/

In conclusion, the tX-U does nicely enhance the all round abilities of the Zenith SE. I have been delighted with the SE anyway, so this discovery is the icing on the cake. This is a decent summary of the SE unit: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2017/10/richer-sounds-with-the-innuos-zenith-mkii-se/

I feel pretty certain that my main system is fully complete now - although I did get the Master Clock version of the tX-U, just in case!

 

[Malcyg]

It has been suggested to me by a couple of PM messages that I should stress a point from my post above which indicates that file playback through BluDave can be better than a disc played using the Blu II CD. This may be useful for existing BluDave owners who, like me initially, stated that CD had the edge over file playback. If you find that still to be the case, then you can more than make up the difference if you are bothered to.

Also, for those thinking about getting a Blu II or whether to wait for a standalone M-Scaler, it may be helpful to know that you may not be missing out on anything from a sound quality perspective from not having the integrated CD transport.

 

[Crgreen]

For a number of reasons, I have decided to sell my Blu II. I’m located in the UK and if anyone is interested in purchasing it they can PM me.

 

[strangecargo]

@Rob Watts I'm thoroughly enjoying the Blu Mk2 feeding my DAVE, though I'm getting considerably better sound using it via BNC than with the CD transport. I've noticed that just having a CD in the unit while listening to the BNC input seems to sound worse than when it is empty. Does having a CD in the unit wake up some portion of the Blu Mk 2 that would be dormant/asleep when it's empty?

 

[Triode User]

@Rob Watts I'm thoroughly enjoying the Blu Mk2 feeding my DAVE, though I'm getting considerably better sound using it via BNC than with the CD transport. I've noticed that just having a CD in the unit while listening to the BNC input seems to sound worse than when it is empty. Does having a CD in the unit wake up some portion of the Blu Mk 2 that would be dormant/asleep when it's empty?

The CD circuit can be powered down by putting Blu2 into sleep mode. The MScaler still works though ieven in n this mode via its inputs. I am not aware that having a cd in the player makes any difference to whether the Blu2 cd circuits are energised or not.

Hopefully RW can properly put your mind at rest on that count though. In which case it is not impossible that your mind is playing a few tricks with your ears. Likewise I would be very interested to know what you are feeding it into the bnc input to get it sounding better than the Blu2 CD player, especially as you say that you find the bnc input ‘considerably’ better. That hasn’t exactly been my experience.

 

[strangecargo]

Likewise I would be very interested to know what you are feeding it into the bnc input to get it sounding better than the Blu2 CD player, especially as you say that you find the bnc input ‘considerably’ better. That hasn’t exactly been my experience.

I'm feeding the Blu2 over BNC with a dCS Network Bridge, using Roon. The Network Bridge is the best network transport that I've personally used. I found it to be a considerable improvement over ultraRendu + LPS-1 over USB, though it still improved the sound to optically isolate it from the rest of my home network using fiber, as well as run the ethernet interface at 100Mbps, rather than full gigabit (both those tricks also worked for the ultraRendu).

 

[AndrewOld]

It has been suggested to me by a couple of PM messages that I should stress a point from my post above which indicates that file playback through BluDave can be better than a disc played using the Blu II CD. This may be useful for existing BluDave owners who, like me initially, stated that CD had the edge over file playback. If you find that still to be the case, then you can more than make up the difference if you are bothered to.

Also, for those thinking about getting a Blu II or whether to wait for a standalone M-Scaler, it may be helpful to know that you may not be missing out on anything from a sound quality perspective from not having the integrated CD transport.

Still makes far more sense to me to wait for a stand-alone M Scaler. It is unlikely to be worse than the Blu2. It is likely to be cheaper. It is certainly a more elegant solution for the many of us who have no interest in cds. Chord will have had the opportunity to improve certain aspects - for example, I can't be the only person who thinks that messing around with some unspecified quantity of unspecified ferrites should be necessary to perfectly interface two state of the art products from the same company.

 

[marcmccalmont]

The issue isn’t with or without drive the issue is a 2 box upscaller/ DAC with 2 fpga’s and a digital interface between the 2 I’m sure the next evolution will be a single box upscaling DAC with a single fpga

 

[Malcyg]

Still makes far more sense to me to wait for a stand-alone M Scaler. It is unlikely to be worse than the Blu2. It is likely to be cheaper. It is certainly a more elegant solution for the many of us who have no interest in cds. Chord will have had the opportunity to improve certain aspects - for example, I can't be the only person who thinks that messing around with some unspecified quantity of unspecified ferrites should be necessary to perfectly interface two state of the art products from the same company.

Yes, it does for you and probably many others, but I’m happy with the integrated CD solution myself and so are others. The one thing I would change if it were my choice is to not have dual BNC output and instead use USB. This for a number of reasons, not least the doubling up on cost for cables. I’ve always wondered whether the dual BNC approach was driven by technical requirements or just the convenience of the existing Blu model, so it will be interesting to see how the M-Scaler interfaces with Dave.

Ironically, I am now using the device pretty much as a standalone M-Scaler, but I’m still happy to retain the CD functionality.

And, yes, I agree with Marc that a single box solution would be ideal. A DSX-1000 type device would be nice, taking all connection issues out of the equation entirely. But, from a size of market perspective, it may be somewhat limiting I think.